Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) in Prostatic Carcinoma

Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is an auxiliary protein of DNA • @polymerase-• Ý • @ that • @is • @ synthesized • @ during • @ the • @ late • @G1 • @ phase through the S phase of cell proliferation. The expression of PCNA correlates strongly with cell proliferation. In the present study, employing NC-012, which is an anti-human PCNA monoclonal antibody, we performed immunohistochemical staining on specimens obtained from 71 new prostatic carcinoma patients by needle biopsy. We analyzed the results of PCNA immunoreactivity for correlation with the prognosis of the patients. The positive staining rate was 0~11.4% for prostatic carcinoma, while it was 0~2.6% in 10 cases of benign prostatic hypertrophy. The PCNA-positive rate tended to be high in cases of moderately to poorly differentiated prostatic carcinoma, but it was not significant. With regard to the prognosis, it was found that the prognosis tended to be worse in the PCNA-positive cases compared with the PCNA-negative cases. Further, multivariate survival analysis of six parameters (i. e., the patient's age, histological grade, clinical stage, serum prostatic acid phosphatase, initial treatment and the PCNA-positive rate) revealed that the clinical stage, histological grade and the PCNA-positive rate were the first, second and third most significant prognostic parameters, respectively.