Clinical examination and validation of primary diagnosis in anatomic pathology using whole slide digital images.

Context: Novel anatomic pathology technologies allow pathologists to digitally view and diagnose cases. Although digital pathology advocates champion its strengths and move to integrate it into practice and workflow, the capabilities and limitations of digital slides have not been fully investigated.

Objectives: To estimate intrapathologist diagnostic discrepancy between glass and digital slides and to determine pathologists' diagnostic certainty when diagnosing with the 2 formats.

Pharmacodynamic (phase 0) study using etaracizumab in advanced melanoma.

AlphaVbeta3 (alphavbeta3) is an important molecule for tumor-induced angiogenesis and is upregulated in metastatic melanoma (MM). We proposed to study the mechanism of action of etaracizumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting alphavbeta3, in MM. Patients with MM and biopsiable tumor were treated with etaracizumab in 3 dose cohorts starting from 8 mg/kg.

Microrna profiling analysis of differences between the melanoma of young adults and older adults.

Background: This study represents the first attempt to perform a profiling analysis of the intergenerational differences in the microRNAs (miRNAs) of primary cutaneous melanocytic neoplasms in young adult and older age groups. The data emphasize the importance of these master regulators in the transcriptional machinery of melanocytic neoplasms and suggest that differential levels of expressions of these miRs may contribute to differences in phenotypic and pathologic presentation of melanocytic neoplasms at different ages.

Methods: An exploratory miRNA analysis of 666 miRs by low density microRNA arrays was conducted on formalin fixed and paraffin embedded tissues (FFPE) from 10 older adults and 10 young adults including conventional melanoma and melanocytic neoplasms of uncertain biological significance.

Carcinoma ex spiradenoma/cylindroma confirmed by immunohistochemical and molecular loss-of-heterozygosity profiling.

We present a case of spiradenoma/cylindroma with admixed carcinoma of unknown origin, resolved using immunohistochemical and molecular loss-of-heterozygosity (LOH) profiling. The patient, a woman in her mid-70s, initially presented with separate mammary (ductal) carcinomas of the right and left breasts that were treated with radical mastectomies. For 9 years, the patient remained disease free until complaining of a slow-growing skin nodule on the lower back that was excised under clinical suspicion of metastatic mammary carcinoma.

Integrins and cancer.

Integrins play an important physiologic role in cell adhesion, and accumulating evidence suggests that they also regulate cell growth, proliferation, migration, and apoptosis. A number of congenital and acquired disease states have been associated with integrins, and small-molecule integrin inhibitors have been approved for treatment of benign hematologic diseases. In cancer, aberrant expression with normal-functioning rather than dominant genetic variations of genes coding for integrins has generally been observed.