Immunohistochemical Evaluation of PARP and Caspase-3 as Prognostic Markers in Prostate Carcinomas
Vitória Acar, Fabio Leite Couto Fernandez, Fabio Fabian Buscariolo, Adriana Alonso Novais, Roseli Aparecida Matheus Pereira, Débora Aparecida Pires de Campos Zuccari
Abstract
Prostate cancer is the second most common neoplasm among men, with a high mortality rate in advanced stages. Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) plays an important role in repair to DNA damage, being associated with resistance to tumor cell death. Conversely, Caspase-3 is a crucial mediator of programmed cell death, being highly expressed in apoptotic cells. The aim of the present study was to characterize the expression of PARP and Caspase-3 by immunohistochemistry in patients with advanced prostate cancer. PARP and Caspase-3 were independently correlated to patients' evolution, in accordance with the classification of prognostic groups. The increase in PARP expression was positively correlated with tumor patients with poor prognosis (P < 0.0001). In contrast, a decrease in Caspase-3 expression was identified in patients with poor prognosis, when compared with prostate cancer patients with good prognosis (P = 0.0007). Numerically, 92.3% of patients previously classified with poor prognosis showed higher PARP expression, while 93.75% of patients previously classified with good prognosis showed higher levels of Caspase-3. We conclude that PARP and Caspase-3 are potential prognostic markers for prostate cancer patients with different prognosis.