Nuclear localization of beta-catenin is an important prognostic factor in hepatoblastoma.
In this study, mutational and immunohistochemical analyses of beta-catenin were performed in 30 hepatoblastomas, to assess the prevalence of alterations of the Wnt pathway with respect to clinicopathological parameters and survival. Four missense mutations of beta-catenin (13.3%) were detected and there was strong immunoreactivity for beta-catenin in the cytoplasm and/or the nucleus in 97% of hepatoblastomas. Nuclear and cytoplasmic staining was demonstrated in 19 of 30 tumours (63%), while ten revealed only cytoplasmic staining. Statistically, this nuclear beta-catenin staining was significantly higher in the embryonal (Fisher exact test; p=0.00393) or undifferentiated type (p=0.00156) of hepatoblastoma than in the fetal type, but there was no difference between clinical stages I and II and clinical stages III and IV (p=0.175). Cumulative survival curves showed that nuclear beta-catenin staining (generalized Wilcoxon test; p=0.0088), undifferentiated histological type (p=0.0305), and clinical stages III and IV (p=0.0107) were significantly correlated with shorter survival time in these patients. Moreover, Cox multivariate analysis provides evidence that nuclear beta-catenin staining is the most important prognostic factor for survival (p=0.0090). It is therefore concluded that immunohistochemical analysis of beta-catenin might be a useful clinical tool for estimating the prognosis for patients with hepatoblastoma.
Department of Pathology and Cancer Research Institute, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 505 Banpo-dong, Sacho-gu, Seoul 137-701, Korea.
W S
WS
Park
R R
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Oh
J Y
JY
Park
P J
PJ
Kim
M S
MS
Shin
J H
JH
Lee
H S
HS
Kim
S H
SH
Lee
S Y
SY
Kim
Y G
YG
Park
W G
WG
An
H S
HS
Kim
J J
JJ
Jang
N J
NJ
Yoo
J Y
JY
Lee
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015820:Cadherins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D017491:Genes, APC; D018197:Hepatoblastoma / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D019656:Loss of Heterozygosity; D008297:Male; D009154:Mutation; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D011379:Prognosis; D015996:Survival Rate; D015534:Trans-Activators; D051176:beta Catenin
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C495270:CTNNB1 protein, human; D015820:Cadherins; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators; D051176:beta Catenin