Shen, JiayinPutt, Karson S.Visscher, Daniel W.Murphy, LindaCohen, CynthiaSinghal, SunilSandusky, GeorgeFeng, YangDimitrov, Dimiter S.Low, Philip S.2016-09-162016-09-162015-06-10Shen, J., Putt, K. S., Visscher, D. W., Murphy, L., Cohen, C., Singhal, S., … Low, P. S. (2015). Assessment of folate receptor-β expression in human neoplastic tissues. Oncotarget, 6(16), 14700–14709.1949-2553https://hdl.handle.net/1805/10955Over-expression of folate receptor alpha on cancer cells has been frequently exploited for delivery of folate-targeted imaging and therapeutic agents to tumors. Because limited information exists on expression of the beta isoform of the folate receptor in human cancers (FR-β), we have evaluated the immunohistochemical staining pattern of FR-β in 992 tumor sections from 20 different human cancer types using a new anti-human FR-β monoclonal antibody. FR-β expression was shown to be more pronounced in cells within the stroma, primarily macrophages and macrophage-like cells than cancer cells in every cancer type studied. Moreover, FR-β expression in both cancer and stromal cells was found to be statistically more prominent in females than males. A significant positive correlation was also observed between FR-β expression on stromal cells and both the stage of the cancer and the presence of lymph node metastases. Based on these data we conclude FR-β may constitute a good target for specific delivery of therapeutic agents to activated macrophages and that accumulation of FR-β positive macrophages in the stroma could serve as a useful indicator of a tumor's metastatic potential.en-USAttribution 4.0 InternationalFolate Receptor 2metabolismMacrophagesNeoplasmsArticle