Be aware of aberrant reactivity in the tumor (unexpected positive or negative staining) especially when limited panel of antibodies is used.
A) Aberrant reactivity for CD20 is a rare event and may be confusing.
HE. Angioimmunoblastic lymphoma.
CD20. Staining in angioimmunoblastic lymphoma. Strongly stained normal B-lymphocytes and weak aberrant staining of malignant T-lymphocytes. 10x.
CD20. Staining in angioimmunoblastic lymphoma. Strongly stained normal B-lymphocytes and weak aberrant staining of malignant T-lymphocytes. 40x.
B) Malignant melanoma may relatively often especially in metastatic setting expresses aberrant reactivity for different antibodies inluding rare aberrant positive staining for CD45.
CD45. Aberrant expession in metastatic malignant melanoma. 10x
CD45. Aberrant expession in metastatic malignant melanoma.
C) Malignant melanoma especially in metastatic setting may be non reactive for its typical markers (S-100, Melan A, HMB45) and may show reactivity with markers characteristic for another lineage of differentiation (transdifferentiation). In such cases the clinical data are essential for right diagnosis.
PanCytokeratin. Aberrant positive staining in metastatic malignant melanoma. 10x.
Cytokeratin 18. Aberrant expression in metastatic malignant melanoma. 10x
HMB45. Negative staining in metastatic malignant melanoma. 10x
Melan A (clone A103). Negative staining in metastatic malignant melanoma. 10x
S100. Negative staining in metastatic malignant melanoma. 10x.
S100. Negative staining in metastatic malignant melanoma (left). Compare with internal control of positive macrophages in adjacent fragment of the lymph node. 10x.
MUM1. Negative staining for MUM1 in metastatic melanoma (dedifferentiated). Primary melanomas are positive for this marker in more than 90%.
D) Sometimes aberrant reactivity may surprisingly dominate the immunoprofile leading to erroneous conclusions.
Fig. 4. Aberrant expression in a case of endometrioid adenocarcinoma (clone SPT24). 10x.
E) Another example of aberrant staining in metastatic malignant melanoma.
Weak granular cytoplasmic and incomplete membranous positivity in a case of metastatic malignant melanoma in colon probably due to crossreactivity with unknown epitope. Potential pifall.
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