Glomus Tumor of the Chest Wall With Metastases to Lung.

Glomus tumors are typically benign, soft tissue neoplasms composed of thermoregulatory glomus bodies. The more common varieties, such as subungual, are treated surgically and typically have a very low mortality rate. Malignant glomus tumors are very rare, and their pathogenesis is poorly understood.

High Tumor Mutational Burden in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer and one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Tumor mutational burden (TMB) in a cancer specimen represents the number of mutations within a pre-determined length of genetic material. This value is increasingly investigated as it may correlate with both prognosis and cancer response to developing immunotherapies.

Melanoma brain metastases harboring BRAF or NRAS mutations are associated with an increased local failure rate following conventional therapy.

Studies on melanoma brain metastases (MBM) with regard to mutational status are lacking. We investigated the outcomes of MBM in molecularly characterized patients for BRAF and NRAS mutations receiving conventional treatment. We investigated associations between outcomes [competing risk of local and distant brain failure (LF, DF) and overall survival (OS)] and clinical/pathological features of patients with known mutation status following initial treatment of MBM.

Phase II study of gefitinib in patients with advanced salivary gland cancers.

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine the antitumor activity of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor gefitinib in patients with recurrent/metastatic salivary gland cancer.

Methods: We conducted a phase II study in adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) and non-ACC. Gefitinib was administered 250 mg orally daily.

Clinical characteristics and outcomes with specific BRAF and NRAS mutations in patients with metastatic melanoma.

Background: Hotspot mutations in BRAF and NRAS are the most common somatic events in patients with melanoma. These mutations occur at highly conserved residues, but include several different substitutions. To determine whether specific mutations are clinically important to differentiate, tumor characteristics and clinical outcomes were compared among patients with advanced melanoma with 1) BRAF V600E versus V600K mutations and 2) NRAS exon 1 versus exon 2 mutations.

NRAS mutation status is an independent prognostic factor in metastatic melanoma.

Background: There is a need for improved prognostic markers in melanoma. In this study, the authors tested the prognostic significance and clinicopathologic correlations of v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1 (BRAF) and neuroblastoma RAS viral (v-ras) oncogene homolog (NRAS) mutations in patients with metastatic melanoma.

Methods: Clinical and pathologic data were collected retrospectively on melanoma patients who were clinically tested for BRAF (exon 15) and NRAS (exons 1 and 2) mutations at The University of Texas M.