Global and mitosis-specific interobserver variation in mitotic count scoring and implications for malignant melanoma staging.

Aims: Staging is the gold standard for predicting malignant melanoma outcome but changes in its criteria over time indicate ongoing evolution. One notable recent change from the 8th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging manual was removal of mitotic count. We explore the extent to which this feature is limited by interobserver error in order to find ways to improve its fitness for use should it be revisited in future staging versions.

Plucked hair follicles from patients with chronic discoid lupus erythematosus show a disease-specific molecular signature.

Objective: When faced with clinical symptoms of scarring alopecia-the standard diagnostic pathway involves a scalp biopsy which is an invasive and expensive procedure. This project aimed to assess if plucked hair follicles (HFs) containing living epithelial cells can offer a non-invasive approach to diagnosing inflammatory scalp lesions.

Methods: Lesional and non-lesional HFs were extracted from the scalp of patients with chronic discoid lupus erythematosus (CDLE), psoriasis and healthy controls.

Brief report: responses to rituximab suggest B cell-independent inflammation in cutaneous systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objective: The immunopathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is heterogeneous, and responses of skin to rituximab are variable. This study was undertaken to determine the phenotype of rituximab-responsive disease.

Methods: Eighty-two patients with SLE who were receiving rituximab were prospectively studied.

Patterns of expression of DNA repair genes and relapse from melanoma.

Purpose: To use gene expression profiling of formalin-fixed primary melanoma samples to detect expression patterns that are predictive of relapse and response to chemotherapy.

Experimental Design: Gene expression profiles were identified in samples from two studies (472 tumors). Gene expression data for 502 cancer-related genes from these studies were combined for analysis.

Gene expression profiling of paraffin-embedded primary melanoma using the DASL assay identifies increased osteopontin expression as predictive of reduced relapse-free survival.

Purpose: Gene expression studies in melanoma have been few because tumors are small and cryopreservation is rarely possible. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Illumina DASL Array Human Cancer Panel for gene expression studies in formalin-fixed melanoma primary tumors and to identify prognostic biomarkers.

Experimental Design: Primary tumors from two studies were sampled using a tissue microarray needle.

Plasmacytoid lymphoma within a left atrial myxoma: a rare coincidental dual pathology.

Primary malignant cardiac neoplasms are extremely rare. The occurrence of a malignant lymphoid tumour within a left atrial myxoma is highly atypical, with only one such case previously reported. Here, we describe a patient who presented with symptoms and signs of a left atrial myxoma.