(American Journal of Pathology. 2000;156:1093-1098.)
© 2000 American Society for Investigative Pathology
Molecular Analysis of Phyllodes Tumors Reveals Distinct Changes in the Epithelial and Stromal Components
Elinor J. Sawyer*
,
Andrew M. Hanby
,
Paul Ellis
,
Sunil R. Lakhani§,
Ian O. Ellis¶,
Sue Boyle|| and
Ian P. M. Tomlinson*
From the Molecular and Population Genetics Laboratory,*
Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London; the Hedley Atkins/Imperial
Cancer Research Fund Breast Pathology
Laboratory,
Guys Hospital, London; the
Guys, Kings, St. Thomass Cancer Centre,
St. Thomass Hospital, London; the Department of
Histopathology,§
Royal Free & University
College Medical School, London; the Department of
Histopathology,¶
City Hospital, Nottingham; and
the Department of Histopathology,||
Northwick Park
Hospital, Harrow, United Kingdom
 |
Abstract
|
|---|
Phyllodes tumors are fibroepithelial mammary lesions that tend to
behave in a benign fashion but may undergo sarcomatous transformation.
A study of clonality in these tumors has suggested that the epithelial
component is polyclonal, but the stroma is monoclonal,
and thus forms the neoplastic component of the lesion. In this study
microsatellites on chromosome 1q and chromosome 3p were assessed for
allelic imbalance (AI) in 47 phyllodes tumors; in all cases stroma and
epithelium were analyzed separately. Ten of 42 (24%) phyllodes tumors
showed AI at one or more markers on 3p, and 14 of 46 (30%)
showed AI on chromosome 1. Five tumors had changes in both the
epithelium and stroma. Eight tumors had changes only detectable in the
stroma and eight, changes in the epithelium only. Three tumors
exhibited low-level microsatellite instability in the epithelium but
not in the stroma. The results show that AI on 3p and 1q does occur in
phyllodes tumors and that it can occur in both the stroma and
epithelium, sometimes as independent genetic events. These
unexpected findings throw into doubt the classical view that phyllodes
tumors are simply stromal neoplasms and raise questions about the
nature of stromal and epithelial interactions in these
tumors.
 |
Introduction
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|---|
Phyllodes tumors are fibroepithelial neoplasms of the breast,
accounting for about 0.5% of all breast tumors.1
They are composed of stromal and epithelial elements analogous to
fibroadenoma, although the stromal element is more cellular and may
outgrow the epithelium. Clinically most of these tumors tend to behave
in a benign fashion, but, unlike fibroadenomas, they can recur locally
and can undergo malignant progression to sarcoma.2
Histologically, phyllodes tumors are classified as benign, borderline,
or malignant on the basis of stromal cellularity, nuclear atypia,
mitotic activity, stromal overgrowth, and type of border (infiltrating
or pushing). There are limitations to this classification,
as it does not always correlate with
clinical outcome.3
In view of the progression to sarcoma
in some cases, the stroma of phyllodes tumors is generally thought to
be the neoplastic element. Clonality studies of five tumors have
suggested that the stroma is monoclonal and the epithelium
polyclonal.4
Hyperplastic epithelium may, however, be
found in some phyllodes tumors and there is reported to be an
association with lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) and
infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast.5
There have been few molecular studies of phyllodes tumors. Comparative
genomic hybridization (CGH) analysis of 18 whole, fresh-frozen
phyllodes tumors revealed that loss of material on 3p and gain of 1q
were the two most common chromosomal abnormalities.6
These
changes are also common in breast carcinoma.7,8
These
observations suggest that the same genes are involved in the
pathogenesis of both diseases. However, the possibility exists that
phyllodes tumors might be less genetically heterogeneous and thus more
amenable to gene mapping studies. We have used microsatellites on
chromosomes 1q and 3p for assessment of allelic imbalance (AI) in 47
phyllodes tumors to confirm the CGH findings and to provide finer-scale
mapping of the regions of loss and gain. In all tumors, stroma and
epithelium were microdissected and analyzed separately. We have also
used the same set of microsatellites on an unselected set of 78 breast
carcinomas to see if similar areas of loss and gain occur in both
breast and phyllodes tumors.
 |
Materials and Methods
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Forty-seven phyllodes tumor samples were collected from five
centers. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained slides of each case were
reviewed by a single histopathologist (A. H.) to confirm the
diagnosis and provide a consistent histological classification. The
tumors were scored for stromal cellularity, stromal and epithelial
atypia, stromal and epithelial mitoses, presence of epithelial
hyperplasia, stromal overgrowth, and type of margin (see Table 1
). All tumor material was archival
paraffin-embedded tissue. Five sections (10 µm) were cut from each
tumor and stained with toluidine blue. Each section was microdissected
to remove the epithelium, normal tissue, and stroma separately. The
intratumoral epithelium was initially dissected using a laser capture
microscope (Arcturus Engineering, Mountain View, CA; Figure 1
). The stroma and surrounding normal
tissue were then microdissected from each other by hand using a
25-gauge needle. The adjacent normal tissue was used as a source of
constitutional DNA.

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Figure 1. a: Example of a phyllodes tumor showing leaf like stromal
projections surrounded by epithelium. b: Microdissection of
epithelium using the laser capture microscope from the same section.
c: Dissected epithelium.
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Extraction of DNA from the tumor and normal tissue was performed using
the Qiagen (Hilden, Germany) Tissue Extraction Kit if there was more
than 2 cm2
of tissue. For smaller amounts of
tissue, generally the epithelium, DNA extraction was performed by
incubating at 55°C in 1x polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
buffer (Promega, Madison, WI) at pH 8 with proteinase K at 200 µg/ml
overnight.
Seventy-eight unselected, consecutive, fresh-frozen paired breast
carcinoma and normal DNA samples were taken from the Guys Hospital
tumor bank for analysis.
For the initial mapping of 3p and 1q, 10 highly polymorphic
microsatellite markers (5 for 3p, 4 for 1q, and 1 close to 1cen) were
chosen from public databases (Genethon, www.genethon.fr, and CHLC,
www.chlc.org). One oligonucleotide for these markers was fluorescently
labeled (FAM, TET, or HEX) and product sizes were chosen in such a way
that all 10 microsatellites could be run together in a single lane on
the ABI 377 sequencer. Microsatellite loci were amplified in the PCR
from stroma, epithelium, and normal tissue (phyllodes tumors) and from
tumor and normal DNA (breast carcinomas). For each oligonucleotide
pair, the PCR was optimized for annealing temperature and
Mg2+ concentration. PCR was performed in a
25-µl volume. The PCR reaction typically contained 20100 ng DNA, 50
mmol/L KCl, 0.52.5 mmol/L MgCl2, 10 mmol/L
Tris-HCl, 0.1% Triton, 2.5 µg of bovine serum albumin, 0.2 mmol/L of
each dNTPs, 10 pmoles of each oligonucleotide, and 1.25 U
Taq DNA polymerase (Promega, Southampton, UK). The PCR
reaction consisted of an initial step of 94°C for 4 minutes, then 40
cycles of 1 minute at 94°C, 1 minute at the appropriate annealing
temperature, and 1 minute at 72°C in a PTC-225 Peltier thermal cycler
(MJ Research, Waltham, MA).
Microsatellites were analyzed for allelic imbalance (AI) using the
Genotyper program (ABI). From the published CGH results, we
assumed that all AI on 3p resulted from loss of material (or
alternatives such as mitotic recombination), and that all AI on 1q
reflected true gain of material. On 3p, AI at each marker locus was
considered to be present if the area under one allelic peak in the
tumor was less than 0.5x or greater than 2x that of the other allele,
after correcting for the relative allelic sizes using the
constitutional DNA. For 1q, less stringent thresholds (allelic ratios
of less than 0.57 and greater than 1.75) were used, reflecting the
expected gain of material, which might be of a low level.
The
2
test was used to look for an association
between epithelial and stromal AI in phyllodes tumors and the
histological parameters recorded.
 |
Results
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The histological features of the phyllodes tumors are detailed in
Table 1
. The majority were benign. Only two had frankly malignant
stroma (samples 55 and 79). Forty-nine percent had an infiltrating
border and 57% showed evidence of stromal overgrowth. There was a high
incidence of epithelial hyperplasia within the phyllodes tumors; 60%
had some evidence of epithelial hyperplasia, and in 21% this was
marked. One tumor contained a focus of LCIS (sample 95) in the
epithelium and one had foci of both ductal carcinoma in
situ (DCIS) and LCIS (sample 56).
Fourteen of 46 (30%) phyllodes tumors showed AI at one or more markers
on 1q and 10 of 42 (24%) showed AI on 3p (Figures 2 and 3)
.
Five tumors were not informative at any locus on 3p and one tumor was
not informative at any locus on 1q. The breast carcinomas showed higher
rates of AI, 40% (30/75) and 67% (50/75) on 3p and 1q, respectively
(Table 2)
. All 10 microsatellites
amplified consistently for the breast carcinomas, but only 7 amplified
consistently in the phyllodes tumors, owing to the fragmented DNA
extracted from the paraffin-embedded tissues. When just the 7 markers
used for the phyllodes tumors were analyzed, 27/74 (36%) and 38/73
(52%) of the carcinomas showed AI on 3p and 1q, respectively.
In the phyllodes tumors, AI was not confined to the stroma. Some tumors
had AI in the stroma only, but others had AI affecting both the
epithelium and the stroma, or AI detectable only in the epithelium
(Figures 2 and 3)
. In all cases, these changes were consistently
detected in repeat PCRs from the same samples. Overall, allelic
imbalance was slightly more common in the epithelium than in the stroma
(Table 2)
. Looking at the group as a whole, 5 tumors had changes in
both the epithelium and stroma, 8 tumors had changes only detectable in
the stroma and 8, changes in the epithelium only. However, due to the
small amount of tissue in the epithelial components, many more of these
failed to amplify markers compared to the stroma. For the 8 cases where
only the stroma showed AI, in 4 the corresponding epithelium would not
amplify and thus it is not possible to exclude similar changes in the
epithelium. For the remaining 4 tumors, however, the AI was confined to
the stroma with no evidence of AI in the epithelium. One of these 4
tumors showed stroma-specific AI at markers on 1q and three, imbalance
on 3p. In all 8 cases that showed AI in the epithelium only, the stroma
had also amplified; thus these changes were definitely confined to the
epithelium. Four of these 8 tumors showed epithelium-specific AI on 1q
and three, imbalance on 3p; one tumor (sample 69) showed AI on both
arms. Of the tumors with AI in both stroma and epithelium, 4 were
entirely concordant (showing imbalance of the same allele at the same
marker). In one tumor (sample 95), however, a complex pattern of AI was
seen (Figures 2 and 3)
. Examples of AI in the stroma and epithelium are
shown in Figure 4
.

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Figure 4. Examples of AI
(arrows) in
(a) the stroma
(sample 90, marker
D1S416) and
(b) the
epithelium (sample 69, marker
D1S187).
|
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In addition to the AI detected, 3/47 (6%) phyllodes tumors exhibited
microsatellite instability (MSI) in the epithelium (Figure 5)
. No MSI was demonstrated in the
stroma. Again, these changes were consistently demonstrated in repeat
PCR reactions. Only 2/78 (2.7%) breast carcinomas showed evidence of
MSI.

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Figure 5. Example of microsatellite instability
(arrows) in
the epithelium. a: Sample 83, marker D3S1619. b:
Sample 69, marker D3S1619.
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The overall lower frequency of AI in the phyllodes tumors and the
failure of some samples to amplify in the PCR mean that it was not
possible to map accurately regions of allelic imbalance and a detailed
comparison with the breast carcinomas was difficult. Nevertheless,
there appeared to be some concordance between the patterns of AI on 1q
in the two types of lesion (Table 2)
: the highest frequency of AI
occurred toward the 1q telomere in the stroma and epithelium of the
phyllodes tumors and in the breast cancers. On 3p, no obvious
concordance existed. AI occurred at similar frequencies along the 3p
chromosome arm in the carcinomas, whereas maximum imbalance was at
D3S1300 in the stroma of the phyllodes tumors and at D3S1293 in the
epithelium (Table 2)
. This difference on 3p may reflect our original
hypothesis that mapping losses and gains would, in theory, be easier in
phyllodes tumors than in genetically heterogeneous carcinomas. Given
our findings in the stromal and epithelial components of phyllodes
tumors, however, such studies are likely to be problematic at this
stage.
There was no significant association between AI in either the
epithelium or stroma and the recorded histological variables
(
2
test, details not shown). In particular,
there was no association between AI at any marker and epithelial
hyperplasia or stromal overgrowth. The tumor with LCIS did show allelic
imbalance at markers on both 1q and 3p, although the tumor with
epithelium containing DCIS/LCIS showed no allelic imbalance.
 |
Discussion
|
|---|
The general belief regarding phyllodes tumors is that the stroma
is the neoplastic element and the epithelium within the tumors is
entirely innocent, having either been caught up in the neoplastic
stromal proliferation or shown some proliferation driven by stromally
derived growth factors. With the use of the laser capture microscope,
we have separated the stroma and epithelium with minimal contamination
and studied each separately. This study has shown that AI in the
epithelium of phyllodes tumors is as common as it is in the stroma.
Thus, we suspect that, at least in some phyllodes tumors, both stroma
and epithelium are neoplastic. Although contrary to general belief
about the cellular origins of phyllodes tumors, our conclusions are
supported by a previous cytogenetic analysis of stroma and epithelium
in a small number of phyllodes tumors that showed chromosomal
abnormalities in both tumor components.9
Our data also show that the genetic changes in the stroma and
epithelium of individual phyllodes tumors are sometimes discordant.
Thus, either both parts of the tumor have independent clonal origins,
or the stroma and epithelium originate from the same clone and acquire
different mutations during tumor progression. Theoretical
considerations, namely the low probability of independent mutations in
adjacent normal stroma and epithelium, and the finding of AI
concordance in some phyllodes tumors suggest the latter. The finding of
MSI in the epithelium of some phyllodes tumors is interesting in this
regard and has not been reported before in benign breast disease. All
examples of MSI in our phyllodes tumors were of the low-level type,
which is believed not usually to be associated with mismatch repair
deficiency. Some studies have found MSI to accompany early
transformation of breast epithelium,10
and it is possible
that the MSI we have detected is an epiphenomenal event associated with
abnormal cell division of the epithelium in phyllodes tumors.
Allelic loss and cytogenetic rearrangements have been described on 3p
in benign breast conditions such as papillomas, atypical epithelial
hyperplasia, and fibroadenoma, as well as in phyllodes tumors and
breast carcinoma.8,9,11
One of the most commonly deleted
regions, in benign breast tissue as well as carcinoma, is 3p12-p14,
reportedly including the FHIT gene.12
D3S1300
maps to an intron in FHIT.13,14
Losses at both
3p14 and 3p21-p23 have been described in phyllodes tumors using
cytogenetic methods.9
In our study, 3p AI at these sites
occurred in both the epithelium and stroma. Gain of 1q is a common
cytogenetic finding in many cancers. It was of particular interest in
phyllodes tumors, as in a set of 18 tumors studied by CGH it appeared
to be a marker of recurrence.6
In that study, 38% of
tumors showed gain of 1q, compared to 30% with AI in our series. This
difference may have resulted from the selection of fresh-frozen
tumors for the previous study, which may have been larger and
therefore more aggressive, or the different techniques, CGH and
microsatellites, used to assess gain and loss.
The lack of correlation between the AI findings and histological
observations is interesting. It may arise because 1q and 3p changes can
occur relatively early in the growth of phyllodes tumors and other loci
are involved in phyllodes tumor progression. The absence of a
correlation between epithelial hyperplasia or atypia and epithelial AI
is, in retrospect, surprising, but any correlation may be masked by a
tendency for lesions without such epithelial changes to be more
difficult to amplify in the PCR. This same tendency may mean that our
reported frequencies of AI overestimate the true frequencies,
especially in the epithelium.
The genetic changes we have described in both the epithelium and stroma
of phyllodes tumors suggest that both are part of the neoplastic
process. A recent study showed that the more malignant phyllodes tumors
showed focal areas of increased stromal cellularity, often condensed
around epithelial components, which corresponded to areas of p53
immunoreactivity.15
Further studies must re-address the
issue of clonal origins in early phyllodes tumors using new techniques.
They must also analyze the dependence of stromal growth on the
epithelium or vice versa, the stage (if any) at which
independent growth of stroma and/or epithelium occurs, and the events
which determine that transition.
 |
Footnotes
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Address reprint requests to Dr. E. J. Sawyer, Molecular and Population Genetics Laboratory, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, 44, Lincolns Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PX, UK.
E. J. S. is supported by the Special Trustees of Guys & St. Thomass Hospital.
Accepted for publication November 17, 1999.
 |
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