Subcutaneous sarcoidosis.

Subcutaneous sarcoidosis has been reported to occur in 1.4% to 6% of patients with systemic sarcoidosis. Most reported cases are in women, most often in their fifth and sixth decades, and appear as multiple, asymptomatic, hardly indurated subcutaneous nodules without changes in the overlying epidermis.

Traumatic panniculitis.

Traumatic panniculitis refers to changes in the subcutaneous fat related to physical or chemical agents. The clinical picture of traumatic panniculitis is nonspecific. Cutaneous lesions are indurated, warm, red, subcutaneous plaques or nodules not necessary related to the intensity of the injury.

Necrobiosis lipoidica.

Necrobiosis lipoidica (NL) is a granulomatous condition with a degenerative connective tissue of unknown etiology very often associated with diabetes. Histopathologically, NL involves all of the dermis and, often, the subcutaneous fat produces a septal panniculitis. There are some changes suggesting the diagnosis of NL, and systemic disease should be considered if there is the presence of necrotizing vasculitis in the skin biopsy.

Cutaneous infiltration by cancer.

Background: Cutaneous infiltration by cancer has been reported to occur in 0.7% to 9% of all patients with malignant neoplasms and is usually considered a late event in the evolution of most visceral carcinomas.

Objective: To analyze the clinicopathological features of cutaneous infiltration by cancer.

HER-2/neu status and response to CMF: retrospective study in a series of operable breast cancer treated with primary CMF chemotherapy.

Purpose: Primary chemotherapy brings the opportunity for an early and accurate assessment of response and offers an ideal model to search for new predictors of response. HER-2/neu is one of the most studied genes for this purpose.

Patients And Methods: Her-2/neu was tested in a non-randomized series of 300 patients with operable breast carcinomas treated with primary CMF.

Predictive value of HER-2 and Topoisomerase IIalpha in response to primary doxorubicin in breast cancer.

Aim: To study the predictive role of HER-2 and Topoisomerase IIalpha (TOP2A) in response to primary doxorubicin.

Methods: Two hundred and thirty-two patients with operable breast cancer were treated with doxorubicin prior to surgery. ER, PgR, grade, Ki-67 and HER-2 status were prospectively assessed.

Primary chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-fluorouracil in operable breast carcinoma.

Background: Primary chemotherapy (PC) is becoming an accepted practice to treat large tumors to avoid mastectomies and as a surrogate of outcome.

Methods: A series of 305 patients with tumors >3 cm with T2-3N0-1M0 classification were treated with a multimodal approach that consisted of 3 courses of primary cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-fluorouracil (CMF) followed by appropriate local treatment and 3 more courses of CMF or 4 courses of doxorubicin. Response was assessed by mammography.

Overproduction of VEGF concomitantly expressed with its receptors promotes growth and survival of melanoma cells through MAPK and PI3K signaling.

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an important mediator of tumor-associated angiogenesis, and consequently it has been associated with metastasis. We report here that the overexpression of VEGF(165) in melanoma xenografts promotes an acceleration of tumor growth and an increase in angiogenesis as well as the spontaneous metastasis formation. In addition, VEGF receptors (VEGFR)1, VEGFR2 and neurophilin-1 are expressed in A375 melanoma cells.

Granuloma faciale: a clinicopathological study of 11 cases.

Background: Granuloma faciale is an uncommon disease of unknown etiology that is often misdiagnosed clinically and by general pathologists.

Objective: To describe the clinicopathological features of a series of patients with granuloma faciale.

Methods: Eleven patients diagnosed with granuloma faciale between 1990 and 2002 were included in the study.

Algorithm for the diagnosis of HER-2/neu status in breast-infiltrating carcinomas.

Determination of HER-2/neu overexpression/amplification is becoming increasingly important. The aim of this study is to elaborate an algorithm for the diagnosis of Her-2/neu status in breast-infiltrating carcinomas. Three hundred five breast-infiltrating carcinomas were selected to determine HER-2/neu overexpression by immunohistochemistry with two different methods: the monoclonal antibody CB11 and the HercepTest.

Crohn's disease presenting as prepuce and scrotal edema.

Metastatic cutaneous Crohn's disease, in which noncaseating granuloma infiltration of the skin occurs at sites separated from the gastrointestinal tract by normal tissue, is the least common dermatologic manifestation of Crohn's disease. We report a case of a 34-year-old man with metastatic Crohn's disease presenting as prepuce and scrotal edema with typical histopathologic features. We think that any unusual cutaneous lesion in patients with Crohn's disease should be biopsied.

Papular sarcoidosis of the knees: a clue for the diagnosis of erythema nodosum-associated sarcoidosis.

Background: In recent years we have systematically explored the skin whenever sarcoidosis was suggested and we have observed with increasing frequency the presence of granulomatous cutaneous lesions of sarcoidosis involving the knees.

Objective: We sought to evaluate the specific cutaneous lesions of sarcoidosis involving the knees.

Methods: A total of 18 patients with biopsy-proven specific cutaneous sarcoidosis predominantly involving the knees were included in the study.

Pathologic changes related to CMF primary chemotherapy in breast cancer. Pathological evaluation of response predicts clinical outcome.

The pathologic changes associated to response to primary chemotherapy in a series of 303 operable breast cancers are evaluated and correlated to patients' follow-up (interval free of disease and survival). In our series, the incidence of microscopic changes related to chemotherapy is 43.9%.