The association between nm23 gene expression and survival in patients with sarcomas

The relationship between the expression of nm23, a putative metastasis-suppressor gene and prognosis was determined for 88 patients with sarcomas. Immunohistochemistry using immunopurified anti-nm23 peptide antibodies was performed and the results of each case graded according to the degree of staining. Univariate and multivariate analyses were carried out to determine the prognostic significance of nm23 staining for sarcoma patients. Expression of nm23 was found to increase in line with metastatic potential in many cases but this did not reach significance for the study as a whole. However, the possibility of nm23 loss occurring in association with metastasis cannot be ruled out in some more aggressive sarcomas, as was demonstrated for six patients with low-scoring, unclassified and synovial sarcomas that had metastasized. The time to metastasis was longer for patients with grade 3 sarcomas (50-75% of tumour cells staining) than similar patients in other staining groups. These results suggest that expression of nm23 genes in sarcomas is variable and has no value as a prognostic indicator for these mesenchymal tumours.