Prostate-specific membrane antigen expression in the neovasculature of gastric and colorectal cancers

High expression of prostate-specific membrane antigen in the tumor-associated neo-vasculature is associated with worse prognosis in squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity

“…12,21,23 All clinicopathological feature of the patient cohort are summarized in Table 1. A total of 96 individual samples were investigated.…”

“…2 Interestingly, neo-vascular PSMA expression levels appear to differ significantly between different tumor types. [9][10][11][12]24,25 Here, we show that in oral squamous cell carcinoma high neo-vascular PSMA expression can only be detected in a subset of lesions. This finding is somewhat in contrast to previously published data from other solid malignancies in which the majority of tumors showed strong endothelial PSMA expression and suggests that differences in the tumor microenvironment may influence the differential expression of PSMA in the tumor-associated neovasculature.…”

“…Immunostaining of PSMA and CD31 was performed as described previously. 12 Briefly, slides were either pressure cooked for 1 min in 10 mM citrate buffer pH 6.0 for CD31 staining or incubated in Target Retrieval Solution pH 9.0 (cat no. S2368; Dako, Carpinteria, CA, USA) at 95 1C for 30 min for PSMA staining.…”

“…6,7 Subsequently several studies suggested that PSMA expression is not restricted to prostate epithelial cells but can also be found in tumor-associated endothelial cells in many different solid malignancies. [8][9][10][11][12] The functional role of endothelial PSMA is not known and, as recent studies demonstrated, endothelial PSMA expression can vary significantly within and between different tumor types. [12][13][14] Cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2) is a key enzyme in the arachidonic acid metabolism involved in the biosynthesis of prostagladins, which contribute to a pro-angiogenic microenvironment in tumors.…”

“…[8][9][10][11][12] The functional role of endothelial PSMA is not known and, as recent studies demonstrated, endothelial PSMA expression can vary significantly within and between different tumor types. [12][13][14] Cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2) is a key enzyme in the arachidonic acid metabolism involved in the biosynthesis of prostagladins, which contribute to a pro-angiogenic microenvironment in tumors. 15 Expression of COX2 is upregulated in squamous cell carcinoma and treatment with COX2 selective inhibitors results in reduced tumor growth.…”