Prognostic relevance of ALT-associated markers in liposarcoma: a comparative analysis.
BACKGROUND
Most cancers maintain telomeres by activating telomerase but a significant minority, mainly of mesenchymal origin, utilize an alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) mechanism.


METHODS
In this study we comparatively analyzed the prognostic relevance of ALT in a monoinstitutional series of 85 liposarcoma patients as a function of the marker (ALT-associated promyelocytic leukemia bodies (APB) versus heterogeneous telomeres) used to classify the tumor.


RESULTS
Independently of the detection approach, ALT proved to be a prognostic discriminant of increased mortality, although the prognostic relevance of the two markers appeared at different follow-up intervals (at 10 years for APB and 15 years for telomeres).


CONCLUSIONS
Overall, we confirmed ALT as an indicator of poor clinical outcome in this disease and provide the first evidence that the sensitivity of the ALT predictive power depends, at least in part, on the method used.
Department of Experimental Oncology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy.
Lorenza
L
Venturini
Rosita
R
Motta
Alessandro
A
Gronchi
MariaGrazia
M
Daidone
Nadia
N
Zaffaroni
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D022003:Cell Nucleus Structures / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D007558:Italy; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008080:Liposarcoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D016615:Telomere; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult