Expression of Notch1 to -4 and their ligands in renal cell carcinoma: a tissue microarray study

BACKGROUND

Mutations in signalling pathways essential for embryonic development often lead to tumourigenesis, as is also true for Notch. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between Notch1 to -4 and their ligands with anatomopathological features of the patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study investigated the pattern of protein expression in RCC specimens using tissue microarray technology. A total of 80 paraffin-embedded RCC samples were retrospectively analysed together with ACHN and A.704 cell lines.

RESULTS

Notch1 showed significant positive correlation with chromophobe RCC, no broken capsule, Furhman grade I and when the number of nodes involved was small [(N=1); p=0.039, 0.016, 0.037 and 0.001, respectively)]. Notch3 showed higher expression when the tumour was located in the right kidney (p=0.048).

CONCLUSION

Notch1 may be useful in the future as a biomarker for the differential diagnosis of different RCC histological subtypes. Notch1 to -3 may also have potential use as a strong prognostic factor.

Utilidad de la FDG-PET en la evaluación precoz de la eficacia de imatinib (Glivec) en el tratamiento de tumores del estroma gastrointestinal

The management of gastrointestinal stromal tumors, usually defined as c-KIT-positive mesenchymal neoplasias, has evolved very rapidly in the last five years. Imatinib mesylate (Glivec(R)) is the standard treatment in unresectable or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Imatinib should be given until development of intolerance or progressive disease. It is not uncommon for gastrointestinal stromal tumors to become larger during the early post-treatment phase and conventional response to treatment criteria in solid tumors have a limited value for evaluation the efficiency of imatinib in this period. FDG-PET has proven to be highly sensitive in detecting early response tumor. A 53-year old woman was diagnosed of relapsed gastrointestinal stromal tumor 18 months after adyuvant imatinib mesylate finished. Imatinib was started and 72 hours later the tumor showed a decrease of fluorodeoxyglucose F18 uptake on positron emission tomography scan.