Is neuroendocrine cell differentiation detected using chromogranin A from patients with bone metastatic prostate cancer a prognostic factor for outcome?

Abstract

Abstract.We evaluated the usefulness of overexpression of neuroendrocrine (NE) cell differentiation determined by immunohistochemical staining for chromogranin A (Cg A) in diagnostic needle biopsy specimens of bone metastatic prostate cancers. A total of 50 patients diagnosed as having bone metastatic prostate cancer were studied. The period of observation was between 6.9 and 79.4 months (median 48.7 months). Cg A was detected by immunostaining using the labeled streptavidin biotin method. Cg A-positivity was defined as the presence of immunostained cells in 10% or more of the tumor. All statistical analyses were carried out using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences Software, version 10.0 for Windows. Eleven patients (22%) were classified into the Cg A-positive group. There were no significant differences in clinical data between the Cg Apositive and Cg A-negative groups. The 5-year causespecific survival rate was 34.1% for the Cg A-positive group and 55.2% for the Cg A-negative group (p=0.3763). The 3-year non-recurrence rate was 9.1% for the Cg A-positive group and 35.9% for the Cg A-negative group, and this difference was significant (p=0.0253). The 3-year causespecific survival rates after recurrence were 38.4% and 42.3% respectively (p=0.8125). We consider that NE cell differentiation of the primary tumor in cases of bone metastatic prostate cancer is not a prognostic factor for outcome.

Parallel determination of NeuroD1, Chromogranin-A, KI67 and androgen receptor expression in surgically treated prostate cancers

“…Nevertheless, differences between assays for serum ChrA provided a significant discordance rate, suggesting that the commercial kits for serum detection might elicit different information (12). Moreover, tissue ChrA lack prognostic significance in patients with bone metastatic PCa (13). Other NE markers (such as tissue CD56, synaptophysin) add only little information on the acquisition of NE phenotype in human prostate (14).…”