Department of Orthopedic Surgery.
Acta Orthop. 2014 Apr;85(2):195-200. doi: 10.3109/17453674.2014.893496.
YKL-40 is a glycoprotein that is expressed in many types of cancer cells. In some cancers, there is a correlation between high serum YKL-40 levels on the one hand and more aggressive disease and early death on the other. YKL-40 has never been studied in patients with soft-tissue sarcomas (STSs). We investigated whether YKL-40 is expressed in STS tissue and ascertained that the degree of expression is related to survival and/or the histological grade of the malignancy (FNCLCC).
We included archived tissue from 49 patients (40 with STS and 9 with atypical lipomatous tumor, 20 female and 29 male, mean age 58 (4-89) years) who were treated with tumor resection in 2004 or 2005 at the Department of Orthopedics, Rigshospitalet. The minimum length of follow-up with respect to survival was 5-7 years. Immunohistochemical analysis with anti-YKL-40 antibody using tissue microarray was performed on resected tumors, and a semiquantitative measure of the intensity of YKL-40 staining was performed.
41 of the 49 tumors were positive for YKL-40, and of these, 36 had moderate to intense staining. 24 of the patients died within the follow-up period, and the intensity of YKL-40 staining was significantly higher in tumors from patients who had died in the follow-up period than in tumors from those who survived (p = 0.01). The staining intensity was different for the 3 grades of malignancy (p = 0.004): it was higher in highly malignant tumors (FNCLCC grade 2 and grade 3) than in low-malignancy tumors (grade 1).
YKL-40 is expressed in soft-tissue sarcomas. There is a correlation between expression of YKL-40 in STS and both histological grade of the malignancy and survival. Whether or not YKL-40 expression is an independent prognostic variable could not be determined in the present study.
YKL-40 是一种糖蛋白，在许多类型的癌细胞中表达。在某些癌症中，一方面血清 YKL-40 水平高，另一方面疾病侵袭性更强，死亡更早。YKL-40 在软组织肉瘤（STS）患者中从未被研究过。我们研究了 YKL-40 是否在 STS 组织中表达，并确定表达程度与生存和/或恶性程度的组织学分级（FNCLCC）有关。
我们纳入了 2004 年或 2005 年在丹麦哥本哈根的 Rigshospitalet 骨科接受肿瘤切除术的 49 名患者（40 名 STS 和 9 名非典型脂肪瘤性肿瘤，20 名女性，29 名男性，平均年龄 58[4-89]岁）的存档组织。关于生存的随访最短时间为 5-7 年。使用组织微阵列对切除的肿瘤进行抗 YKL-40 抗体的免疫组织化学分析，并对 YKL-40 染色强度进行半定量测量。
49 个肿瘤中有 41 个为 YKL-40 阳性，其中 36 个为中到强染色。24 名患者在随访期间死亡，在随访期间死亡的患者的肿瘤中 YKL-40 染色强度明显高于存活患者（p=0.01）。恶性程度的 3 个分级（p=0.004）之间的染色强度不同：高度恶性肿瘤（FNCLCC 分级 2 和 3）的染色强度高于低度恶性肿瘤（分级 1）。
YKL-40 在软组织肉瘤中表达。STS 中 YKL-40 的表达与恶性程度的组织学分级和生存有关。在本研究中，YKL-40 表达是否为独立的预后变量尚无法确定。
