Origin of clear cell carcinoma: nature or nurture?

A rare but serious complication of endometriosis is the development of carcinoma, and clear cell and endometrioid carcinomas of the ovary are the two most common malignancies which arise from endometriosis. They are distinct diseases, characterized by unique morphologies, immunohistochemical profile...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of pathology 2018-02, Vol.244 (2), p.131-134
Main Authors: Kolin, David L, Dinulescu, Daniela M, Crum, Christopher P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
cell of origin
ciliated cells
clear cell carcinoma
Endometrial cancer
endometrioid carcinoma
Endometriosis
Methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase
Mutation
ovarian cancer
Ovarian carcinoma
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A rare but serious complication of endometriosis is the development of carcinoma, and clear cell and endometrioid carcinomas of the ovary are the two most common malignancies which arise from endometriosis. They are distinct diseases, characterized by unique morphologies, immunohistochemical profiles, and responses to treatment. However, both arise in endometriosis and can share common mutations. The overlapping mutational profiles of clear cell and endometrioid carcinomas suggest that their varied histologies may be due to a different cell of origin which gives rise to each type of cancer. Cochrane and colleagues address this question in a recent article in this journal. They show that a marker of ovarian clear cell carcinoma, cystathionine gamma lyase, is expressed in ciliated cells. Similarly, they show that markers of secretory cells (estrogen receptor and methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase 1) are expressed in ovarian endometrioid carcinoma. Taken together, they suggest that endometrioid and clear cell carcinomas arise from cells related to secretory and ciliated cells, respectively. We discuss Cochrane et al's work in the context of other efforts to determine the cell of origin of gynecological malignancies, with an emphasis on recent developments and challenges unique to the area. These limitations complicate our interpretation of tumor differentiation; does it reflect nature imposed by a specific cell of origin or nurture, by either mutation(s) or environment? Copyright © 2017 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ISSN:0022-3417
1096-9896
DOI:10.1002/path.5009