MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are B22 nucleotide-long noncoding RNAs involved in several biological processes including development, differentiation and proliferation. Recent studies suggest that knowledge of miRNA expression patterns in cancer may have substantial value for diagnostic and prognostic determinations as well as for eventual therapeutic intervention. We performed comprehensive analysis of miRNA expression profiles of 27 sarcomas, 5 normal smooth muscle and 2 normal skeletal muscle tissues using microarray technology and/or small RNA cloning approaches. The miRNA expression profiles are distinct among the tumor types as demonstrated by an unsupervised hierarchical clustering, and unique miRNA expression signatures were identified in each tumor class. Remarkably, the miRNA expression patterns suggested that two of the sarcomas had been misdiagnosed and this was confirmed by reevaluation of the tumors using histopathologic and molecular analyses. Using the cloning approach, we also identified 31 novel miRNAs or other small RNA effectors in the sarcomas and normal skeletal muscle tissues examined. Our data show that different histological types of sarcoma have distinct miRNA expression patterns, reflecting the apparent lineage and differentiation status of the tumors. The identification of unique miRNA signatures in each tumor type may indicate their role in tumorigenesis and may aid in diagnosis of soft tissue sarcomas.

Leiomyosarcoma (LMS) is a soft tissue tumor with a significant degree of morphologic and molecular heterogeneity. We employed integrative molecular profiling to discover and characterize molecular subtypes of LMS. Gene expression profiling was performed on 51 LMS samples. Unsupervised clustering demonstrated 3 reproducible LMS clusters. Array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) was performed on 20 LMS samples and demonstrated that the molecular subtypes defined by gene-expression showed distinct genomic changes. Tumors from the “muscle-enriched” cluster showed significantly increased copy number changes (p=0.04). Most muscle-enriched cases showed loss at 16q24 which contains FANCA, known to play an important role in DNA repair, and loss at 1p36 which contains PRDM16, whose loss promotes muscle differentiation. Immunohistochemistry was performed on LMS tissue microarrays (n=377) for five markers with high levels of mRNA in the muscle-enriched cluster (ACTG2, CASQ2, SLMAP,CFL2, MYLK) and demonstrated significantly correlated expression of the 5 proteins (all pairwise p < 0.005). Expression of the 5 markers was associated with improved disease-specific survival (DSS) in a multivariate Cox regression analysis (p < 0.04). In this analysis that combined gene expression profiling, aCGH and immunohistochemistry, we characterized distinct molecular LMS subtypes, provided insight into their pathogenesis, and identified prognostic biomarkers.