Cytoplasmic phosphorylated ERK1/2 expression in patients with melanoma is associated with tumor stage and metastasis
Yen-Shuo Tseng Pei-Ru Wu Jeng-Wei Lu Yu-Fen Wang Kun-Tu Yeh Shu-Hui Lin
Yen-Shuo Tseng
Pei-Ru Wu
Yu-Fen Wang
Kun-Tu Yeh
Shu-Hui Lin
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Abstract
Melanoma is the cause of most deaths from skin cancer. The extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) pathway has been reported to participate in progression of melanoma in fair skinned populations. ERK1/2 is found in both the cytoplasm and nucleus of cells, and phosphorylated ERK1/2 has been implicated in tumor progression. We investigated the relation between melanoma progression and expression of cytoplasmic and nuclear phosphorylated ERK1/2. We examined 34 surgically resected melanomas and investigated their clinicopathologic characteristics. We found immunostaining of phosphorylated ERK1/2 in all melanomas and faint staining in benign nevi. We found expression of cytoplasmic phosphorylated ERK1/2 in most melanomas; however, nuclear phosphorylated ERK1/2 expression was found in only five melanomas. Expression of cytoplasmic phosphorylated ERK1/2 was related to the tumor stage in melanoma. Nine of 10 cases of distant metastasis were positive for cytoplasmic phosphorylated ERK1/2. Our findings suggest that phosphorylated ERK1/2 expression is relevant to clinical pathology and that in melanoma patients, phosphorylated ERK1/2 expression is found in both the cytoplasm and nucleus. Our findings suggest that cytoplasmic phosphorylated ERK1/2 participates in progression of melanoma and that it could be a useful target for clinical treatment of melanoma.
Keywords
Cytoplasm, ERK1/2, extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2, human, immunohistochemistry, melanoma, phosphorylation
Source Title
Biotechnic & Histochemistry
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
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Date
2021-04-27
DOI
10.1080/10520295.2021.1912827
Type
Article