'Acute leukemia in congenital methehemoglobinemia - an enigma to explore'.

Congenital methemoglobinemia is a rare disease, resulting in increased oxygen affinity and impaired oxygen delivery to the tissues. While there have been studies that have linked acquired methemoglobinemia in almost 79% of leukemia patients, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of leukemia development in a patient with congenital methemoglobinemia. Chronic deprivation of oxygen to metabolically active bone marrow can theoretically lead to hematopoietic disorders.

Comparative analysis of clinicopathologic features, treatment, and survival of Asian women with a breast cancer diagnosis residing in the United States.

Background: It has been established that disparities by ethnicity in the rates of breast cancer diagnoses and disease-specific survival (DSS) exist in the United States. However, few studies have assessed differences specifically between Asians and other ethnic groups or among Asian subgroups.

Methods: The authors used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database to identify patients who were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between 1988 and 2008.

Invasive neuroendocrine carcinoma of the breast: a distinctive subtype of aggressive mammary carcinoma.

Background: Neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) of the breast, a pathologic entity newly defined in the 2003 World Health Organization classification of tumors, is a rare type of tumor that is not well recognized or studied. The purpose of this first case-controlled study is to reveal the clinicopathologic features, therapeutic response, and outcomes of patients with NEC of the breast.

Methods: Seventy-four patients with NEC of the breast who were treated at The University of Texas M.

Pleomorphic ductal carcinoma of the breast: predictors of decreased overall survival.

The World Health Organization classification of tumors of the breast includes a rare variant of invasive ductal carcinoma termed pleomorphic carcinoma. This variant has marked nuclear pleomorphism (>6-fold variation in nuclear size by definition, but often>10-fold) and characteristically contains multinucleated tumor giant cells. Approximately one-third of the cases in the initial series contained a focal spindle cell metaplastic component.

Matrix-producing carcinoma of the breast: an aggressive subtype of metaplastic carcinoma.

Matrix-producing carcinoma (MPC) of the breast is a subtype of metaplastic carcinoma defined as an invasive breast carcinoma with a direct transition of carcinoma to cartilaginous or osseous matrix without an intervening spindle cell component. Our aims were (1) to evaluate specific histologic characteristics of MPC and correlate these with disease recurrence; and (2) to determine whether rates of locoregional and distant recurrence for MPC are significantly different from those of invasive ductal carcinoma. Thirty-two cases of MPC were identified.

Lymphovascular invasion and lobular histology are associated with increased incidence of isolated tumor cells in sentinel lymph nodes from early-stage breast cancer patients.

Background: Isolated tumor cells (ITC) are more likely to be identified when serial sectioning and immunohistochemical staining are used to evaluate sentinel lymph nodes (SLN). Our goal was to identify clinicopathologic features associated with ITC in patients undergoing sentinel lymph node dissection (SLND).

Methods: We reviewed clinicopathologic data for 3557 patients with no clinical evidence of lymph node metastases undergoing SLND between November 1993 and March 2007.