Establishment of an Academic Tissue Microarray Platform as a Tool for Soft Tissue Sarcoma Research

Sarcoma, vol. 2021, pp. 1–12

Abstract

Soft tissue sarcoma (STS) is a heterogeneous family of rare mesenchymal tumors, characterized by histopathological and molecular diversity. Tissue microarray (TMA) is a tool that allows performing research in orphan diseases in a more efficient and cost-effective way. TMAs are paraffin blocks consisting of multiple small representative tissue cores from biological samples, for example, from multiple donors, diverse sites of disease, or multiple different diseases. In 2015, we began constructing TMAs using archival tumor material from STS patients. Specimens were well annotated in terms of histopathological diagnosis, treatment, and clinical follow-up of the tissue donors. Each TMA block contains duplicate or triplicate 1.0–1.5 mm tissue cores from representative tumor areas selected by sarcoma pathologists. The construction of TMAs was performed with TMA Grand Master (3DHistech). So far, we have established disease-specific TMAs from 7 STS subtypes: gastrointestinal stromal tumor (72 cases included in the array), alveolar soft part sarcoma (n = 12 + 47), clear cell sarcoma (n = 22 + 32), leiomyosarcoma (n = 55), liposarcoma (n = 42), inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (n = 12 + 21), and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (n = 24). We also constructed a multisarcoma TMA covering a representative number of important histopathological subtypes on arrays for screening purposes, namely, angiosarcoma, dedifferentiated liposarcoma, pleomorphic liposarcoma, and myxoid liposarcoma, leiomyosarcoma, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor, myxofibrosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, synovial sarcoma, and undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma, with 7–11 individual cases per subtype. We are currently expanding the list of TMAs with additional sarcoma entities, considering the heterogeneity of this family of tumors. Our extensive STS TMA platform is suitable for rapid and cost-effective morphological, immunohistochemical, and molecular characterization of the tumor as well as for the identification of potential novel diagnostic markers and drug targets. It is readily available for collaborative projects with research partners.

Authors 12

1. Che‐Jui Lee

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Laboratory of Experimental Oncology, Department of Oncology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

2. Agnieszka Woźniak

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Laboratory of Experimental Oncology, Department of Oncology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

3. Thomas Van Cann

   Universitair Ziekenhuis Leuven · KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of General Medical Oncology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

   Laboratory of Experimental Oncology, Department of Oncology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

4. Iris Timmermans

   Universitair Ziekenhuis Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of General Medical Oncology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

5. Jasmien Wellens

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Laboratory of Experimental Oncology, Department of Oncology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

6. Ulla Vanleeuw

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Laboratory of Experimental Oncology, Department of Oncology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

7. Inge H. Briaire‐de Bruijn Aachen Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Center

   Leiden University Medical Center

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands

8. Christian Britschgi

   University Hospital Zurich

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, University Hospital Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

9. Judith V.M.G. Bovée Aachen Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Center

   Leiden University Medical Center

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands

10. Inti Zlobec

    University of Bern

    Affiliation as printed

    Translational Research Unit, Institute of Pathology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

11. Raf Sciot

    KU Leuven

    Affiliation as printed

    Department of Pathology, University Hospitals Leuven, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

12. Patrick Schöffski corresponding

    Universitair Ziekenhuis Leuven · KU Leuven

    Affiliation as printed

    Department of General Medical Oncology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Laboratory of Experimental Oncology, Department of Oncology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium