Brain Metastases from Ovarian Carcinoma: An Evaluation of Prognostic Factors and Treatment.

Aims And Objectives: To review a series of patients with brain metastases from ovarian cancer at a single institution. To describe treatment modalities, their outcomes and to determine prognostic factors.

Patients And Methods: Between January 1995 and December 2014, 25 patients with ovarian cancer brain metastases were treated at The Sheba Medical Center.

Role of Klotho Protein in Tumor Genesis, Cancer Progression, and Prognosis in Patients with High-Grade Glioma.

Background: Klotho, a single-pass transmembrane protein associated with premature aging, acts as a tumor suppressor gene by inhibiting insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 and fibroblast growth factor pathways. Downregulated Klotho expression is reported in melanoma, mesothelioma, bladder, breast, gastric, cervix, lung, and kidney cancers and is associated with a poor prognosis. Klotho expression and Klotho promoter hypermethylation are predictive factors for patient prognosis.

Antibody array strategy for human growth factor secretome profiling of GH-secreting adenomas.

Purposes: To test if the antibody array strategy could be utilized to simultaneously detect the secretion of multiple growth factors by human pituitary GH-adenomas and to measure octreotide-induced alterations.

Methods: Specimens of human pituitary adenomas were cultured and incubated with or without octreotide for 24 h. Conditional media were analyzed by human growth factor antibody array and VEGF concentrations were measured by ELISA.

Radiation-induced vascular malformations in the brain, mimicking tumor in MRI-based treatment response assessment maps (TRAMs).

•Of 310 brain tumors patients recruited, histology of 99 lesions was available.•Of those, 5 were histologically confirmed as radiation-induced malformations.•TRAMs cannot differentiate active tumor from vascular malformation.

Deleterious variants in TRAK1 disrupt mitochondrial movement and cause fatal encephalopathy.

Cellular distribution and dynamics of mitochondria are regulated by several motor proteins and a microtubule network. In neurons, mitochondrial trafficking is crucial because of high energy needs and calcium ion buffering along axons to synapses during neurotransmission. The trafficking kinesin proteins (TRAKs) are well characterized for their role in lysosomal and mitochondrial trafficking in cells, especially neurons.

α-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR) expression in chordomas differentiates them from chondrosarcomas.

Aims: Chordomas and chondrosarcomas are malignant mesenchymal tumours with overlapping morphological and immunohistochemical (IHC) characteristics. Our aim was to evaluate the IHC expression of α-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR/P504S), β-catenin and E-cadherin in chordomas relative to chondrosarcomas and assess the utility of these markers for differential diagnosis.

Methods: Archival sections of 18 chordomas, 19 chondrosarcomas and 10 mature cartilage samples were immunostained and scored for AMACR, β-catenin and E-cadherin and the relative differential capacity of each marker was calculated.

Devastating recurrent brain ischemic infarctions and retinal disease in pediatric patients with CD59 deficiency.

Identification of CD59 p.Cys89Tyr mutation in 5 patients from North-African Jewish origin presenting with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy like disease and chronic hemolysis, led us to reinvestigate an unsolved disease in 2 siblings from the same origin who died 17 years ago. The two patients carried the same CD59 gene mutation previously described by our group.

Delayed contrast extravasation MRI: a new paradigm in neuro-oncology.

Background: Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is unable to differentiate tumor/nontumor enhancing tissues. We have applied delayed-contrast MRI for calculating high resolution treatment response assessment maps (TRAMs) clearly differentiating tumor/nontumor tissues in brain tumor patients.

Methods: One hundred and fifty patients with primary/metastatic tumors were recruited and scanned by delayed-contrast MRI and perfusion MRI.

Human cytomegalovirus viral load in tumor and peripheral blood samples of patients with malignant gliomas.

Malignant gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors in adults. The disease has no known etiology, progresses rapidly, and is fatal despite current therapies. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a beta herpes virus that is trophic for glial cells and infects 50% to 90% of the adult human population.

Steroid-responsive, progressive, focal measles virus brain infection.

Chronic measles virus infection of the brain causes subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a progressive, relentless fatal disorder. We report a 52-year-old male who developed focal, chronic persistent measles virus infection of the brain following interferon and ribavirin therapy for hepatitis C, and who responded to steroid therapy. This case, diametrically different from SSPE, has 2 unique features, its focal nature and its permissive response to steroids, that may add to the understanding of the pathogenesis of SSPE and the mechanism enabling viruses to evade the immune response and establish persistent brain infection.

Brain biopsy in AIDS patients: diagnostic yield and treatment applications.

Objective: Central nervous system involvement in AIDS patients can present at any stage of the disease. Brain lesions detected in imaging studies are usually treated empirically. A brain biopsy is indicated in the absence of clinical and radiologic improvement.

Long-term response in high-grade optic glioma treated with medically induced hypothyroidism and carboplatin: a case report and review of the literature.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most malignant and frequent brain tumor, with an aggressive growth pattern and poor prognosis despite best treatment modalities. Long-term survival of patients with GBM is rare. Optic glioma represents 0.

Delayed contrast extravasation MRI for depicting tumor and non-tumoral tissues in primary and metastatic brain tumors.

The current standard of care for newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is resection followed by radiotherapy with concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide. Recent studies suggest that nearly half of the patients with early radiological deterioration post treatment do not suffer from tumor recurrence but from pseudoprogression. Similarly, a significant number of patients with brain metastases suffer from radiation necrosis following radiation treatments.

Presentation patterns and outcome of gliomatosis cerebri.

A total of 25 patients with gliomatosis cerebri (19 males and 6 females; median age 51 years, range 10-73 years) were diagnosed and treated at the Sheba Medical Center between 1995 and 2009. Of these, 3 patients were 10 years old at the time of diagnosis. Seizures were the initial clinical presentation in 19 patients, focal signs in 16 patients, headaches in 7 patients, cognitive disorder in 4 patients and rapidly progressive hemiparesis in 1 patient.

Heparanase is highly expressed and regulates proliferation in GH-secreting pituitary tumor cells.

Pituitary tumorigenesis involves remodeling of the extracellular matrix (ECM). Heparanase, an endoglycosidase capable of degrading heparan sulfate, a major polysaccharide constituent of the ECM, is implicated in diverse processes associated with ECM remodeling, such as morphogenesis, angiogenesis, and tumor invasion. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible role of heparanase in pituitary tumorigenesis.

Validation of a microRNA-based qRT-PCR test for accurate identification of tumor tissue origin.

Identification of the tissue of origin of a tumor is vital to its management. Previous studies showed tissue-specific expression patterns of microRNA and suggested that microRNA profiling would be useful in addressing this diagnostic challenge. MicroRNAs are well preserved in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples, further supporting this approach.

Epidemiology of gliomas in Israel: a nationwide study.

Background: Glial brain tumors span a wide range of neoplasms with distinct clinical and histopathological features. This report presents the descriptive epidemiology of glial tumors by histological subtype and tumor behavior.

Methods: The study population included all incident cases of glial tumors diagnosed in Israel during March 2001 to July 2003.

MiR-92b and miR-9/9* are specifically expressed in brain primary tumors and can be used to differentiate primary from metastatic brain tumors.

A recurring challenge for brain pathologists is to diagnose whether a brain malignancy is a primary tumor or a metastasis from some other tissue. The accurate diagnosis of brain malignancies is essential for selection of proper treatment. MicroRNAs are a class of small non-coding RNA species that regulate gene expression; many exhibit tissue-specific expression and are misregulated in cancer.

MicroRNAs accurately identify cancer tissue origin.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) belong to a class of noncoding, regulatory RNAs that is involved in oncogenesis and shows remarkable tissue specificity. Their potential for tumor classification suggests they may be used in identifying the tissue in which cancers of unknown primary origin arose, a major clinical problem. We measured miRNA expression levels in 400 paraffin-embedded and fresh-frozen samples from 22 different tumor tissues and metastases.

Cardiac papillary fibroelastoma of the mitral chorda.

We describe a case of cardiac papillary fibroelastoma in a 33-year-old man. The diagnosis was established by echocardiography. Computerised tomographic angiography gave no evidence of coronary stenosis, but illustrated a radiopaque filling defect in the left ventricle.

Magnetic resonance imaging-guided focused ultrasound for thermal ablation in the brain: a feasibility study in a swine model.

Introduction: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided focused ultrasound is a novel technique that was developed to enable precise, image-guided targeting and destruction of tumors by thermocoagulation. The system, ExAblate2000, is a focused ultrasound delivery system embedded within the MRI bed of a conventional diagnostic MRI scanner. The device delivers small volumetric sonications from an ultrasound phased array transmitter that converge energy to selectively destroy the target.

Magnetic resonance imaging-guided, high-intensity focused ultrasound for brain tumor therapy.

Objective: Magnetic resonance imaging-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (MRIgFUS) is a novel technique that may have the potential for precise image-guided thermocoagulation of intracranial lesions. The system delivers small volumetric sonications from an ultrasound phased array transmitter that focuses energy selectively to destroy the target with verification by magnetic resonance imaging-generated thermal maps. A Phase I clinical study was initiated to treat patients with recurrent glioma with MRIgFUS.

Cerebellar tumor extension as a late event of long-standing, supratentorial low-grade gliomas: case report.

Objective And Importance: Nonpilocytic low-grade glial tumors in adults occur mostly in the supratentorial compartment. However, a few cases of infratentorial low-grade gliomas (LGG) have been described. The occurrence of LGG in the cerebellum in the setting of a previously existing supratentorial glioma is rare.

Assessment of multiple sclerosis lesions with spherical harmonics: comparison of MR imaging and pathologic findings.

Spherical harmonics (SH) were used to approximate the volume and three-dimensional geometry of multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions in deceased patients. The institutional ethical committee does not require its approval for studies involving pathologic specimens. Pathologic findings were used as the reference standard.