Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
Genes Chromosomes Cancer. 2021 Jun;60(6):447-451. doi: 10.1002/gcc.22929. Epub 2020 Dec 28.
Secretory carcinomas are low-grade translocation-driven carcinomas occurring in patients over a wide age range. These tumors most frequently arise in the breast and salivary gland, but may occasionally arise at other anatomic sites, such as the skin, the thyroid gland or the upper or lower respiratory tract. In concert with their low-grade morphology, secretory carcinomas most often follow an indolent clinical course. However, rare cases have shown dedifferentiation (also known as high-grade transformation) and aggressive clinical behavior. To date, the dedifferentiated component in all molecularly confirmed cases of secretory carcinoma has taken the form of a high-grade carcinoma. Here we present a case of an ETV6-NTRK3 fusion-positive secretory carcinoma of the breast with sarcomatous dedifferentiation. The sarcomatous component showed an infantile or adult fibrosarcoma-like morphology including a herringbone fascicular pattern and a hemangiopericytic vascular pattern. By immunohistochemistry, the sarcomatous component showed focal CD34 immunoreactivity and loss of all of the markers expressed in the conventional secretory carcinoma component, including SOX10, S100, GATA-3, AE1/AE3 and E-cadherin. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis revealed that the sarcomatous component retained the ETV6-NTRK3 fusion, but also acquired homozygous deletion of CDKN2A. The tumor followed an aggressive clinical course and the patient eventually succumbed to her disease 14 months after diagnosis. The histomorphologic and molecular genetic features of this tumor are discussed, including its ability to mimic kinase-rearranged infantile or adult fibrosarcomas at extramammary sites and the theragnostic importance of its distinction from conventional metaplastic spindle cell carcinomas in the breast.
分泌性癌是一种低级别易位驱动型癌,发生在广泛年龄段的患者中。这些肿瘤最常发生于乳房和唾液腺,但偶尔也可发生于其他解剖部位,如皮肤、甲状腺或上、下呼吸道。与低级别形态一致,分泌性癌通常表现为惰性临床病程。然而,罕见病例表现出去分化(也称为高级别转化)和侵袭性行为。迄今为止,所有分子证实的分泌性癌病例中去分化成分均表现为高级别癌。在此,我们报告一例乳腺 ETV6-NTRK3 融合阳性分泌性癌伴肉瘤样去分化。肉瘤样成分表现为婴儿型或成人纤维肉瘤样形态,包括鱼骨状束状结构和血窦外皮细胞血管模式。免疫组化显示,肉瘤样成分局灶性表达 CD34,而常规分泌性癌成分的所有标志物均缺失,包括 SOX10、S100、GATA-3、AE1/AE3 和 E-钙黏蛋白。荧光原位杂交分析显示,肉瘤样成分保留了 ETV6-NTRK3 融合,但也获得了 CDKN2A 纯合缺失。该肿瘤具有侵袭性临床病程,患者在诊断后 14 个月最终死于该疾病。讨论了该肿瘤的组织形态学和分子遗传学特征,包括其在乳腺外部位模拟激酶重排婴儿型或成人纤维肉瘤的能力,以及其与常规乳腺间变性梭形细胞癌鉴别的治疗意义。