Correlation of osteopontin protein expression and pathological stage across a wide variety of tumor histologies.
OBJECTIVE
Osteopontin (OPN) is an integrin-binding protein overexpressed in various experimental models of malignancy and appears to be involved in tumorigenesis and metastasis. Although various studies have assessed OPN protein levels in several tumor types, a broad survey of OPN expression in human neoplasia under the same experimental conditions has not been carried out.


METHODS
We used immunohistochemistry to detect OPN in a selection of 350 human tumors and 113 normal tissues, from a variety of body sites, using stage-oriented human cancer tissue arrays. Tumors included malignancies from breast (26), ovary (22), endometrium (14), esophagus (10), stomach (11), pancreas (16), bile duct (1), liver (9), colon (20), kidney (53), bladder (33), prostate (28), head and neck (60), salivary glands (14), lung (17), skin (6), and brain (10).


RESULTS
High cytoplasmic OPN staining was observed in 100% of gastric carcinomas, 85% of colorectal carcinomas, 82% of transitional cell carcinomas of the renal pelvis, 81% of pancreatic carcinomas, 72% of renal cell carcinomas, 71% of lung and endometrial carcinomas, 70% of esophageal carcinomas, 58% of squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck, and 59% of ovarian carcinomas. Although OPN expression was identified in a good number of bladder, prostate, and brain tumors, the majority of 6 skin cancers, 11 of 14 salivary gland cancers, 2 thyroid carcinomas, and 23 of 26 breast cancers revealed low OPN positivity or were negative. When considering all sites, OPN expression significantly correlated with tumor stage (Spearman's correlation coefficient, P = 0.0002). OPN score and stage were also significantly correlated for specific cancer sites including bladder (P = 0.01), colon (P = 0.004), kidney (P = 0.0001), larynx (P = 0.035), mouth (P = 0.046), and salivary gland (P = 0.011).


CONCLUSIONS
This study reports the broad distribution of OPN in human tumors from different body sites, suggesting involvement of this protein in tumor formation. The strong correlation between pathological stage and OPN across multiple tumor types suggests a role for OPN in tumor progression.
Coppola
Domenico
D
Department of Pathology, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, USA.
Szabo
Marianna
M
Boulware
David
D
Muraca
Patrick
P
Alsarraj
Marwan
M
Chambers
Ann F
AF
Yeatman
Timothy J
TJ
D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D053495:Osteopontin; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D012795:Sialoglycoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D010750:Phosphoproteins; C506895:SPP1 protein, human; D012795:Sialoglycoproteins; D053495:Osteopontin