Expression and clinical significance of survivin and PTEN in adrenal tumors

BACKGROUND OBJECTIVE: Since the histomorphology of adrenal tumor is very special, it is difficult to assess the malignancy of the tumors. This study was to explore the expression and clinical significance of Survivin and PTEN proteins in adrenal tumors. METHODS: The expression of Survivin and PTEN in 116 specimens of adrenal tumors, including 39 cases of cortex adenoma, 22 cases of cortex adenocarcinoma, 35 cases of pheochromocytoma, and 20 cases of malignant pheochromocytoma, were detected by LSAB immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The positive rate of Survivin protein was 75.0%, and that of PTEN protein was 93.1%. The expression intensity of Survivin was correlated to that of PTEN in adrenal tumors (r=-0.486, P0.05). The expression intensity of Survivin and PTEN in adrenal tumors were not related to patient's age, sex, tumor position, and so on (P0.05). The expression intensity of Survivin was significantly lower in adrenal cortex adenoma than in adrenal cortex adenocarcinoma (P0.05), and was significantly lower in pheochromocytoma than in malignant pheochromocytoma (P0.05). The expression intensity of PTEN was related to the differentiation of adrenal tumor. The expression intensity of PTEN was significantly higher in adrenal cortex adenoma than in adrenal cortex adenocarcinoma (P0.05), and was significantly higher in pheochromocytoma than in malignant pheochromocytoma (P0.05). The expression of Survivin protein and PTEN protein was correlated to the prognosis of adrenal cortex adenocarcinoma and malignant pheochromocytoma: the higher the expression intensity of Survivin protein and the lower the expression intensity of PTEN protein, the worse the patient's prognosis (P0.05). CONCLUSION: The expression of Survivin and PTEN proteins are closely related to the prognosis of adrenal tumors.