Droplet Digital PCR Assessment of MDM2 Amplification in Liposarcoma Diagnosis and Prognosis: A French Single-Center...

Amplification of MDM2 is the molecular hallmark of atypical lipomatous tumor/well-differentiated liposarcoma (ALT/WDL) and dedifferentiated liposarcoma (DDL). While fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is widely used for diagnosis, the diagnostic and prognostic value of droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) remains poorly defined. We retrospectively analyzed 341 primary adipocytic tumors, including 85 liposarcomas (22 DDL), using ddPCR to quantify MDM2 copy number variation (CNV). Diagnostic performance was compared with FISH, and associations with clinicopathological variables and outcomes were evaluated using non-parametric tests, ROC analysis, survival analysis, and Firth's penalized Cox models. Comparison with FISH confirmed the diagnostic utility of ddPCR for detecting MDM2 amplification, while quantitative CNV assessment provided additional prognostic information. CNV values were significantly higher in deep-seated and dedifferentiated tumors and were strongly associated with local recurrence. ROC analysis identified a threshold of 16.85 copies predicting both dedifferentiation and recurrence (AUC 0.982 and 0.942, respectively). Patients with CNV ≥ 16.85 copies had significantly shorter recurrence-free and overall survival. In multivariable analysis, high CNV remained an independent predictor of recurrence (HR 36.6, 95% CI 4.0-4914.2). These findings support ddPCR as a robust method for MDM2 assessment and suggest that quantitative MDM2 copy number may improve both diagnosis and risk stratification in liposarcoma.