Villin

Immunohistochemical expression

Only staining of the brush border appears to be of diagnostic value.

		staining of the brush border more than 25% of tumour cells
Adenocarcinomas	Colorectum	60/731, 24/24 (uniformly and strongly positive with a concentration of staining at the luminal cell margin)2
	Oesophagus	7/91
	Stomach	10/241, 6/6 (tubular carcinoma)2
	Duodenum	4/41
	Pancreas	8/221, 12/14 (in some cases, the staining was heterogeneous)2
	Gallbladder / cholangiocarcinoma	9/161, 2/22
	Hepatocellular	0/121, 1/12
	Ovary, mucinous adenocarcinoma	9/141
	Ovary, non-mucinous, NOS	0/311
	Breast	0/341, 0/122
	Endometrium	4/112
	Ovary	0/92
	Prostate	0/241
	Bladder adenocarcinoma	3/3 (including one urachal carcinoma)1
	Kidney	0/71, 13/21 (9 of 13 clear cell, 4 of 4 chromophilic, 0 of 4 chromophobic)2
	Thyroid	0/36 (11 papillary carcinomas and 25 follicular adenomas / carcinomas)1
Adenoma	Duodenum	10/101
	Ovary, mucinous cystadenoma	0/131
	Ovary, mucinous borderline tumour	0/41
Gastrointestinal carcinoid		4/121
Lung primaries	Squamous cell carcinoma	0/111
	Adenocarcinoma NOS	0/111, 5/18 (one uniformly and four focally positive)2, 0/26 (non-mucinous bronchoalveolar)3
	Mucinous	0/21, 1/14 (mucinous bronchoalveolar, one case positive in 5-25% of tumour, in a cytoplasmic distribution)3
	non-small cell and NOS	3/331
	Small cell carcinoma	0/41
Mesothelioma		0/71, 0/72
Other carcinomas	transitional cell carcinoma of bladder	3/21 (three cases showed staining of less than 25% of tumour cells)1
	salivary gland pleomorphic adenoma	0/61
	salivary gland low grade carcinoma	0/61
	head and neck squamous cell carcinoma	0/131

Diagnostic utility

Villin appears to be inferior to CDX2 in sensitivity and specificity for the identification of metastases from colorectal and other gastrointestinal primaries. However, it may be useful in combination with CDX2, particularly in extra-gastrointestinal mucinous tumours with anomalous positivity for CDX-2.

References

¹Werling, R.W., Yaziji, H., Bacchi, C.E. and Gown, A.M. CDX2, a Highly Sensitive and Specific Marker of Adenocarcinomas of Intestinal Origin: An Immunohistochemical Survey of 476 Primary and Metastatic Carcinomas. Am J Surg Pathol 2003;27:303-10.

²Moll, R., Robine, S., Dudouet, B. and Louvard, D. Villin: a cytoskeletal protein and a differentiation marker expressed in some human adenocarcinomas. Virchows Arch B Cell Pathol Incl Mol Pathol 1987;54:155-69.

³Goldstein, N. S. and M. Thomas (2001). "Mucinous and nonmucinous bronchioloalveolar adenocarcinomas have distinct staining patterns with thyroid transcription factor and cytokeratin 20 antibodies." Am J Clin Pathol 116(3): 319-25.

This page last revised 21.5.2004.

©SMUHT/PW Bishop