Expression and clinical significance of PTEN and Survivin in retinoblastoma

Objective To investigate the expression of PTEN and Survivin in retinoblastoma (RB) and their relationship with clinical-pathological parameters. Methods The expressions of PTEN and Survivin in 41 cases of paraffin embedded RB samples and 10 cases of normal retina were detected using immunohistochemistry assay. Results ①The positive rates of PTEN and Survivin expressions in RB tissues were 68.3% and 63.4% respectively, showing the up-regulated PTEN and down-regulated Survivin as compared significantly with the controls (P0.01). There was no statistical difference in expression of PTEN and Survivin between the both genders (P0.05). ② The positive rate of PTEN in the intra-ocular growth stage (90%) was statistically different with that in the extra-ocular invasion stage (P0.05), and there was a statistical difference in positive rate of PTEN between glaucomatous and extra-ocular invasion stages (P0.05). The positive rate of PTEN in RB complicated with optic nerve invasion was higher than that in RB with no optic nerve invasion (P0.05), and that in differentiated RB was higher than in undifferentiated RB (P0.05). The positive expression of Survivin was not correlated with the sex, clinical stage and tumor differentiation (P0.05). The expression of PTEN was negatively correlate with the expression of Survivin (P0.01). Conclusion The significant increase of Survivin expression and decrease of PTEN expression could be found in RB. The expression and coexpression of PTEN and Survivin could play an important role in tumor genesis, invasion and metastasis of RB.