Annexins are a structurally related family of
calcium- and
phospholipid-
binding proteins that have been implicated in a broad range of molecular and cellular processes. The altered expression of individual
annexins has been implicated in
tumor development and progression. In this study the expression of
annexin A1 and
annexin A2 was studied by immunohistochemistry in intestinal-type sinonasal
adenocarcinoma using a study set of 57 intestinal-type sinonasal
adenocarcinomas represented on an intestinal-type sinonasal
adenocarcinoma tissue microarray to assess its potential role in the pathogenesis of these
tumors. Our results showed that
annexin A1 expression was consistently lost in 52 (91%) intestinal-type sinonasal
adenocarcinomas, as compared with the normal epithelium. The expression of
annexin A2 was more heterogeneous, and only 19 (33%) cases showed
annexin A2 negative expression.
Annexin A2 expression was correlated with the histopathological type, being lower in the mucinous type (P = .022). The loss of
annexin A2 expression correlated with a reduced survival in univariate analysis (P = .004). However, the impact of
annexin A2 expression on patient survival could be an indirect consequence of its association with the histopathological type, since
annexin A2 expression was not found to be an independent predictor in multivariate analyses. These results suggest that
annexin A1 expression is frequently and commonly lost in intestinal-type sinonasal
adenocarcinoma development.
Annexin A2 expression is also reduced in intestinal-type sinonasal
adenocarcinoma, and this loss of expression is associated to the more aggressive histopathological types.