Article Text
Abstract
Aims Novel prognostic markers are warranted for gastrointestinal stromal tumours. Caveolin-1 is a multifunctional protein that proved to be associated with outcome in multiple tumour types. Aim of this study was to investigate Caveolin-1 expression and prognostic efficacy in a series of gastrointestinal stromal tumours.
Methods Caveolin-1 expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry in a retrospective series of 66 gastrointestinal stromal tumours representative of the different molecular subtypes. Correlations with clinical, histopathological and molecular features were investigated. Statistical analyses were performed as appropriate.
Results Thirty-five cases out of 66 (53.0%) expressed Caveolin-1. Presence of Caveolin-1 expression correlated with favourable histopathologic and clinical traits, including a lower mitotic count (p=0.003) and lower relapse rate (p=0.005). Caveolin-1 expression also resulted associated with the presence of PDGFRA mutations (p=0.010). Outcome analyses showed a favourable prognostic significance of Caveolin-1 expression in terms of relapse-free survival (HR=0.14; 95% CI=0.03 to 0.63) and overall survival (HR=0.29; 95% CI=0.11 to 0.74), even after adjusting for the mutational subgroup (relapse-free survival: HR=0.14, 95% CI=0.04 to 0.44; overall survival: HR=0.29, 95% CI=0.11 to 0.51) and imatinib treatment (relapse-free survival: HR=0.14, 95% CI=0.02 to 0.81; overall survival: HR=0.29, 95% CI=0.17 to 0.48).
Conclusion Caveolin-1 represents a novel prognostic marker in gastrointestinal stromal tumours. Further studies are warranted to validate these results and to explore the mechanisms linking Caveolin-1 expression with the PDGFRA oncogenic pathway.
- pathology
- molecular
- gastrointestinal neoplasms
- immunohistochemistry
Data availability statement
Data supporting the findings of the present study are not publicly available due to privacy/ethical restrictions, but can be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Data availability statement
Data supporting the findings of the present study are not publicly available due to privacy/ethical restrictions, but can be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Footnotes
LB and AG are joint first authors.
Handling editor Runjan Chetty.
Twitter @AleKuma90
Contributors Study design: LB and PC; data curation: LB and AG; formal analysis: LB, AG, AB, SO-A and PFdC; investigation: LB, AG, AB, SO-A and PFdC; methodology: LB; validation: PC; writing—original draft: LB and AG; writing—review and editing: LB, AG, AB, SO-A, LC, PFdC, PL, MP and PC. All the contributing authors have read and approved the manuscript.
Funding This work was supported by the Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research (Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca—MIUR) under the program 'Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2018–2022' (grant number D15D18000410001).
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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