title: Neuropilin-2 expression in cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Neuropilin-2 is a coreceptor for vascular endothelial growth factor family members. Blockade of neuropilin-2 is able to suppress lymphogenous metastasis in preclinical models. The aim of this study was to validate a protocol for the evaluation of neuropilin-2 protein expression in situ, by comparison with in-situ hybridization, western blotting, and mRNA expression levels.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Immunohistochemistry was performed on normal human tissues, and whole sections for 79 primary non-small-cell lung carcinomas, 65 primary breast carcinomas, 79 primary colorectal cancers, and 52 metastases. Neuropilin-2 expression was observed in lymphatic and blood vessels from all normal and malignant tissues examined. In addition, 32% of primary non-small-cell lung carcinomas, 15% of primary breast carcinomas and 22% of primary colorectal cancers showed tumour cell expression. Fifty-five primary and nine secondary malignant melanomas were also examined for neuropilin-2 expression by in-situ hybridization. All showed vascular expression, and 85% of primary malignant melanomas showed tumour cell expression.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the majority of lung, breast and colorectal cancers, the effects of anti-neuropilin-2 are likely to be restricted to the vasculature. These results will assist in pharmacokinetic evaluations, tolerability assessments and the choice of setting to evaluate the activity of anti-neuropilin-2 therapies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA. adrianj@gene.com
authors.forename: Adrian M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Jubb
authors.forename: Susan M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Sa
authors.forename: Navneet
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ratti
authors.forename: Laura A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Strickland
authors.forename: Maike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Christopher A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Callahan
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Koeppen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000906:Antibodies; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D006801:Humans; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D051379:Mice; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D039943:Neuropilin-2 / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism*; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D039943:Neuropilin-2