Institute of Pathology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Histopathology. 2012 Sep;61(3):445-53. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2559.2012.04240.x. Epub 2012 Mar 28.
TMPRSS2-ERG fusion resulting in strong Ets-related gene (ERG) overexpression occurs in about 50% of prostate cancers. This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of ERG overexpression in other tumour types as well as in normal tissues.
A total of 11 483 tumours and 72 different normal tissue types were analysed in a tissue microarray format. Strong nuclear ERG overexpression was found in 36.7% of prostate carcinomas as well as in various vascular tumours, including Kaposi sarcomas (91.7%), angiosarcomas (100%) and haemangiomas (90.9%). Moderate to strong nuclear ERG immunostaining was also observed in thymoma (6.1%). Weak to moderate ERG staining was found in a small number of squamous cell carcinomas of the skin, squamous carcinomas of the lung, malignant mesotheliomas, carcinosarcomas of the uterus, gastrointestinal stromal tumours, hepatocellular carcinomas, teratomas of the testis, anaplastic carcinomas of the thyroid, giant cell tumours of the tendon sheath and benign fibrous histiocytomas of the skin. ERG overexpression was not seen in 8886 samples from 132 other tumour types and subtypes. Within normal tissues, immunohistochemically detectable ERG overexpression was restricted to endothelial cells and subsets of lymphocytes.
The high specificity of ERG expression in both normal and neoplastic tissues suggests a very narrow biological role for ERG in highly selected tissues.
TMPRSS2-ERG 融合导致强 Ets 相关基因（ERG）过表达发生在约 50%的前列腺癌中。本研究旨在确定 ERG 过表达在其他肿瘤类型以及正常组织中的发生率。
在组织微阵列格式中分析了总共 11483 个肿瘤和 72 种不同的正常组织类型。在前列腺癌以及各种血管肿瘤中，包括卡波西肉瘤（91.7%）、血管肉瘤（100%）和血管瘤（90.9%）中发现强核 ERG 过表达。在胸腺瘤（6.1%）中也观察到中度至强核 ERG 免疫染色。在少数皮肤鳞状细胞癌、肺鳞状细胞癌、恶性间皮瘤、子宫癌肉瘤、胃肠道间质瘤、肝细胞癌、睾丸生殖细胞瘤、甲状腺间变性癌、腱鞘巨细胞瘤和皮肤良性纤维组织细胞瘤中发现弱至中度 ERG 染色。在来自 132 种其他肿瘤类型和亚型的 8886 个样本中未观察到 ERG 过表达。在正常组织中，免疫组织化学可检测到的 ERG 过表达仅限于内皮细胞和淋巴细胞亚群。
ERG 在正常和肿瘤组织中的高特异性表明 ERG 在高度选择的组织中具有非常狭窄的生物学作用。
