Publications by authors named "Philip P Ip"

The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic efficacy of colposcopic-directed biopsy and four-quadrant biopsy in detecting high-grade cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN). Women attending three women's clinics for routine cervical screening were recruited. Colposcopy was arranged for women with any cytologic abnormalities greater than atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS), two consecutive ASCUS results or positive HPV testing.

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The ability of melanoma to acquire metastasis through the induction of angiogenesis is one of the major causes of skin cancer death. Here, it is found that high transcript levels of DEP domain containing 1B (DEPDC1B) in cutaneous melanomas are significantly associated with a poor prognosis. Tissue microarray analysis indicates that DEPDC1B expression is positively correlated with SOX10 in the different stages of melanoma.

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Background: The existing staging systems of uterine leiomyosarcoma (uLMS) cannot classify the patients into four non-overlapping prognostic groups. This study aimed to develop a prediction model to predict the three-year survival status of uLMS.

Methods: In total, 201 patients with uLMS who had been treated between June 1993 and January 2014, were analyzed.

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Deep learning-based computer vision methods have recently made remarkable breakthroughs in the analysis and classification of cancer pathology images. However, there has been relatively little investigation of the utility of deep neural networks to synthesize medical images. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of generative adversarial networks to synthesize high-resolution pathology images of 10 histological types of cancer, including five cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas and the five major histological subtypes of ovarian carcinoma.

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Malignant ascites of epithelial ovarian cancer is a metastatic tumor microenvironment in which large amounts of disseminated single cells (DSCs) and disseminated tumor cell clusters (DTCCs) are commonly observed. The tumor cell clusters are known to be more aggressive than individual tumor cells in cancer metastasis; however, little is known about the mechanism. Applying single-cell epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related transcriptional analysis in 120 DSCs and 195 intra-cluster cells from 27 DTCCs, we demonstrated that DTCCs were heterogeneous cellular units comprised of epithelial tumor cells, leukocytes, and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs).

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Uterine yolk sac tumors have gained increased recognition in recent years. The current study is a multi-faceted examination of yolk sac tumor-like phenotypes in endometrial tumors, based on an analysis of 3 groups of uterine tumors: Group 1: 9 endometrial tumors that had been classified as yolk sac tumor, or as having a yolk sac tumor component, were assessed with a 35-marker immunohistochemical panel, with the goal of defining their immunophenotypic spectrum; Group 2, comprised of 70 endometrial carcinomas of various histotypes, were analyzed for their expression of SALL4, Glypican-3, and AFP, to assess the specificity of these markers for yolk sac tumors relative to endometrial carcinomas; Group 3, comprised of 626 archived cases of endometrial carcinoma/carcinosarcoma, reviewed to define the frequency of yolk sac tumor-like morphology therein. Yolk sac tumor areas in the Group 1 cases were consistently immunoreactive for SALL4 and Glypican-3; variably positive for AFP (89%), Villin (89%), PLAP (78%), 34βE12 (67%), CAM 5.

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A key to successful metastasis is the formation of new vasculature, known as angiogenesis. Therefore, it is of great interest to unravel the underlying molecular mechanisms of tumor angiogenesis. Cadherins are a major class of cell surface receptors.

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Organ-specific colonization suggests that specific cell-cell recognition is essential. Yet, very little is known about this particular interaction. Moreover, tumor cell lodgement requires binding under shear stress, but not static, conditions.

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The limitations of current anti-angiogenic therapies necessitate other targets with complimentary mechanisms. Here, we show for the first time that soluble E-cadherin (sE-cad) (an 80-kDa soluble form), which is highly expressed in the malignant ascites of ovarian cancer patients, is a potent inducer of angiogenesis. In addition to ectodomain shedding, we provide further evidence that sE-cad is abundantly released in the form of exosomes.

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Ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC) is a type of epithelial ovarian cancer that is strongly associated with endometriosis, resistance against conventional chemotherapy and thus poorer prognosis. The expression of inhibitory member of the ASPP family proteins (iASPP) and Polo-like kinase (PLK)1 were significantly higher in OCCC compared to benign cystadenomas and endometriosis. Both protein expressions were found to correlate with chemoresistance in patients with OCCC while high iASPP expression alone was significantly associated with a poor patient survival.

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Benign proliferations that mimic malignancies are commonly encountered during the course of assessment of small and fragmented endometrial samples. Although benign, endometrial epithelial metaplasias often coexist with premalignant or malignant lesions causing diagnostic confusion. The difficulty with mucinous metaplasia lies in its distinction from atypical mucinous glandular proliferations and mucinous carcinomas, which are associated with significant interobserver variability.

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Aims: Uterine leiomyosarcomas frequently show p16 immunoexpression. However, p16 may also be expressed in some benign leiomyoma variants such as leiomyomas with bizarre nuclei and cellular leiomyomas, limiting its utility as a biomarker to distinguish between benign and malignant neoplasms. We investigated p16 expression in leiomyomas with infarct-type necrosis, tumours which may sometimes be misinterpreted as smooth muscle tumours of uncertain malignant potential or even leiomyosarcoma on conventional light microscopy.

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A total of 16 cases of congenital fibrosarcoma have been reported from 1975 to March 2015. Five of the 16 had abnormal fusion between erythroblast transformation specific translocation variant 6 and neurotrophin recptor gene neurotrophic tyrosine kinase, receptor, type 3 (ETV6-NTRK3); in another five out of 16 this was absent, and six were not tested. All were managed by surgical resection but none involved metastasis.

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Aims: Accurate mitosis counting, which is important in the diagnosis of uterine smooth muscle tumours (USMTs), is often difficult and subjective. The mitosis-specific immunohistochemical marker phosphohistone-H3 (PHH3) has been shown to be diagnostically useful, but its expression, in relation to outcome, has not been thoroughly investigated. The aim of this study is to evaluate PHH3 as a diagnostic and prognostic marker in USMTs.

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Objective: To examine patient compliance with cervical smear surveillance at a primary care center.

Methods: A retrospective study included data from patients referred from a tertiary center, to a University of Hong Kong primary care center following colposcopy for continuing cervical smear surveillance between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2006. Patient records were reviewed and details of the initial screening or treatment that led to referral and the three subsequent follow-up screenings were examined.

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Objective: To estimate the positive predictive value of Pipelle endometrial sampling in detecting the presence of an underlying endometrial polyp. The secondary objective is to examine the histologic features that can predict the presence of endometrial polyps.

Study Design: This is a retrospective case review study.

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The objective of this study was to identify the tumor characteristics associated with mismatch repair deficiency in young patients with endometrial carcinoma. Young patients (45 yr old or younger) with endometrial carcinoma treated by hysterectomy in our institution between July 2001 and June 2009 were identified. The clinical and pathologic data were obtained by review of clinical records.

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Accurate distinction of clear cell carcinoma (CCC) from endometrioid carcinoma (EC) has important clinical implications, but, not infrequently, EC demonstrates clear cell change (EC-CC), mimicking CCC. We examined whether a panel of immunomarkers can help distinguish between these tumors. Sixty-four CCCs (40 ovarian and 24 uterine), 34 ECs (21 ovarian and 13 uterine), and 34 EC-CCs (6 ovarian and 28 uterine) were stained for HNF1β, BAF250a, Napsin A, ER, and PR.

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Uterine smooth muscle tumours of uncertain malignant potential (STUMP) are diagnostically and clinically challenging. The alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) telomere maintenance mechanism is associated with poor survival in soft tissue leiomyosarcoma. Time to first recurrence and survival were known for 18 STUMP and 43 leiomyosarcomata (LMS).

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Phialemoniopsis species are ubiquitous dematiaceous molds associated with a wide variety of superficial and systemic infections in human. In this study, we isolated a mold from the forearm nodule biopsy specimen from a patient with underlying liver cirrhosis, ankylosing spondylosis, and tuberculosis. He was treated with itraconazole, but unfortunately, he succumbed as a result of disseminated tuberculosis with multiorgan failure.

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Papillary proliferation of the endometrium (PPE) without cytologic atypia is uncommon and has only been studied in detail by Lehman and Hart in 2001. On histologic examination, PPE ranges from simple papillae with fibrovascular cores, often involving the surface of endometrial polyps, to complex intracystic proliferations; some consider the latter to be analogous to nonatypical complex hyperplasia. To further characterize PPE, with emphasis on the risk of and features associated with concurrent or subsequent neoplasia, the clinicopathologic features of 59 cases without cytologic atypia were studied.

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Despite being an essential vitamin, folate has been implicated to enhance tumor growth, as evidenced by reports on overexpression of folate receptor alpha (FRα) in carcinomas. The role of another folate transporter, reduced folate carrier (RFC), is largely unknown. This study investigated the roles of folate, FRα and RFC in ovarian cancers.

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Introduction: There is no data on the relationship between hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) levels and liver fibrosis in hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB).

Methods: Serum HBsAg and HBV DNA levels in HBeAg-positive CHB patients with liver biopsies were analyzed. The upper limit of normal (ULN) of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) was 30 and 19 U/L for men and women respectively.

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Objective: We determined the association between various clinical parameters and significant liver injury in both hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive and HBeAg-negative patients.

Methods: From 1994 to 2008, liver biopsy was performed on 319 treatment-naïve CHB patients. Histologic assessment was based on the Knodell histologic activity index for necroinflammation and the Ishak fibrosis staging for fibrosis.

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