P53 immunohistochemical staining with antibodies targeted to epitopes at or near the N-terminus are commonly used in diagnostic pathology practice as a surrogate for TP53 mutations. The abnormal staining patterns indicating TP53 mutations include nuclear overexpression, null, and the recently described cytoplasmic staining. The latter staining pattern occurs with the less common TP53 mutations affecting its nuclear localization and/or tetramerization domains that are located toward the C-terminus. Here we describe the first two cases of pediatric sarcomas with cytoplasmic staining with P53 antibody against N-terminus epitope and the absence of staining with P53 antibody against C-terminus epitope. We propose that a more precise description of P53 immunohistochemical staining patterns should include the nature of the antibody used.
Keywords: C-terminus; Cytoplasmic; Immunohistochemistry; N-terminus; Nuclear localization domain; P53; Pediatric; Regulatory domain; Sarcoma; Tetramerization domain.