Olmesartan is a commonly used antihypertensive medication belonging to the class of angiotensin II receptor blockers. Though generally well-tolerated, olmesartan can rarely cause olmesartan-associated enteropathy (OAE) with non-bloody diarrhea, weight loss, abdominal pain, and vomiting. Patients may develop enteropathy months to years after drug initiation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMyxofibrosarcoma is a soft tissue neoplasm that usually affects the extremities of the elderly. It usually presents as a slow-growing painless mass that can metastasize to the lung and bone. However, the reported incidence of primary osseous myxofibrosarcoma is very low.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTocilizumab is an IL-6 receptor antagonist with the ability to suppress the cytokine storm in critically ill patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We evaluated patients treated with tocilizumab for a SARS-CoV-2 infection who were admitted between March 13, 2020, and April 16, 2020. This was a multicenter study with data collected by chart review both retrospectively and concurrently.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany genomic alterations have been identified that are critical to the malignant phenotype. Some of these, termed "driver mutations," are critical for tumor proliferation and progression. The landscape of targeted therapy has expanded as well.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Focused and expanded mutation panels were assessed for the incremental utility of using an expanded panel in combination with microRNA risk classification.
Methods: Molecular results were reviewed for patients who underwent either a focused mutation panel (ThyGenX®) or an expanded mutation panel (ThyGeNEXT®) for strong and weak oncogenic driver mutations and fusions. microRNA results (ThyraMIR®) predictive of malignancy, including strong positive results highly specific for malignancy, were examined.
Clin Med Insights Case Rep
July 2019
Herpes simplex virus (HSV) hepatitis is an uncommon cause of fulminant hepatic failure, seen mostly in immunocompromised patients. Conventional treatment modalities for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as steroids and azathioprine, have been known to cause HSV hepatitis. However, the reported incidence of HSV hepatitis in IBD patients undergoing tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α inhibitor therapy is very rare.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) guided core needle biopsies (CNB) are increasingly being performed to diagnose solid pancreatic lesions. However, studies have been conflicting in terms of CNB improving diagnostic accuracy and procedural efficiency vs fine-needle aspiration (FNA), which this study aims to elucidate.
Methods: Data were prospectively collected on consecutive patients with solid pancreatic or peripancreatic lesions at a single tertiary care center from November 2015 to November 2016 that underwent either FNA or CNB.
Appl Immunohistochem Mol Morphol
February 2019
Many genomic mutations have been identified to be related to the metastasis of malignancies from various primary sites. In this study, we attempted to identify the loss of heterozygosity (LOH) that might be involved in metastasis of breast ductal carcinoma (BDC) and papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). We retrieved 14 BDC cases with metastasis and 19 BDC cases without metastasis as well as 12 PTC cases with metastasis and 14 PTC cases without metastasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetastatic malignancies of unknown primary site (MUP) is the eighth most common form of malignancy, with an estimated 10-15% of oncology patients having a MUP. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNA) and core needle biopsy (CNB) are often the first procedures utilized in the work-up of these cases and have a pivotal role for the diagnosis of metastases. There is an increasing emphasis on the precise classification of malignancy and determination of primary site of origin, utilizing smaller specimens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Real-world clinical results of (1) Bethesda categorization, (2) mutation analysis, and (3) a microRNA classifier were correlated to show the utility of molecular analysis in assessing malignancy risk of indeterminate thyroid nodules.
Methods: Cytology and molecular results of clinically tested thyroid nodules were compared. An additional microRNA threshold was determined based on nodules with known disease status, establishing a 3-tiered microRNA approach to clinical risk assessments.
Choriocarcinoma is part of the spectrum of gestational trophoblastic disease that occurs in women of reproductive age. Although the most common metastatic site of choriocarcinoma is the lung, primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma is rare. To diagnose primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma, the patient should have no previous gynecologic malignancy, have elevated human chorionic gonadotropin, and have pathological confirmation of the disease excluding gonadal primary site of the tumor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of chemoradiation on the immune microenvironment to influence and optimally design future neoadjuvant clinical trials.
Summary Background Data: Programmed death (PD)-1 inhibitors in metastatic gastroesophageal cancer have demonstrated response rates of approximately 25% in programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1+) tumors. Unfortunately, the majority of patients do not respond.
Background: Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are often immunosuppressed and are at risk for reactivation of latent cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. We examined the diagnostic yield from colon biopsies in IBD patients with suspected CMV infection.
Methods: Patients above 18 years of age who underwent testing for CMV on colon biopsies between January 1st, 2012, and December 31st, 2015, were identified from a pathology data base.
Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) is an aggressive cancer necessitating the development of improved risk stratification tools for personalized care. Previously, microRNAs have been shown to correlate with the progression and prognosis of various cancer types; however, the value in EAC remains largely unexplored. We performed global microRNA profiling on 32 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded EAC specimens to identify microRNAs associated with progression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTraditionally, the radiology elective has been designed to teach medical students the fundamentals of radiologic interpretation. When questioned, many students state that they want to take a radiology elective so they can "interpret images." For the students on radiology, rotation/elective education was often passive, consisting of didactic conferences and observational shadowing of radiologists as they interpreted images.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Intranodal palisaded myofibroblastoma (IPM) is a rare, lymph node mesenchymal neoplasm; the cytologic features are limited in the literature.
Case: The patient was a 51-year-old female who had a firm, palpable mass in the right inguinal region. Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) was performed.
Appl Immunohistochem Mol Morphol
September 2017
Growth factor receptor-bound protein 7 (GRB7) gene is located adjacent to the HER2 gene on the 17q12-21 amplicon, is often coamplified with HER2 in a subset of breast cancers, and has been implicated in resistance to anti-HER2 and antiestrogen therapy. This study investigated the correlation of GRB7 expression by immunohistochemistry with HER2 expression, HER2 amplification, increased chromosome 17 copy number, and other prognostic and predictive factors in invasive breast cancer, including histologic grade, pathologic stage, and ER, PR, and p53 status. Paraffin-embedded samples of 188 invasive breast carcinomas with documented HER2, ER, and PR testing were collected and divided into 3 groups: cases positive for HER2 overexpression/gene amplification (n=60), negative for HER2 overexpression (n=97), and cases with increased chromosome 17 copy number without HER2 amplification (n=31).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To assess the efficacy of heat-shock protein 90 (Hsp90) inhibitor, NVP-AUY922-AG (AUY922), in the treatment of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) in vitro and in vivo.
Background: EAC is a leading cause of cancer death, and current treatment options are limited. Hsp90, a chaperone protein that regulates several oncoproteins, is upregulated in EAC, and may be a novel target for therapy.
Primary splenic angiosarcoma is a rare and fatal neoplasm arising from vascular endothelial cells within the spleen. With an incidence of 2 cases per 10 million people worldwide, the diagnosis and treatment of this rare entity is unfamiliar and challenging. We describe the case of a previously healthy 45-year-old woman who presented with vague upper-abdominal pain and was found to have a splenic mass on computed tomography.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGATA3 plays a role in cell proliferation and differentiation in many tissues, including breast, and it has been suggested that GATA3 expression correlates with ER expression. However, little is known on GATA3 expression in various subtypes of breast carcinoma, its utilization in cytology, and on how GATA3 performs in comparison with GCDFP-15 and mammaglobin. Eighty-four histology cases of breast carcinoma of various subtypes, including 28 triple-negative breast carcinomas, along with 20 cytology cases of metastatic breast carcinoma and 12 cytology cases of ER-positive metastatic gynecologic malignancies, were stained for GATA3, GCDFP-15, and mammaglobin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMesothelioma is a form of cancer generally caused from previous exposure to asbestos. Although it was considered a rare neoplasm in the past, its incidence is increasing worldwide due to extensive use of asbestos. In the current practice of medicine, the gold standard for diagnosing mesothelioma is through a pleural biopsy with subsequent histologic examination of the tissue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is a vascular neoplasm associated with human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8). Skin and mucous membranes are the most common sites, but other organs may be involved. Skeletal KS is rare and occurs either by direct spread of mucocutaneous lesions or through dissemination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudy Question: What are the medical, psychosocial and legal aspects of gestational surrogacy (GS), including pregnancy outcomes and complications, in a large series?
Summary Answer: Meticulous multidisciplinary teamwork, involving medical, legal and psychosocial input for both the intended parent(s) (IP) and the gestational carrier (GC), is critical to achieve a successful GS program.
What Is Known Already: Small case series have described pregnancy rates of 17-50% for GS. There are no large case series and the medical, legal and psychological aspects of GS have not been addressed in most of these studies.
Background: Acinar cell cystadenoma (ACC) is a recently recognized cystic lesion of the pancreas that demonstrates acinar differentiation and is currently believed to behave in a benign fashion. ACC enters the differential diagnosis of pancreatic cystic lesions alongside better recognized entities such as mucinous cystic and intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms. Although uncommon, patients with ACC can undergo fine needle aspiration (FNA) of the lesion.
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