Differential diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma on cytology: a gene expression panel versus BAP1 and p16 tests.

Publication date: Available online 7 February 2020Source: The Journal of Molecular DiagnosticsAuthor(s): Rossella Bruno, Greta Alì, Anello Marcello Poma, Agnese Proietti, Roberta Libener, Narciso Mariani, Cristina Niccoli, Antonio Chella, Alessandro Ribechini, Federica Grosso, Gabriella FontaniniABSTRACTPleural effusions are among the first clinical manifestations of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) and often constitute the only available material for diagnosis. Although an MPM diagnosis can be reliable on cytology, the reported sensitivity is low (30% - 75%). Particularly, it can be hard to discriminate epithelioid MPM, the most common histotype, from reactive mesothelial hyperplasia (MH).Currently, BAP1 and p16, evaluated by immunohistochemistry and fluorescent in situ hybridization respectively, are the most valuable markers to discriminate MPM and MH. Both markers have a high specificity, but their sensitivity is not always satisfying even when used together.We have recently developed a 117 gene expression panel, based on Nanostring technology, able to differentiate epithelioid MPM from MH pleural tissues better than BAP1 and p16.Herein, we evaluated the efficacy of the same panel on an independent retrospective cohort of 23 MPM and 11 MH pleural effusions (cell-blocks, smears). The overall sensitivity and specificity of the panel were equal to 0.9565 and 1 respectively. Moreover, the panel performance was compared with BAP1 and p16 on 25 cell-blocks. Sensitivity of ...
Source: The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics - Category: Pathology Source Type: research