Abstract
Uterine sarcomas represent a clinical challenge because of their difficult diagnosis and the poor prognosis of certain subtypes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of the special AT-rich sequence-binding protein 2 (SATB2) in endometrial stromal sarcoma (ESS) and other types of uterine sarcoma by immunohistochemistry. We studied the expression of SATB2 on 71 full tissue sections of endometrial stromal nodule, low-grade ESS, uterine leiomyomas and leiomyosarcoma, undifferentiated uterine sarcoma, adenosarcoma, and carcinosarcoma samples. Nuclear SATB2 expression was then evaluated in an extended sample set using a tissue microarray, including 78 additional uterine tumor samples. Overall, with a cut-off of >= 10% of tumor cell staining as positive, the nuclear SATB2 score was negative in all endometrial stromal nodule samples (n=10) and positive in 83% of low-grade ESS samples (n=29/35), 40% of undifferentiated uterine sarcoma (n=4/10), 13% of leiomyosarcoma (n=2/16), 14% of adenosarcoma (n=3/22), and 8% carcinosarcoma (n=2/25) samples. Furthermore, in ESS patients, direct comparison of nuclear SATB2 scores with clinicopathologic parameters and other reported biomarkers such as progesterone receptor and estrogen receptor showed that nuclear SATB2 was associated with PR expression and a decreased risk of disease-specific death (odds ratio=0.06, 95% confidence interval=0.04-0.81, P=0.04). Our data suggest that SATB2 could be a marker with relative sensitivity (83%) for distinguishing between endometrial stromal nodule and ESS with potential prognostic value.