Dominika Wolosz

Deleted in liver cancer 1 expression and localization in hepatocellular carcinoma tissue sections.

The deleted in liver cancer (DLC) protein family is composed of proteins that are hypothesized to function predominantly by regulating the activity of the small GTPases. The aim of the present study was to determine the expression and exact localization of DLC1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissue sections. In two types of HCC tissues, typical and fibrolamellar, immunohistochemical and immunofluorescent analysis were performed to assess DLC1 immunoreactivity. Additionally, the DLC1 gene status was determined by the fluorescence in situ hybridization. According to the observations, DLC1 is often lost in cancer cells; however, it can remain within the stromal component of tumor sections. The DLC1 immunoreactivity was particularly noticeable within the capsules surrounding the tumor masses. It was found that the DLC1 gene was deleted in 52% of HCC cases. In addition, the hemizygous deletion was observed to be independent of the HCC subtype. The results indicate that although the loss of DLC1 is a common step during hepatocarcinogenesis, this protein may be present in the tumor microenvironment.

Elevated Foxp3/CD8 Ratio in Lung Adenocarcinoma Metastatic Lymph Nodes Resected by Transcervical Extended Mediastinal Lymphadenectomy

A balance between tumor invasion and immune defence system is widely investigated. Objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate lymphocyte phenotype in lymph nodes (LNs) of patients with lung cancer in relation to the presence of metastases. Methods. We investigated 364 LNs resected by transcervical extended mediastinal lymphadenectomy (TEMLA) of 49 patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) or adenocarcinoma (AD) with (A) and without metastases (B). Expression of CD4, CD8, CD25, CTLA-4, and Foxp3 was assessed by immunohistochemical staining. Results. We observed a strong nuclear staining for Foxp3 in lymphocytes and cancer cells and strong membranous/cytoplasmatic reaction for CD4 and CD8, but low for CD25 and CTLA-4. There were significantly higher proportions of CD8+ cells in AD (B) versus AD (A) LNs (80% versus 52.5%, p < 0.05). The Foxp3/CD8 ratio was higher in AD (A) versus AD (B) LNs (0.4 versus 0.25, p < 0.05). No significant differences in the cell markers expression in SCC LNs were found. Conclusion. Significant differences in lymphocyte phenotype in AD may indicate an exceptional biology of this type of lung cancer. TEMLA resected LNs may serve as valuable samples for evaluation of immune status in lung cancer patients.

68Ga-DOTATATE PET in juvenile angiofibroma

BACKGROUND As somatostatin receptors (SSTRs) may be overexpressed in rapidly growing vessels, the aim of this study was the analysis of in vivo and in vitro SSTR2A expression in juvenile angiofibroma (JA). MATERIAL & METHODS A group of six male adolescents with a diagnosis of primary, recurrent/residual JA was enrolled in the study. All patients underwent (68)Ga-DOTATATE PET/computed tomography (CT) followed by immunohistochemical staining for SSTR expression. RESULTS (68)Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT showed accumulation in areas matching the pathologic tissue in the nasopharynx of all patients studied with SUVmax of 5.1 ± 0.9 (ranging from 3.6 to 6.4). In all cases, the immunohistochemical examination showed a presence of SSTR2A with a high staining index. CONCLUSION In vitro SSTR2A cytoplasm expression was found to be high in all tumor specimens. However, the uptake of (68)Ga-DOTATATE was weak in the PET/CT studies. We postulate that the intracellular localization of the SSTR2A in JA may cause this discrepancy.