Serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma upregulates markers associated with high-grade serous carcinomas including Rsf-1 (HBXAP), cyclin e and fatty acid synthase

Serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma (STIC) has been proposed as a precursor for many pelvic high-grade serous carcinomas. Our previous analysis of the ovarian cancer genome identified several genes with oncogenic potential that are amplified and/or overexpressed in the majority of high-grade serous carcinomas. Determining whether these genes are upregulated in STICs is important in further elucidating the relationship of STICs to high-grade serous carcinomas and is fundamental in understanding the molecular pathogenesis of high-grade serous carcinomas. In this study, 37 morphologically defined STICs were obtained from 23 patients with stage IIIC/IV high-grade serous carcinomas. Both STICs and the high-grade serous carcinomas were analyzed for expression of Rsf-1 (HBXAP), cyclin E, fatty acid synthase (FASN) and mucin-4. In addition, they were examined for expression of established markers including p53, Ki-67 and p16. We found that diffuse nuclear p53 and p16 immunoreactivity was observed in 27 (75%) of 36 and 18 (55%) of 33 STICs, respectively, whereas an elevated Ki-67 labeling index ( 6510%) was detected in 29 (78%) of 37 STICs. Cyclin E nuclear staining was seen in 24 (77%) of 35 STICs, whereas normal tubal epithelial cells were all negative. Increased Rsf-1 and FASN immunoreactivity occurred in 63%, and 62% of STICs, respectively, compared with adjacent normal-appearing tubal epithelium. Interestingly, only one STIC showed increased mucin-4 immunoreactivity. Carcinomas, when compared with STICs, overexpressed p16, Rsf-1, cyclin E and FASN in a higher proportion of cases. In conclusion, STICs express several markers including Rsf-1, cyclin E and FASN in high-grade serous carcinomas. In contrast, mucin-4 immunoreactivity either did not change or was reduced in most STICs. These results suggest that overexpression of Rsf-1, cyclin E and FASN occurs early in tumor progression

TP53 mutations in serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma and concurrent pelvic high-grade serous carcinoma-evidence supporting the clonal relationship of the two lesions

Serous tubal intraepithelial carcinomas (STICs) have been proposed to be the most likely precursor of ovarian, tubal and 'primary peritoneal' (pelvic) high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC). As somatic mutation of TP53 is the most common molecular genetic change of ovarian HGSC, occurring in more than 95% of cases, we undertook a mutational analysis of 29 pelvic HGSCs that had concurrent STICs to demonstrate the clonal relationship of STICs and HGSCs. In addition, we correlated the mutational data with p53 immunostaining to determine the role of p53 immunoreactivity as a surrogate for TP53 mutations in histological diagnosis. Somatic TP53 mutations were detected in all 29 HGSCs analysed and the identical mutations were detected in 27 of 29 pairs of STICs and concurrent HGSCs. Missense mutations were observed in 61% of STICs and frameshift/splicing junction/nonsense mutations in 39%. Interestingly, there were two HGSCs with two distinctly different TP53 mutations each, but only one of the mutations was detected in the concurrent STICs. Missense mutations were associated with intense and diffuse ( 65 60%) p53 nuclear immunoreactivity, while most of the null mutations were associated with complete loss of p53 staining (p < 0.0001). Overall, this p53 staining pattern yielded a sensitivity of 87% and a specificity of 100% in detecting TP53 missense mutations. In conclusion, the above findings support the clonal relationship of STIC and pelvic HGSC and demonstrate the utility of p53 immunostaining as a surrogate for TP53 mutation in the histological diagnosis of STIC. In this regard, it is important to appreciate the significance of different staining patterns. Specifically, strong diffuse staining correlates with a missense mutation, whereas complete absence of staining correlates with null mutations

CCNE1 amplification and centrosome number abnormality in serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma : Further evidence supporting its role as a precursor of ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma

Aberration in chromosomal structure characterizes almost all cancers and has profound biological significance in tumor development. It can be facilitated by various mechanisms including overexpression of cyclin E1 and centrosome amplification. As ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma has pronounced chromosomal instability, in this study we sought to determine whether increased copy number of CCNE1 which encodes cyclin E1 and centrosome amplification (>2 copies) occurs in its putative precursor, serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma. We found CCNE1 copy number gain/amplification in 8 (22%) of 37 serous tubal intraepithelial carcinomas and 12 (28%) of 43 high-grade serous carcinomas. There was a correlation in CCNE1 copy number between serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma and high-grade serous carcinoma in the same patients (P<0.001). There was no significant difference in the percentage of CCNE1 gain/amplification between serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma and high-grade serous carcinoma (P=0.61). Centrosome amplification was recorded in only 5 (14%) of 37 serous tubal intraepithelial carcinomas, and in 10 (40%) of 25 high-grade serous carcinomas. The percentage of cells with centrosome amplification was higher in high-grade serous carcinoma than in serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma (P<0.001). Induced expression of cyclin E1 increased the percentage of fallopian tube epithelial cells showing centrosome amplification. Our findings suggest that gain/amplification of CCNE1 copy number occurs early in tumor progression and precedes centrosome amplification. The more prevalent centrosome amplification in high-grade serous carcinoma than in serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma supports the view that serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma precedes the development of many high-grade serous carcinomas