Intracranial mesenchymal tumor with FET-CREB fusion - A unifying diagnosis for the spectrum of intracranial myxoid mesenchymal tumors and angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma-like neoplasms

Authors

Emily A. Sloan, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Jason Chiang, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA.
Javier E. Villanueva-Meyer, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Sanda Alexandrescu, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Jennifer M. Eschbacher, St Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
Wesley Wang, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
Manuela Mafra, The Portuguese Institute of Oncology, Lisbon, Portugal
Nasir Ud Din, Aga Khan UniversityFollow
Emily Carr-Boy, ADHB LabPlus, Auckland, New Zealand
Michael Watson, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.

Document Type

Article

Department

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Abstract

Intracranial mesenchymal tumors with FET-CREB fusions are a recently described group of neoplasms in children and young adults characterized by fusion of a FET family gene (usually EWSR1, but rarely FUS) to a CREB family transcription factor (ATF1, CREB1, or CREM), and have been variously termed intracranial angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma or intracranial myxoid mesenchymal tumor. The clinical outcomes, histologic features, and genomic landscape are not well defined. Here we studied twenty patients with intracranial mesenchymal tumors proven to harbor FET-CREB fusion by next-generation sequencing (NGS). The 16 female and 4 male patients had a median age of 14 years (range 4-70). Tumors were uniformly extra-axial or intraventricular and located at the cerebral convexities (n=7), falx (2), lateral ventricles (4), tentorium (2), cerebellopontine angle (4), and spinal cord (1). NGS demonstrated that 8 tumors harbored EWSR1-ATF1 fusion, 7 had EWSR1-CREB1, 4 had EWSR1-CREM, and 1 had FUS-CREM. Tumors were uniformly well-circumscribed and typically contrast-enhancing with solid and cystic growth. Tumors with EWSR1-CREB1 fusions more often featured stellate/spindle cell morphology, mucin-rich stroma, and hemangioma-like vasculature compared to tumors with EWSR1-ATF1 fusions that most often featured sheets of epithelioid cells with mucin-poor collagenous stroma. These tumors demonstrated polyphenotypic immunoprofiles with frequent positivity for desmin, EMA, CD99, MUC4, and synaptophysin, but absence of SSTR2A, myogenin, and HMB45 expression. There was a propensity for local recurrence with a median progression-free survival of 12 months and a median overall survival of greater than 60 months, with three patients succumbing to disease (all with EWSR1-ATF1 fusions). In combination with prior case series, this study provides further insight into intracranial mesenchymal tumors with FET-CREB fusion, which represent a distinct group of CNS tumors encompassing both intracranial myxoid mesenchymal tumor and angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma-like neoplasms.

Comments

Volume, issue, and pagination are not provided by the author/publisher

Publication (Name of Journal)

Brain Pathology

Recommended Citation

Sloan, E. A., Chiang, J., Villanueva-Meyer, J. E., Alexandrescu, S., Eschbacher, J. M., Wang, W., Mafra, M., Din, N. U., Carr-Boy, E., Watson, M. (2020). Intracranial mesenchymal tumor with FET-CREB fusion - A unifying diagnosis for the spectrum of intracranial myxoid mesenchymal tumors and angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma-like neoplasms. Brain Pathology, e12918.
Available at: https://ecommons.aku.edu/pakistan_fhs_mc_pathol_microbiol/1300

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