Περίληψη:
Objective: To elucidate the role of various bcl-2 family molecules in
the regulation of apoptosis and the progression of urothelial cancer, in
relation to standard prognosticators.
Methods: Paraffin-embedded archival tissue from 103 N0M0 consecutive
patients with invasive bladder cancer (28 T1, 57 T2. 13 T3 and 5 T4) was
immunostained for bcl-2, bax, bcl-X-L, bcl-X-s, p53, Ki-67 and with an
anti-single stranded DNA monoclonal antibody recognizing the apoptotic
cells. Survival analysis was restricted to T2-T4 tumours. Patients were
followed-up until death (n = 27) or for a mean (+/-S.D.) follow-up of
37.6 (+/-17.4) months. Within this period, 39 patients relapsed after a
mean (+/-S.D.) period of 13.6 (+/-12.3) months.
Results: Most tumours were immunoreactive for bax (73.1%) and bcl-X-L
(80.9%) whereas bcl-2 and bcl-X-s expression was comparatively less
common (44.4 and 28.9%, respectively). The bcl-X-L and bcl-X-s
positivity was related to high grade (P = 0.007) and advanced stage (P =
0.010), respectively. On the contrary, bax and bcl-2 positivity was
unrelated to stage or grade. Apoptotic rate was independently influenced
only by p53, bcl-2 and proliferation rate. In multivariate analysis of
T2-T4 urothelial carcinomas (UC)s, only bax along with T-category and
age were the significant predictors of disease-free survival. Increased
apoptosis and T-category were also independently related to the overall
survival in T2-T4 UCs.
Conclusions: The expression of bcl-2 family members appears to be
differentially regulated in association with UC evolution. Most
importantly, bax immunostaining offers additional information to that
provided by traditional prognosticators, with regard to disease-free
survival of T2-T4 UCs. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V All rights
reserved.
Συγγραφείς:
Korkolopoulou, P
Lazaris, AC
Konstantinidou, AE
Kavantzas, N
and Patsouris, E
Christodoulou, P
Thomas-Tsagli, E
Davaris,
P
