Cancer of the vagina: Laminin-5 gamma 2 chain expression and prognosis

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the expression and the pr ognostic impact of the gamma2 subchain of laminin-5 in vaginal malignancies . The outcome of the rare disease primary carcinoma of the vagina is poor a nd little is known about prognostic markers. The gamma2 chain of laminin-5, an epithelial basement membrane protein, is thought to play a crucial role in tumor cell adhesion, migration, and proliferation, and may thus be an a dditive potential marker. Archival, paraffin-embedded sections were stained immunohistochemically with an antibody against the gamma2 chain of human l aminin-5 protein. The material consisted of 59 cases of primary vaginal mal ignancies, subdivided into short- and longtime survivors. All invasive mali gnancies of epithelial origin were positively stained with the antibody aga inst the gamma2 chain. High expression of the gamma2 chain correlated signi ficantly in an univariate analysis with short-time survival (P = 0.041), bu t in the multivariate analysis only age and tumor size were independent pro gnostic factors. A significant intercorrelation between large tumors and hi gh gamma2 chain immunoreactivity was found (P = 0.003). These results indic ate that laminin-5 gamma2 subchain expression in primary vaginal carcinomas is of prognostic impact. However, in a multivariate analysis only patient age and tumor size had independent prognostic value.