EXPRESSION OF E-CADHERIN IN PRIMARY AND METASTATIC PROSTATE-CANCER

Immunohistochemical studies have suggested that E-cadherin may be a us eful prognostic marker in prostate cancer Previous studies have depend ed oil cryostat sections of tissues selected grossly, Many prostate ca ncers, even when extensive, are not visible grossly many others cannot be demarcated sharply grossly, The wide applicability of prognostic m arkers after total prostatectomy will depend upon methods that can be applied to tissue selected based upon the histopathological examinatio n of the entire prostate Our purpose was to investigate the possibilit y that E-cadherin could be demonstrated in paraffin-embedded whole pro states and metastatic prostate cancer: Microwaving in citrate buffer t ons the best of five methods tested for the demonstration of E-cadheri n in paraffin-embedded prostate and was used to investigate 53 primary prostate cancers from 44 patients and lymph node metastases front 14 patients Metastases of prostate cancer to lymph nodes expressed less ( P = 0.008) E-cadherin than primary prostate cancers, The expression of E-cadherin correlated with the histopathological differentiation (Gle ason grade) of primary prostate cancers (P = 0.03, P-trend = 0.003). T he use of monoclonal anti-human E-cadherin (HECD-1) with microwaving i n citrate buffer followed by immunoperoxidase staining with heavy meta l enhancement for the demonstration of E-cadherin in paraffin-embedded tissue will, for the fil st time, allow the use of archival tissue fo r prognostic studies of E-cadherin in prostate cancer and other tissue , Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that aggressive prost ate cancers exhibit decreased expression of E-cadherin and demonstrate the feasibility of long-term prognostic studies of this molecule in t he usually, multiple prostate cancers found in whole, formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded resected prostates.