Immunoexpression of WT1 in Astrocytoma and its Correlation with Histopathological Grade

Central nervous system, morphologic features and invasive behavior. These are therapeuticallychallenging for their infiltrative growth pattern, occasionally resistant to conventional therapiesand invariably high grade tumors have shown poor prognosis. Moreover biological behavior ofastrocytoma and chance of recurrence cannot be ruled out by histopathological evaluation alone.So, new predictive marker for determining tumor progression is at stake.Objectives: The purpose of the study was to evaluate WT1 expression in astrocytoma and itscorrelation with histological grade.Methods: The cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the Department of Pathology,Dhaka Medical College (DMC) from September 2019 to August 2021. Histologically diagnosed 51cases of different grades of astrocytoma were included in this study. Immunostaining with WT1protein was done in all cases. The data were collected and statistical analysis was done by SPSS.Results: The mean age for grade I, II, III and IV astrocytoma’s are 14, 27.5, 38.6 and 44 yearsrespectively. There were 30 male and 21 female patients with the ratio 1.42:1. Among 51 cases ofastrocytoma’s Grade I, II ,III and IV are 10, 15, 8 and 18 in number. By Immunohistochemicalstudy positive WT1 expression was seen in all cases of astrocytoma’s (100%). Out of 25 cases oflow grade astrocytoma’s (WHO grade I and II), expression was found mild in 12 (48%) cases,moderate in 11 (54%) cases and marked only 02 (8%) cases. Regarding 26 cases of high gradeastrocytoma’s (WHO grade III and IV) expression found mostly marked in 16 (61.5%) cases,moderate in 09 (34.7%) and mild only in 01 (3.8%) cases. These data shows WT1 expressionincreases with WHO tumor grades and significant positive (p<0.001) correlation between WT1expression and tumor grade.Conclusion: The study reveals positive correlation between WT1 expressions with WHO tumorgrade in astrocytoma. Furthermore, evaluation of WT1 with histopathological grading may provideinformation about tumor progression as well as guide the clinicians for therapeutic purposes.