title: The Immunohistochemical Analysis of SOCS3 Protein Identifies a Subgroup of Prostatic Cancer Biopsies With Aggressive Behavior.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recently, we demonstrated that hypermethylation of SOCS3 determines a significant reduction of its mRNA and protein expression and identifies a subgroup of prostate cancer with aggressive behavior. In this paper, our objective was to investigate whether the immunohistochemical expression of the SOCS3 protein could represent an alternative method to molecular analysis for the individualization of aggressive prostate carcinoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed the SOCS3 immunohistochemical expression in 65 patients undergoing biopsies at the Institute of Urology of our hospital between September 2011 and October 2011 (median age, 66.4 y; range, 50 to 73 y), and in 35 cases, a subset of 65 cases originally used for the immunohistochemical study, we studied the methylation status of the SOCS3 promoter.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that the percentage of cases with SOCS3 negativity (-) or with SOCS3 weak staining in <50% of the neoplastic glands (+/-) correlated to the worst prognosis in terms of the Gleason score (P=0.0001; Fisher's exact test), the pT stage (P=0.012; Fisher's exact test), and progression-free survival (P=0.0334; hazard ratio, 0.34; and 95% confidence interval, from 0.1261 to 0.9188). Moreover, some cases with an SOCS3 unmethylated pattern showed SOCS3-negative immunostaining (-) or SOCS3-negative glands with weak cytoplasmatic staining in <50% of the neoplastic glands (+/-).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data suggest that in prostatic cancer biopsies, the immunohistochemical analysis of SOCS3 protein expression may provide a method that is less expensive and easier to apply than SOCS3 methylation analysis for the distinction of a subgroup of prostate cancer with a more aggressive behavior.
authors: Institute of Pathological Anatomy, Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy.
authors: Francesco
authors: F
authors: Pierconti
authors: Maurizio
authors: M
authors: Martini
authors: Tonia
authors: T
authors: Cenci
authors: Luigi M
authors: LM
authors: Larocca
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D001706:Biopsy; D019175:DNA Methylation; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D000071223:Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling 3 Protein / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C106644:SOCS3 protein, human; D000071223:Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling 3 Protein