Stathmin is an Independent Prognostic Marker of Poor Outcome in Uterine Leiomyosarcoma.

The objective of this study was to analyze the expression and prognostic role of cancer-associated proteins in uterine leiomyosarcoma (uLMS). p53, DAXX, ATRX, HMGA2, IMP3, Stathmin, and phospho-Stathmin (p-Stathmin) protein expression by immunohistochemistry was analyzed in tissue microarrays from 244 uLMS. Expression was assessed for association with clinicopathologic parameters in 173 patients with available data. Tissue microarrays were informative in 230 cases. p53 was aberrant in 44% of tumors. DAXX, ATRX, HMGA2, IMP3, and Stathmin were expressed in 90%, 55%, 40%, 33%, and 97% uLMS, respectively. Cytoplasmic and nuclear p-Stathmin staining was seen in 77% and 68% of tumors, respectively. Stathmin expression was significantly related to higher mitotic count (P < 0.001), a higher degree of atypia (P = 0.006), and vascular invasion (P = 0.016), whereas p-Stathmin expression was significantly related to advanced stage (P < 0.001), higher mitotic count (P < 0.001), and vascular invasion (P = 0.001). In univariate survival analysis for 165 patients with informative tissue microarrays, aberrant p53 (P = 0.026) and higher IMP3 (P = 0.024), Stathmin (P < 0.001), cytoplasmic p-Stathmin (P < 0.001), and nuclear p-Stathmin (P < 0.001) expression was associated with poor disease-specific survival. Clinicopathologic parameters significantly related to poor disease-specific survival were older age (P = 0.006), extrauterine disease at diagnosis (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage ≥2; P < 0.001), high mitotic count (P = 0.02), and grade 2 to 3 atypia (P = 0.017). In multivariate analysis, age (P = 0.002), FIGO stage (P < 0.001), and Stathmin expression (P < 0.001) were independent prognosticators. Stathmin was the only prognosticator in a multivariate analysis limited to patients with FIGO stage I disease (P = 0.013). In conclusion, Stathmin expression is strongly associated with poor survival in uLMS and may be a new prognostic marker in this malignancy.

Chemotherapy vs tamoxifen in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer: a phase III, randomised, multicentre trial (Ovaresist).

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (PROC) aims for palliation and prolonging of progression-free survival (PFS). This study compares Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and efficacy between single-agent chemotherapy and tamoxifen in PROC. METHODS: Patients with PROC were randomised (2 : 1) to chemotherapy (weekly paclitaxel 80 mg m-2 or four weekly pegylated liposomal doxorubicin 40 mg m-2) or tamoxifen 40 mg daily. The primary end point was HRQoL. Secondary end points were PFS by RECIST and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Between March 2002 and December 2007, 156 and 82 patients were randomised to chemotherapy and tamoxifen, respectively. In the chemotherapy arm, a significantly larger proportion of patients experienced a worsening in their social functioning. There was no difference in the proportion of patients experiencing improvement of gastrointestinal symptoms. Median PFS on tamoxifen was 8.3 weeks (95% CI, 8.0-10.4) compared with 12.7 weeks (95% CI, 9.0-16.3) on chemotherapy (HR, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.16-2.05; log-rank P=0.003). There was no difference in OS between the treatment arms. CONCLUSIONS: Patients on chemotherapy had longer PFS but experienced more toxicity and poorer HRQoL compared with tamoxifen. Control over gastrointestinal symptoms was not better on chemotherapy. These data are important for patient counselling and highlight the need to incorporate HRQoL end points in studies of PROC.

Gene expression signatures differentiate uterine endometrial stromal sarcoma from leiomyosarcoma.

OBJECTIVE: Endometrial stromal sarcoma (ESS) and leiomyosarcoma (LMS) are the two most common uterine sarcomas, but both are rare tumors. The aim of the present study was to compare the global gene expression patterns of ESS and LMS. METHODS: Gene expression profiles of 7 ESS and 13 LMS were analyzed using the HumanRef-8 BeadChip from Illumina. Differentially expressed candidate genes were validated using quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Unsupervised hierarchical clustering using all 54,675 genes in the array separated ESS from LMS samples. We identified 549 unique probes that were significantly differentially expressed in the two malignancies by greater than 2-fold with 1% FDR cutoff using one-way ANOVA with Benjamini-Hochberg correction, of which 336 and 213 were overexpressed in ESS and LMS, respectively. Genes overexpressed in ESS included SLC7A10, EFNB3, CCND2, ECEL1, ITM2A, NPW, PLAG1 and GCGR. Genes overexpressed in LMS included CDKN2A, FABP3, TAGLN, JPH2, GEM, NAV2 and RAB23. The top 100 genes overexpressed in LMS included those coding for myosin light chain and caldesmon, but not the genes coding for desmin or actin. CD10 was not overexpressed in ESS. Results for selected genes were validated by quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry. CONCLUSIONS: We present the first study in which gene expression profiling was shown to distinguish between ESS and LMS. The molecular signatures unique to each of these malignancies may aid in expanding the diagnostic battery for their differentiation, and may provide a molecular basis for prognostic studies and therapeutic target discovery.

Lymphovascular invasion and p16 expression are independent prognostic factors in stage I vulvar squamous cell carcinoma.

The objective of this study was to identify clinicopathologic parameters associated with disease outcome in FIGO stage I vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (vSqCC). The cohort consisted of 126 patients diagnosed with vSqCC in the period 2006-2016 who underwent primary vulvar surgery and evaluation of groin lymph node status. Tumors were reviewed by an experienced gynecologic pathologist. p16 and p53 protein expression by immunohistochemistry and HPV status were analyzed in 116 tumors. Clinicopathologic parameters, protein expression and HPV status were analyzed for association with progression-free and overall survival (PFS, OS). p16 expression and aberrant p53 were found in 49 (42%) and 61 (53%) tumors, respectively. Sixty-six tumors were HPV-associated (57%). Relapse was diagnosed in 35/126 (28%) of patients, and 23 (18%) died of disease. Tumor diameter > 4 cm (p = 0.013), lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI; p < 0.001), the presence of lichen sclerosus (p = 0.019), p16 expression (p = 0.007), p53 expression (p = 0.012), HPV status (p = 0.021), lymph node metastasis (p < 0.001) and post-operative radiotherapy (p < 0.001) were significantly related to OS in univariate analysis. Tumor diameter > 4 cm (p = 0.038), LVSI (p = 0.003), the presence of lichen sclerosus (p = 0.004), p16 expression (p = 0.004), HPV status (p = 0.039), lymph node metastasis (p < 0.001) and post-operative treatment (p < 0.001), were significantly related to PFS in univariate analysis. Age, BMI and surgical resection involvement were not significantly associated with OS or PFS. In multivariate Cox analysis, LVSI and p16 expression were independent prognosticators of OS (p < 0.001 and p = 0.02, respectively) and PFS (p = 0.018, p = 0.037). In conclusion, LVSI and p16 expression are independent prognostic factors in stage I vSqCC.

Neuron navigator-2 and cyclin D2 are new candidate prognostic markers in uterine sarcoma.

The objective of this study was to validate the diagnostic and clinical role of four protein products of genes previously found to be differentially expressed in uterine low-grade endometrial stromal sarcoma (LG-ESS) compared to uterine leiomyosarcoma (LMS). Protein expression by immunohistochemistry of transgelin (TGLN), neuron navigator-2 (NAV2), fatty acid binding protein-3 (FABP3), and cyclin D2 (CCND2) was analyzed in 305 uterine sarcomas (231 LMS, 74 LG-ESS). Expression was analyzed for association with clinicopathologic parameters and survival. TGLN (p < 0.001), NAV2 (p < 0.001), and FABP3 (p = 0.005) were overexpressed in LMS compared to LG-ESS, whereas nuclear CCND2 (p < 0.001) was overexpressed in LG-ESS. NAV2 expression was associated with shorter overall survival in patients with LMS (p = 0.037), whereas nuclear CCND2 expression in LG-ESS was significantly related to longer survival (p = 0.012) in univariate analysis. Nuclear CCND2 expression was an independent prognosticator in Cox multivariate analysis (p = 0.023). In conclusion, TGLN, FABP3, NAV2, and nuclear CCND2 aid in differentiating LG-ESS from LMS. NAV2 and CCND2 are novel candidate prognostic markers in LMS and LG-ESS, respectively.

Validation of a Mitotic Index Cutoff as a Prognostic Marker in Undifferentiated Uterine Sarcomas.

Undifferentiated uterine sarcomas (UUS) are a heterogenous group of high-grade mesenchymal tumors. Although these tumors are highly aggressive, a subset of patients may experience long-term survival. These tumors have previously been divided morphologically into uniform and pleomorphic types. A previous study demonstrated that a mitotic index cutoff of 25 mitoses/10 high-power fields (corresponding to 11.16 mitotic figures/mm) could successfully divide tumors into 2 prognostic groups with significantly different overall survival. The goals of the current study were to (1) validate this mitotic index cutoff in an independent, multicenter cohort and (2) explore the prognostic value of the mitotic index groups in relation to other clinicopathologic variables. Cases were included from 3 independent institutions: The Norwegian Radium Hospital, The Mayo Clinic, and Skåne University Hospital. A total of 40 tumors were included after central review. All cases were negative for the YWHAE-FAM22A/B and JAZF1-JJAZ1 translocations. Survival data were available on all patients. In this study, one-third of patients with UUS survived beyond 5 years. The crude (unadjusted) Cox Proportional Hazards model revealed a number of parameters that significantly impacted overall survival, including mitotic index group, patient age, stage, and the presence of tumor necrosis. Classification into the uniform and pleomorphic types was not prognostic. Combining these parameters into an adjusted model revealed that only the mitotic index group and stage were prognostic. On the basis of these findings, it is proposed that UUS be subdivided into "mitogenic" and "not otherwise specified" types.