Deletion of the WWOX gene and frequent loss of its protein expression in human osteosarcoma

Yang, Jilong; Cogdell, David; Yang, Da; Hu, Limei; Li, Haixin; Zheng, Hong; Du, Xiaoling; Pang, Yi; Trent, Jonathan; Chen, Kexin; Zhang, Wei

doi:10.1016/j.canlet.2009.09.018

« Previous Next »Cancer Letters
Volume 291, Issue 1 , Pages 31-38, 1 May 2010

Deletion of the WWOX gene and frequent loss of its protein expression in human osteosarcoma

Jilong Yang
- Department of Bone and Soft Tissue Tumors, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital and Institute, Tianjin 30060, China
- Department of Pathology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
David Cogdell
- Department of Pathology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Da Yang
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital and Institute, Tianjin 30060, China
Limei Hu
- Department of Pathology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Haixin Li
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital and Institute, Tianjin 30060, China
Hong Zheng
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital and Institute, Tianjin 30060, China
Xiaoling Du
- Department of Diagnostics, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 30060, China
Yi Pang
- Department of Pathology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital and Institute, Tianjin 30060, China
Jonathan Trent
- Department of Sarcoma Medical Oncology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Kexin Chen
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital and Institute, Tianjin 30060, China
Wei Zhang
- Department of Pathology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Corresponding author. Address: Department of Pathology, Unit 85, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, Texas 77030, USA. Tel.: +1 713 745 1103; fax: +1 713 792 5549.

Received 23 September 2009; accepted 28 September 2009. published online 09 November 2009.

Abstract

To evaluate the role of WWOX gene in human osteosarcoma, array comparative genomic hybridization on 10 frozen osteosarcoma specimens and immunohistochemical staining of 55 formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues for WWOX was performed. Deletion of the WWOX gene was observed in 3 of 10 samples and the WWOX protein was undetectable in 34 of 55 osteosarcomas. This is the first investigation of the role of WWOX gene in human osteosarcoma. The WWOX gene deletion, loss of its protein expression, and lack of correlation of WWOX expression with patient survival suggest loss of WWOX expression is an early event in the pathogenesis of osteosarcoma and the phenotypic results of its deletion do not imminently result in patient death.

Keywords: Osteosarcoma, WWOX, Array comparative genomic hybridization