Immunohistochemical expression of p16INK4A, Ki-67, and Mcm2 proteins in gastrointestinal stromal tumors: prognostic implications and correlations with risk stratification of NIH consensus criteria.
BACKGROUND
Inactivation of p16(INK4A) promotes G1/S progression of cell cycle. Minichromosome maintenance protein-2 (Mcm2), a novel cell proliferation marker, is known to better correlate with clinical outcomes than Ki-67 in many carcinomas. Since gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) sometimes remains challenging in prognostication, we analyzed the utility of these three markers in GISTs.


METHODS
Immunohistochemistry was performed in tissue microarrays of 277 primary GISTs and correlated with NIH consensus criteria and clinical outcomes.


RESULTS
The increment of NIH risk levels significantly correlated with increasing labeling indices (LI) of both Ki-67 (P <.001) and Mcm2 (P <.001) and loss of p16(INK4A) expression (P <.035). However, the latter aberration did occur in 23% of very low/low-risk GISTs. The relationship between Mcm2 and Ki-67 LIs could be modeled as linear (P <.001, r = 0.697), while Mcm2 LI was considerably higher (P <.001) with a stepwise escalation related to risk levels. Ki-67 LI >5% (P <.0001) and Mcm2 LI >10% (P <.0001) were strongly predictive of inferior disease-specific survival (DSS), while aberrant loss of p16(INK4A) only reached a trend (P = .0954). In multivariate analyses, independent adverse factors of DSS were high-risk category (RR = 16.93, P <.0001), metastatic disease (RR = 4.12, P = .0015), Ki-67 LI >5% (RR = 3.55, P = .001), and presence of epithelioid histology (RR = 2.17, P = .0308).


CONCLUSIONS
Prognostic efficacy of NIH consensus criteria is substantiated. P16(INK4A) deregulation can occur early in GIST tumorigenesis and marginally correlates with patient survival. Despite Ki-67 LI being an independent prognosticator, simultaneous detection of Mcm2 is recommended as a prognostic adjunct of GISTs, given its better sensitivity and stepwise escalation with increasing risk levels.
Huang
Hsuan-Ying
HY
Department of Pathology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung Medical Center, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Huang
Wen-Wei
WW
Lin
Ching-Nan
CN
Eng
Hock-Liew
HL
Li
Shau-Hsuan
SH
Li
Chien-Feng
CF
Lu
David
D
Yu
Shih-Chen
SC
Hsiung
Ching-Yeh
CY
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D015975:Consensus Development Conferences, NIH as Topic; D019941:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16 / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D046152:Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen / Q000378:metabolism*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000556:secondary; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064111:Minichromosome Maintenance Complex Component 2; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D010534:Peritoneal Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000556:secondary; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis; D014481:United States
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D019941:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; C084859:MCM2 protein, human; D064111:Minichromosome Maintenance Complex Component 2