Expression of thymidylate synthase, orotate phosphoribosyltransferase and dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase in thymic epithelial tumors

Background

It remains unclear whether thymidylate synthase (TS), orotate phosphoribosyltransferase (OPRT) and dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) expressions are associated with the pathogenesis of thymic epithelial tumors. Therefore, we investigated the expression of TS, OPRT and DPD in thymic epithelial tumors.

Patients and methods

Fifty-six patients with thymic epithelial tumors were included in this study. Tumors sections were stained by immunohistochemistry for TS, OPRT, DPD, microvessel density (MVD) determined by CD34, and p53. We also conducted in vitro study of TS, OPRT and DPD expression using thymic carcinoma, thymic tumor and thymic fibroblast cell lines.

Results

TS, OPRT and DPD were expressed in 61%, 48% and 41%, respectively. High grade malignancy is significantly associated with higher expression of TS, OPRT and DPD in thymic epithelial tumors. These biomarkers were closely associated with p53 and MVD, and the overexpression of TS and DPD was a prognostic marker for predicting poor outcome in univariate analysis. Our in vitro study showed that marked overexpression of TS and OPRT was observed in thymic carcinoma cells, but not in thymic tumor cells, or thymic fibroblast cells.

Conclusions

The expression of TS, OPRT and DPD was closely related to the grade of malignancy in thymic epithelial tumors. A positive expression of TS, DPD and OPRT might be an important factor in predicting the effectiveness of 5-FU based chemotherapy in this disease.