Immunohistochemical staining revealed that DKK-3 was positively linked to but β-catenin and c-MYC were negatively linked to differentiation, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage and lymph node metastasis of patients with NPC.
DNA from 237 Japanese primGC and 103 matched LNmet was analyzed using a newly developed multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) probemix to investigate RTK (EGFR, HER2, FGFR2, and MET) and DSS (PIK3CA, KRAS, MYC, and CCNE1) gene copy number status.
SCT signs indicated that swollen lymph nodes and spiculation, spinous process and deep lobulation signs often occurred in the chest of NSCLC patients, and pleural indentation appeared in the majority of patients; the chi-square test results showed that the positive rates of p53 and c-Myc proteins were not related to pathological types of NSCLC, but significantly correlated with tumor differentiation (p<0.05); the positive rates of p53 and c-Myc proteins were correlated with tumor diameter, spiculation and deep lobulation signs and lymph node metastasis (p<0.05), but not associated with spinous process, vacuole and pleural indentation signs (p>0.05).
MYC hypomethylation was associated with diffuse-type, advanced tumor stage, deeper tumor extension, and the presence of lymph node metastasis (p<0.05).
Cases negative for BRCA1 protein were more often with pathological tumor-node-metastasis stage III, positive for lymph node metastasis and MYC overexpression than BRCA1-positive tumors.
Because overexpression of c-MYC has been associated with cellular dissemination as well as development of the premetastatic niche, alterations of the 8q24 region, including c-MYC, may be key determinants in the development of lymph node metastasis.
Overexpression of c-myc protein was significantly correlated with poorly differentiated (P<0.05) and high proliferation index (Ki-67) (P<0.05) tumors but not with lymph node metastases (P>0.05), patient age (P>0.05) and estrogen receptor status (P>0.05).
Amplification of the ERBB2, MYC, and INT2 genes was found more frequently in tumors from patients with lymph node metastases than in tumors from those without lymph node metastases.
In addition, as lymph node metastases were significantly related to amplification of the ERBB2 and MYC genes, and LOH of the NME1 gene, these genetic alterations may play a role in the mechanism of lymph node metastases.