Role of PTEN in gastrointestinal stromal tumor progression.

Context: Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are Kit/CD117-expressing mesenchymal neoplasms of uncertain malignant potential. The lack of a reliable method of prognostication hampers the selection of patients eligible for STI571 therapy. 10q22-q23 is a region involved in chromosomal losses found in a fraction of malignant primary and metastatic GISTs harboring PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10), a tumor suppressor gene often altered in human neoplasms.

Objective: To investigate the role of PTEN in GISTs, an issue that to our knowledge has not been addressed previously.

Design: PTEN status was determined in a series of 21 GISTs, with follow-up ranging between 6 and 198 months, using immunohistochemistry correlated with clinical data.

Results: A greater than 25% fraction of cells with low or absent PTEN immunostaining was detected in 9 GISTs, including all those showing malignancy. By the log-rank test, a fraction of PTEN-deficient cells greater than 25% was associated with malignancy (P <.001). Percentage of cells underexpressing PTEN, size, cellularity, MIB-1 immunoreactivity, and coagulative necrosis proved to be associated with malignancy by Cox proportional hazards univariate analysis; low or absent expression of PTEN was the only factor selected by multivariate analysis (P =.03).

Conclusions: PTEN downregulation is implied in GIST progression. The immunohistochemical assessment of PTEN status appears to be a promising method of GIST prognostication.