Prostein expression in human tumors: a tissue microarray study on 19,202 tumors from 152 different Tumor entities

Prostein (P501S), also termed solute carrier family 45 member 3 (SLC45A3) is an androgen regulated protein which is preferentially expressed in prostate epithelial cells. Because of its frequent expression in prostate cancer, prostein was suggested a diagnostic prostate cancer marker.

In order to comprehensively assess the diagnostic utility of prostein immunohistochemistry, a tissue microarray containing 19,202 samples from 152 different tumor types and subtypes as well as 608 samples of 76 different normal tissue types was analyzed by immunohistochemistry.

Prostein immunostaining was typically cytoplasmic, granular and perinuclear. Prostein positivity was seen in 96.7% of 419 prostate cancers including 78.3% with strong staining. In 16,709 extra-prostatic tumors, prostein positivity was observed in 7.2% of all cases but only 0.3% had a strong staining. Overall, 50 different extra-prostatic tumor categories were prostein positive, 12 of which included at least one strongly positive case. Extra-prostatic tumors with highest rates of prostein positivity included different subtypes of salivary gland tumors (7.6-44.4%), neuroendocrine neoplasms (15.8-44.4%), adenocarcinomas of the gastrointestinal tract (7.3-14.8%), biliopancreatic adenocarcinomas (3.6-38.7%), hepatocellular carcinomas (8.1%), and adenocarcinomas of other organs (up to 21%).

Our data provide a comprehensive overview on prostein expression in human cancers. Prostein is a highly sensitive prostate cancer marker occurring in > 96% of prostate cancers. Because prostein can also be expressed in various other tumor entities, classifying of a tumor mass as a prostate cancer should not be based on prostein positivity alone.