ALK Translocation in Paediatric Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma: A Case Report of Novel ALK-Related Tumour Spectrum

Histopathology 2015 July 14 [Epub ahead of print] [Link]

Loharamtaweethong K, Puripat N, Aoonjai N, Sutepvarnon A, Bandidwattanawong C.

Abstract

Aims

To report a case of paediatric malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (MPM) with evidence of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) translocation.

Materials and Results

We describe a 10-year-old girl who presented with abdominal pain and progressive abdominal distension. She had no history of asbestos exposure. The histopathological, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural analyses were performed and showed a biphasic malignant mesothelioma. In addition, we also studied on a selected set of immunomarkers which may be the potential therapeutic molecular targets including ALK, c-kit (CD117), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and HER-2/neu as well as corresponding molecular analysis. Consequently, we identified ALK expression by immunohistochemistry together with evidence of ALK translocation by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis.

Conclusions

Paediatric MPM is associated with ALK translocation in our case. The results may open up new avenue for the study of molecular genesis of paediatric malignant mesothelioma in the future and help to determine whether patients MMs with ALK translocation would benefit from ALK inhibitor treatment. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.