Oncoprotein stability after tumour resection.

The means by which oncogenes and their products activate malignant transformation are currently under intense investigation. However, published papers on experiments using human tumour material do not always report in detail their methods of collection or storage of the specimens. In order to assess the stability of oncogene encoded proteins following collection or storage of human tumour biopsies, we have examined the rate of decay of the c-myc, neu and EGF-receptor proteins. Solid tumours, containing amplified copies of each oncogene, were established in nude mice and the stability of the oncogene protein in portions of each tumour, left in phosphate buffered saline at room temperature for varying time intervals, was examined by immunoblotting. Intact EGF-receptor and neu oncoproteins were present even after 24 h under these conditions while the c-myc protein was apparently rapidly degraded after 20 min. These data demonstrate that oncogene products decay at different rates after tumour resection and that collection of human biopsies should take this into account in order to provide the basis for consistent measurements of protein expression.