Tumor grading is a robust prognostic predictor in patients with neuroendocrine neoplasms (NEN) and guides therapy, especially in tumors with high proliferation. NEN can be separated into well-differentiated and poorly differentiated types. The more aggressive NEN have been further separated into neuroendocrine tumors (NET G3) with a better prognosis and neuroendocrine carcinomas (NEC) with a worse prognosis. Despite this distinction's tremendous clinical and therapeutic relevance, optimal diagnostic biomarkers are still lacking. In this study, we analyzed the protein expression and prognostic impact of Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 (EZH2) by immunohistochemistry in 219 tissue samples of gastroenteropancreatic (GEP-NEN) and pulmonary NEN (P-NEN). EZH2 was almost exclusively expressed in NEN with a proliferation rate above 20% (G3), while all low-grade tumors were nearly negative. Among high-grade NEN, 65% showed high and 35% low expression of EZH2. In this group, the high expression of EZH2 was significantly associated with poor overall survival and NEC histology. Interestingly, EZH2 seems to act independently of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) in NEN. In conclusion, we propose EZH2 as a robust biomarker for distinguishing between NET G3 and NEC among gastroenteropancreatic and pulmonary NEN.
Keywords: EZH2; neuroendocrine neoplasia; survival.