Department of General, Visceral and Pediatric Surgery, Heinrich-Heine University of Düsseldorf, Germany.
Horm Metab Res. 2011 Nov;43(12):865-71. doi: 10.1055/s-0031-1291333. Epub 2011 Nov 21.
PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted from chromosome 10) is a well established tumor suppressor gene, which was cloned to chromosome 10q23. PTEN plays an important role in controlling cell growth, apoptosis, cell adhesion, and cell migration. In various studies, a genetic change as well as loss of PTEN expression by different carcinomas has been described. To date, the role of PTEN as a differentiation marker for neuroendocrine tumors (NET) and for the loss of PTEN expression is still unknown. It is assumed that loss of PTEN expression is important for tumor progression of NETs. We hypothesize that PTEN might be used as a new prognostic marker. We report 38 patients with a NET of the pancreas. Tumor tissues were surgically resected, fixed in formalin, and embedded in paraffin. PTEN expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry and was correlated with several clinical and pathological parameters of each individual tumor. After evaluation of our immunohistochemistry data using a modified Remmele Score, a widely accepted method for categorizing staining results for reports and statistical evaluation, staining results of PTEN expression were correlated with the clinical and pathological parameters of each individual tumor. Our data demonstrates a significant difference in survival with existence of lymph node or distant metastases. Negative patients show a significant better survival compared with positive patients. Furthermore, we show a significant difference between PTEN expression and WHO or TNM classification. Taken together, our data shows a positive correlation between WHO classification and the new TNM classification of NETs, and loss of PTEN expression as well as survival. These results strongly implicate that PTEN might be helpful as a new prognostic factor.
PTEN（第 10 号染色体缺失的磷酸酶和张力蛋白同源物）是一种已被证实的肿瘤抑制基因，该基因被克隆到 10q23 染色体上。PTEN 在控制细胞生长、凋亡、细胞黏附和细胞迁移方面发挥着重要作用。在各种研究中，已经描述了不同癌症的基因改变和 PTEN 表达缺失。迄今为止，PTEN 作为神经内分泌肿瘤（NET）的分化标志物以及 PTEN 表达缺失的作用尚不清楚。据推测，PTEN 表达缺失对于 NET 的肿瘤进展很重要。我们假设 PTEN 可能被用作新的预后标志物。我们报告了 38 例胰腺神经内分泌肿瘤患者。手术切除肿瘤组织，用福尔马林固定，石蜡包埋。通过免疫组织化学评估 PTEN 表达，并将其与每个肿瘤的几个临床和病理参数相关联。使用广泛接受的报告和统计评估染色结果分类方法（改良 Remmele 评分）评估我们的免疫组织化学数据后，PTEN 表达的染色结果与每个肿瘤的临床和病理参数相关联。我们的数据表明，存在淋巴结或远处转移与生存存在显著差异。阴性患者的生存明显好于阳性患者。此外，我们还发现 PTEN 表达与 WHO 或 TNM 分类之间存在显著差异。综上所述，我们的数据显示，WHO 分类与 NETs 的新 TNM 分类之间存在正相关，以及 PTEN 表达缺失与生存之间存在正相关。这些结果强烈表明，PTEN 可能作为一种新的预后因素有所帮助。
