title: Immunohistochemical expression of ERG in the molecular epidemiology of fatal prostate cancer study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Gene fusions between the ERG transcription factor and the androgen-regulated gene TMPRSS2 occur in a subset of prostate cancers and contribute to transformation of prostatic epithelial cells. Prior reports have used fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) or quantitative PCR (QPCR) to determine the presence of TMPRSS2-ERG fusions or ERG expression, respectively. Recently, several groups have reported on immunohistochemistry (IHC) to measure ERG expression, which is much more readily performed in clinical practice. However, the prior studies examining ERG expression by IHC had small sample sizes or they failed to clarify the association of ERG protein expression with important clinico-pathological features or prostate cancer-specific mortality.
  
  
  METHODS
  To address these deficits, we evaluated ERG expression by IHC in 208 radical prostatectomy samples from the Kaiser Permanente Molecular Epidemiology of Fatal Prostate Cancer (MEFPC) study, a case-control study of prostate cancer-specific mortality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nuclear ERG expression was seen in neoplastic prostate epithelia in 49 of the samples (23.7%). ERG expression in tumor cells was associated with higher tumor stage (OR = 2.0, 95% confidence interval 1.0-4.0, P value = 0.04). ERG immunoreactivity was positively associated with prostate cancer-specific mortality, although the confidence interval was wide (OR = 1.9, 95% confidence interval 0.88-4.0, P value = 0.10).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results demonstrate that ERG protein expression is readily quantifiable with an existing commercial antibody. Evaluating ERG protein expression may improve our ability to identify the subset of more aggressive, invasive prostate cancers.
authors: The Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Portland, Oregon 97227, USA. Sheila.Weinmann@kpchr.org
authors: Sheila
authors: S
authors: Weinmann
authors: Stephen K
authors: SK
authors: Van Den Eeden
authors: Reina
authors: R
authors: Haque
authors: Chuhe
authors: C
authors: Chen
authors: Kathryn
authors: K
authors: Richert-Boe
authors: Jacob
authors: J
authors: Schwartzman
authors: Lina
authors: L
authors: Gao
authors: Deborah L
authors: DL
authors: Berry
authors: Bhaskar V S
authors: BV
authors: Kallakury
authors: Joshi J
authors: JJ
authors: Alumkal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015514:Oncogene Proteins, Fusion / Q000378:metabolism*; D011467:Prostate / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D011468:Prostatectomy; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000378:metabolism*; D000071230:Transcriptional Regulator ERG
chemical_list: C072312:ERG protein, human; D015514:Oncogene Proteins, Fusion; C515553:TMPRSS2-ERG fusion protein, human; D015534:Trans-Activators; D000071230:Transcriptional Regulator ERG
keywords: biomarker; case-control; lethal prostate cancer
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