Predictors of pathologic complete response after standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple-negative breast carcinoma.

The objective of this study was to identify predictors of pathologic complete response and tumor volume reduction in triple-negative breast carcinomas. Consecutive cases of 101 triple-negative carcinomas within the last 3 years treated with standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy were identified. However, 56 cases with sufficient material available (for tissue microarray construction) in the pretherapy core biopsy tissue blocks formed the basis of this study.

Semi-quantitative immunohistochemical assay versus oncotype DX(®) qRT-PCR assay for estrogen and progesterone receptors: an independent quality assurance study.

Estrogen receptor (ER) status is a strong predictor of response to hormonal therapy in breast cancer patients. Presence of ER and level of expression have been shown to correlate with time to recurrence in patients undergoing therapy with tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors. Risk reduction is also known to occur in ER-negative, progesterone receptor (PR)-positive patients treated with hormonal therapy.

Polyradiculopathies from schwannomatosis.

We describe a case of schwannomatosis presenting as radicular pain and numbness in multiple radicular nerve distributions. There were multiple peripheral nerve tumors detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at the left vestibular nerve, cauda equina, right radial nerve, thoracic paraspinal nerve, and brachial plexi. Several resected tumors have features of schwannomas, including hypercellular Antoni A areas, hypocellular Antoni B areas, Verocay bodies, and hyalinized blood vessels.

The relationship between papillary infarction and microinvasion in ovarian atypical proliferative ("borderline") serous and seromucinous tumors.

Papillary infarction is commonly observed in ovarian atypical proliferative serous and seromucinous tumors (APST/APSMT), but there are no published data on its significance. This study characterizes the features associated with papillary infarcts and microinvasion to further understand these phenomena. From consecutive hospital-based cases, 32 APST/APSMT in 26 patients (6 bilateral) were reviewed and evaluated for papillary infarcts, microinvasion (<5 mm), and other histologic features.