Objective:

In the cancer treatment, protein kinase inhibitors targeted at markers such as Her-2/neu (c-erbB2) and c-kit (CD117) are successful approaches. In this study, the expression of c-erbB2 and CD117 in normal prostate tissue as well as with low, moderate and high risk acinar adenocarcinoma of prostate with no androgen-suppression therapy, and, metastatic adenocarcinoma of prostate was investigated and the expression of androgen receptor (AR) was compared with c-erbB2 and CD117.

Materials and Methods:

Hematoxylene-eosine sections of 80 patients diagnosed with acinar adenocarcinoma of prostate and 20 patients diagnosed as benign prostate tissue between 2005-2013 years were re-evaluated. Prostatic adenocarcinoma cases were re-classified as low, moderate and high risk (according to D’Amico risk classification) and metastatic ones into groups with 20 specimens. Immuno-histochemistry studies with AR, c-erbB2 and CD117 were performed in all groups.

Results:

There was no staining with c-erbB2 and CD117 in benign prostate tissues. 15/80 (18.75%) and 32/80 (40%) of the prostatic adenocarcinomas stained positively with c-erbB2 and CD117 respectively. For both markers, the highest proportion (35%) of positive staining was found in the metastatic carcinoma groups with c-erbB2 (n=7/20, p=0.010 for all study groups) and 65% staining with CD117 (n=13/20, p=0.00004 for all study groups). All groups showed AR staining; prostatic adenocarcinoma. AR positivity was highest in the metastatic group (85%, 17/20, p=0.010). Prevalence of AR positivity between groups was similar to that of c-erbB2 and CD117.

Conclusion:

The expressions of c-erbB2, CD117 and AR increase at significant level in cases of metastatic prostatic adenocarcinoma that hasn’t receive preoperative androgen suppression therapy. This result indicates that the increased expression levels of c-erbB2, CD117 and AR is related with a higher degree of malignancy and therapeutic agents against to c-erbB2 and CD117 could be combined with anti-androgenic agents in planning of treatment.

Keywords: Acinar adenocarcinoma of prostate, CD117, c-erbB2, androgen receptor, immuno-histochemistry