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Prognostically Significant Protein Components of Human Breast Cancer Tissues¹

New York Medical College-Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals, New York, New York 10029 [R. E. Z., M. M. B., B. S., M. I., A. M. A.], and Institute for Medical Research, Camden, New Jersey 08103 [A. D., C. J. W.]

Cryostat sections of clinicopathologically characterized breast cancer tissues were eluted with phosphate-buffered 0.9% sodium chloride solution, pH 7.2. The proteins were then characterized by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with and without prior treatment with sodium dodecyl sulfate. Approximately 65% of the brease cancer tissue eluates contained a prominent protein fraction with a molecular weight of 47,000 to 55,000 (p50). No such component was found in 15 of 17 eluates of benign breast tissue. Charge density studies disclosed that the p50 component included three populations of proteins that could be characterized according to the migration relative to gp55 derived from RIII murine mammary tumor virus, namely, fast (F-p50), intermediate (I-p50), and slow (S-p50).

Prognostically favorable pathological characteristics, i.e., stage, nuclear grade, and lymphoreticuloendothelial responses, were proportionately most frequently found among S-p50 breast cancers and were least frequently found among F-p50 breast cancers. It appears that the S-p50 component acts in vivo as a prognostically significant immunogen. Further knowledge of the relationship between protein characteristics and clinicopathological features of human breast cancers would contribute to our understanding of mammary carcinogenesis and biological behavior.

¹ This study was conducted under Contracts NO1-CP-33398 and NO1-CP-53561 within the Virus Cancer Program of the National Cancer Institute, NIH, USPHS.

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of Pathology, New York Medical College-Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals, 1249 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10029.

Received 3/10/76. Accepted 5/25/76.