GATA3 Expression in Normal Skin and in Benign and Malignant Epidermal and Cutaneous Adnexal Neoplasms

Abstract

Initial investigations reported GATA3 to be a sensitive and relatively specific marker for mammary and urothelial carcinomas. Recently, GATA3 expression has been described in several other epithelial tumors. However, there has been only limited investigation of GATA3 expression in cutaneous epithelial tumors. The objective of this study was to examine the immunohistochemical expression of GATA3 in a wide variety of cutaneous epithelial neoplasms. GATA3 expression was evaluated in 99 benign and 63 malignant cutaneous epithelial tumors. GATA3 was consistently and usually strongly expressed in clear cell acanthoma, trichofolliculoma, trichoepithelioma, trichilemmoma, sebaceous adenoma, sebaceoma, apocrine hidrocystoma, apocrine tubular papillary adenoma, hidradenoma papilliferum, and syringocystadenoma papilliferum. Hidradenomas exhibited variable positive staining. Most poromas, syringomas, chondroid syringomas, cylindromas, and spiradenomas were negative or only focally and weakly positive. Focal staining was present in all pilomatrixomas. Thirteen of 14 basal cell carcinomas, 21 of 24 squamous carcinomas, and all 6 sebaceous carcinomas exhibited positive staining. The 1 apocrine carcinoma, both mucinous carcinomas, and 2 of 3 microcystic adnexal carcinomas also exhibited positive staining, whereas the 1 eccrine porocarcinoma and the 1 adenoid cystic carcinoma were negative. One of 11 Merkel cell carcinomas exhibited focal weak staining. Our findings demonstrate that GATA3 is expressed in a wide variety of benign and malignant cutaneous epithelial neoplasms. In addition to carcinomas of breast and urothelial origin and other more recently described GATA3-positive tumors, the differential diagnosis of a metastatic tumor of unknown primary origin that expresses GATA3 should also include a carcinoma of cutaneous epithelial origin.

Primary cutaneous adenoid cystic carcinoma with MYB aberrations: report of three cases and comprehensive review of the literature

“…The PubMed‐based search revealed a total of 114 PCACC published cases the majority of which were part of case reports, with only a couple of small series and four relatively large series first authored by Seab & Graham, Urso et al, Ramakrishnan et al and North et al, which included 10, 5, 27 and 19 PCACC cases, respectively. After including our three cases, complete clinical information was found in 116 cases with 1 case that was reported as part of an immunohistochemical study did not include any clinical data . PCACC tumors had a tendency to affect older individuals with the median age being 60 years old (mean: 62; range: 14–92), while the gender distribution was almost equal among males (n = 59) and females (n = 57).…”

Evaluation and comparison of staining patterns of factor XIIIa (AC‐1A1), adipophilin and GATA3 in sebaceous neoplasia

“…Nuclear staining is seen in T‐lymphocytes, glandular epithelial cells of the breast, parathyroid glands, kidney, urothelium and the distal renal tubules . Nuclear positivity has also been reported in squamous neoplasms of the skin as well as in a variety of cutaneous adnexal tumors . GATA3 was found to be moderately sensitive in the diagnosis of sebaceous neoplasms, however, its immunohistochemical promiscuity lessens its utility in this diagnostic group.…”

“…Recent investigations have highlighted the diagnostic utility of factor XIIIa (clone AC‐1A1 mouse monoclonal) nuclear staining in sebaceous neoplasms . Additionally, GATA3 is a nuclear immunohistochemical stain which has been reported to show positivity in a number of neoplastic conditions of the epidermis and cutaneous adnexa . Our goal was to evaluate the diagnostic utility of factor XIIIa and GATA3 as nuclear immunohistochemical stains in sebaceous neoplasms.…”

Periocular Histiocytoid Carcinoma: Potential Diagnostic Challenges

“…However, there was positive immunoreactivity to GATA-3 in all our cases, including the primary tumor. Other skin adnexal tumors are known to express GATA-3; thus, this is not completely unexpected [49,50]. The marker may have diagnostic utility if metastatic gastrointestinal signet-ring cell carcinoma is on the differential diagnosis, as this neoplasm should be negative.…”