[Expression of PCNA/cyclin, p53, C-erbB-2 versus histological grade in transitional cell carcinoma of urinary...

It is important to know the proliferating ability and the malignant potential of tumor tissues. We have examined the expression of PCNA/cyclin, p53 and C-erbB-2 in transitional cell carcinoma of the human urinary bladder by an immunohistochemical method, and compared the results with the histological grade, stage and survival rate. Immunohistochemical studies, using monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies, on these proteins were performed with formaline fixed-paraffin sections of tumor tissue from 40 patients with bladder cancer. Generally, a higher grade and higher stage tumors expressed PCNA/cyclin, p53 and C-erbB-2 with a greater frequency than the tumors with a lower grade and lower stage and strongly stained cases had a lower survival rate than weakly stained cases. These findings suggest that the detection of each antigen is useful for estimating the malignant potential of transitional cell carcinoma as the adjuvant studies, because of its applicability to paraffin-embedded tissue sections and its simple, rapid technique.