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. 2011;6(6):e21418.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021418. Epub 2011 Jun 27.

Expression of MAGE-C1/CT7 and MAGE-C2/CT10 predicts lymph node metastasis in melanoma patients

Alessandra Curioni-Fontecedro  1 , Natko Nuber, Daniela Mihic-Probst, Burkhardt Seifert, Davide Soldini, Reinhard Dummer, Alexander Knuth, Maries van den Broek, Holger Moch
Affiliations

Expression of MAGE-C1/CT7 and MAGE-C2/CT10 predicts lymph node metastasis in melanoma patients

Alessandra Curioni-Fontecedro et al. PLoS One. 2011.

Abstract

MAGE-C1/CT7 and MAGE-C2/CT10 are members of the large MAGE family of cancer-testis (CT) antigens. CT antigens are promising targets for immunotherapy in cancer because their expression is restricted to cancer and germ line cells and a proportion of cancer patients presents with immune responses against CT antigens, which clearly demonstrates their immunogenicity. This study investigates the expression of MAGE-C1/CT7 and MAGE-C2/CT10 in primary and metastatic melanoma. Immunohistochemical staining of tissue microarrays that consisted of 59 primary malignant melanomas of the skin, 163 lymph node and distant melanoma metastases and 68 melanoma cell lines was performed. We found MAGE-C1/CT7 expression in 15 out of 50 (24%) primary melanomas and 15 out of 50 (24%) cell lines, whereas MAGE-C2/CT10 was detected in 17 out of 51 (33%) primary melanomas and 14 out of 68 (17%) cell lines. MAGE-C1/CT7 and MAGE-C2/CT10 were both detected in 40% of melanoma metastases. Patients with MAGE-C1/CT7 or MAGE-C2/CT10 positive primary melanoma had significantly more lymph node metastases (p = 0.005 and p<0.001, resp.). Prediction of lymph node metastasis by MAGE-C1/CT7 and MAGE-C2/CT10 was independent of tumor cell proliferation rate (Ki67 labeling index) in a multivariate analysis (p = 0.01). Our results suggest that the expression of MAGE-C1/CT7 and MAGE-C2/CT10 in primary melanoma is a potent predictor of sentinel lymph node metastasis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. MAGE-C1/CT7 protein expression pattern in melanoma.
MAGE-C1/CT7 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry on melanoma lesions at two different magnifications (5x, 20x) (left and middle panels) and by immunofluorescence on cell lines (100x) (right panels). Expression of MAGE-C1/CT7 is shown only in the nucleus (A), only in the cytoplasm (B) and both in nucleus and cytoplasm (C).
Figure 2
Figure 2. MAGE-C1/CT7 RNA expression in cell lines.
MAGE-C1/CT7 RNA expression was analysed on the following cell lines: (a) M950504, (b) M980409, (c) M010119, (d) M990514, (e) M01817 and (f) M010326 melanoma cell lines; (a) and (e) did not express MAGE-C1/CT7; (b), (c), (d) and (f) were positive. Beta actin control is shown.
Figure 3
Figure 3. MAGE-C2/CT10 protein expression in melanoma.
MAGE-C2/CT10 nuclear expression analyzed by immunohistochemistry from a metastatic melanoma lesion (20X).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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