Abstract
Although rare, mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is one of the most common malignant salivary gland tumors. The presence of the t(11;19)(q21;p13) translocation in a subset of MECs has raised interest in genomic aberrations in MEC. In the present study we conducted genome-wide copy-number-aberration analysis by micro-array comparative-genomic-hybridization on 27 MEC samples.Low/intermediate-grade MECs had significantly fewer copy-number-aberrations compared to high-grade MECs (low vs high: 3.48 vs 30; p = 0.0025; intermediate vs high: 5.7 vs 34.5; p = 0.036). The translocation-negative MECs contained more copy-number-aberrations than translocation-positive MECs (average amount of aberrations 15.9 vs 2.41; p =0.04).Within all 27 MEC samples, 16p11.2 and several regions on 8q were the most frequently gained regions , while 1q23.3 was the most frequently detected loss.Low/intermediate-grade MEC samples had copy-number-aberrations in chromosomes 1, 12 and 16, while high-grade MECs had a copy-number-aberration in 8p. The most commonly observed copy-number-aberration was the deletion of 3p14.1, which was observed in 4 of the translocation-negative MEC samples. No recurrent copy-number-aberrations were found in translocation-positive MEC samples.Based on these results, we conclude that MECs may be classified as follows: (i) t(11;19)(q21;p13) translocation-positive tumors with no or few chromosomal aberrations and (ii) translocation-negative tumors with multiple chromosomal aberrations.
Highlights
Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC), rare, is the most common malignant salivary gland neoplasm
According to the WHO, mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) can be classified as low, intermediate- or high-grade tumors based on the histological parameters necrosis, anaplasia, neural invasion, mitoses and percentage cystic growth [1]
Eighteen tumors originated in the parotid gland and 9 tumors originated in minor salivary gland
Summary
Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC), rare, is the most common malignant salivary gland neoplasm. According to the WHO, MEC can be classified as low-, intermediate- or high-grade tumors based on the histological parameters necrosis, anaplasia, neural invasion, mitoses and percentage cystic growth [1]. Prognosis of high grade MEC is worse than that of low and intermediate grade tumors [2]. Earlier studies found that a subset of MEC carries a t(11;19)(q21;p13) translocation, leading to the CRTC1-MAML2 fusion gene [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. MECs that harbor the t(11;19)(q21;p13) translocation generally have a more favorable prognosis than translocation negative tumors , irrespective of histological grade [5, 6]
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