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Original Studies |
Unit on Genetics and Endocrinology, Developmental Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (C.A.S., T.P., L.S.K., S.E.T.); Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Warren Magnuson Clinical Center (A.P.); and Laboratory of Pathology, National Cancer Institute (S.P., Z.Z.), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892; Department of Endocrinology, Free University of Berlin (W.H.O.), D-12200 Berlin, Germany; and Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic (J.A.C.), Rochester, Minnesota 55905
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Constantine A. Stratakis, M.D., D.Sc., Unit on Genetics and Endocrinology, Developmental Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Building 10, Room 10N262, 10 Center Drive, MSC1862, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1862. E-mail: stratakc{at}cc1.nichd.nih.gov
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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This possible predisposition to a variety of benign and malignant tumors that do not fit in the classic definition of a syndrome is not unusual; it occurs in other forms of inherited multiple endocrine neoplasias (MEN) and lentiginoses (2, 12). CNC may be regarded as a type of MEN with manifestations that include primary pigmented nodular adrenocortical disease (13, 14), GH-producing pituitary adenomas (15), testicular tumors (16), and various thyroid lesions (9). The testicular tumors are of three types: large cell calcifying Sertoli cell tumor (LCCSCT) (16), nodular adrenocortical rests, and Leydig cell tumor (1, 4). As a sporadic neoplasm, LCCSCT, a stromal tumor, is among the rarest of testicular lesions (16); however, it occurs frequently in male patients with CNC (1, 16) and occasionally in Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) (17). PJS and CNC also share other clinical manifestations, although the causative genetic defects appear to be different (18).
In this study we investigated the possibility that female patients with CNC might develop 1) ovarian tumors similar to those occurring in female patients with PJS (19, 20, 21), or 2) tumors analogous to LCCSCT and the Leydig cell neoplasms of male patients with CNC or PJS (1, 16, 17). The clinical investigation consisted of two parts: 1) a prospective study of patients with CNC and a control group enrolled in an ongoing research protocol; these patients underwent semiannual physical and sonographic examination over an average period of 3 yr; 2) a retrospective analysis of reported patients with CNC; only ovarian lesions identified after surgery or at autopsy were included in this analysis. The laboratory investigation included the hybridization of chromosome 2 probes (from the 2p16 CNC locus) on ovarian tumors of CNC patients. The combined data indicate that female patients with CNC may be predisposed to ovarian tumors, but not of the types seen in PJS or analogous to the stromal tumors of the male gonads seen in CNC and PJS.
| Subjects and Methods |
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The institutional review boards of NICHHD, NIH, and the Mayo
Clinic approved the contact of families with CNC and the participation
of patients and their relatives in the present study after they gave
informed consent. All patients in the prospective study were seen by
one of the authors (C.A.S.). A complete description of most of the
families was previously published (6). Family CAR.110 has
been reported previously (22). The medical records,
ovarian ultrasonographic, and other radiological studies were reviewed
by the investigators. Available tissue specimens were rereviewed by 1
of the authors (J.A.C.). All patients were screened for the clinical
manifestations of CNC according to the criteria established by
Stratakis et al. (6). Three patients from
family CAR.01, 3 patients from family CAR.19, and 1 from each of the
CAR.03, CAR.07, CAR.15, CAR.16, CAR.20, CAR.102, and CAR.110 families
and 5 other patients without any family history of CNC (sporadic
cases), were enrolled in the prospective study (Table 1
). A total of 15 first degree relatives
of patients with sporadic CNC underwent physical examination by 1 of
the authors (C.A.S.), and none had stigmata of the disease. Six female
relatives of our patients were also enrolled in our protocol as a
control group; 5 additional patients without CNC, who were enrolled
under the same protocol, were also followed as controls (Table 2
).
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For the prospective study, each patient underwent physical
examination and ultrasonography (US) of the ovary at least annually. If
a lesion was present, semiannual evaluation was undertaken. A total of
18 women with CNC [age at first evaluation, 31.3 ± 12.1 yr
(mean ± SD)] and 11 control subjects (age at first
evaluation, 32.9 ± 17 years) were studied prospectively for the
development of ovarian tumors over a period of 35.7 ± 30.6 months
(median, 31; range, 5126 months) and 32.7 + 25.1 months (median, 34;
range, 570 months), respectively (Tables 1
and 2
).
Gray scale and color Doppler transabdominal and transvaginal US of the ovaries was performed, using 3.5- and 5-MHz transducers on Acuson 128xp (Acuson, Mountain View, CA) and Wide Vu (Diasonics, San Francisco, CA) scanners. The uterus and ovaries were measured in three dimensions. Ovarian volumes were calculated, and the ovaries were evaluated for the presence of masses. When present, masses were measured and categorized as simple cysts or complex masses. Color Doppler was also used to evaluate the masses. Resistive and pulsatility indexes of the masses were obtained in 16 ovaries from 11 women.
Statistical analysis of the data was performed using t test,
2 analysis (with Fischers correction where
indicated). All averages are expressed as the mean ±
SD.
Tissue and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) analyses
Paraffin-embedded specimens from the patients who underwent surgery during the prospective study [two ovarian masses from patient 1 (who had asynchronous bilateral masses) and one from patient 2] were processed and stained for histopathological analysis according to standard procedures. Slides from paraffin-embedded tissues from four patients with ovarian cancer and other diagnoses were rereviewed by one of the authors (J.A.C.) for the purposes of this study. In the retrospective study, there was agreement between the original pathologic diagnosis and those obtained in our review.
Tissue for genetic analysis (see below) was obtained at the time of
surgery, frozen at -70 C, and stored for later use. FISH was performed
following protocols previously described (24, 25). The
probes used were bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones that have
been mapped to the chromosome 2p16 region (26); control
probes from other chromosomes were also used (one from 10q23 is shown
in Fig. 4
.3). BACs were labeled by nick translation; a chromosome
2-specific centromeric
- satellite probe (Oncor, Gaithersburg,
MD) was used for chromosome identification (25, 26). The
markers that were tested in FISH experiments and the BAC clones that
contained them were: D2S391:b79H12, D2S2378:b1P2, D2S123:b43E19,
b400P14 (no polymorphic marker), D2S2352:b112L8, and D2S378:b286c2
(25). After hybridization, chromosomes were counterstained
with 4',6'-diamidino-2-phenylindol- dihydrochloride (250 ng/ml, final
concentration) in Vectashield (Vector Laboratories, Inc.,
Burlingame, CA) as an antifading agent. Hybridization signals were
analyzed using a Carl Zeiss Axiophot2 fluorescence
microscope equipped with the Sensys CCD camera (Photometrics), and
fluorescence images were automatically captured and merged using IPLab
Spectrum software (Scannalytics, Inc., Fairfax, VA) on a PowerPC
8500/150.
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| Results |
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Among the 18 female patients with CNC (age at first evaluation,
31.3 ± 12.1 yr) who were studied prospectively for the
development of ovarian tumors over an average period of approximately 3
yr (median, 31 months; range, 5126 months) by physical examination
and ultrasound, 12 patients (67%) had at least 1 ultrasound study
positive for ovarian cysts (Table 1
). The lesions enlarged and required
surgery in 2 patients (Fig. 1
). One
patient had bilateral oophorectomy for bilateral asynchronous complex
cystadenomas. The second had oophorectomy for a unilateral serous
cystadenoma; this gradually increased in size over the course of 4 ys
(patient 2, Table 1
and Fig. 1
). Only 1 patient from the control group
of 11 women (age at first evaluation, 32.9 ± 17 yr; median
follow-up time, 34 months; range, 570 months), including 6
nonaffected relatives of our CNC patients, had a persistent small
ovarian cyst that was identified by US (Table 2
; P =
0.0031).
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Retrospective evaluation of a database of patients with CNC
A registry of 309 patients with CNC, which contained 178 females,
was searched retrospectively for ovarian neoplasms. Four patients had
ovarian tumors that had required operation (Table 3
, patients 14),
including unilateral multiple complex cysts in each of 2 patients (no
other information was available), endometrioid adenocarcinoma (Fig. 2
), and mucinous adenocarcinoma (Fig. 3
; interpreted as metastatic
adenocarcinoma) in 1 patient each, respectively. In addition, among 12
patients with CNC who underwent autopsy, ovarian lesions with diagnoses
that ranging from benign follicular cysts to teratoma were found in 7
(Table 3
, patients 511).
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An interphase FISH analysis of touch preps from the two ovarian
tumors (collected from the two patients who were operated upon during
the course of the prospective study) was performed using BAC probes
from the chromosome 2 CNC critical region (Fig. 4
.1). All probes displayed a tandem
amplification indicating the presence of HSR (homogeneously staining
region) on 2p16 (Figs. 4
.4 and 4.5). The amplicon seems to be extended
and included the segment flanked by probes b79H12 and b286C2. Cells
that showed a copy number gain were diploid, as shown by the concurrent
use of centromeric chromosome
-satellite probes (Fig. 4
.4). Probes
from other chromosomes applied to CNC ovarian tumors showed normal
results (Fig. 4
.3), whereas the 2p16 probes that showed copy number
gain on these tumors showed normal results in normal cells from the
same patients (Fig. 4
.2 and one cell in Fig. 4
.4).
| Discussion |
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In the first retrospective review of a large number of patients with CNC (referred to above), although a variety of ovarian lesions were encountered, sex cord tumors were not (6). A number of kindreds and sporadic cases with CNC were then studied by ovarian US in a prospective manner by a NIH clinical protocol. The present study reports the first analysis of these data along with an enhanced retrospective analysis of a worldwide database of CNC patients. From this investigation, several lines of evidence suggest that female patients with CNC develop cysts and tumors of the ovarian surface epithelium, although they do not develop tumors similar to those that occur in women with PJS.
First, 2 of 18 female patients with CNC who were followed by US an average period of approximately 3 yr showed growth of their ovarian tumors and required surgery; the lesions were complex serous cystadenomas. Twelve of the 18 patients (67%) had at least 1 US positive for an ovarian lesion. Only 1 subject in the control group of 11 women (who participated in the same clinical screening protocol) had a simple ovarian cyst (9%). When we recently performed transvaginal US in 46 women receiving tamoxifen for therapy or prevention of breast cancer, who were followed for 24 yr by the same protocol of sonography, we found ovarian cysts in no more than 59% of the women (31). In 2 large studies of 2012 and 5479 patients who underwent frequent US, ovarian cysts were found in 2228% of the various age groups and in 6% of the entire population of the study, respectively (32, 33).
Second, in the retrospective analysis of 178 female patients with CNC, carcinoma of ovarian surface epithelium was identified in two patients, a frequency of 1.12%. Although we have no suitable comparison group, the reported frequency of ovarian cancer among American women is 0.015% (33, 34). The life-time risk for the development of ovarian cancer in industrialized countries is estimated at 1 in 70 women (32) and most of these cancers develop in older women (32, 33, 34, 35). The 2 patients with CNC developed the neoplasm during their fifth decade of life, when this tumor is relatively rare in the general population. In addition, both women were multiparous, had not received hormone treatment, and did not have other known risk factors for ovarian carcinoma (reviewed in Ref. 33). Interestingly, no stromal tumors analogous to those seen in patients with PJS were found in this retrospective analysis.
Third, among 12 patients with CNC who underwent autopsy examination, 7 (58%) had an ovarian lesion. It is noteworthy that this percentage is similar to that found in our prospective sonographic study (67%). There has been no systematic documentation of ovarian cysts in the postmortem examination of normal women, however.
Fourth, the genetic investigation of ovarian tumors from two patients with CNC, employing probes from the chromosome 2 CNC genomic region (26, 36), showed that this locus was involved with copy number gain of 2p16 genomic material. It is unclear at this point whether the genetic change identified is the result of amplification of a gene(s) located on 2p16 or is the result of a tumor-specific chromosomal rearrangement within 2p16. Preliminary data indicate that amplification is the more likely event, although the relevant gene(s) has yet to be cloned (Pack, S., S. E. Taymans, and C. A. Stratakis, unpublished data).
Thus, both clinical and genetic data indicate that surface ovarian epithelium tumor formation in patients with CNC is possibly due to the underlying germline mutation. Tumorigenesis in the ovaries of these patients may follow the pattern of mutation accumulation that has been suggested for other epithelial neoplasms, such as colonic carcinoma (37, 38), as appears to be the case in the thyroid gland of CNC patients (9). In addition, the extensive genetic instability of cells cultured from CNC tumors (39) suggests that secondary "hits" underlie tumor formation in CNC, the first hit being the germline mutation. This corresponds to Knudsons hypothesis (40), even though there is little evidence to suggest that the 2p16-located gene responsible for CNC has tumor suppression function (39, 41). Indeed, loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of the short arm of chromosome 2 was not found in several genetic studies of ovarian tumors (42, 43, 44). On the other hand, amplification of the same genetic segment, encompassing the chromosome 2 CNC locus (45), was seen in comparative genomic hybridization of ovarian neoplasms (46). This leads us to speculate that the germline CNC mutation causes a predisposition toward other molecular events. These genetic changes may be facilitated by continuing amplification of the chromosome 2 gene(s) and may lead to surface epithelium tumor formation in the ovaries of patients with CNC.
It was surprising that stromal tumors of the ovary (similar to those seen in patients with PJS) had not occurred in women with CNC. In this connection, we have recently found that although CNC and PJS have some clinical similarities, they do not share LOH of the STK11/LKB1 locus (18). As LOH of the PJS gene is commonly present in both PJS-associated and sporadic ovarian tumors, it appears that the mechanism of ovarian tumorigenesis in the two conditions may follow different molecular pathways.
In summary, although we found with sufficient frequency ovarian surface cysts and tumors in women with CNC, we do not think that the results warrant intensive screening of the ovaries in these patients. Nevertheless, ovarian US may be part of the initial evaluation in female patients with CNC; follow-up of any identified lesion is recommended, because of the possible risk for malignancy (47).
Received February 14, 2000.
Revised June 14, 2000.
Accepted July 12, 2000.
| References |
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