SALL4 is a useful marker for pediatric yolk sac tumors
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Read the article on link.springer.com ↗Article · Mar 2020 · 1 min read
In brief
In brief
Study demonstrates SALL4 as a highly sensitive immunohistochemical marker for pediatric yolk sac tumors, showing 100% positivity across 22 cases and outperforming traditional markers AFP and Glypican-3. SALL4 effectively distinguishes yolk sac tumors from mature teratomas, establishing it as a valuable diagnostic tool in pediatric germ cell pathology.
Written by the GCMD Library team from the article.
Abstract
Background
SALL4 is a zinc finger transcription factor that exerts its physiological role during embryo-fetal development. Analyses of SALL4 expression have shown its oncogenic role in precursor B-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma, acute and chronic myeloid leukemia, gastrointestinal, breast, and lung cancers. The aim of this study was to determine the immunohistochemical profile of SALL4 in pediatric yolk sac tumors (YSTs).
Methods and results
Immunohistochemistry detection of SALL4 was performed in 22 cases of pediatric YSTs and 10 mature teratomas. The percentage of tumor cells stained was scored as 0, 1+ (1–30% cells), 2+ (31–60%), 3+ (61–90%), and 4+ (> 90%). To compare its sensitivity and specificity with Glypican-3 and α-fetoprotein (AFP), we also stained tumors from these cases for Glypican-3 and AFP. In contrast to AFP and glypican-3, SALL4 staining in more than 90% of the tumor cells was seen in all 22 pediatric YSTs (100% sensitivity) (P < 0.001 for both SALL4 vs. AFP and SALL4 vs. glypican-3).
Conclusions
SALL4 is a sensitive marker for pediatric YSTs and it can be used to distinguish them from mature teratomas. SALL4 is likely to become a new and valuable biomarker for the diagnosis of pediatric YST.