Malignant Pleural
Mesothelioma Prognostic Marker: A Review of Osteopontin
and Soluble Mesothelin Peptides
Franca N Alaribe, Staffania Maniero
and Cecilia Pancaldi
Department
of Morphology and Embryology, Section of Cell Biology
and Molecular Genetics, University of Ferrara, Via
Fossato di Mortara 64/b, 44100 Ferrara, Italy.
*For correspondence:
E-mail:
cecilia.pancaldi@unife.it
Received: 7
April
2010 Revised
accepted: 8 October 2010
Tropical Journal of
Pharmaceutical Research, December 2010;
9(6):
605-613
Abstract
This article is a review of a series of three studies
that proved the involvement of osteopontin as a
prognostic marker in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM)
cancers. The approach used involved synthesizing and
analysing the three articles. The first proves the
utilization of osteopontin and mesothelin for diagnostic
and prognostic assessment of MPM in patients previously
exposed to asbestos and those with pleural metastasis.
The second proves that immunohistochemical analysis
identified osteopontin to have a prognostic role from
its expression in MPM. The third uses the specificity
and sensitivity of serum osteopontin to distinguish
patients with plueral mesothelioma from subjects with
asbestos-related non-malignant diseases. Overall, these
remarkable findings are important for understanding of
expression of osteopontin in malignant mesothelial cells
and in patients with MPM. The use of osteopontin as a
prognostic marker in MPM is promising and such fine
molecular studies certainly help in bringing osteopontin
closer to clinical practice.
Keywords:
Osteopontin, Mesothelioma, Prognostic marker.
