of Tissue Microarrays in the Evaluation of Focal Alterations of bcl-2 and p53 in Whole Mount Derived Prostate Tissues Vasectomy and Prostate Cancer

Several investigators have reported the correlation of p53 and bcl-2 immunoreactivity with postoperative PSA recurrence. Focal and/or clustered expression is typical for these biomarkers. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of TMAs to detect p53 and bcl-2 overexpression and their prognostic significance. TMAs of 99 patients, with a mean follow-up of 61 months, contained 760 samples from 241 carcinomas, 431 benign glands, and 88 foci of prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN). Through the use of TMA technology, overexpression of p53 and bcl-2 was detected in 43.3% and 23.7% of the patients, respectively, compared with 66.0% and 26.9% in the corresponding radical prostatectomy samples. Therefore, although TMA is regarded as a powerful tool to study the multifocal and heterogeneous nature of prostate cancer, the prognostic value of p53 and bcl-2 could not be confirmed using this technology in contrast to radical prostatectomy sections. To this end, TMA is probably more informative and reliable in evaluating the prognostic value of homogeneously expressed biomarkers. In conclusion, TMAs have a great advantage in that numerous tissues can be investigated at the same time, which not only reduces time and cost but also assures identical test conditions for all the samples. However, the limitation of TMAs appears to be their relative inability to demonstrate heterogeneity of the tumor because of the small sample size used.

[1]  M. Terris,et al.  Vasectomy and prostate cancer characteristics of patients referred for prostate biopsy. , 2002, The Journal of urology.

[2]  J. Oxley,et al.  p53 and bcl‐2 immunohistochemistry in preoperative biopsies as predictors of biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy , 2002, BJU international.

[3]  C. Paul,et al.  High prevalence of vasectomy in New Zealand. , 2001, Contraception.

[4]  F. Mostofi,et al.  p53 and bcl-2 immunohistochemistry in pretreatment prostate needle biopsies to predict recurrence of prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy. , 1999, The Journal of urology.

[5]  J. Kononen,et al.  Tissue microarrays for high-throughput molecular profiling of tumor specimens , 1998, Nature Medicine.

[6]  S. Groshen,et al.  Association of p27Kip1 levels with recurrence and survival in patients with stage C prostate carcinoma. , 1998, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

[7]  Yanping,et al.  Loss of the Cyclin-dependent Kinase Inhibitor 27Kq Protein in Human Prostate Cancer Correlates with Tumor Grade’ , 2005 .

[8]  J. Stanford,et al.  Vasectomy and prostate cancer: a case-control study in a health maintenance organization. , 1996, American Journal of Epidemiology.

[9]  J. Sandlow,et al.  A change in practice: current urologic practice in response to reports concerning vasectomy and prostate cancer. , 1996, Fertility and sterility.

[10]  A. Whittemore,et al.  Vasectomy and prostate cancer: results from a multiethnic case-control study. , 1995, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

[11]  F. Speizer,et al.  A retrospective cohort study of vasectomy and prostate cancer in US men. , 1993, JAMA.

[12]  S. Shapiro,et al.  Vasectomy and the risk of prostate cancer. , 1990, American journal of epidemiology.

[13]  H Stein,et al.  Cell cycle analysis of a cell proliferation-associated human nuclear antigen defined by the monoclonal antibody Ki-67. , 1984, Journal of immunology.

[14]  A. Cesinaro,et al.  Expression of p53 and bcl-2 in clinically localized prostate cancer before and after neo-adjuvant hormonal therapy. , 2000, Oncology research.