1. ¹Anatomia Patologica, Università di Sassari, Sassari, Italy
2. ²Anatomia Patologica, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy
3. ³Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, USA
4. ⁴Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Innsbruck University, Austria
5. ⁵Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Istituto Europeo di Oncologia, Milano, Italy
6. ⁶Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Hôpital Européen George Pompidou, Paris, France
7. ⁷Dipartimento di Urologia, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy

Correspondence: Dr G Martignoni, MD, Anatomia Patologica, Università di Sassari, Via G Matteotti 58, 07100, Sassari, Italy. E-mail: guidomart@yahoo.com

Received 2 April 2004; Revised 10 June 2004; Accepted 10 June 2004; Published online 30 July 2004.

Abstract

CD10 has been considered a useful marker in the diagnosis of renal carcinomas, because of its expression in clear cell and papillary renal cell carcinomas and its absence in chromophobe renal cell carcinomas. On the other hand, chromophobe renal cell carcinoma expresses parvalbumin, which is absent in clear cell and papillary renal cell carcinomas. To further address the relevance of these markers, we studied the expression of CD10 and parvalbumin in 42 samples of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (seven of which had aggressive features, including invasion beyond the renal capsule, renal vein invasion, metastases, or sarcomatoid transformation), 75 clear cell renal cell carcinomas (eight metastatic) and 51 papillary renal cell carcinomas (two metastatic). CD10 was found in 100% of clear cell renal cell carcinomas, 63% of papillary renal cell carcinomas and in all metastatic cases of both types. At variance with previous studies, we found CD10 expression in from 30 to 90% of the neoplastic cells, in 11 of 42 (26%) chromophobe renal cell carcinomas. The CD10-positive cases included five of the seven (71%) chromophobe renal cell carcinoma with aggressive features. Statistical analysis showed significant association of CD10-positive tumors with clinicopathologic aggressiveness (P=0.003) and mitotic figures (P=0.04). Parvalbumin was strongly expressed in all primary and metastatic chromophobe renal cell carcinomas. Western blot analysis was utilized to confirm the expression of both CD10 and parvalbumin in chromophobe renal cell carcinomas.