Introduction: Pulmonary lymphangitis carcinomatosa is a rare and severe manifestation of metastatic disease that causes pulmonary symptoms and radiologic patterns similar to interstitial lung diseases.
Case Presentation: We report a case of a 78-year-old woman who presented to our department with insidiously developed symptoms of fatigue, dry cough, and severe dyspnea for 3 months. Chest radiography showed bilateral interstitial changes.
Background: Mediastinal lymph node enlargement (MLNE) is a finding described in a subset of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and other interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) and is associated with accelerated disease progression and increased mortality. The cause of MLNE is still not known. Our hypothesis is that there is an association between MLNE and B-cell follicles in lung tissue, another aspect detectable in the lung tissue of patients with IPF and other ILDs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Purpose: Among post-COVID-19 symptoms, fatigue is reported as one of the most common, even after mild acute infection, and as the cause of fatigue, myopathy diagnosed by electromyography has been proposed in previous reports. This study aimed to explore the histopathological changes in patients with post-COVID-19 fatigue.
Methods: Sixteen patients (mean age = 46 years) with post-COVID-19 complaints of fatigue, myalgia, or weakness persisting for up to 14 months were included.
Objectives: Topoisomerase 1 (TOP1) is a drug target used in anticancer treatment of various cancer types. The effect of the TOP1 drugs can be counteracted by the enzymatic activity of tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase 1 (TDP1). Thus, to elucidate the relevance of combining TDP1 and TOP1 as drug targets for anticancer treatment in NSCLC, TDP1 and TOP1 was for the first time quantified in a large cohort of paired normal and tumor tissue from NSCLC patients, and data were correlated between the two enzymes and to clinical data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common and severe form within the group of idiopathic interstitial pneumonias. It is characterized by repetitive alveolar injury in genetically susceptible individuals and abnormal wound healing, leading to dysregulated bronchiolar proliferation and excessive deposition of extracellular matrix, causing complete architectural distortion and fibrosis. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition is considered an important pathogenic event, a phenomenon also observed in various malignant neoplasms, in which tumor cells express programmed death-ligand one (PD-L1).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: KRAS mutations, the most frequent gain-of-function alterations in NSCLC, are currently emerging as potential predictive therapeutic targets. The role of KRAS-G12C (Kr_G12C) is of special interest after the recent discovery and preclinical analyses of two different Kr_G12C covalent inhibitors (AMG-510, MRTX849).
Methods: KRAS mutations were evaluated in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections by a microfluidic-based multiplex polymerase chain reaction platform as a component of the previously published European Thoracic Oncology Platform Lungscape 003 Multiplex Mutation study, of clinically annotated, resected, stage I to III NSCLC.
There is growing evidence of histopathological changes in autopsied individuals infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); however, data on histopathological changes in autopsied patients with eradicated COVID-19 are limited. We performed an autopsy on a Caucasian female in her 80s, who died due to severe, bilateral pulmonary fibrosis after eliminated SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, CT scans from 2 months before infection and from 6 days prior to death were compared.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPD-L1, as assessed by immunohistochemistry, is a predictive biomarker for immuno-oncology treatment in lung cancer. Different scoring methods have been used to assess its status, resulting in a wide range of positivity rates. We use the European Thoracic Oncology Platform Lungscape non-small cell lung carcinoma cohort to explore this issue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The PD-L1 biomarker is an important factor in selecting patients with non-small cell lung cancer for immunotherapy. While several reports suggest that PD-L1 positivity is linked to a poor prognosis, others suggest that PD-L1 positive status portends a good prognosis.
Methods: PD-L1 positivity prevalence, assessed via immunohistochemistry (IHC) on tissue microarrays (TMAs), and its association with clinicopathological characteristics, molecular profiles and patient outcome- Relapse-free Survival (RFS), Time-to-Relapse (TTR) and Overall Survival (OS)- is explored in the ETOP Lungscape cohort of stage I-III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Introduction: Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) loss is frequently observed in NSCLC and associated with both phosphoinositide 3-kinase activation and tumoral immunosuppression. PTEN immunohistochemistry is a valuable readout, but lacks standardized staining protocol and cutoff value.
Methods: After an external quality assessment using SP218, 138G6 and 6H2.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic interstitial lung disease of unknown cause. In the past years there have been observations of clustering of pulmonary fibrosis in families, indicating the disease can be inherited. The most commonly identified mutations are mutations involving proteins from the telomerase complex and the surfactant system, where the mutations from the surfactant protein system are less identified.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurogenic autonomic dysfunction (NAD) and polyneuropathy occur in common conditions like diabetes and alcoholism. However, it can also be seen in rare diseases like in this case report of amyloid light-chain amyloidosis: primary amyloidosis. A 56-year-old man presented with polyneuropathy, a sympathetic dysfunction causing orthostatic intolerance, syncope, parasympathetic dysfunction and involvement of the enteric nervous system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH) is a rare but potentially fatal complication in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). DAH is typically characterized by hemoptysis, dyspnea, new infiltrates on chest x-rays or CT-scans and a drop in hemoglobin. DAH is seen in less than 2% of patients with SLE and carries a high acute mortality risk of up to 70-90%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: Transbronchial cryobiopsies (cTBB) has emerged as a new method for obtaining lung tissue biopsies in the diagnosis of interstitial lung diseases (ILDs). Until now, it has been used in a few highly specialized interventional centers and has shown promising results in obtaining a definite diagnosis of ILDs. : All patients undergoing a cTBB between November 2015 and June 2016 were included in this case series study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Immune cells utilize acetylcholine as a paracrine-signaling molecule. Many white blood cells express components of the cholinergic signaling pathway, and these are up-regulated when immune cells are activated. However, in vivo molecular imaging of cholinergic signaling in the context of inflammation has not previously been investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Diffuse parenchymal lung disease represents a diverse and challenging group of pulmonary disorders. A consistent diagnostic approach to diffuse parenchymal lung disease is crucial if clinical trial data are to be applied to individual patients. We aimed to evaluate inter-multidisciplinary team agreement for the diagnosis of diffuse parenchymal lung disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Isolating sufficient material for molecular testing remains challenging in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The use of new ultra-microsamples (uMS) is proven sufficient for DNA and mRNA detection, but whether uMS are useful for quantifying mRNA expression is unknown. We investigated if uMS from lung cancer patients can be used to generate quantitative data on mRNA expression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: The purpose of the present study was to compare the costs of home blood pressure (BP) telemonitoring (HBPM) with the costs of conventional office BP monitoring. In a randomized controlled trial, 105 hypertensive patients performed HBPM and 118 patients received usual care with conventional office BP monitoring during 6 months. Costs were quantified from the healthcare perspective.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTelemonitoring of home blood pressure (BP) is a new advance in home BP monitoring (HBPM) and has proved effective in improving BP control. The impact of telemedical HBPM on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has not yet been studied. The purpose of this study is to compare HRQOL using a generic scale (SF-36) in patients with antihypertensive treatment based on telemedical HBPM and in patients with antihypertensive treatment based on conventional monitoring of office BP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF