Information on prognostic factors is essential to establish appropriate therapeutic modalities for soft tissue sarcoma (STS). To evaluate the biological nature and prognostic factors of STS, p53 and bcl-2 expression was immuno-histochemically studied on paraffin-embedded sections from 70 patients with STS in the extremities and trunk. In addition, the degree of apoptosis was examined by in situ end-labeling. Histologic diagnoses in these cases were malignant fibrous histiocytoma in 29 cases, liposarcoma in 11, synovial sarcoma in 11, leiomyosarcoma in 5, malignant neurogenic tumor in 5, and others in 9. Tumor cells in 31 of 70 cases (44%) showed positive nuclear staining for p53 protein. There was no correlation between p53 expression and tumor size, histologic grade, argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region (AgNOR) count, cellularity and extent of necrosis. Expression of p53 did not correlate with survival of patients. Tumor cells in 24 of 56 cases (43%) were positive for bcl-2 protein expression. The frequency of bcl-2 expression in the tumor cells showed a direct proportion to tumor size (≥10 vs. < 10 cm) but inverse proportion to AgNOR counts and cellularity. The 5-year survival rate in patients with bcl-2-positive tumors (87%) was more favorable than in those with bcl-2-negative tumors (53%; p < 0.05). The frequency of apoptosis in low-grade STS was significantly higher than that in the intermediate and high-grade STS (p < 0.001). Extent of necrosis, a well-known prognostic indicator in STS, was not correlated with the frequency of apoptosis. Multivariate analysis showed that cellularity, bcl-2, and AgNOR counts were independent prognostic factors in patients with STS. The current study revealed that STS with a higher expression of bcl-2 had lower proliferative activity and larger size than those without. Immunohistochemical detection of bcl-2 is useful for predicting prognosis in patients with STS.

Paraneoplastic syndromes (PNSs) associated with mesenchymal tumors are uncommon. Previous reports sporadically described inflammatory PNSs with elevated serum Creactive protein (CRP) levels and leukocytosis in patients with inflammatory malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH) of soft tissue; however, the relationship between other subtypes of MFH and PNS has not been extensively investigated. Forty-six patients with primary MFH of soft tissues who underwent radical surgery were retrospectively analyzed. These patients were divided into 2 groups according to preoperative serum CRP level: normal (<1.0 mg/dl) and elevated (>1.0 mg/dl). The correlation between serum CRP level and several clinicopathologic factors was analyzed. Correlation between preoperative serum CRP level and metastasis-free and overall survival was also investigated by univariate and multivariate analyses. Elevated preoperative serum CRP levels were found in 65% of patients with a mean of 3.7 mg/dl. There were statistically significant relationships regarding tumor size, depth, histologic subtypes, grade, stage and metastatic rate among normal and elevated CRP groups (p < 0.001, p < 0.02, p < 0.005, p < 0.001, p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively). When the tumor was removed, the elevated CRP level subsided into the normal range and other abnormal laboratory findings diminished in all cases. In 11/14 relapsed cases that showed elevated CRP preoperatively, the serum CRP level re-elevated with tumor relapse. The normal CRP group showed significantly more favorable prognosis than the elevated CRP group in metastasis-free and overall survival on univariate analysis (p < 0.02, p < 0.05, respectively). Patients with MFH frequently present with an inflammatory PNS, such as elevated serum CRP level, which can be a useful marker of disease activity and a valuable prognostic indicator. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Key words: malignant fibrous histiocytoma; paraneoplastic syndrome; C-reactive protein; tumor marker; prognosisMalignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH) is one of the most common soft tissue sarcomas in late adult life. 1 MFH manifests variable histologic subtypes, including pleomorphic-storiform, myxoid, giant cell and inflammatory types. 2 Inflammatory MFHs have been sporadically reported to demonstrate systemic inflammatory symptoms, including fever, leukocytosis with neutrophilia or eosinophilia, accelerated erythrocyte sedimentation rate and elevated serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. 3,4 These paraneoplastic syndromes (PNSs) disappear after surgical resection and recur when the tumor relapses. However, such unusual manifestations have rarely been documented in other histologic subtypes of MFH. 5 In our study, the frequency of PNS in MFH was determined and serum CRP levels were evaluated continually as a representative marker of PNS. These data were then correlated with several clinicopathologic factors and prognosis.

Transgenic mice deficient for the p53 gene were reported to frequently develop angiosarcoma (AS), suggesting that alterations in the gene are associated with tumorigenesis of AS. However, little is known about genetic changes, including p53 gene alterations, in human AS because of its rarity. We analyzed p53 mutations on paraffin-embedded specimens from 33 patients with AS by polymerase chain reaction-singlestrand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) followed by direct sequencing. Age of patients ranged from 18 to 91 (median 70) years, with a male to female ratio of 1.5:1. Sites of tumor were the head in 13 patients, the trunk in 4, the extremities in 4, the heart in 4, bones in 2 and others in 6. PCR-SSCP revealed aberrant mobility shifts of bands in 17 cases: 11 in exon 5, 5 in exon 7 and 4 in exon 8. Direct sequencing on these 17 cases revealed a total of 20 mutations. The frequency of p53 mutations was different by site of tumors: 7 of 13 in head, all 4 in extremities, 2 of 4 in heart and none of 4 in trunk. Our findings suggest that occurrence of p53 mutation is a major pathway for development of human AS. Int. J. Cancer 71:952-955, 1997.

Seventy-two small-sized (V2 cm in diameter) lung adenocarcinomas consisting of 15 noninvasive and 57 invasive tumors were subjected to whole genome allelic imbalance (AI) scanning and mutational analysis of the EGFR, KRAS, and TP53 genes to elucidate genetic pathways of early-stage lung adenocarcinomas. The chromosome 13q13 region showed the most frequent AI (58%) and was affected at similar frequencies between noninvasive and invasive tumors (53% and 60%, respectively), as EGFR and KRAS mutations were. The number of AI regions as well as the frequency of TP53 mutations in invasive tumors was significantly higher than those in noninvasive ones [9.8 F 5.6 versus 4.8 F 2.8 (P = 0.00002) and 61% versus 13% (P = 0.001), respectively]. In particular, AIs at the chromosome 11p11-p12, 17p12-p13, and 18p11 regions in invasive tumors were significantly more frequent than those in noninvasive ones (P < 0.01). The results indicated that noninvasive tumors were developed by EGFR, KRAS, and 13q alterations and progressed to invasive ones by subsequent alterations of several tumor suppressor genes, including those on 11p11-p12, 17p12-p13, and 18p11 and TP53. AI at 8p21 was significantly more frequent in advanced stages (>IA) and associated with worse prognoses (P = 0.04) and, thus, would be involved in invasion and/or metastasis of adenocarcinoma cells and useful for the prediction of prognosis of patients with small-sized lung adenocarcinoma.

The results of the current study, together with those reported previously, showed that the presence of the Epstein-Barr virus correlated with mixed cellularity type, age older than 40 years, and male sex.

Nakao A, Tatematsu M. Real-time observation of micrometastasis formation in the living mouse liver using a GFP gene-tagged rat tongue carcinoma cell line. Int. J. Cancer 2001;93:212-7.In the article cited above, a critical reference was unfortunately omitted from the Discussion section. The citation in question is given below.The authors deeply regret this oversight. Naumov GN, Wilson SM, MacDonald IC, et al. Cellular expression of green fluorescent protein, coupled with high-resolution in vivo videomicroscopy, to monitor steps in tumor metastis.

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The burden of oxidative stress was observed to increase in COPD patients as judged by urinary 8-OHdG. A depletion of antioxidant vitamins in serum was not essential for this phenomenon. Elevated urinary 8-OHdG level may not be attributable to smoking status or to antioxidant vitamins in COPD.