engleski

Expression of MAGE tumor associated antigens is inversely correlated with tumor differentiation in invasive ductal breast cancers: an immunohistochemical study

MAGE family gene products are tumor associated antigens (TAA) recognized by HLA restricted specific T cells. Agents inducing DNA demethylation, an event typically detectable in cellular de-differentiation processes, were shown to induce the expression of MAGE genes. Specific monoclonal antibodies now allow the detection of MAGE gene products in large series of archival paraffin embedded tumor sections. By using a monoclonal antibody specific for MAGE family gene products we have studied the expression of these TAA in a group of 144 patients bearing invasive ductal breast cancers. Immunohistochemical data were correlated with tumor differentiation, lymphatic vessels invasion, lymphnode metastases, estrogen receptor expression, peritumoral lymphocyte infiltration and intratumoral necrosis. MAGE immunoreactivity was undetectable in healthy tissues. In poorly differentiated cancers positive staining was observed in 30/63 cases (47.6%) as compared with 13/51 (25.4%) and 5/30 (16.6%) in moderately and well differentiated tumors, respectively (p<0.05). In addition, MAGE immunoreactivity was significantly correlated with lymph vessel invasion and intratumoral necrosis . Expression of MAGE family gene products in invasive ductal breast cancers appears to be associated with poorly differentiated histological phenotypes. These data support the concept.of specific immunotherapy in highly aggressive forms of breast neoplasm. Furthermore, they suggest that MAGE immunoreactivity could represent a tumor marker of potential prognostic relevance.

Breast cancer; MAGE immunoreactivity; tumor associated antigens

nije evidentirano