PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lin Liu
AU  - Liqiong Zhao
AU  - Jie Zhang
AU  - Guoxiang Song
AU  - Carol L. Shields
AU  - Ruihua Wei
TI  - Aberrantly expressed GFRα-1/RET in patients with lacrimal adenoid cystic carcinoma is associated with high recurrence risk: a retrospective study of 51 LACC cases
AID  - 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2020.0271
DP  - 2021 Feb 01
TA  - Cancer Biology and Medicine
PG  - 199--205
VI  - 18
IP  - 1
4099  - http://www.cancerbiomed.org/content/18/1/199.short
4100  - http://www.cancerbiomed.org/content/18/1/199.full
SO  - Cancer Biol Med2021 Feb 01; 18
AB  - Objective: Because of the poor prognosis of lacrimal adenoid cystic carcinoma (LACC), we aimed to investigate the effects of perineural invasion (PNI) and consequent aberrations in GDNF/GFRα-1/RET protein expression on LACC recurrence.Methods: Clinicopathological data for 51 histologically confirmed patients with LACC enrolled between 2001 and 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was applied to assess PNI. Tissue-based immunohistochemistry (IHC) detection of GDNF, GFRα-1, and RET proteins was performed on LACC formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded specimens. We generated semi-quantitative data of the IHC results and compared them with the clinicopathological data for the 51 patients.Results: Of the 51 patients, 19 (37.3%) were PNI positive. Recurrence was more common for LACC with than without PNI (73.7% vs. 37.5%, P = 0.01). GDNF, GFRα-1, and RET proteins were expressed in 62.7%, 62.7%, and 54.9% of the 51 patients with LACC, respectively. The expression of all 3 proteins was more common in patients with than without PNI. In agreement with previous findings, PNI-associated GFRα-1 and RET positivity, as detected by IHC, remained significantly associated with recurrence, whereas GDNF expression, as detected by IHC, was not correlated with LACC recurrence. Specifically, patients with concurrent GFRα-1 and RET expression may have a high risk of PNI (89.5% positivity rate) and recurrence (84.2% positivity rate).Conclusions: PNI may contribute to LACC recurrence. The concurrent expression of GFRα-1 and RET proteins, as detected by IHC, may potentially be associated with LACC PNI and recurrence.