No abstract

Materials and methods MaterialsFifty-seven patients with osteosarcoma of bone and 11 osteoblastoma specimens were selected from the files of the Department of Clinical Pathology, Tongji Hospital. All cases were reviewed to confirm the diagnosis and a paraffin block of osteosarcoma biopsy material prior to Abstract Objective: To detect the expression of osteopontin (OPN) in benign and malignant bone tumors and investigate the prognostic influence of OPN expression on the outcome of osteosarcoma patients. Methods: Fifty-seven osteosarcomas and 11 osteoblastomas as well as 5 bone specimens with remodeling sites were immunohistochemically analyzed for expression of OPN and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). Results: OPN was not detected in osteoblasts of remodeling sites. Osteoblastoma osteoblasts as well as osteoclastlike giant cells and osteosarcoma mononuclear cells showed variable staining. In osteosarcomas OPN and COX-2 expression correlated with each other (r = 0.390, P = 0.003, Spearman's test). Although osteosarcoma patients with high COX-2 expression showed a trend towards shorter overall survival (P = 0.0841, log-rank test), OPN expression had no influence on patients overall or on disease-free survival. Conclusion: Our data indicated that expression of this protein might be unregulated in bone neoplasia. Although OPN expression correlates with COX-2 expression in osteosarcomas, OPN expression does not provide predictive information about the outcome of osteosarcoma patients.