Korean J Dermatol.  2023 Mar;61(3):179-186.

Clinical Implications of Expression of Endoglin and Survivin in Patients with Primary Cutaneous Angiosarcoma in an Asian Population

• Kang HJ
• Kim YJ
• Lee MY
• Lee WJ
• Won CH
• Lee MW
• Chang SE

Abstract

Background
Targeted therapy and immunotherapy such as programmed death-1 (PD-1) targeting have been introduced for treating many types of cancers, including primary cutaneous angiosarcoma (CA). However, studies that examined other targeted molecules in CA are scarce.
Objective
We aim to declare the expression of endoglin and survivin in addition to PD-1 and assess the clinical correlation between the expression of these molecules and clinical variables, overall survival (OS), and progressionfree survival (PFS) in CA.
Methods
We identified 51 patients diagnosed with CA at Asan Medical Center over the last 14 years, based on the staining results of paraffin sections of tissue samples for endoglin, survivin, and PD-1 that were reviewed by two dermatologists.
Results
Statistical analysis for the correlation between results and clinical data of CA revealed that whereas 35 (63.6%) and 30 samples (54.5%) were positive for endoglin and survivin respectively, only nine samples were positive for PD-1 (16.4%). Co-expression of endoglin and survivin was detected in 24 lesions (p=0.013) and was significantly correlated to head, neck, face, and scalp (HNFS) lesions in CA (p=0.005, p=0.038, respectively). However, the expression of these target molecules did not correlate with the OS or PFS of CA.
Conclusion
Considering that HNFS type CA is associated with unfavorable clinical outcomes in similar populations, our findings can be helpful in matching patients with CA with effective targeted therapy.

Keyword

Endoglin; Sarcoma; Skin neoplasms; Survivin