title: Immunohistochemical study of PTEN and phosphorylated mTOR proteins in familial and sporadic invasive breast carcinomas.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Loss of phosphatase and tensin homologue (PTEN) leads to activation of several kinases, including mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), which promotes cell cycle progression. The aim was to study the expression of PTEN and phosphorylated (p)-mTOR in familial and sporadic invasive breast carcinomas and their relation to clinicopathological features, molecular indices (Wnt1) and patients' survival.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PTEN and p-mTOR were detected immunohistochemically in 215 sections of invasive breast carcinomas (112 with a familial history of breast cancer). Image analysis was used and univariate and multivariate analyses employed for statistical evaluation of results. PTEN was detected in the nucleus (73.5%) and p-mTOR in the cytoplasm (44.2%) of cancer cells. Loss of PTEN protein was more frequently detected in women with a familial history of breast cancer (72%) (P < 0.0001), while its expression was negatively correlated with Wnt1, in total (P = 0.049). p-mTOR showed a positive association with lymph node status (P = 0.010) and was found to have a negative impact on patients' overall survival (P = 0.016).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Loss of PTEN protein expression appears to occur more frequently in women with a family history of breast cancer, whereas activation of mTOR protein seems to be related to a more aggressive phenotype.
authors.affiliation: 1st Department of Pathology, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Panagiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bakarakos
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Theohari
authors.forename: Alexandros
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nomikos
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mylona
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Papadimitriou
authors.forename: Athanasios-Meletios
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Dimopoulos
authors.forename: Lydia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nakopoulou
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D051059:PTEN Phosphohydrolase / Q000378:metabolism*; D010766:Phosphorylation; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases
chemical_list: D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; C546842:MTOR protein, human; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases; D051059:PTEN Phosphohydrolase