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Background:Oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) metastasises early, especially to regional lymph nodes. There is an ongoing debate on which early stage (T1-T2N0) patients should be treated with elective neck dissection. We need prognosticators for early stage tongue cancer. Methods: Mice immunisation with human mesenchymal stromal cells resulted in production of antibodies against tenascin-C (TNC) and fibronectin (FN), which were used to stain 178 (98 early stage), oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma samples. TenascinC and FN expression in the stroma (negative, moderate or abundant) and tumour cells (negative or positive) were assessed. Similar staining was obtained using corresponding commercial antibodies. Results: Expression of TNC and FN in the stroma, but not in the tumour cells, proved to be excellent prognosticators both in all stages and in early stage cases. Among early stages, when stromal TNC was negative, the 5-year survival rate was 88%. Correspondingly, when FN was negative, no cancer deaths were observed. Five-year survival rates for abundant expression of TNC and FN were 43% and 25%, respectively. Conclusions: Stromal TNC and, especially, FN expressions differentiate patients into low-and high-risk groups. Surgery alone of early stage primary tumours might be adequate when stromal FN is negative. Aggressive treatments should be considered when both TNC and FN are abundant.

Background: Inflammation contributes to the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer (CRC), and cytokine levels are altered during colorectal carcinogenesis. Methods: The serum levels of 13 cytokines and their relation to clinical and pathological parameters, and systemic inflammatory response (mGPS, CRP and neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio), were analysed from a prospective series of 148 CRC patients and 86 healthy age- and sex-matched controls. Results: CRC patients had higher serum platelet-derived growth factor, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-7, and IL-8 levels and lower monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) levels than the controls. A logistic regression model for discriminating the patients from the controls – including the five most predictive cytokines (high IL-8, high IL-6, low MCP-1, low IL-1ra, and low IP-10) – yielded an area under curve value of 0.890 in receiver operating characteristics analysis. Serum cytokines showed distinct correlation with other markers of systemic inflammatory response, and advanced CRCs were associated with higher levels of IL-8, IL-1ra, and IL-6. A metastasised disease was accompanied by an orientation towards Th2 cytokine milieu. Conclusion: CRC is associated with extensive alterations in serum cytokine environment, highlighting the importance of studying relative cytokine level alterations. Serum cytokine profile shows promise in separating CRC patients from healthy controls but its clinical value is yet to be confirmed.

High frequencies of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in chromosome 11q22-qter have been observed in various malignancies, including breast cancer. Previous studies on breast carcinomas by Winqvist et al (Cancer Res 55: 2660-2664) have indicated that a survival factor gene is located in band 11q23, and that the highly informative microsatellite polymorphism at the APOC3 locus would be a suitable tool to perform more extensive LOH studies. In this European multicentre study, we have examined the occurrence of APOC3 LOH and evaluated the effect of LOH of this chromosomal subregion on the clinical behaviour of the disease in a cohort of 766 breast cancer patients in more detail. LOH for APOC3 was found in 42% of the studied tumours, but it was not found to be significantly associated with any of the studied clinical variables, including cancer-specific survival time or survival time after recurrent/metastatic disease. According to the present findings, the putative survival factor gene on 11q23 is not located close enough to the APOC3 gene, but apparently at a more proximal location.

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