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BMC Cancer
Published in: BMC Cancer 1/2018

Open Access 01-12-2018 | Research article

βcatenin is a marker of poor clinical characteristics and suppressed immune infiltration in testicular germ cell tumors

Authors: Michal Chovanec, Zuzana Cierna, Viera Miskovska, Katarina Machalekova, Katarina Kalavska, Katarina Rejlekova, Daniela Svetlovska, Dusan Macak, Stanislav Spanik, Karol Kajo, Pavel Babal, Michal Mego, Jozef Mardiak

Published in: BMC Cancer | Issue 1/2018

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Abstract

Background

WNT/βcatenin (WNTβ) pathway is activated in early stages of embryonic development. We aimed to evaluate the significance of βcatenin in germ cell tumors (GCTs) and explore associations with the inflamed environment.

Methods

Surgical specimens from 247 patients were analyzed. Βcatenin expression was detected in the tumor tissue by immunohistochemistry and correlated with clinical characteristics, outcome, PD-L1 expression and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII). The Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) was used to investigate the immune-cell related effects of βcatenin and PD-L1 encoding genes.

Results

βcatenin was expressed in 86.2% of GCTs. The expression in seminomas was significantly lower compared to all subtypes of non-seminoma (all P <  0.0001). A high expression (weighted histoscore > 150) was associated with primary mediastinal non-seminoma (P = 0.035), intermediate/poor risk disease (P = 0.033) and high tumor markers (P = 0.035). We observed a positive correlation with the PD-L1 in tumor and an inverse correlation with the SII. IPA uncovered relationships of CTNNB (βcatenin) and CD274 (PD-L1) genes and their effects on differentiation, proliferation and activation of lymphocyte subtypes.

Conclusion

Herein, we showed that βcatenin is associated with male adult GCT characteristics as well as supressed immune environment.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
βcatenin is a marker of poor clinical characteristics and suppressed immune infiltration in testicular germ cell tumors
Authors
Michal Chovanec
Zuzana Cierna
Viera Miskovska
Katarina Machalekova
Katarina Kalavska
Katarina Rejlekova
Daniela Svetlovska
Dusan Macak
Stanislav Spanik
Karol Kajo
Pavel Babal
Michal Mego
Jozef Mardiak
Publication date
01-12-2018
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Cancer / Issue 1/2018
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2407
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-018-4929-x

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