Amylase α-1A (AMY1A): a novel immunohistochemical marker to differentiate chromophobe renal cell carcinoma from benign oncocytoma.

Chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (ChRCC) and oncocytoma present with a perplexing overlap of morphologic and immunohistochemical features. ChRCC have deletions in the 1p21.1 region including the amylase alpha-1A gene (AMY1A). No such deletions are found in oncocytoma. Instead, oncocytomas shared other deletions on chromosome 1: 1p31.3, 1q25.2, and 1q44. We performed AMY1A immunostaining on 75 oncocytomas (57 tissue microarray [TMA] cores, 18 whole slides) and 54 ChRCCs (20 TMA cores, 34 whole slides). Staining was assessed using the H-score method. The intensity was graded as follows: no staining = 0, weak = 1, moderate = 2, and strong = 3. The AMY1A immunostain preferentially stained the distal tubules and collecting ducts of normal kidney. All oncocytomas (100%) expressed AMY1A with an H-score that varied from 100 to 300 (mean 205). Mild to moderate heterogeneity in staining intensity was noted within a given oncocytoma. For oncocytomas, 87% (65/75) cases had H-scores of at least 120 with a mean score of 221. Notably, the 13% (10/75) of oncocytoma cases that had an H-score of 100 were derived from the TMA. A total of 87% (47/54) of the ChRCC cases were negative for the AMY1A immunostain. Of the ChRCC cases, 4% (2/54) showed very weak cytoplasmic staining (H-score of 70 each), which was less than the lowest H-score of oncocytoma cases. All 5 cases of ChRCC, which showed an H-score of 100 or more, were referred to as eosinophilic variants of ChRCC. Three of these 5 cases showed a very nondescript, diffuse staining of the cytoplasm. Two of these 5 cases showed an H-score of 130. We think that as the staining pattern of these 2 cases is similar to that of oncocytoma, they should be put in a category of renal oncocytic neoplasms favoring oncocytoma. This result shows that AMY1A staining could be very helpful in further classifying even a subset of the eosinophilic variants of ChRCC. The difference between ChRCC and oncocytoma was statistically significant (chi(2) test, P < 0.0001). All cases of clear cell RCC and papillary RCC were negative for AMY1A expression. Overall, sensitivity and specificity of AMY1A staining for oncocytoma was 100% (95% confidence interval, 0.95-1.00) and 96.75% (95% confidence interval, 0.93-0.99), respectively. Similarly, the sensitivity and specificity for distinguishing oncocytoma from ChRCC was 100% (95% confidence interval, 0.95-1.00) and 90.74% (95% confidence interval, 0.80-0.97), respectively. These data show that the novel marker AMY1A can be of great diagnostic utility when trying to differentiate ChRCC (classic and eosinophilic variant) and oncocytoma.