Bone Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Bone Cancer, including details on symptoms, types, treatment.

Prognostic significance of HLA class I expression in osteosarcoma defined by anti-pan HLA class I monoclonal antibody, EMR8-5.

Tsukahara T, Kawaguchi S, Torigoe T, Asanuma H, Nakazawa E, Shimozawa K, Nabeta Y, Kimura S, Kaya M, Nagoya S, Wada T, Yamashita T, Sato N

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, South 1, West 16, Chuo-ku, Sapporo 060-8543, Japan.

With the goal of establishing efficacious peptide-based immunotherapy for patients with bone and soft tissue sarcomas, we previously identified the cytotoxic T lymphocyte-defined osteosarcoma antigenic gene Papillomavirus binding factor. The present study was designed to determine the status of HLA class I expression in osteosarcoma and other bone and soft tissue sarcomas. Seventy-four formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens of various bone and soft tissue sarcomas, including 33 osteosarcomas, were stained with the anti-HLA class I monoclonal antibody EMR8-5, which we recently generated. The expression of HLA class I was lost or downregulated in 46 of these specimens (62%). With respect to osteosarcoma, loss or downregulation of HLA class I expression was seen in 13 (52%) of 25 primary tumors and seven (88%) of eight metastatic tumors. In six of 11 HLA class I-negative osteosarcoma specimens, the expression of beta-2 microglobulin was also lost. Subsequently the prognostic significance of HLA class I expression was analyzed in 21 patients with osteosarcoma who had completed multidrug neoadjuvant chemotherapy and undergone adequate surgery. Patients with osteosarcoma highly expressing HLA class I showed significantly better overall and event-free survival than those with HLA class I-negative osteosarcoma. In contrast, such prognostic significance of HLA class I expression was not found in 15 patients with malignant fibrous histiocytoma of soft tissue. These findings suggest that the class I-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocyte pathway plays a major role in immune surveillance of patients with osteosarcoma.

Published 2 November 2006 in Cancer Sci, 97(12): 1374-80.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Bone Cancer Research Today. All Rights Reserved.