The oxidative stress in breast tumors of postmenopausal women is ERα/ERβ ratio dependent.

Estrogen receptor status is a diagnostic parameter in breast cancer treatment. Estrogen receptor presence is related to a better prognosis because the principal treatments attacking breast cancer tumors have their action site directed at the estrogen receptor. However, the two different subtypes of estrogen receptor, ERα and ERβ, have different functions.

Initial activation status of the antioxidant response determines sensitivity to carboplatin/paclitaxel treatment of ovarian cancer.

Background/aim: Ovarian carcinoma is the main cause of gynecological cancer related deaths. The aim of this study was to determine the activation status of the antioxidant response in samples of ovarian serous carcinoma from paraffin-embedded biopsies and compare them with the response of patients to carboplatin-paclitaxel treatment.

Materials And Methods: Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα), antioxidant enzymes, and uncoupling protein (UCP) levels were analyzed by western blotting and the presence of estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) was investigated by immunohistochemistry (IHC).

Multidisciplinary approach and multimodal therapy in resected pancreatic cancer. Observational study.

Objective: Analysis and evaluation of a multidisciplinary approach, postoperative results and survival of a group of patients with resected pancreatic cancer after a multimodal therapy.

Design: DESCRIPTIVE, prospective and observational study.

Patients: Between January 2004 and December 2004, 124 patients with pancreatic cancer were evaluated.

Malignant nodular hidradenoma on the scalp: report of a case with fine needle aspiration cytology features and histologic correlation.

Background: Malignant nodular hidradenoma (MNH) is a malignant adnexal tumor of the eccrine sweat glands. The histology is similar to that of benign nodular hidradenoma, but MNH shows an infiltrative and invasive pattern, necrosis and angiolymphatic invasion.

Case: A 60-year-old woman, diagnosed with rectal adenocarcinoma 6 months before, underwent fine needle aspiration (FNA) of a nodule on the scalp.

Primary monophasic synovial sarcoma of the duodenum confirmed by cytogenetic analysis with demonstration of t(X;18): a case report.

Synovial sarcoma (SS) is an uncommon malignant neoplasm of the soft tissues. It mainly affects the periarticular tissues of the extremities in young adults, but has been described at nearly all sites; nevertheless, the gastrointestinal tract is an exceptional location. We report a case of a primary synovial sarcoma of the duodenum in a 69-year-old woman.

Image analysis of dermal collagen changes during skin aging.

Objective: To determine progressive quantitative, directional and textural changes in dermal collagen as a function of age and sex and to estimate their evolutive trend with appropriate regression models.

Study Design: Ninety-six samples of abdominal skin from autopsy cases were analyzed. The ages ranged from 3.

Cytologic diagnosis of salivary duct carcinoma: a review of seven cases.

The cytomorphologic findings in fine-needle aspirates from 7 cases of salivary duct carcinoma (SDC) are reviewed and correlated with the histologic features. Malignant cytologic characteristics are clear in this tumor, and no false-negative results were obtained. But the absence of cribriform or papillary groups suggests an inconclusive diagnosis and sometimes the need to establish a differential diagnosis with other salivary tumors, and in particular with adenocarcinoma not otherwise specified (ADC-NOS) and high-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma (h-g MEC).

Fine needle aspiration cytology of undifferentiated (embryonal) sarcoma of the liver. A case report.

Background: Undifferentiated (embryonal) sarcoma of the liver (UESL) is a rare malignant mesenchymal hepatic tumor with an incidence among liver tumors of 27.7%. It occurs predominantly in children under the age of 15.

Differential diagnosis of malignant and reactive cells from serous effusions: image and texture analysis study.

The interrelationship of textural primitives which define morphological texture can be estimated by quite different descriptors; the discriminant value of which varies considerably. In the present study three different approaches to the texture analysis of nuclear chromatin were assayed to correctly allocate 332 cells from a pool obtained from serous effusions (six malignant mesotheliomas, six reactive mesothelial proliferations and five pleural metastases of lung adenocarcinoma). In all cases, initial cytological diagnosis posed considerable problems and final diagnosis was established by histologic examination of surgical specimens.

Nuclear texture in poorly differentiated small round cell tumors. Image analysis study of fine needle aspiration material.

Gradient analysis and pattern spectrum decomposition based on mathematical morphology concepts were used to explore nuclear texture patterns in a pool of 108 cells obtained by fine needle aspiration of five undifferentiated small round cell tumors of childhood, including one case each of Wilms' tumor, neuroblastoma, lymphoblastic lymphoma, Ewing's sarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma. The aim of the study was to determine the presumptive value of nuclear pattern to correctly allocate each isolated cell to each of the five patients. The cells were examples of five histogenetically different tumors, all undifferentiated and with a close microscopic resemblance to one another.

Image analysis of hemosiderin-laden macrophages in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid.

The aim of this study was to assess quantitatively the relationship between the number of iron-laden macrophages, extent of hemosiderin content and amount of dark-stained hemosiderin clumps in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids. The series included specimens from 20 subjects whose BAL had yielded iron-laden macrophages. Six had developed hemoptysis 3-15 days prior to BAL.

Fine needle aspiration diagnosis of renal oncocytoma. A mathematical morphologic approach.

Differentiation between renal oncocytomas and well-differentiated oxyphilic cell renal carcinomas from fine needle aspiration cytology smears may present considerable difficulties. To better define diagnostic criteria, we used high-resolution architectural characteristics of nucleus and cytoplasm based on mathematical morphologic concepts. Particulate structural elements were selected for their size and optical density by the so-called top-hat function.

Textural analysis of lymphoid cells in serous effusions. A mathematical morphologic approach.

Nuclear texture of reactive and well-differentiated neoplastic lymphocytes from serous effusions was studied by an approach based on principles of mathematical morphology. Density features were obtained before and after gray level nuclear image transformation by morphologic closing (dilation followed by erosion) and application of a top-hat function, which detects light or dense spots with a determined width and contrast. Five cases of benign reactive lymphocytic serous effusions and 11 cases of effusions in well-differentiated lymphocytic lymphomas were analyzed retrospectively.

Mathematical morphologic analysis of liver cirrhosis. Correlation with etiology, clinical score and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Remodeling of the cirrhotic liver was studied retrospectively by mathematical morphologic methods in 75 autopsy cases (40 alcoholic, 17 hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related and 18 cryptogenetic cirrhosis), including 28 hepatocellular carcinomas. The aim was to obtain objective measurements of cirrhotic patterns that could be correlated with liver function evaluated by the Pugh-Child score, establish the relationship among different morphogenetic features and evaluate the implications of an objective classification of cases by numerical taxonomy in terms of their etiology, liver function and malignant transformation. The results indicate that the Pugh-Child score was closely related to the global amount of fibrosis or to the percentage of regenerative nodules < 0.

Cirrhotic changes in livers from children undergoing transplantation. Image analysis.

The pattern and extent of disorganization of the liver architecture were studied in 25 children undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation for cirrhosis. Image analysis techniques based on mathematical morphology were used to define seven parameters for each case, including fibrosis index (percentage of Sirius-red-stained areas), three categories of regenerative nodules (< 0.8, 0.

Lobar emphysema associated with patient ductus arteriosus and pulmonary obstructive vascular disease.

Three cases of respiratory distress with patent ductus arteriosus are presented. The left-to-right shunt across the ductus arteriosus produced dilated pulmonary arteries and secondary bronchial compression, leading to lobar emphysema. The increase of blood flow across the ductus arteriosus causes structural changes of the wall of the preacinar and intra-acinar arteries.

Functioning metastases of a nonfunctioning paraganglioma.

A case of nonfunctioning paraganglioma, initially qualified as benign, is described. Two years following extirpation, functioning bone and lung metastases were manifested by hypertensive crises and increased levels of vanilmandelic acid and catecholamines in urine. The criteria for benign and malignant paragangliomas are discussed with regard to functional transformation of the tumor described in this case.