A high level of N-myc expression from a single-copy N-myc gene was found in a malignant tumor of the testis, histopathologically defined as a seminoma.
The specificity of the i(12p) for testicular cancer is now well established (it may also be present, however, in dysgerminomas and mixed Müllerian tumours of the ovary).
Our findings do not indicate that TP53 plays any major pathogenic role in this tumor type, nor was there any indication that defect repair genes, causing microsatellite instability in other cancers, participate in the progression of testicular cancer.
Molecular genetic alterations of known protoncogenes and growth factors, e.g. c-kit and its ligand SCF as well as hst1 and c-myc, are likely to play a role in the development of testicular cancer.
This study investigates the presence of SCF and c-kit protein in 32 orchiectomy specimens of patients with testicular cancer, in 5 specimens of normal testicular tissue and in three established non-seminomatous germ-cell cancer cell lines (H12.1, H32, 577ML) by an immunohistochemical approach.
The aim of this study was to investigate if glutathione S-transferase mu (GST mu) deficiency, which in previous studies has been associated with malignant melanoma and cancers of the lung and bladder, is a risk factor of testicular cancer.
SSX2 thus belongs to the family of cancer/testis (CT) antigens, i.e., immunogenic protein antigens with characteristic mRNA expression in normal testis and in cancer.