Myogenin and MyoD1 expression in paediatric rhabdomyosarcomas

Abstract

The diagnosis of paediatric solid tumours is often based on small tissue needle biopsies in which many different entities demonstrate a "small round cell tumour" phenotype and in which there may be insufficient tissue to allow the interpretation of diagnostic architectural features, which may be present in larger specimens. Therefore, the extensive use of a panel of immunohistochemical markers is part of the routine handling and investigation of such biopsies to reach a definite diagnosis. However, in some cases the morphological and routine immunohistochemical findings may be insufficient for a precise diagnosis or they may be difficult to interpret in the given clinical context. Although many paediatric tumours exhibit characteristic chromosomal translocations with resultant specific fusion transcripts, these require molecular methods for their detection, usually on fresh tissue samples, which may not always be available. As more immunohistochemical markers become available, more precise diagnosis on such small biopsies may be possible. This review examines the use of the immunohistochemical markers, MyoD1 and myogenin, in the diagnosis of paediatric rhabdomyosarcoma, including its subtypes.

Figure 1

Photomicrographs showing embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (A,B) and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (C,D) immunostained with antibodies to MyoD1 (A,C) and myogenin (B,D). Note that both tumours demonstrate nuclear positivity but staining is much more widespread and intense with myogenin in rhabdomyosarcomas of the alveolar subtype (original magnification, ×400).