Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
MAGE-A protein in dog oral melanoma and what it means for survival
By Guillén, Alexandra et al.·Published in Research in veterinary science·2021·Department of Small Animal Clinical Science, United Kingdom·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Immunohistochemical expression and prognostic significance of MAGE-A in canine oral malignant melanoma.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study looked at 43 dogs with oral malignant melanoma, a type of cancer that can be tough to treat. Researchers found that a protein called MAGE-A was present in most of the tumors, but its levels didn't seem to affect how long the dogs lived after treatment. Dogs with lower levels of MAGE-A had a median survival time of about 320 days, while those with higher levels lived around 129 days. However, the differences weren't significant enough to draw strong conclusions about MAGE-A's role in survival. Overall, the findings suggest that MAGE-A expression might not be a reliable indicator of prognosis in these cases.
People also search for: dog oral melanoma treatment · canine cancer survival rates · MAGE-A protein in dogs
Abstract
Canine oral malignant melanoma (COMM) is considered a chemo-resistant cancer with a poor long-term prognosis. The melanoma-associated antigen A (MAGE-A) genes, which belong to the cancer-testis antigen family, are expressed in several different canine cancers but not in normal somatic tissue. This study evaluates the expression of MAGE-A proteins and their prognostic role in COMM. The study was conducted in 2 parts. During the first part, biopsies from oral malignant melanomas from 43 dogs were examined and immunohistochemically assessed for expression of MAGE-A proteins. For the second part, the association between MAGE-A expression and outcome was assessed using follow-up data which was available for 20 dogs whose primary tumour had been controlled with surgery +/- radiation therapy. MAGE-A proteins were expressed in 88.4% (38/43) of oral malignant melanomas and had a predominantly cytoplasmic expression pattern. Immunopositivity was observed in more than 50% of the cells in 21 dogs (48.8%). Immunostaining intensity was classified as weak, moderate and intense in 16 (37%), 16 (37%) and 6 (14%) cases, respectively. No staining for MAGE-A was seen in 5 dogs (11%). Dogs whose COMM had weak MAGE-A staining intensity had a median survival time (MST) of 320 days while this was 129 days for dogs with moderate and intense immunostaining (p = 0.161). Dogs whose COMM had >50% of positive staining neoplastic cells had an MST of 141 days and dogs with a staining <50% had an MST of 320 days (p = 0.164). MAGE-A expression did not influence survival in our cohort.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34023546/