BRCA1 and BRCA2 expression patterns and prognostic significance in digestive system cancers

Publication date: Available online 8 November 2017
Source:Human Pathology
Author(s): Gui-Hua Wang, Chun-Mei Zhao, Ying Huang, Wei Wang, Shu Zhang, Xudong Wang
The role of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes is mainly to maintain genome integrity in response to DNA damage through different mechanisms. Deregulation of BRCA1 and BRCA2 is associated with the development of tumor and altered sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents. In this study, we determined protein expression of BRCA1 and BRCA2 in four digestive system cancers (gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, and pancreatic cancer) by immunohistochemistry (IHC) on tissue microarrays. A total of 1546 samples of four types of cancer tissues, their matched adjacent non-tumor tissues, and corresponding benign tissues were studied respectively. IHC expression patterns of the two proteins and their correlation with patients' clinical parameters and overall survival were analyzed. The results showed that low expression of cytoplasmic BRCA1 and BRCA2 were commonly associated with advanced TNM stage, while high expression of nuclear BRCA1 was generally correlated with advanced tumor stages in these cancers. High expression of cytoplasmic BRCA1 and BRCA2 had significantly favorable overall survival in digestive system cancers; in contrast, BRCA1 nuclear expression usually predicted poor outcomes. We conclude that BRCA1 and BRCA2 could be used as clinicopathological biomarkers to evaluate the prognosis of digestive system cancers.



http://ift.tt/2mwF5t8