Background: Rho family is closely related with the growth , differentiation and metastasis of tumer cells. The objective of this work is to investigate the expression of RhoE in lung and breast carcinoma and their corresponding adjacent tissues, as well as its relationship between the expression and clinical pathological grades. The results of this study provide evidences for exploring the biological functions and clinical significance of RhoE.
Methods: The expression of RhoE was detected by immunohistochemistry in 62 lung carcinoma samples and 34 breast carcinoma samples, and their corresponding adjacent tissues were taken as control.
Results: RhoE was generally expressed in normal tissues, but the expression level of RhoE in carcerous tissues was decreased or absent. The stained value of breast carcinoma was 3.65+/-0.62, but the adjacent cancerous tissues was 10.53+/-0.44, significantly higher than that of the adjacent cancerous tissues (t=12.402, P<0.001). While the stained value of lung carcinoma was 2.19+/-0.19, lower than that of the adjacent cancerous tissues (4.11+/-0.24, t =7.123, P<0.005). Moreover, there is a declining tendency of the stained value as the poor differentiation of the carcinoma (Chi-Square=26.536, P<0.005).
Conclusions: The expression of RhoE in carcerous tissues was remarkbaly decreased. Considering the recent research achievement and our early experimental results about RhoE, we inferred that RhoE may play a negative role in the development and progression of lung and breast carcinoma. So further research on RhoE would provide a new target for the molecular targeting therapy of cancer.