Cancers, Vol. 13, Pages 1286: Development of a Novel Weighted Ranking Method for Immunohistochemical Quantification of a Heterogeneously Expressed Protein in Gastro-Esophageal Cancers

Cancers, Vol. 13, Pages 1286: Development of a Novel Weighted Ranking Method for Immunohistochemical Quantification of a Heterogeneously Expressed Protein in Gastro-Esophageal Cancers Cancers doi: 10.3390/cancers13061286 Authors: Cathy E. Richards Katherine M. Sheehan Elaine W. Kay Charlotta Hedner David Borg Joanna Fay Anthony O’Grady Arnold D. K. Hill Karin Jirström Ann M. Hopkins High expression of Junctional Adhesion Molecule-A (JAM-A) has been linked with poor prognosis in several cancers, including breast cancers overexpressing the human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2). Furthermore, JAM-A expression has been linked with regulating that of HER2, and associated with the development of resistance to HER2-targeted therapies in breast cancer patients. The purpose of this study was to establish a potential relationship between JAM-A and HER2 in HER2-overexpressing gastro-esophageal (GE) cancers. Interrogation of gene expression datasets revealed that high JAM-A mRNA expression was associated with poorer survival in HER2-positive gastric cancer patients. However, high intra-tumoral heterogeneity of JAM-A protein expression was noted upon immunohistochemical scoring of a GE cancer tissue microarray (TMA), precluding a simple confirmation of any relationship between JAM-A and HER2 at protein level. However, in a test-set of 25 full-face GE cancer tissue sections, a novel weighted ranking system proved effective in capturing JAM-A intra-tumo...
Source: Cancers - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research