INSM1: A Novel Immunohistochemical and Molecular Marker for Neuroendocrine and Neuroepithelial Neoplasms

Abstract

INSM1 expression was significantly increased in neoplastic vs nonneoplastic tissue. Furthermore, among midgut GI-NENs, neoplasms with known metastases showed significantly higher expression than those that had not yet metastasized.

Small cell lung cancer tumors and preclinical models display heterogeneity of neuroendocrine phenotypes

“…INSM1 binds to the HES1 promoter and represses HES1, which is a key negative regulator of NE differentiation. INSM1 is increasingly being used as an immunostaining marker for NE cells and tumors (25) and its expression is very tightly correlated with the NE score. The establishment of the NE scoring system identified BEX1 as the top NE associated gene.…”

“…Some of them, ASCL1, chromogranin A (CHGA) (24) and INSM1 (25) are in use as immunostains for the pathological diagnosis of SCLC and other NE tumors.…”

A Prominent Couple

“…However, INSM1 has been found to be aberrantly expressed in NE tumors of different origin including insulinoma, pituitary tumor, pheochromocytoma, medullary thyroid carcinoma, medulloblastoma, neuroblastoma, retinoblastoma, and small cell lung carcinoma [31]. It has recently been shown that INSM1 is a sensitive marker of human gastrointestinal NED and small cell lung cancer [63][64][65]. In PCa, adenocarcinomas with a NED component exhibited high expression of INSM1, while tumors without NED were negative for INSM1 [63].…”

“…It has recently been shown that INSM1 is a sensitive marker of human gastrointestinal NED and small cell lung cancer [63][64][65]. In PCa, adenocarcinomas with a NED component exhibited high expression of INSM1, while tumors without NED were negative for INSM1 [63].…”

“…AR-V7 could be detected in primary untreated PCa at low levels, but showed an increased ratio relative to full length AR in metastatic CRPC (mCRPC) [24,62]. AR-V7 has been implicated in abiraterone and enzalutamide resistance and correlated to disease progression and mortality [24,62,63]. In VCaP cells, androgen deprivation using enzalutamide induced expression of AR-V7 [64].…”