C-myc oncogene family expression in glioblastoma and survival

BACKGROUND In gliomas, c-myc protooncogene expression has been found to correlate with the grade of malignancy, with low expression in Grade I and II and high expression in Grade III and IV tumors. We aimed to discover if myc expression is of prognostic significance in glioblastomas. METHODS Expression of the c-myc, N-myc, and L-myc protooncogenes and of the max gene was investigated in 46 supratentorial glioblastomas from adult patients using in situ hybridization. RESULTS Seventy-eight percent of the tumors expressed c-myc m-RNA, 84% max m-RNA, 57% N-myc m-RNA, and 57% L-myc m-RNA. The postoperative survival of patients over 60 years of age and that of patients under 60 years of age were analyzed separately, since advancing age was found to be negatively correlated with the duration of postoperative survival (p = 0.004). There was no significant difference in postoperative survival in either age group between patients whose tumors expressed either c-myc, N-myc, or L-myc, respectively, and those whose tumors did not exhibit this characteristic. A difference in postoperative survival, however, was found in the over 60-year age group between patients whose tumors expressed max to an equal or lesser extent than c-myc and those whose tumors expressed max to a greater extent than c-myc or neither max nor c-myc. CONCLUSION The biologic behavior of glioblastomas in older patients may depend on the relative, but not on the absolute content of the c-myc protein and interacting proteins. (C) 1999 by Elsevier Science Inc.