The Utility of Chest Imaging for Surveillance of Atypical Lipomatous Tumors.

Background: Unlike other soft tissue sarcomas, atypical lipomatous tumors (ALTs) are thought to have a low propensity for metastasis. Despite this, a standard of care for pulmonary metastasis (PM) surveillance has not been established. This study aimed to evaluate the utility of chest imaging for PM surveillance following ALT excision.

Histologic Analysis of Porcine Dermal Graft Augmentation in Treatment of Rotator Cuff Tears.

Background: Biologic augmentation via extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffolds has been utilized to address rotator cuff tears with poor-quality tissue.

Purpose: To evaluate the cellular changes in graft explants taken from patients treated with porcine dermal grafts for rotator cuff tears.

Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4.

Expanding the Molecular Genetic Spectrum of Bone and Soft Tissue Fibrosarcomas: An Institutional Experience.

Fibrosarcomas, once comprising the majority of unclassifiable spindle-cell sarcomas, are now regarded as a diagnosis of exclusion. Prompted by an index report of neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase fusion in fibrosarcomas by Yamazaki et al bone/soft tissue tumors diagnosed as fibrosarcoma at our institution were evaluated in an attempt to expand the genetic spectrum of fibrosarcomas and identify therapeutically targetable cases. Institutional archives were searched for cases diagnosed as "fibrosarcoma" involving bone/soft tissue from 2000 to present.

Cutaneous involvement by T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia presenting as livedoid vasculopathy.

T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia (T-PLL) is a rare, aggressive neoplasm derived from post-thymic T-cells. Patients are typically middle aged with a slight male predominance who present with a high white blood cell count, hepatosplenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, and other symptoms typically associated with leukemia. Although cutaneous involvement has been reported in up to 30% of cases of T-PLL, to our knowledge, none have presented with a presentation resembling livedoid vasculopathy.

Fusion in a Myoepithelial Carcinoma of Soft Tissue With Small Round Cell Morphology: A Potential Diagnostic Pitfall.

Myoepithelial tumors of soft tissue are rare mesenchymal neoplasms that overlap with their salivary gland and skin counterparts at both the histopathologic and molecular levels. gene rearrangements with various fusion partners represent a common genetic event in myoepithelial tumors of soft tissue, whether benign or malignant, and may prove useful as a diagnostic tool in difficult cases. However, the number of diagnostic entities with gene rearrangements has grown considerably in recent years, and there is significant morphologic and immunophenotypic overlap amongst this group, underscoring the importance of fusion testing to detect fusion partners that are characteristic of discrete diagnostic entities.

Cutaneous metastasis of SMARCA4-deficient thoracic sarcoma: A diagnostic dilemma with therapeutic implications.

SMARCA4-deficient thoracic sarcoma (SMARCA4-DTS) is a recently recognized entity with undifferentiated rhabdoid morphology and mutations in the switch/sucrose nonfermenting BRG1-associated factors complex. Patients are typically males in their fifth decade with a history of smoking who present with rapidly progressive intrathoracic disease and follow an aggressive clinical course. Metastatic disease is reported in up to 77% of cases; however, to our knowledge, cutaneous metastasis has not been reported nor has it been reported as the initial manifestation of the disease.

Novel intronic variation associated with pleuropulmonary blastoma in two siblings.

Pleuropulmonary blastomas (PPB) are rare aggressive paediatric lung malignancies associated with variants. We present two cases, a 2-year-old girl with upper respiratory tract symptoms as well as a 6-month-old girl sibling undergoing screening due to family history of malignancy. Imaging of the 2-year-old girl revealed a large mass filling the right hemithorax which was determined to be a type II PPB after pathological examination.

X-ray irradiation induced Disabled-2 gene promoter de-methylation enhances radiosensitivity of non-small-cell lung carcinoma cells.

Background: Disabled-2 (Dab2) is known as a tumor suppressor as well as a Wnt pathway inhibitor. We previously reported that Dab2 was down-regulated due to gene promoter hypermethylation in lung cancer. Here, we aim to study if X-ray irradiation can induce de-methylation of the Dab2 gene and subsequently up-regulate its expression, and also to attempt to suppress the malignant biological behavior of and enhance the radiosensitivity in lung cancer cells with hypermethylation of the Dab2 gene.

Heat shock and caloric restriction have a synergistic effect on the heat shock response in a sir2.1-dependent manner in Caenorhabditis elegans.

The heat shock response (HSR) is responsible for maintaining cellular and organismal health through the regulation of proteostasis. Recent data demonstrating that the mammalian HSR is regulated by SIRT1 suggest that this response may be under metabolic control. To test this hypothesis, we have determined the effect of caloric restriction in Caenorhabditis elegans on activation of the HSR and have found a synergistic effect on the induction of hsp70 gene expression.