Molecular diagnosis of synovial sarcoma: RT-PCR detection of SYT-SSX1/2 fusion transcripts in paraffin-embedded tissue.

Background: Synovial sarcomas comprise up to 10 percent of malignant soft tissue tumors, and most are characterized by the chromosomal translocation t(X;18) (pl 1.2;q11.2), which results in the expression of SYT-SSX fusion transcripts.