Yonsei Med J.  2013 May;54(3):650-657. 10.3349/ymj.2013.54.3.650.

ROS1 Expression in Invasive Ductal Carcinoma of the Breast Related to Proliferation Activity

• Eom M
• Lkhagvadorj S
• Oh SS
• Han A
• Park KH

• KMID: 1727878
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3349/ymj.2013.54.3.650

Abstract

PURPOSE
ROS1 is an oncogene, expressed primarily in glioblastomas of the brain that has been hypothesized to mediate the effects of early stage tumor progression. In addition, it was reported that ROS1 expression was observed in diverse cancer tissue or cell lines and ROS1 is associated with the development of several tumors. However, ROS1 expression has not been studied in breast cancer to date. Therefore, we investigated ROS1 expression at the protein and gene level to compare expression patterns and to verify the association with prognostic factors in invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the breast.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Tissue samples from 203 patients were used. Forty-six cases were available for fresh tissue. We performed immunohistochemical staining and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
RESULTS
ROS1 expression was significantly lower in proportion to higher histologic grade, higher mitotic counts, lower estrogen receptor expression, and a higher Ki-67 proliferation index, although ROS1 expression was not significantly associated with the survival rate. The result of real-time PCR revealed similar trends, however not statistically significant.
CONCLUSION
Higher ROS1 expression may be associated with favorable prognostic factors of IDC and its expression in IDC is related to the proliferation of tumor cells.

Keyword

Breast; invasive ductal carcinoma; prognostic factors; proliferation rate; ROS1

MeSH Terms

Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Breast Neoplasms/*metabolism/pathology
Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast/*metabolism/pathology
Cell Proliferation
Female
Humans
Immunohistochemistry
Middle Aged
Neoplasm Grading
Prognosis
Protein-Tyrosine Kinases/genetics/*metabolism
Proto-Oncogene Proteins/genetics/*metabolism
Survival Analysis
Proto-Oncogene Proteins
Protein-Tyrosine Kinases

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. The IHC stains with negative control serum for IDC are negative (A). The IHC stains for ROS1 show positive expression in the membrane and cytoplasm of the epithelial cells of IDC (B). IDC, invasive ductal carcinoma.

• 

  Fig. 2 ROS1 expression and Kaplan-Meier survival rates among patients with IDC. Patients with IDC expressing ROS1 did not have significantly better survival than ROS1 negative patients (p=0.335). IDC, invasive ductal carcinoma.

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