SATB2 immunohistochemical expression in bone tumors with emphasis on giant cell tumor and malignancy

Abstract

Objectives. Bone tumors are heterogeneous neoplasms, comprising a large spectrum of entities, both benign and malignant. One of the greatest challenges regarding bone and soft tissue pathology is highlighting osteoblastic differentiation in malignant lesions. From the numerous osteoblast-specific markers previously described in the literature, only osteocalcin, osteonectin and RANK have been used in histology studies. More recent proposed markers for osteoblastic differentiation are CD56 and special AT-rich sequence binding protein 2 (SATB2). Giant cell tumour of the bone is a special entity, in the category of intermediate tumors, locally aggressive and rarely metastasising. It is also known to become malignant. Specific markers for giant tumor of the bone are p63 and RANK, the latter being an osteoblastic marker. We investigated the expression of the quoted recent emerged markers, p63, CD56 and SATB2, in 23 bone and soft tissue primary and secondary neoplasms by constructing a tissue microarray paraffin block, and we analysed the impact of using them as a diagnostic marker in current practice.