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Shc Family Expression in Neuroblastoma: High Expression of shcC Is Associated with a Poor Prognosis in Advanced Neuroblastoma

Authors' Affiliations: Departments of ¹ Pediatric Surgery (E6) and ² Molecular Virology (E2), Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

Requests for reprints: Hiroshi Shirasawa, Department of Molecular Virology (E2), Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuoku, Chiba 260-8677, Japan. Phone: 81-43-226-2312; Fax: 1-043-226-2366.

The biological features and prognosis of neuroblastoma, a neural crest-derived pediatric tumor, are closely associated with expression of the Trk receptor. Because the Shc family proteins (ShcA, ShcB, and ShcC) are adaptors for various receptors, including Trk receptors, and are regulators of neuronal cell development, we speculated that they may play a role in neuroblastoma. Therefore, in this study, we used semiquantitative reverse transcription-PCR to examine the expression of these three genes in 15 neuroblastoma cell lines, an all-trans-retinoic acid–treated neuroblastoma cell line, and 52 tumor samples. In neuroblastoma cell lines and tumor samples, shcA was ubiquitously and highly expressed. Little expression of shcA was observed. Also, shcB was hardly expressed in neuroblastoma cell lines, but its expression in RT-BM-1 cells was enhanced after all-trans-retinoic acid–induced differentiation, and it was highly expressed in low-stage tumors (P = 0.0095). This suggests that ShcB participates in cellular differentiation and may correlate with a favorable prognosis in neuroblastoma. Finally, the expression of shcC was observed in most of the neuroblastoma cell lines and in some stage 4 patients. Patients with a high expression of shcC had a very poor prognosis (P < 0.0001) and amplification of MYCN, and all died within 31 months after diagnosis. Therefore, ShcC seems to be associated with an aggressive tumor phenotype, perhaps by enhancing TrkB signals. Our results suggest that the expressions of shcB and shcC are important biological factors in neuroblastoma and are useful prognostic indicators.

Key Words: Neuroblastoma • Shc family • differentiation • survival • prognostic factor