Researchers led by Akitaka Nonomura at the Nara Medical University School of Medicine in Japan examine the role of EGFR in malignant mesothelioma. As they report in the Journal of Clinical Pathology, the researchers evaluated EGFR mutations in 38 malignant mesothelioma patients using a combination of immunohistochemical staining, FISH analysis, and direct sequencing of certain exon regions. From this, Nonomura and colleagues found in six patients five missense mutations in EGFR, two of which were novel. "Our study confirmed that EGFR overexpression is a common feature in MM, especially the epithelial subtype," the researchers write. "The protein overexpression of EGFR was not related to a gene copy-number gain. To select candidates for anti-EGFR therapy among MM patients, further and larger studies will be needed."

Also in the Journal of Clinical Pathology, Alex Liao from the Chi-Mei Foundation Medical Center in Taiwan and colleagues report that overexpression of Rsf-1 is linked to higher tumor stage and poorer outcomes in urothelial carcinoma of the urinary bladder. Using immunohistochemical, real-time RT-PCR, FISH, and western blot analysis, combined with clinicopathological data, the researchers "demonstrated that Rsf-1 expression correlates with the adverse clinicopathological features of UCUB, and confers a significant survival determinant in both disease-specific and MeFSs," they write." More importantly, its overexpression seems to be less likely associated with RSF1 gene amplification."