With PQDT Open, you can read the full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge.
About PQDT Open
Search
Ewing sarcoma family tumors (ESFT) are highly undifferentiated bone and soft tissue tumors that primarily affect children. Metastatic disease at diagnosis portends a worse prognosis and remains the only reliable predictor of outcome. The polycomb protein BMI-1 is associated with worse clinical outcome in some human cancers. This study evaluates the clinical and biologic significance of BMI-1 expression in ESFT.
Using immunohistochemical analysis, 80% of ESFT were found to robustly express BMI-1 in all tumor cells, while 15% lacked BMI-1 expression. Analysis of 79 tumors revealed no association between BMI-1 and clinical presentation, outcome, loss of p16 or mutation of p53. Significantly, however, BMI-1 levels were highly inversely correlated with markers of neural crest differentiation. Together these findings demonstrate that ESFT cells nearly universally express BMI-1 and suggest that high-level expression of BMI-1 underlies the highly undifferentiated phenotype that characterizes this tumor family.
Advisor: | Seeger, Robert |
Commitee: | Aldrovandi, Grace, Sposto, Richard |
School: | University of Southern California |
Department: | Preventive Medicine (Health Behavior Research) |
School Location: | United States -- California |
Source: | MAI 47/06M, Masters Abstracts International |
Source Type: | DISSERTATION |
Subjects: | Neurosciences, Medicine, Pathology |
Keywords: | BMI-1, CDKN2a, Ewing sarcoma, Expression profiling, Prognosis, Stem cell |
Publication Number: | 1467574 |
ISBN: | 978-1-109-29530-6 |