Villin expression in human tumors: a tissue microarray study on 14,398 tumors
David Dum, Maximilian Lennartz, Anne Menz, Martina Kluth, Claudia Hube‐Magg, Sören Weidemann, Christoph Fraune, Andreas M. Luebke, Lisa Hornsteiner, Christian Bernreuther, Ronald Simon, Till S. Clauditz, Guido Sauter, Ria Uhlig, Andrea Hinsch, Simon Kind, Frank Jacobsen, Katharina Möller, Waldemar Wilczak, Stefan Steurer, Sarah Minner, Eike Burandt, Andreas H. Marx, Till Krech, Patrick Lebok
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Villin is a protein of the brush border of epithelial cells, which is used as an immunohistochemical marker for colorectal and gastrointestinal neoplasms. However, other tumor entities can also express villin. METHODS: To comprehensively determine villin expression, tissue microarrays containing 14,398 samples from 118 different tumor types as well as 608 samples of 76 different normal tissues were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: ≤ 0.0006) in colorectal adenocarcinoma. CONCLUSION: Our data support a high utility of villin immunohistochemistry for the identification of tumors with gastrointestinal, pancreatobiliary, and yolk sac tumor origin. However, considering that at least a weak villin positivity in some tumor cells occurred in 54 different tumor categories, villin immunohistochemistry should be applied as a part of a marker panel rather than as a stand-alone marker.