Intravesical BCG therapy as cause of miliary pulmonary tuberculosis.

Immunotherapy with intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is considered the most effective adjuvant to endoscopic resection of bladder urothelial carcinoma in the therapeutic management of non-muscle invasive (NMIBC) at intermediate and high risk of recurrence and progression (pTa - pT1 and high-grade carcinoma in situ, CIS). Despite its proven efficacy, this type of treatment can determine local and systemic side effects of moderate or severe gravity, with the histological diagnosis of epithelioid granulomas in different organs, even in the absence of microbiological positivity of BCG. The immunotherapy with BCG is usually well tolerated and the virulence of the attenuated BCG is very low in immuno-competent patients, although only 16% of patients are able to receive all the instillations of the maintenance period (3 years) of treatment provided by the protocols, precisely because of side effects.

Bullous pemphigoid with the unusual complication of tracheobronchial involvement.

Bullous pemphygoid is the most common blistering skin disease, characterized by an autoantibody response against two major hemidesmosomal antigens within the dermo-epidermal junction. We describe a proven case of bullous pemphigoid with extensive tracheobronchial involvement and with the only bronchoscopic images available in the published literature, to our knowledge. The patient, a 73-year-old woman with a medical history of bullous pemphigoid, was admitted to our hospital for dyspnea, productive cough, and blood-streaked sputum.

Association of MiR-126 with soluble mesothelin-related peptides, a marker for malignant mesothelioma.

Background: Improved detection methods for diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) are essential for early and reliable detection as well as treatment. Since recent data point to abnormal levels of microRNAs (miRNAs) in tumors, we hypothesized that a profile of deregulated miRNAs may be a marker of MPM and that the levels of specific miRNAs may be used for monitoring its progress.

Methods And Results: miRNAs isolated from fresh-frozen biopsies of MPM patients were tested for the expression of 88 types of miRNA involved in cancerogenesis.

Histological description of the lymphadenopathy related to Toscana virus infection. Report of a case.

Toscana virus (TOSV) infection is a frequent cause of meningitis in central Italy during summer. The disease generally has a benign course. Rarely, the infection produces a severe disease, with encephalitis and signs of systemic involvement, including lymphadenopathy.

Immature teratoma of the mediastinum arising in ectopic thyroid tissue: a case report.

Background: Papillary carcinoma can arise from ectopic thyroid tissue, but teratoma have not been described. Differentiation into thyroid follicles does not occur in mediastinal teratomas.

Case: A case of upper mediastinal immature teratoma occurred in an 18-day-old male newborn.

Clinicopathological features of primary cutaneous B-cell lymphomas from an academic regional hospital in central Italy: no evidence of Borrelia burgdorferi association.

We reviewed the clinico-pathological features of 73 primary cutaneous B-cell lymphomas (PCBCLs), diagnosed in 10 years in Marche region in central Italy, which included 16 marginal zone lymphomas (MZL), 33 follicle centre lymphomas (FCL) and 24 diffuse large B cell lymphomas (DLBCL). We also investigated the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi in tissues by polymerase chain reaction. Differences in age, sex, location site, response to therapy, disease recurrence and 5-year disease-specific survival were observed among the 3 histological groups.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumor. A study of 158 cases: clinicopathological features and prognostic factors.

Objective: To increase knowledge on the behavior of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) and factors influencing therapy.

Study Design: The clinicomorphological features of 158 GISTs were analyzed. Survival analysis was performed on the whole series, as well as on a selected group of patients with high risk GIST who did not receive imatinib mesylate.

A rare European case of Madura Foot due to actinomycetes.

We present a case of mycetoma by Actinomadura spp. on the foot of an Albanian young man arrived to our observation approximately 5 years after the first clinical manifestations (hard tumefaction, slightly painful upon weight-bearing and palpation and cutaneous fistulas that discharged an abundant granulomatous secretion). Direct microscopic analysis and culture of the white-yellowish grains included Gram staining, which showed extensively branched Gram-positive hyphae less than 1 mm in diameter, allowing to make a diagnosis of Actinomycetoma.

Long-term experience with low-dose interferon-alpha and PUVA in the management of early mycosis fungoides.

Objectives: Combined high-dose Interferon-alpha and psoralen plus ultraviolet A irradiation (PUVA) have been reported to be effective in the treatment of early mycosis fungoides (MF); however, our study is the first controlled prospective study in the literature exploring the activity and tolerability of the combination with low dosages and evaluating further clinical outcome of early-MF patients.

Methods: We carried out a multicentric prospective Phase II clinical study on 89 patients with early-stage IA to IIA MF treated for 14 months with low-dose IFN-alpha2b (6-18 MU/wk) and PUVA. Treatment success was analysed in terms of freedom from treatment failure.

MALT lymphoma with t(14;18)(q32;q21)/IGH-MALT1 is characterized by strong cytoplasmic MALT1 and BCL10 expression.

Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma is specifically associated with t(11;18)(q21;q21), t(1;14)(p22;q32) and t(14;18)(q32;q21). t(11;18)(q21;q21) fuses the N-terminus of the API2 gene to the C-terminus of the MALT1 gene and generates a functional API2-MALT1 product. t(1;14)(p22;q32) and t(14;18)(q32;q21) bring the BCL10 and MALT1 genes respectively to the IGH locus and deregulate their expression.