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closep53 and Ki67 data from other studies
Posted by jurgenpiek on 26 May 2010 at 16:46 GMT
With interest we read the article by Pothuri et al (1). They provide further arguments on the hypothesis that ovarian inclusion cysts are important in ovarian carcinogenesis, originally formulated by us (2). However, their findings contradict our own inclusion cyst results as published in 2003 (3).In our study we showed an almost absence of nuclear p53 protein accumulation in both the epithelium lining inclusion cysts as well the as epithelial cells lining the ovarian surface. These findings were consistent in both women harboring a hereditary high risk to develop female adnexal cancers and controls. Also in contradiction with the study of Pothuri et al we found Ki67 expression, reflecting cell proliferation, to be not significantly different expressed between cases and controls. Similar results were found in previous work of Werness et al (4). The reason for these discrepant results are unclear. Theoretically, age is important since the local ovarian hormonal environment is of importance for the expression of both p53 and Ki67 and therefore the so called “oncogenic stress”. The average age in our cohort was relatively high (cases: 48, controls: 55) as in the matched cohort of Werness (cases: 49, controls: 48), but unfortunately Pothuri et al do not provide age data (or any other clinical or histological data) of their study cohort for comparison. It remains therefore to be elucidated what eventually causes cells already harboring multiple genetic hits to develop into invasive carcinomas, as the average age of onset for hereditary adnexal carcinoma is 52 (5).
Jurgen Piek, Ronald Zweemer, Rene HM Verheijen, Paul J van Diest
Reference List
(1) Pothuri B, Leitao MM, Levine DA, Viale A, Olshen AB, Arroyo C et al. Genetic analysis of the early natural history of epithelial ovarian carcinoma. PLoS One 2010;5(4):e10358.
(2) Piek JM, Verheijen RH, Kenemans P, Massuger LF, Bulten H, van Diest PJ. BRCA1/2-related ovarian cancers are of tubal origin: a hypothesis. Gynecol Oncol 2003;90:491.
(3) Piek JM, Verheijen RH, Menko FH, Jongsma AP, Weegenaar J, Gille JJ et al. Expression of differentiation and proliferation related proteins in epithelium of prophylactically removed ovaries from women with a hereditary female adnexal cancer predisposition. Histopathology 2003 July;43(1):26-32.
(4) Werness BA, Afify AM, Eltabbakh GH, Huelsman K, Piver MS, Paterson JM. p53, c-erbB, and Ki-67 expression in ovaries removed prophylactically from women with a family history of ovarian cancer. Int J Gynecol Pathol 1999 October;18(4):338-43.
(5) Goldgar D, Eeles RA, Easton D, Kakhani SR, Piver MS, Piek JM et al. Inherited tumour syndromes; BRCA1 syndrome. In: Tavassoli FA, Devilee P, editors. Tumours of the breast and female genital organs. 1 ed. Lyon: IARC press; 2003. p. 338-51.