Surgery-related factors and local recurrence of Wilms tumor in National Wilms Tumor Study 4. (1/803)

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prognostic factors for local recurrence in Wilms tumor. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Current therapy for Wilms tumor has evolved through four studies of the National Wilms Tumor Study Group. As adverse prognostic factors were identified, treatment of children with Wilms tumor has been tailored based on these factors. Two-year relapse-free survival of children in the fourth study (NWTS-4) exceeded 91%. Factors once of prognostic import for local recurrence may lose their significance as more effective therapeutic regimens are devised. METHODS: Children evaluated were drawn from the records of NWTS-4. A total of 2482 randomized or followed patients were identified. Local recurrence, defined as recurrence in the original tumor bed, retroperitoneum, or within the abdominal cavity or pelvis, occurred in 100 children. Using a nested case-control study design, 182 matched controls were selected. Factors were analyzed for their association with local failure. Relative risks and 95% confidence intervals were calculated, taking into account the matching. RESULTS: The largest relative risks for local recurrence were observed in patients with stage III disease, those with unfavorable histology (especially diffuse anaplasia), and those reported to have tumor spillage during surgery. Multiple regression analysis adjusting for the combined effects of histology, lymph node involvement, and age revealed that tumor spillage remained significant. The relative risk of local recurrence from spill was largest in children with stage II disease. The absence of lymph node biopsy was also associated with an increased relative risk of recurrence, which was largest in children with stage I disease. The survival of children after local recurrence is poor, with an average survival rate at 2 years after relapse of 43%. Survival was dependent on initial stage: those who received more therapy before relapse had a worse prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: This study has demonstrated that surgical rupture of the tumor must be prevented by the surgeon, because spills produce an increased risk of local relapse. Both local and diffuse spills produce this risk. Stage II children with local spill appear to require more aggressive therapy than that used in NWTS-4. The continued critical importance of lymph node sampling in conjunction with nephrectomy for Wilms tumor is also established. Absence of lymph node biopsy may result in understaging and inadequate treatment of the child and may produce an increased risk of local recurrence.  (+info)

A possible contributory role of BK virus infection in neuroblastoma development. (2/803)

The tumor suppressor protein p53 is aberrantly localized to the cytoplasm of neuroblastoma cells, compromising the suppressor function of this protein. Such tumors are experimentally induced in transgenic mice expressing the large tumor (T) antigen of polyomaviruses. The oncogenic mechanisms of T antigen include complex formation with, and inactivation of, the tumor suppressor protein p53. Samples from 18 human neuroblastomas and five normal human adrenal glands were examined. BK virus DNA was detected in all neuroblastomas and none of five normal adrenal glands by PCR. Using DNA in situ hybridization, polyomaviral DNA was found in the tumor cells of 17 of 18 neuroblastomas, but in none of five adrenal medullas. Expression of the large T antigen was detected in the tumor cells of 16 of 18 neuroblastomas, but in none of the five adrenal medullas. By double immunostaining BK virus T antigen and p53 was colocalized to the cytoplasm of the tumor cells. Immunoprecipitation revealed binding between the two proteins. The presence and expression of BK virus in neuroblastomas, but not in normal adrenal medulla, and colocalization and binding to p53, suggest that this virus may play a contributory role in the development of this neoplasm.  (+info)

Loss of imprinting of a paternally expressed transcript, with antisense orientation to KVLQT1, occurs frequently in Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome and is independent of insulin-like growth factor II imprinting. (3/803)

Genomic imprinting plays a fundamental role in cancer and some hereditary diseases, including Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS), a disorder of prenatal overgrowth and predisposition to embryonal malignancies such as Wilms tumor. We have previously shown that the KVLQT1 gene on chromosomal band 11p15 is imprinted, with expression of the maternal allele, and that the maternal allele is disrupted in rare BWS patients with balanced germ-line chromosomal rearrangements. We now show that an antisense orientation transcript within KVLQT1, termed LIT1 (long QT intronic transcript 1) is expressed normally from the paternal allele, from which KVLQT1 transcription is silent, and that in the majority of patients with BWS, LIT1 is abnormally expressed from both the paternal and maternal alleles. Eight of sixteen informative BWS patients (50%) showed biallelic expression, i.e., loss of imprinting (LOI) of LIT1. Similarly, 21 of 36 (58%) BWS patients showed loss of maternal allele-specific methylation of a CpG island upstream of LIT1. Surprisingly, LOI of LIT1 was not linked to LOI of insulin-like growth factor II (IGF2), which was found in 2 of 10 (20%) BWS patients, even though LOI of IGF2 occurs frequently in Wilms and other tumors, and in some patients with BWS. Thus, LOI of LIT1 is the most common genetic alteration in BWS. We propose that 11p15 harbors two imprinted gene domains-a more centromeric domain including KVLQT1 and p57(KIP2), alterations in which are more common in BWS, and a more telomeric domain including IGF2, alterations in which are more common in cancer.  (+info)

Analysis of native WT1 protein from frozen human kidney and Wilms' tumors. (4/803)

The Wilms' tumor susceptibility gene, WT1, is altered in a subset of Wilms' tumors and encodes a transcription factor with four zinc fingers. Here we describe the isolation of native WT1 protein from frozen normal human kidney and Wilms' tumor samples. Through size exclusion chromatography and Western blot analysis we determined the elution pattern of WT1. The majority of WT1 from adult kidney and Wilms' tumor specimens was found to elute at a size of approximately 120 kDa, consistent with a WT1 homodimer and some WT1 protein was also found in a higher molecular weight complex. In 14 week fetal kidney the majority of the WT1 protein eluted at a size of 80 kDa, suggesting that at this developmental stage the WT1 protein is not present as a homodimer. The identity of complexing partners can now be studied using this approach.  (+info)

SV40LT highly mutates and immortalizes two fibroblast strains from patients with Wilms' tumor. (5/803)

In order to analyze in detail the process of immortalization of human cells, SV40LT was introduced into two chromosome 11p- fibroblast strains from Wilms' tumor patients. Both fibroblasts, hereafter referred to as CM1 and CM2, displayed the mutant phenotype in the crisis stage of cellular aging. In comparison to a control fibroblast, the density of the CM1 strain was abnormally high while the crisis period of the CM2 strain was abnormally long. The CM1 immortalization was 7 times greater than the control and the CM2 strain had the highest frequency of immortalization, 7 times greater than the CM1. These findings indicate that genes associated with chromosome 11p- may be involved in the immortalization of human cells. During their abnormal crisis periods, the cells derived from the patients with Wilms' tumor showed an extremely high frequency of chromosomal aberrations and mutations (6TGs --> 6TGr). These results indicate that when the growth-arrested cells from Wilms' patients are induced to grow with the introduction of SV40LT at the crisis stage they are highly mutable, resulting in their immortalization in vitro.  (+info)

LIT1, an imprinted antisense RNA in the human KvLQT1 locus identified by screening for differentially expressed transcripts using monochromosomal hybrids. (6/803)

Mammalian imprinted genes are frequently arranged in clusters on particular chromosomes. The imprinting cluster on human chromosome 11p15 is associated with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS) and a variety of human cancers. To clarify the genomic organization of the imprinted cluster, an extensive screen for differentially expressed transcripts in the 11p15 region was performed using monochromosomal hybrids with a paternal or maternal human chromosome 11. Here we describe an imprinted antisense transcript identified within the KvLQT1 locus, which is associated with multiple balanced chromosomal rearrangements in BWS and an additional breakpoint in embryonal rhabdoid tumors. The transcript, called LIT1 (long QT intronic transcript 1), was expressed preferentially from the paternal allele and produced in most human tissues. Methylation analysis revealed that an intronic CpG island was specifically methylated on the silent maternal allele and that four of 13 BWS patients showed complete loss of maternal methylation at the CpG island, suggesting that antisense regulation is involved in the development of human disease. In addition, we found that eight of eight Wilms' tumors exhibited normal imprinting of LIT1 and five of five tumors displayed normal differential methylation at the intronic CpG island. This contrasts with five of six tumors showing loss of imprinting of IGF2. We conclude that the imprinted gene domain at the KvLQT1 locus is discordantly regulated in cancer from the imprinted domain at the IGF2 locus. Thus, this positional approach using human monochromosomal hybrids could contribute to the efficient identification of imprinted loci in humans.  (+info)

Multipoint analysis of human chromosome 11p15/mouse distal chromosome 7: inclusion of H19/IGF2 in the minimal WT2 region, gene specificity of H19 silencing in Wilms' tumorigenesis and methylation hyper-dependence of H19 imprinting. (7/803)

WT2 is defined by maternal-specific loss of heterozygosity (LOH) on chromosome 11p15.5 in Wilms' tumors (WTs). The imprinted H19 gene, in this region, is silenced and hypermethylated in most WTs, and this is linked to pathological biallelic expression of IGF2. However, H19 and IGF2 lie within a larger imprinted domain, and the gene specificity of H19 epimutation has been a persistent question. To address this, we assessed LOH, gene expression and DNA methylation at multiple sites in and around the imprinted domain. LOH mapping showed that the entire domain, including IGF2/H19, is within the minimal WT2 region. Genes within the domain, including IPL/TSSC3/BWR1C, IMPT1/ORCTL2/BWR1A/TSSC5, KvLQT1/KCNA9 and TAPA1/CD81, as well as the zinc finger gene ZNF195/ZNFP104 near the centromeric border, were expressed persistently in many WTs. DNA hypermethylation was not detected with 5" upstream probes for IPL, IMPT1, KvLQT1 and ZNF195 in WTs or WT-associated kidneys. Fully developed WTs showed variable hypomethylation at an imprinted CpG island in a KvLQT1 intron, but this was only complete in the cases with LOH and was not observed in pre-neoplastic WT-associated kidneys with H19 epimutation. Analysis of the corresponding region of mouse chromosome 7 using methyltransferase-hypomorphic mice showed that the H19 imprint was fully erased, but that the allelic bias at Ipl, Impt1, p57 Kip2 and, to a lesser extent, Kvlqt1, persisted. Pre-existing massive allelic asymmetry for DNA methylation and hyper-dependence of transcription on methylation status may underlie the mechanism of gene-specific silencing of H19 in Wilms' tumorigenesis.  (+info)

The Wilms' tumor suppressor gene (wt1) product represses different functional classes of transcriptional activation domains. (8/803)

We have studied the ability of the wt1 tumor suppressor gene product to repress different classes of activation domains previously shown to stimulate the initiation and elongation steps of RNA polymerase II transcription in vivo. Repression assays revealed that WT1 represses all three classes of activation domains: Sp1 and CTF, which stimulate initiation (type I), human immunodeficiency virus type I Tat fused to a DNA-binding domain, which stimulates predominantly elongation (type IIA), and VP16, p53 and E2F1, which stimulate both initiation and elongation (type IIB). WT1 is capable of exerting its repression effect over a significant distance when positioned approximately 1700 bp from the core promoter. Deletion analysis of WT1 indicates that the responsible domain resides within the first 180 N-terminal amino acids of the protein. Nuclear run-ons analyzing the effects of WT1 on initiation of transcription demonstrate inhibition of this process. Our observations imply that WT1 can repress activators that stimulate initiation and/or elongation.  (+info)