Glutathione peroxidase 2 expression in human tumors: a tissue microarray study on 18,555 tumors

Glutathione peroxidase 2 (GPX2) has a pivotal role in removing reactive oxygen species (ROS) from cells. Although the number of studies analyzing GPX2 in cancer is still limited, data suggesting a role of altered GPX2 expression in various cancer types are accumulatin.

To better comprehend the role of GPX2 expression in cancer, GPX2 was analyzed by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays containing 18,555 samples from 148 different tumor types.

A total of 95 of 148 tumor categories showed GPX2 expression in at least one case, and 61 tumor categories contained at least one strongly positive case. GPX2 positivity was most seen in colorectal adenocarcinomas (97.9%) and adenomas (100%), non-invasive urothelial carcinomas (88.9-100%), pancreatico-biliary cancers (83.4-94.7%), Brenner tumors of the ovary (89.7%), gastro-esophageal adenocarcinomas (83.1-87.3%), and seminomas (85.6%). Clinically important cancer types with infrequent and often weak GPX2 staining included sarcomas, lymphomas, high-grade serous ovarian carcinomas, prostatic adenocarcinomas, melanomas, mesotheliomas, and renal cell carcinomas. Reduced GPX2 staining was linked to microsatellite instability (MSI, p<0.0001), advanced pT stage (p=0.0044), nodal metastasis (p=0.0093), V1 (p=0.0020) and L1 (p=0.0057) in colorectal adenocarcinoma, invasive growth (p<0.0001), high grade (p=0.0013), nodal metastasis (p=0.0005), V1 (p=0.0004) and L1 (p=0.0001) in urothelial carcinoma, high grade in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (p=0.0233), and MSI in gastric adenocarcinoma (p=0.0325).

It is concluded, that GPX2 expression is common in cancer and preferably occurs in tumor entities derived from normal cell types with high GPX2 expression. In these tumors, reduced GPX2 expression is often linked to features of aggressive disease.