title: Glypican-3 expression in primary and recurrent ovarian carcinomas.
abstract: The identification of glypican-3 (GPC3) expression in malignant neoplasms is potentially of interest because GPC3 might represent a therapeutic target. Tissue microarrays containing tissue cylinders from 308 patients with ovarian carcinomas were used for an immunohistochemical study. There were 255 serous, 38 endometrioid, and 15 clear-cell carcinomas included. From 76 patients, paired tissue samples of primary serous ovarian carcinomas and their corresponding recurrences after platinum-based chemotherapy were available. Glypican-3 was expressed in a total of 17.9% of ovarian carcinomas and was strongly associated with the clear-cell histotype (P = 0.0001). Glypican-3 expression was not associated with tumor stage. Positive staining for GPC3 was also observed in a significant fraction of recurrent carcinomas but was not particularly associated with chemoresponse. In conclusion, our data show that GPC3 is observed in a significant fraction of primary and corresponding recurrent ovarian carcinomas. Glypican-3 may therefore represent a potential target for (second-line) therapy in ovarian cancer.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stadlmann
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Gueth
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Baumhoer
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Moch
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Terracciano
authors.forename: Gad
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Singer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D053673:Glypicans / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: C105937:GPC3 protein, human; D053673:Glypicans