Expression of tyrosine kinases in human malignancies as potential targets for kinase-specific inhibitors

Tyrosine kinase (TK) inhibition has been identified as a promising strategy in the treatment of human malignancies and several synthetic inhibitors have been developed. While the selective blockage of specific TKs is highly effective in vitro, clinical results have been less impressive. It has been suggested that the simultaneous inhibition of multiple TKs might lead to more favorable therapeutic results in vivo. We have therefore performed a systematic analysis of intratumoral TK expression in order to identify potential targets for a simultaneous kinase inhibition. To this end, we have analyzed the protein expression of membrane-associated epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF-R), Her-2/neu, platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGF-R), insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-R), c-Kit and of cytoplasmatic c-Abl in 500 human tumors of epithelial, stromal and mesenchymal origin by immunohistochemistry, and found a distinct pattern of kinase expression: EGF-R, PDGF-R and c-Abl were expressed in the majority of malignant tumors, whereas c-Kit, Her-2/neu and IGF-R protein expression was considerably less frequent. Overall, the EGF-R protein expression was correlated with PDGF-R, c-Kit and c-Abl immunoreactivity (P = 0.003, P = 0.001 and P < 0.001, respectively). c-Abl was co-expressed with IGF-R and PDGF-R (P = 0.003 and P < 0.001, respectively). Kinase co-expression was also seen in tumor subgroups and was particularly significant in breast cancer where IGF-R protein was expressed together with PDGF-R and c-Abl (P = 0.003 and P = 0.004, respectively), and in colon cancer where PDGF-R was correlated with EGF-R (P < 0.001). With the exception of Her-2/neu expression and age, intra-tumoral TK expression was not associated with parameters such as grading or histological subtypes. Taken together, we have found a specific pattern of kinase co-expression and have identified several potential targets for a tumor-specific multimodal TK inhibition.