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Research Paper
Expression of Osteopontin and HGF/Met in Adult Soft Tissue Tumors
Vivien H.C. Bramwell, Alan B. Tuck, Sylvia M. Wilson, Larry W. Stitt, Anil K. Cherian, Stewart C. Rorke, Waleed Al-Katib, Carl O. Postenka and Ann F. Chambers
volume 4 | issue 12
december 2005Pages: 1336-1341
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There is a need for molecular markers that predict biological behavior of adult soft tissue tumors. Elevated levels of osteopontin (OPN) a transformation-linked protein, have been associated with poor survival in many cancers. OPN induces cell migration in cancer cells, in part through activation of the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) receptor (Met) and its signaling pathway. Met expression has been associated with a poor prognosis in some sarcomas. In a series of 15 patients with adult soft tissue tumors, we found that mRNA levels of OPN (p=0.015), Met (p=0.03) and HGF (p<0.001) were significantly higher in tumor tissues relative to paired normal tissues. By immunohistochemistry, in tumor tissue from 33 patients, we demonstrated that increased expression of OPN, but not Met protein, was associated with higher stage (p=0.025) and grade (p=0.005). We found that increased expression of OPN, but not Met protein, was associated with decreased overall survival (p=0.008) at 5 years. This study, which is the first to examine co-expression of these two markers, suggests that OPN may have potential as a prognostic marker in adult soft tissue sarcomas, and further that OPN ± Met signaling pathways may contribute to their biological behavior.
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDFIf the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.