Chromosomes in the diagnosis of soft tissue tumors. I. Synovial sarcoma
Dal Cin, P.; Rao, U.; Jani-Sait, S.; Karakousis, C.; Sandberg, A.A.
Modern Pathology An Official Journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology Inc 5(4): 357-362
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0893-3952 PMID: 1379714 Document Number: 402859
It has been established that nonrandom chromosome rearrangements are characteristic of specific types of neoplasia. We present six new cases of sarcoma that had in common the same chromosome abnormality, i.e., a balanced translocation between chromosomes X and 18, t(X;18)(p11.2;q11.2), and evaluate the 15 cases with this translocation in the literature. The histological diagnosis was synovial sarcoma in 19 cases and malignant fibrous histiocytoma and fibrosarcoma in the remaining two tumors, respectively. The translocation was found in tumors of both the biphasic and monophasic types, as well as in poorly differentiated synovial sarcoma. The two nonsynovial sarcomas with the t(X;18) were described as spindle cell tumors but failed to show the presence of cytokeratins by immunohistochemical strains. Even with the numerous variabilities on which this test depends, the cytogenetic analysis holds great promise as a tool for the diagnosis of synovial sarcoma.