Abstract
Prostate cancer is one of the most common neoplasm in the male population. It is not known why some tumors become more aggressive than others. Although most studies show changes in the expression of cell adhesion molecules and the extracellular matrix correlated with the Gleason score, no study has objectively measured the tissue content of these molecules. This study aims to measure the content and tissue expression of collagen type I and IV and laminin in the extracellular matrix of patients with prostate adenocarcinoma and correlate these findings with the Gleason score and clinical characteristics. Forty-one patients who underwent radical prostate surgery at the Urology Department of a reference Hospital in Brazil between January 2015 and December 2020 were studied. The tissue protein content was estimated under light microscopy at a final magnification of 200×. The mean collagen I score in prostate adenocarcinoma tissue samples was 7.16 ± 1.03. The mean type IV collagen score was 3.44 ± 0.61. The mean laminin score was 5.19 ± 0.79. The total Gleason score was correlated with both collagen and laminin. All the correlations were negative, which shows that the higher the collagen/laminin expression was, the lower the total Gleason score. The total Gleason score is correlated with both collagen and laminin expression in prostate neoplasms. The correlations are all negative, which shows that the higher the collagen and laminin values are, the lower the total Gleason score.