Abstract
BACKGROUND: Prostate tumour overexpressed 1, PTOV1, was recently identified as a novel gene and protein during a differential display screening for genes overexpressed in prostate cancer (PCa). It has been suggested that overexpression of PTOV1 can contribute to the proliferative status of prostate tumour cells and thus to their biological behaviour. METHODS: PTOV1 and Ki67 were immunohistochemically evaluated in PCa, atypical adenomatous hyperplasia (AAH), high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN), and normal-looking epithelium (NEp) of the transition zone (TZ) in 40 radical prostatectomies with pT2a Gleason score 6 PCa (20 with AAH and 20 with HGPIN) and in 10 simple prostatectomies (SPs) (5 with AAH and 5 with HGPIN). The aim was to evaluate PTOV1 protein expression as a marker for tumor development and progression from AAH to PCa. RESULTS: The proportions of PTOV1 and Ki67 positive cells increased from NEp through AAH and HGPIN to PCa. In particular, the mean Hscore of PTOV1 expression in AAH was 110.90, i.e., close to three times that of NEp (40.76), similar to that of HGPIN (105.61) and lower than that of PCa (137.03). The mean values in AAH and HGPIN associated with cancer in the RPs were slightly higher than in the SPs. CONCLUSION: Our findings related to PTOV1 expression in AAH, similar to those in HGPIN, provide additional evidence linking AAH to prostatic adenocarcinoma.