ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE OF A VARIANT TRANSLOCATION T(12-22) WITH EWS CHOPFUSION IN MYXOID LIPOSARCOMA - CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL FEATURES/

It is well established that the majority of myxoid/round cell liposarc omas (LPS) are characterized by a reciprocal translocation t(12;16)(q1 3;p11) which at the molecular level results infusion of the CHOP and F USITLS genes,It is assumed that functional characterization of these g enes may provide insight into the molecular pathogenesis of this tumou r type, This study describes two new cases of myxoid/round cell LPS ha ving a t(12;22). By reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (R T-PCR) it has been shown that this leads to fusion between the CHOP an d EWS genes, thus indicating involvement of the EWS gene, at least occ asionally, in yet another sarcoma type. Combining these two cases with two others which were recently similarly characterized at the molecul ar level, their clinicopathological features have been compared with c ases having the more usual t(12;16), It was not possible to identify a ny clinical or pathological differences between these molecular geneti c subsets. The relevance or significance of these gene fusion products in myxoid/round cell LPS remains to be determined, (C) 1997 by John W iley & Sons, Ltd.