Yu Xiuwei, Guo Shipeng, Song Weihong, Xiang Tingxiu, Yang Chengcheng, Tao Kai, Zhou Lin, Cao Yijia, Liu Shengchun
Department of Endocrine and Breast Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Chongqing City Key Lab of Translational Medical Research in Cognitive Development and Disorders, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Hum Pathol. 2017 Mar;61:121-129. doi: 10.1016/j.humpath.2016.12.005. Epub 2016 Dec 16.
Estrogen receptor α (ERα) plays a significant role in the development of breast cancer and has been used clinically as an endocrine therapeutic target. Currently, clinical laboratories use immunohistochemistry (IHC) to determine the ERα status of patients in order to distinguish those who would benefit from endocrine therapy. This method is highly subjective, requires a large amount of tumor tissue, and may generate false-negative results. To improve the detection of ERα, we used a new RNA in situ hybridization technique (RNAscope) and compared its use with IHC in 72 breast cancer tissues (47 ERα positive and 25 ERα negative). Then we evaluated ERα mRNA by RT-qPCR with RNAscope. An unobvious difference was found between reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and IHC, but a positive correlation was found between RNAscope and IHC. In addition, breast cancer is a highly heterogeneous cancer, and RNAscope could easily reveal the heterogeneity in breast cancer. Moreover, we found that some ERα IHC-based negative and RNAscope-based positive test results were detected as positive after testing with IHC again. Our findings suggest that RNAscope may be a complementary method for improving the detection of patient ERα status and has potential clinical utility.
雌激素受体α（ERα）在乳腺癌的发展中起着重要作用，并且已在临床上用作内分泌治疗靶点。目前，临床实验室使用免疫组织化学（IHC）来确定患者的ERα状态，以区分那些将从内分泌治疗中受益的患者。这种方法主观性很强，需要大量肿瘤组织，并且可能产生假阴性结果。为了改进ERα的检测，我们使用了一种新的RNA原位杂交技术（RNAscope），并将其在72例乳腺癌组织（47例ERα阳性和25例ERα阴性）中的应用与IHC进行了比较。然后我们用RNAscope通过逆转录定量聚合酶链反应（RT-qPCR）评估ERα mRNA。在逆转录定量聚合酶链反应（RT-qPCR）和IHC之间未发现明显差异，但在RNAscope和IHC之间发现了正相关。此外，乳腺癌是一种高度异质性的癌症，RNAscope可以很容易地揭示乳腺癌中的异质性。而且，我们发现一些基于ERα IHC的阴性和基于RNAscope的阳性检测结果在再次用IHC检测后被检测为阳性。我们的研究结果表明，RNAscope可能是一种用于改进患者ERα状态检测的补充方法，具有潜在的临床应用价值。
