Assessing Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Breast Cancer: A Proposal for Combining Immunohistochemistry and Gene Expression Analysis to Refine Scoring.

Scoring of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in breast cancer specimens has gained increasing attention, as TILs have prognostic and predictive value in HER2 and triple-negative breast cancer. We evaluated the intra- and interrater variability when scoring TILs by visual inspection of hematoxylin and eosin-stained tissue sections. We further addressed whether immunohistochemical staining of these sections for immune cell surface markers CD45, CD3, CD4, and CD8 and combination with nanoString nCounter gene expression analysis could refine TIL scoring.

Overcoming the Challenges of High Quality RNA Extraction from Core Needle Biopsy.

The use of gene expression profiling (GEP) in cancer management is rising, as GEP can be used for disease classification and diagnosis, tailoring treatment to underlying genetic determinants of pharmacological response, monitoring of therapy response, and prognosis. However, the reliability of GEP heavily depends on the input of RNA in sufficient quantity and quality. This highlights the need for standard procedures to ensure best practices for RNA extraction from often small tumor biopsies with variable tissue handling.

A rare cause of unilateral breast swelling in a male infant caused by fibrous hamartoma of infancy combined with pseudoangiomatous stromal hyperplasia.

We report a case of a male infant who underwent resection of a unilateral breast mass with a histopathological diagnosis of a fibrous hamartoma of infancy (FHI) combined with a pseudoangiomatous stromal hyperplasia (PASH). Breast lumps are uncommon in infants and children, especially in boys. FHI and PASH are very rare causes of breast lumps, especially in infants.

Magnetic resonance imaging findings in cardiac lipoma.

Cardiac lipomas are exceedingly rare benign tumors of the heart. They are usually asymptomatic. Occasionally, they are found on MRI as an incidental finding.

Case report: imaging findings in a "butterfly" vertebra.

A "butterfly" vertebra is a rare congenital anomaly, presenting as a sagittal cleft in the vertebral body. In the literature it has been described as an isolated finding, but it can also be associated with various syndromes, such as Alagille, Jarcho-Levin, Crouzon and Pfeiffer syndrome. We present a case of a 35-year old man with chronic low back pain.