Analysis of IMP3 expression in prostate adenocarcinomas.

OBJECTIVE Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of male cancer deaths after lung cancer in developed countries. The prognostic factors currently identified for prostate carcinoma include preoperative serum PSA, TNM staging system, histological grade and surgical margin status and are composed of the clinically most important and useful parameters. However, all the markers studied have not been applied in clinical practice. The oncofetal protein Insulin-Like Growth Factor II has been demonstrated to be associated with aggressive tumor behavior in many organs including urothelial tumors and renal cell carcinoma. Our aim was to investigate the expression status of Insulin-Like Growth Factor II in benign prostate glands, high grade PIN and prostate adenocarcinoma, and to determine the role of Insulin-Like Growth Factor II in pathogenesis of prostate adenocarcinoma. MATERIAL AND METHOD A total of 70 prostate adenocarcinoma cases accompanied by high grade PIN and benign prostate glands were evaluated by immunohistochemistry for the expression of Insulin-Like Growth Factor II. RESULTS Insulin-Like Growth Factor II expression was not seen in any of the 70 prostate adenocarcinoma and high grade PIN cases and benign prostate glands. CONCLUSION Although the number of our cases was limited, our results suggested that Insulin-Like Growth Factor II protein expression was not included in the pathogenesis of the prostate adenocarcinomas and Insulin-Like Growth Factor II expression status cannot be used for diagnosis of prostate adenocarcinomas.