TY - JOUR
T1 - Immunohistochemical detection of ornithine-decarboxylase in primary and metastatic human breast cancer specimens
AU - Manni, Andrea
AU - Astrow, S. H.
AU - Gammon, S.
AU - Thompson, J.
AU - Mauger, David
AU - Washington, S.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by a grant 5RO1CA72779-03 from the National Institutes of Health. Tissue samples were provided by the Cooperative Human Tissue Network which is funded by the National Cancer Institute.
PY - 2001
Y1 - 2001
N2 - Increased ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity in human breast cancer specimens has recently been shown to be an independent adverse prognostic factor for recurrence and death. Biochemical measurement of ODC, however, is not practical for routine clinical use. Furthermore, it does not take into account the heterogeneous composition of human breast cancers which contain variable proportions of epithelial and stromal elements. Therefore, we developed an immunohistochemical method for ODC determination which can be applied to formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections. We report here our results in a series of 30 human breast cancer samples. ODC expression was detected most consistently in the malignant epithelial component of the tumors. Twenty-seven of 30 samples stained positive with intensities ranging from 1+ to 3+. The fraction of malignant epithelial cells expressing ODC varied among specimens between 10% and > 90%. When quantitated by H-SCORE, ODC expression was significantly higher in the malignant epithelial component than in normal appearing epithelial cells and stroma admixed within the tumor. Normal mammary tissue adjacent to the cancer was available for analysis in six cases. ODC expression was absent in two (while both cancers were positive) but present in four to a degree which was overall comparable to that observed in the corresponding tumors. We believe that this technique will be useful for future studies aimed at expanding our knowledge of the role of ODC and polyamines (PA) in breast cancer biology.
AB - Increased ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity in human breast cancer specimens has recently been shown to be an independent adverse prognostic factor for recurrence and death. Biochemical measurement of ODC, however, is not practical for routine clinical use. Furthermore, it does not take into account the heterogeneous composition of human breast cancers which contain variable proportions of epithelial and stromal elements. Therefore, we developed an immunohistochemical method for ODC determination which can be applied to formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections. We report here our results in a series of 30 human breast cancer samples. ODC expression was detected most consistently in the malignant epithelial component of the tumors. Twenty-seven of 30 samples stained positive with intensities ranging from 1+ to 3+. The fraction of malignant epithelial cells expressing ODC varied among specimens between 10% and > 90%. When quantitated by H-SCORE, ODC expression was significantly higher in the malignant epithelial component than in normal appearing epithelial cells and stroma admixed within the tumor. Normal mammary tissue adjacent to the cancer was available for analysis in six cases. ODC expression was absent in two (while both cancers were positive) but present in four to a degree which was overall comparable to that observed in the corresponding tumors. We believe that this technique will be useful for future studies aimed at expanding our knowledge of the role of ODC and polyamines (PA) in breast cancer biology.
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U2 - 10.1023/A:1010697218986
DO - 10.1023/A:1010697218986
M3 - Article
C2 - 11519863
AN - SCOPUS:0034889749
SN - 0167-6806
VL - 67
SP - 147
EP - 156
JO - Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
JF - Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
IS - 2
ER -