Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24484617›Full record

ArticleClinical sarcoma research2014

Serum protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) as a prognostic marker in soft tissue sarcomas.

Sherif S Morgan, Raymond B Nagle, Lee D Cranmer

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Article in Clinical sarcoma research, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
1.0field-weighted citation impact, top 23% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Sherif S Morgan
Raymond B Nagle
Lee D CranmerThe University of Arizona Cancer Center, 1515 N, Campbell Avenue, Tucson, AZ, USA. lcranmer@uacc.arizona.edu.
University of Arizona Cancer CenterUniversity of Arizona · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundSerum protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) is a matricellular secreted glycoprotein that performs several cellular functions and has been implicated in tumorigenesis in a variety of tumor types. The chemotherapeutic agent nanoparticle albumin-encapsulated (NAB)-paclitaxel has been postulated to exploit SPARC expression to target neoplastic cells. SPARC's role, and potentially the role of NAB-paclitaxel, in the highly heterogeneous class of soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) has not been investigated. Our objective was to explore the pattern of SPARC expression and its prognostic significance in STS.

methods27 tissue specimens representing various STS histologies were stained for SPARC expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Staining intensity was scored blindly. Survival was determined from patients' medical records and analyzed using Kaplan-Meier and log-rank with respect to SPARC expression level.

resultsElevated SPARC expression was observed in 15/27 (56%) specimens. Overall patient survival segregated strongly based on levels of SPARC expression. Patients who expressed low-to-moderate levels of SPARC exhibited median survival of 22.1 months, while the median survival of patients with moderate-to-high expression levels was 4.4 months (log rank; p = 0.0016).

conclusionsSPARC expression is elevated in a significant proportion of STS specimens analyzed in this study, but it does not appear to correlate with specific STS histologies. Given our limited sample size, we cannot draw definitive conclusions regarding association of SPARC with STS subtype. Overall survival segregates strongly by degree of SPARC expression, with elevated expression being adverse. If validated in a larger study, our results suggest that trials in STS with agents potentially targeting SPARC, such as NAB-paclitaxel, should be stratified by SPARC expression level.

Identifiers

PMID24484617
PMCPMC3917620
OpenAlexW2152825876

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.