J Korean Med Sci.  2006 Feb;21(1):81-85. 10.3346/jkms.2006.21.1.81.

Expression and Mutational Analysis of c-kit in Ovarian Surface Epithelial Tumors

• Kim DJ
• Lee MH
• Park TI
• Bae HI

• KMID: 2157787
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2006.21.1.81

Abstract

Coexpression of Kit ligand and c-kit has been reported in some gynecologic tumors. To determine whether imatinib mesylate is useful in ovarian epithelial tumors, we performed immunohistochemical and mutational analysis. The cases consisted of 33 cases, which included 13 serous cystadenocarcinomas, 1 borderline serous tumor, 8 mucinous cystadenocarcinomas, 6 borderline mucinous tumors and 5 clear cell carcinomas. Five cases of serous cystadenoma and 5 cases of mucinous cystadenoma were also included. In the immunohistochemical study, 3 cases (3/6, 50%) of borderline mucinous cystic tumor and two cases (2/8, 25%) of mucinous cystadenocarcinoma show positive staining for KIT protein. Only one case (1/13, 7.7%) of serous cystadenocarcinoma had positive staining. On mutational analysis, no mutation was identified at exon 11. However, two cases of borderline mucinous tumors and one case of mucinous cystadenocarcinoma had mutations at exon 17. In these cases, the immunohistochemistry also shows focal positive staining at epithelial component. Although, KIT protein expression showed higher incidence in mucinous tumors than serous tumors, they lack KIT-activating mutations in exon 11. Thus, ovarian surface epithelial tumors are unlikely to respond to imatinib mesylate.

Keyword

Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit; Ovarian Neoplasms; Mutation; imatinib

MeSH Terms

Adult
Aged
Cystadenocarcinoma, Mucinous/genetics/metabolism/pathology
Cystadenoma, Mucinous/genetics/metabolism/pathology
Cystadenoma, Serous/genetics/metabolism/pathology
DNA Mutational Analysis
DNA, Neoplasm/chemistry/genetics
Epithelial Cells/chemistry/metabolism/pathology
Female
Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
Humans
Immunohistochemistry
Middle Aged
Mutation
Ovarian Neoplasms/genetics/metabolism/*pathology
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational
Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit/biosynthesis/*genetics

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Case No. 6. The c-kit immunohistochemical focal positive staining in borderline mucinous tumor (×400).

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  Fig. 2 Case No. 23. The c-kit immunohistochemical positive staining in serous cystadenocarcinoma (×400).

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  Fig. 3 Case No. 1, No. 6. Two cases of mucinous borderline tumors had mutation at c-kit exon 17. M, markers; N, normal.

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  Fig. 4 Case No. 14. One case of mucinous cystadenocarcinoma had mutation at c-kit exon 17. M, markers; N, normal.

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