Angiosarcoma and anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid are two distinct entities: a morphologic, immunohistochemical, and genetic study.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_FC9DEFDA85F5
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Angiosarcoma and anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid are two distinct entities: a morphologic, immunohistochemical, and genetic study.
Journal
Modern pathology
Author(s)
Kuhn E., Ragazzi M., Ciarrocchi A., Torricelli F., de Biase D., Zanetti E., Bisagni A., Corrado S., Uccella S., La Rosa S., Bongiovanni M., Losito S., Piana S.
ISSN
1530-0285 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0893-3952
Publication state
Published
Issued date
06/2019
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
32
Number
6
Pages
787-798
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
Angiosarcoma and anaplastic carcinoma are the most lethal neoplasms of the thyroid worldwide and share some similarities, which have led to a longstanding controversy on their etiopathological relationship. Thyroid angiosarcomas are characterized by vessel formation and an immunophenotype common to endothelial cells, while anaplastic carcinomas are partially or wholly composed of mesenchymal-like cells that have lost the morphologic and functional features of normal thyroid follicular cells. To investigate whether angiosarcomas represent the endothelial extreme of the differentiation spectrum of carcinomas or they are bona fide vascular neoplasms, we studied the clinico-morphologic and genetic characteristics of a series of 10 angiosarcomas and 22 anaplastic carcinomas. Immunohistochemically, among the endothelial markers, CD31 and ERG were the most consistently expressed in angiosarcomas. Among the markers of thyroid origin, PAX8 was the most reliable in anaplastic carcinomas, while TTF-1 reactivity was found in only 5% of anaplastic carcinomas and thyroglobulin was always negative. Pankeratin reacted with most angiosarcomas and anaplastic carcinomas and is therefore not useful in the differential diagnosis. Interestingly a mutated pattern of p53 immunostaining prompted a diagnosis of anaplastic carcinoma. To compare the genetic profile, we used the NGS approach to sequence hotspot regions within a panel of 57 genes. As a result, only a few mutations were found in angiosarcomas and all of them were single events (no TP53 or TERT mutation). On the other hand, anaplastic carcinomas were characterized by a higher number of mutations, and TP53 and TERT promoter mutations were the most frequent genetic alterations. The lack in angiosarcomas of the common mutations identified in anaplastic carcinomas supports a different genetic origin and strongly suggests that, in spite of a shared sarcomatous morphology and a similar clinical aggressiveness, angiosarcomas and anaplastic carcinomas rely on a completely different set of genetic alterations during their evolution.
Keywords
Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Biomarkers, Tumor/analysis, Carcinoma/genetics, Carcinoma/pathology, Female, Hemangiosarcoma/genetics, Hemangiosarcoma/pathology, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing, Humans, Immunohistochemistry, Male, Middle Aged, Thyroid Neoplasms/genetics, Thyroid Neoplasms/pathology
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
25/02/2019 13:15
Last modification date
27/04/2020 6:20
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