Context.—Expression of epithelial cell markers can occur in mesenchymal tumors and has been reported in angiosarcomas with variable frequency. In these situations, establishing the diagnosis becomes problematic.

Objective.—To determine the expression of cytokeratin and epithelial membrane antigen in angiosarcoma.

Design.—To address this issue, 33 well-documented cases of angiosarcomas were retrieved from the archival material of Shands Hospital at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and Jackson Memorial Hospital at the University of Miami, Miami, Florida. These cases were all reviewed and studied using a cytokeratin cocktail (CAM 5.2 and AE1/AE3) and epithelial membrane antigen using standard immunohistochemical techniques. All 33 cases had available material for cytokeratin analysis; however, only 20 cases had enough material for epithelial membrane antigen staining.

Results.—In the 33 cases studied, the age range of the patients was 2 to 88 years (mean, 63 years). There were 23 (70%) men and 10 (30%) women. One (3%) of 33 was cytokeratin-immunoreactive and 2 (10%) of 20 were epithelial membrane antigen-immunoreactive.

Conclusion.—Cytokeratin and epithelial membrane antigen immunoreactivity in angiosarcomas is infrequent but may be encountered. Interpretation of such expression should be done with caution and in conjunction with the characteristic clinical and morphologic features of the tumor as well as the expression of endothelial cell antigens.

Angiosarcomas are vascular tumors arising from the endothelial cells of blood vessels and lymphatics. Although their morphologic and immunohistochemical features are characteristic, occasionally surgical pathologists may encounter problematic cases. Because these tumors arise from endothelial cells, they usually express factor VIII-related antigen and/or ulex europaeus agglutinin-binding protein. Some of these tumors may exhibit an epithelial morphology mimicking epithelial tumors, and hence are given the term epithelioid angiosarcoma. Immunoreactivity of angiosarcoma to epithelial markers has been subject to scattered reports that described expression of epithelial markers mainly in the epithelioid variant of angiosarcoma.1–6 Expression of these markers in angiosarcoma was found to depend on their morphology and was more common in the epithelioid variants.7,8 Using immunohistochemical stains, Miettinen and Fetsch9 have found that normal endothelial cells and a spectrum of vascular neoplasms can express different types of keratins, some of which exhibit consistent focal immunoreactivity. The same finding was also replicated in cultured human fibroblast, endothelial cells, and their sarcomas by Katagata et al10 using 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis and electron microscopy techniques. The aim of our study was to evaluate the expression of cytokeratin (CK) and epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) in angiosarcomas regardless of their morphologic appearance. A total of 33 well-documented cases of angiosarcoma were studied. Well-controlled standard immunohistochemical stains for CK and EMA expression were performed.

Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks and unstained slides from 33 well-documented cases of angiosarcoma were retrieved from the pathology archives of the University of Florida-affiliated hospitals in Gainesville, and the University of Miami-affiliated hospitals in Miami, Florida, during a period of 8 years. All cases were reviewed; none were reclassified. All the cases exhibited the morphologic features of angiosarcoma and at least 2 vascular immunohistochemical markers were expressed by all but one case (Table, case 11) that was positive for CD34 only. To the best of our knowledge, all cases were considered primary at the time of diagnosis. Well-controlled immunohistochemical stains for CK and EMA (DakoCytomation, Carpinteria, Calif) were performed on all cases with sufficient histologic material according to established protocols using the diaminobenzidine detection with microwave antigen retrieval in a citrate buffer. To increase the sensitivity of CK expression, a cocktail of antibodies against AE1/AE3 (Dako) and CAM 5.2 (Becton Dickinson, San Jose, Calif) was used. Sufficient histologic material for CK immunostaining was available for all cases. However, because some of these cases had been referred for consultation and therefore had limited material for review and immunohistochemical stains, only 20 cases had enough material for EMA immunostaining. Positive staining was considered if more than 10% of tumor cells showed obvious strong immunoreactivity. All cases were also stained with antibodies for factor VIII–related antigen (Dako), ulex europaeus agglutinin (Dako), and CD34 (BioGenex, San Ramon, Calif) using the same standard technique.

Clinical and Pathologic Features of Cases*

Clinical and Pathologic Features of Cases*
Clinical and Pathologic Features of Cases*

The clinical and pathologic features of all our cases are shown in the Table. Immunoreactivity for CK was found in 1 (3%) of the 33 cases; 2 (10%) of 20 cases showed immunoreactivity for EMA (Table; Figures 1 through 3). Immunoreactivity for CK and EMA was noticed in the neoplastic cells with epithelioid as well as spindle morphology (Figure 1, C; Figure 2, C; Figure 3, B). As shown in the figures, few tumor cells were noticed to be positive in Figure 1, C and Figure 2, C but there were relatively more cells in the third case (Figure 3, B). That case was a liver needle biopsy and the volume of tumor present was limited. All cases, except one (case 11), were immunoreactive for at least 2 additional vascular markers (factor VIII– related antigen, ulex europaeus agglutinin, and CD34).

Figure 1.

Case 1. Sections show a vascular neoplasm with anastomosing vascular channels lined by atypical plump endothelial cells (A and B). Focal areas were relatively more compact (left side, A) with cells that are more polygonal and epithelioid (hematoxylin-eosin, original magnifications ×200). C, Corresponding immunohistochemical staining for keratin shows clear staining of some angiosarcoma cells (original magnification ×400)

Figure 1.

Case 1. Sections show a vascular neoplasm with anastomosing vascular channels lined by atypical plump endothelial cells (A and B). Focal areas were relatively more compact (left side, A) with cells that are more polygonal and epithelioid (hematoxylin-eosin, original magnifications ×200). C, Corresponding immunohistochemical staining for keratin shows clear staining of some angiosarcoma cells (original magnification ×400)

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Figure 2.

Case 2. A, Section of the scalp lesion shows atypical superficial dermal vascular tumor that is more compact on the right side of the image. The vessels are irregular, which is more obvious in the upper part and rather rudimentary in the deeper areas (hematoxylin-eosin, original magnification ×200). B, Deeper in the dermis there are more obvious atypical vessels with perineural invasion in the center of the field (hematoxylin-eosin, original magnification ×200). C, The corresponding immunohistochemical staining for epithelial membrane antigen shows clear staining of some tumor cells (original magnification ×400)

Figure 2.

Case 2. A, Section of the scalp lesion shows atypical superficial dermal vascular tumor that is more compact on the right side of the image. The vessels are irregular, which is more obvious in the upper part and rather rudimentary in the deeper areas (hematoxylin-eosin, original magnification ×200). B, Deeper in the dermis there are more obvious atypical vessels with perineural invasion in the center of the field (hematoxylin-eosin, original magnification ×200). C, The corresponding immunohistochemical staining for epithelial membrane antigen shows clear staining of some tumor cells (original magnification ×400)

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Figure 3.

Case 3. A, Section of the liver shows angiosarcoma with small clusters of slitlike vessels lined by atypical endothelial cells (hematoxylin-eosin, original magnification ×200). B, Corresponding immunohistochemical staining for epithelial membrane antigens with intense staining in many tumor cells (original magnification ×400)

Figure 3.

Case 3. A, Section of the liver shows angiosarcoma with small clusters of slitlike vessels lined by atypical endothelial cells (hematoxylin-eosin, original magnification ×200). B, Corresponding immunohistochemical staining for epithelial membrane antigens with intense staining in many tumor cells (original magnification ×400)

Close modal

Case 1

The first case was a 66-year-old woman who had an ulcerating lesion in her buttock region. Low-power examination revealed hemorrhagic vascular neoplasm with anastomosing vascular channels lined by atypical plump endothelial cells (Figure 1, A and B). Focal areas were relatively more compact (left side of Figure 1, A) with cells that were more polygonal and epithelioid. The tumor cells were clearly positive for cytoplasmic CK expression (Figure 1, C).

Case 2

Case 2 was an 86-year-old woman with a scalp lesion. At low-power examination, the tumor was located in the upper and deep dermis and was composed of atypical vascular spaces containing red blood cells and lined by atypical plump endothelial cells (Figure 2, A and B). The tumor cells were immunoreactive for EMA (Figure 2, C).

Case 3

The third case was a 74-year-old man who had a history of thorotrast exposure with subsequent development of angiosarcoma in the liver. The diagnosis was made on a core needle biopsy where the tumor cells occupied an area that was surrounded by the remaining liver parenchyma (Figure 3, A). All the cells in this case were EMA positive (Figure 3, B). In this case, the volume of tumor was small and our evaluation was limited to the findings in this biopsy.

The expression of epithelial markers such as CK by mesenchymal cells and their tumors has been subject to many reports.1,2,4,5,7–22 As part of the intermediate filaments family, different CKs were shown to be expressed in both benign and malignant mesenchymal tissue specimens.10,14 Given the fact that immunohistochemistry is now part of the usual workup in the diagnosis of neoplasms, caution must be exercised in interpreting the findings. When encountering a vascular tumor in which the morphology appears to be consistent with angiosarcoma, confirmation by standard immunohistochemical stains for the usual endothelial cell markers is essential. It is not uncommon for additional stains that sometimes include epithelial cell markers to be ordered as part of a diagnostic panel, or because the tumor exhibits focal epithelioid morphology. When CK and/or EMA immunoreactivity is found, the differential diagnosis should be expanded to include carcinomas, particularly those with prominent vascular pattern. In these situations, thorough evaluation of the neoplastic cells and their morphology in conjunction with their immunoreactivity for vascular and epithelial markers is very critical. All our cases were reviewed and the diagnosis of angiosarcoma was made on the basis of morphology and immunoreactivity of the neoplastic cells to a minimum of 2 endothelial cell markers (except one case). We opted to evaluate the CK and EMA immunoreactivity in our angiosarcoma cases regardless of their epithelioid morphology for the following reasons: (1) determination of the epithelioid morphology is sometimes subjective, (2) those areas are often focal, and (3) we wanted to see whether the immunoreactivity for the epithelial antigens is seen in tumor cells with a particular pattern.

Whether the presence of immunoreactivity is real or represents an unusual phenomena is still controversial.21,23,24 Gown et al14 proposed some possible answers including cross-reactivity, accessibility of different epitopes, contamination with epithelial cell proteins, and a proliferation phenomenon. The cross-reactivity hypothesis was disputed and could not be confirmed when immunoblotting techniques failed to demonstrate similar findings.14 In addition, the possibility of cross-reactivity with a protein or proteins sharing some homology with the CKs by other mesenchymal markers such as desmin and vimentin was also found to be inaccurate. Carefully extracting mesenchymal tissue such as myometrial smooth muscles and using double-labeling experiments argued against true epithelial contamination.14 Although it was noticed that similar expressions were found in fetal mesenchymal tissue, more in the first trimester than the second and third, it was speculated that the anomalous CK expression may represent a proliferation phenomenon. In later studies, investigations on vascular neoplasms revealed focal keratin expression that was preferentially present in the epithelioid areas.9,25 

The number of lesions and neoplasms that express mesenchymal and epithelial markers continues to grow, making the interpretation of results more challenging. The expression of epithelial markers in angiosarcomas can occur and has been reported in up to 35% of the cases.25 In fact, Meis-Kindblom and Kindblom,25 in their ultrastructural analysis of certain poorly differentiated areas of their angiosarcoma cases, encountered whorls of abundant intermediate filaments and tonofilament-like structures, which may explain the keratin expression.

Battifora26 has alluded to the fact that our current definition of epithelia may be too rigid. Endothelial cells are the origin of angiosarcoma and share features with mesothelial and synovial cells that produce biphasic tumors with coexpression of both keratin and vimentin. Evidence that the neoplastic endothelial cells may produce epithelial markers is not surprising. However, whether this phenomenon is anarchic or atavistic in nature is still uncertain.26 The explanation of this phenomenon is still controversial and in the hypothesis/theory phase.21,23,25 

The authors thank M. Nadji, MD, and M. Nassiri, MD, for their contributions.

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The authors have no relevant financial interest in the products or companies described in this article.

Author notes

Reprints: Mousa A. Al-Abbadi, MD, Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center, Harper University Hospital, Department of Pathology, 3990 John R St, Detroit, MI 48201 ([email protected])