Ganglioside GD2 expression is maintained upon recurrence in patients with osteosarcoma

BACKGROUND: Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone tumor in children and young adults. Ganglioside GD2 has been previously found on the cell surface in various tumor types, including osteosarcomas. FINDINGS: In this study, forty-nine additional osteosarcoma samples from 14 individual patients were assessed for GD2 expression via immunohistochemistry, of which 47 samples were found to express GD2. In matched samples from patients, GD2 expression seen at initial biopsy was found to persist in 100% of tissues taken at recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: GD2 expression was found to persist upon recurrence. These results suggest a phase 2 trial in children with recurrent osteosarcoma should provide an appropriate read out on the efficacy of anti-GD2 antibody. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13569-014-0020-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.