Circulating Tumor DNA in the Management of Early-Stage Breast Cancer.

Liquid biopsies refer to the isolation and analysis of tumor-derived biological material from body fluids, most commonly blood, in order to provide clinically valuable information for the management of cancer patients. Their non-invasive nature allows to overcome the limitations of tissue biopsy and complement the latter in guiding therapeutic decision-making. In the past years, several studies have demonstrated that circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) detection can be used in the clinical setting to improve patient prognosis and monitor therapy response, especially in metastatic cancers.

Rapid Assessment of Resection Margins During Breast Conserving Surgery Using Intraoperative Flow Cytometry.

Background: Positive margins are the most important factor for recurrence of the disease after breast-conserving surgery. Several methods have been developed throughout the years to evaluate the margin status during surgery in an attempt to assist the surgeon in excising the whole tumor at once, a goal that has not yet been accomplished.

Patients And Methods: In our study, we compared intraoperative flow cytometry (iFC) with cytology and pathology in order to evaluate 606 samples of margins and tumors corresponding to 99 patients with invasive ductal carcinoma of no special type and invasive lobular carcinoma obtained from breast-conserving surgeries.

PD-L1 Expression and Tumor-infiltrating Lymphocytes in Breast Cancer: Clinicopathological Analysis in Women Younger than 40 Years Old.

Background/aim: To evaluate the association between programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression on both tumor cells (TC) and inflammatory cells (IC), tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), CD3 and CD8 lymphocytes and other clinicopathological parameters in primary infiltrative breast cancer (IBC) of young women, a population shown to have a worse prognosis.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective study was performed collecting data from patients younger than 40 years old. Forty-five young women with IBC were included.

An unusual presentation of a patient with advanced prostate cancer, massive ascites and peritoneal metastasis: Case report and literature review.

We describe the case of a patient with prostate cancer, ascites, omental and bone metastases, an extremely rare clinical variant that warrants further investigation, and review the relevant literature.

Pure small cell carcinoma of the prostate: a case report and literature review.

Primary small cell carcinoma of the prostate (SCPCa) is a rare pathologic entity with unique clinical features and a poor prognosis. We present a case of a patient diagnosed with pure SCPCa treated with a combined chemo-radiotherapeutic approach. Pathological findings showed that the neoplastic cells exhibited positivity for pancytokeratin, synaptophysin, thyroid transcription factor-1 and CD56.

Prognostic utility of β-tubulin isotype III and correlations with other molecular and clinicopathological variables in patients with early breast cancer: a translational Hellenic Cooperative Oncology Group (HeCOG) study.

We evaluated the prognostic and predictive utility of β-tubulin isotype III (TUBB3) tumour gene transcription in early breast cancer patients enrolled in a randomised study. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was applied for assessment of TUBB3, ER, PgR, HER2 and MAPT messenger RNA and immunohistochemistry (IHC) for protein expression in 314 patients enrolled in trial HE10/97, evaluating epirubicin-alkylator adjuvant chemotherapy with or without paclitaxel. High TUBB3 mRNA status was associated with advanced T stage, high histological grade, low mRNA and protein levels of ER, PgR and MAPT, and high levels of HER2 (p < 0.

Diagnosis and endoscopic treatment of esophago-bronchial fistula due to gastric heterotopy.

Heterotopic gastric mucosa patches are congenital gastrointestinal abnormalities and have been reported to occur anywhere along the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus. Complications of heterotopic gastric mucosa include dysphagia, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, upper esophageal ring stricture, adenocarcinoma and fistula formation. In this case report we describe the diagnosis and treatment of the first case of esophago-bronchial fistula due to heterotopic gastric mucosa in mid esophagus.

Sjogren's syndrome in a patient with ulcerative colitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis: Case report and review of the literature.

Inflammatory bowel disease has been reported to co-exist with other autoimmune diseases. Sjogren's syndrome is an autoimmune disorder characterized by xerostomy and/or xerophthalmy. Sjogren's syndrome occurring in IBD has been very rarely reported.

Synchronous primary tumors of the kidney and the ovaries: Imaging findings.

The simultaneous presence of primary carcinomas in the same patient is uncommon and synchronous primary tumors involving the kidney and ovary are extremely rare. There are a few reports in the English literature of synchronous primary malignancies of the kidney and the ovaries, but no data regarding their imaging features. We present a case of an elderly woman, diagnosed with bilateral ovarian clear cell carcinomas and a simultaneous clear cell carcinoma of the right kidney, evaluated by multidetector CT and MR imaging.

Early gastric carcinoma with oncocytic features and extensive metastases.

We present the case of a 63-year-old Caucasian woman with early gastric adenocarcinoma, suffering from extensive metastases at the time of initial presentation. Microscopic examination of the gastrectomy specimen revealed an invasive adenocarcinoma with oncocytic features. Interestingly, despite the fact that the carcinoma was pT1, it also was found to be N2, stage IV.

Primary mantle cell lymphoma of the conjunctiva: a case report.

Primary non-Hodgkin's lymphomas of the conjunctiva are uncommon. They are almost exclusively extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphomas/mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphomas. In this study, we report an extremely rare case of conjunctival mantle cell lymphoma in a 78-year-old man, presenting as a unilateral epibulbar mass.

Rectal Epstein-Barr virus-positive Hodgkin's lymphoma in a patient with Crohn's disease: case report and review of the literature.

We present the case of a 35-year-old man with Crohn's disease diagnosed at the age of 27, several months after an operation for small-bowel adenocarcinoma. Seven years after the adenocarcinoma diagnosis, the patient presented with severe continuous anal pain and diarrhea. In parallel with antibiotic administration, the patient was given treatment with Infliximab, but without clinical symptom amelioration.

B-cell differentiation, apoptosis and proliferation in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) represent the most common type of adult non-Hodgkin's lymphomas in Western countries and are characterized by heterogeneous clinical, histological, immunophenotypic and genetic features. Recent investigations using cDNA and oligonucleotide microarrays have identified molecularly distinct groups of DLBCL with respect to the B-cell differentiation gene expression profile: the germinal center (GC) B-cell-like DLBCL, the activated B-cell-like DLBCL and the type 3 DLBCL. The GC B-cell-like DLBCL were characterized by the expression of genes of the normal GC B-cells, the activated B-cell-like DLBCL were characterized by the expression of genes that are normally induced luring in vitro activation of peripheral blood B-cells, while the type 3 DLBCL did not express either set of genes at a high level.

Cell cycle and apoptosis deregulation in classical Hodgkin lymphomas.

Classical Hodgkin lymphomas (cHL) have now been recognized as B-cell lymphomas with some exceptional cases of T-cell origin. In recent years, there has been accumulating evidence that Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg (H/RS) cells, the presumed neoplastic-cell population in cHL, are characterized by a profound disturbance of the cell cycle and apoptosis regulation. The constitutive activation of the nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB pathway, which is considered to be involved in the proliferation and survival of H/RS cells.

Cluster analysis of apoptosis-associated bcl2 family proteins in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. Relations with the apoptotic index, the proliferation profile and the B-cell differentiation immunophenotypes.

Background: There is evidence that apoptotic mechanisms mediated by bcl2 family proteins are involved in the pathogenesis of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL). In order to gain further insight into the apoptosis profile of DLBCL, 79 cases were investigated to determine whether distinct clusters of the combined expression levels of bcl2 family proteins can be identified in these lymphomas.

Materials And Methods: The combined immunohistochemical expression levels of the proteins bax, bak, bad, bid, bcl2 and bcl-xl were evaluated by cluster and discriminant analysis.

Proliferation profile of classical Hodgkin's lymphomas. Increased expression of the protein cyclin D2 in Hodgkin's and Reed-Sternberg cells.

There is accumulating evidence that Hodgkin's and Reed-Sternberg cells of classical Hodgkin's lymphomas (cHL) display multiple and concurrent alterations in different pathways and checkpoints of the cell cycle. However, the expression of cyclin D2 and its relation to other major cell cycle proteins has not been analyzed in cHL. The aim of the present study was to assess expression of cyclin D2, Ki67, cyclin A, cyclin B1, cyclin D1, cyclin D3, cyclin E, p53, Rb, p16 and p27 proteins in order to gain further insight into the proliferation profile of cHL.

Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and association with microvessel density in benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer.

Background: Tumor angiogenesis is an absolute requirement for tumor growth and a prognostic factor for various malignant neoplasms. Recent reports in the literature have addressed the importance of the VEGF system in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and adenocarcinoma, however the results are controversial. The aim of the present study was to determine and compare the levels of VEGF expression and vascularity in BPH and prostate carcinoma.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphomas with germinal center B-cell-like differentiation immunophenotypic profile are associated with high apoptotic index, high expression of the proapoptotic proteins bax, bak and bid and low expression of the antiapoptotic protein bcl-xl.

The aim of this study was to analyze the relations between differentiation immunophenotypes and the status of apoptosis and proliferation in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. Therefore, the bcl6/CD10/MUM1/CD138 differentiation immunophenotypic profiles were studied in relation to (a) the apoptotic index, (b) the apoptosis-associated bcl2 family proteins bcl2, bcl-xl, bax, bak, bad and bid, (c) the proliferation index (Ki67) and (d) the cell cycle proteins cyclin A, cyclin B1, cyclin D3, cyclin E, p53, Rb, p16 and p27 in 79 cases of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. Two major differentiation immunophenotypic profiles were distinguished: the germinal center B-cell-like profile; 31 cases (bcl6+/CD10+/-/MUM1-/CD138-: 29 cases and bcl6-/CD10+/MUM1-/CD138-: two cases) and the nongerminal center B-cell-like profile (bcl6+/-/CD10-/MUM1+/CD138-); 48 cases.

Intramural pregnancy with negative maternal serum b-HCG.

We report an extremely rare case of intramural pregnancy with negative maternal b-HCG value. The patient underwent a "myomectomy" but the pathology examination revealed chorionic villi consistent with ectopic pregnancy. Diagnosis is very difficult in cases with menorrhagia and especially when pregnancy is not suspected.

Incidence of apoptosis and cell proliferation in multiple myeloma: correlation with bcl-2 protein expression and serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and soluble IL-6 receptor.

Unlabelled: We evaluated the in vivo incidence of apoptosis and cell proliferation in multiple myeloma (MM) and investigated the correlation of both cellular events with histological tumour stage and grade, bcl-2 protein expression, serum IL-6 and sIL-6R.

Material And Methods: The TUNEL method was used to assess apoptosis and immunohistochemistry to assess the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and bcl-2 protein in 30 bone marrow biopsy specimens. The apoptotic index (AI) and proliferative index (PI) were defined as the percentage of TUNEL and PCNA positive plasma cells, respectively.