Primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) is a human herpes virus 8 (HHV8)-positive large B-cell neoplasm that presents as an effusion with no detectable tumor in individuals with human immunodeficiency virus infection or other immune deficiencies. PEL is an aggressive neoplasm with a poor prognosis. PEL cells show diverse morphologies, ranging from immunoblastic or plasmablastic to anaplastic. The immunophenotype of PEL is distinct, but its lineage can be misdiagnosed if not assessed thoroughly. PEL cells usually express CD45, lack B- and T-cell-associated antigens, and characteristically express lymphocyte activation antigens and plasma cell-associated antigens. Diagnosis of PEL often requires the demonstration of a B-cell genotype. HHV8 must be detected in cells to diagnose PEL. In most cases, PEL cells also harbor the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome. Similar conditions associated with HHV8 but not effusion-based are called "extracavitary PELs." PELs should be differentiated from HHV8-negative, EBV-positive, body cavity-based lymphomas in patients with long-standing chronic inflammation; the latter can occur in tuberculous pleuritis, artificial pneumothorax, chronic liver disease and various other conditions. Despite their morphological similarity, these various lymphomas require different therapeutic strategies and have different prognostic implications. Correct diagnosis is essential to manage and predict the outcome of patients with PEL and related disorders.
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Malignant mesothelioma of the pleura is an aggressive tumor known to be associated with asbestos. Histological diagnosis of mesothelioma is challenging and is usually aided by immunohistochemical markers.
During an 18-year period (1995-2012), 66 patients with pleural mesothelioma were diagnosed at the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul. We reviewed hematoxylin and eosin and immunohistochemical slides of pleural mesothelioma and evaluated their pathological and clinical features.
The male-to-female ratio was 1.75:1, and age of patients ranged from 28 to 80 years with an average age of 56.84 years. Twenty-two out of 66 patients underwent curative pneumonectomy. Follow-up data was available in 60 patients (90.9%), and 50 of them (83.3%) died from the disease. The average overall survival was 15.39 months. Histologically, the epithelioid type was the most common, followed by the sarcomatoid and the biphasic types. Epidemiologic information was not available in most cases, and only one patient was confirmed to have a history of asbestos exposure.
Malignant mesothelioma of the pleura is a fatal tumor, and the therapeutic benefit of pneumonectomy remains unproven. The combination of calretinin, Wilms tumor 1, HMBE-1, and thyroid transcription factor-1 may provide high diagnostic accuracy in diagnosing mesothelioma.
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We compared direct Sanger sequencing and the peptide nucleic acid (PNA)-mediated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) clamping method in 134 NSCLCs and explored associations with clinicopathological factors. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) was used to validate the results of discordant cases. To increase the resolution of low-level somatic mutant molecules, PNA-mediated PCR clamping was used for mutant enrichment prior to NGS.
Twenty-one (15.7%) cases were found to have the
Direct sequencing can accurately detect mutations, but, it is not always possible to obtain a tumor sample with sufficient volume. The PNA-mediated PCR clamping can rapidly provide results with sufficient sensitivity.
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Insulin-like growth factor II mRNA-binding protein 3 (IMP3) has been reported as a prognostic biomarker in various cancers. To validate IMP3 as a prognostic biomarker in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), we investigated the expression of IMP3, p53, and Ki-67, and their associations with clinicopathologic outcomes.
We studied 148 clear cell RCCs (CCRCCs) from patients who underwent radical nephrectomy. The expression levels of IMP3, p53, and Ki-67 were assessed by immunohistochemical staining and the clinical and pathologic parameters were retrospectively reviewed.
Twenty-nine percent of CCRCCs expressed IMP3. Forty-one percent of IMP3-immunopositive tumors developed metastases, while only 11.4% of IMP3-negative tumors developed metastases (p<.001). A Kaplan-Meier curve showed that patients with IMP3-immunopositive tumors had lower metastasis-free survival and cancer-specific survival than did those with IMP3-immunonegative tumors (p<.001 and p<.001, respectively). Expression of high Ki-67 proliferation index was also associated with a higher metastatic rate. In the multivariate Cox regression analysis, pT stage and IMP3-positivity were independently associated with disease-specific survival.
IMP3 is an independent prognostic biomarker for patients with CCRCC to predict metastasis and poor outcome.
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Identification of poor prognostic factors in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients is important for the patients' care and follow-up. We can sometimes see small tumor clusters without desmoplasia and no evidence of lymphatic emboli around the main tumor mass of PTC. We termed this form of tumor clustering, 'tumor sprouting,' and determined whether these tumors correlate with lymphovascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, and recurrence.
We analyzed a total of 204 cases of papillary thyroid macrocarcinoma. Number, size and distance from the main tumor of the tumor sprouting were observed and analyzed with clinicopathologic characteristics.
Tumor sprouting was observed in 101 patients. Presence of tumor sprouting was significantly associated with positive resection margin (p=.002), lymphovascular invasion (p=.001), lymph node metastasis (p<.001), and recurrence (p=.004). Univariate analysis of recurrence-free survival revealed that tumor multiplicity (p=.037), positive resection margin (p=.007), lymphovascular invasion (p=.004), lymph node metastasis (p<.001), and tumor sprouting (p=.004) were poor prognostic factors. In multivariate analysis, positive resection margin was an independent poor prognostic factor of recurrence.
In conclusion, tumor sprouting is significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis and recurrence. Evaluation of tumor sprouting in PTC patients could be helpful in predicting tumor recurrence or lymph node metastasis.
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Previously, cutaneous lymphomas were classified according to either the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) or the World Health Organization (WHO) classification paradigms. The aim of this study was to determine the relative frequency of Korean cutaneous lymphoma according to the new WHO-EORTC classification system.
A total of 517 patients were recruited during a recent 5 year-period (2006-2010) from 21 institutes and classified according to the WHO-EORTC criteria.
The patients included 298 males and 219 females, and the mean age at diagnosis was 49 years. The lesions preferentially affected the trunk area (40.2%). The most frequent subtypes in order of decreasing prevalence were mycosis fungoides (22.2%), peripheral T-cell lymphoma (17.2%), CD30+ T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder (13.7%), and extranodal natural killer/T (NK/T) cell lymphoma, nasal type (12.0%). Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma accounted for 11.2% of cases, half of which were secondary cutaneous involvement; other types of B-cell lymphoma accounted for less than 1% of cases.
In comparison with data from Western countries, this study revealed relatively lower rates of mycosis fungoides and B-cell lymphoma in Korean patients, as well as higher rates of subcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma and NK/T cell lymphoma.
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The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology (BSRTC) uses six diagnostic categories to standardize communication of thyroid fine-needle aspiration (FNA) interpretations between clinicians and cytopathologists. Since several studies have questioned the diagnostic accuracy of this system, we examined its accuracy in our hospital.
We calculated the incidences and malignancy rates of each diagnostic category in the BSRTC for 1,730 FNAs that were interpreted by four cytopathologists in Gangnam Severance Hospital between October 1, 2011, and December 31, 2011.
The diagnostic incidences of categories I-VI were as follows: 13.3%, 40.6%, 9.1%, 0.4%, 19.3%, and 17.3%, respectively. Similarly, the malignancy rates of these categories were as follows: 35.3%, 5.6%, 69.0%, 50.0%, 98.7%, and 98.9%, respectively. In categories II, V, and VI, there were no statistically significant differences in the ranges of the malignancy rates among the four cytopathologists. However, there were significant differences in the ranges for categories I and III.
Our findings suggest that institutions that use the BSRTC should regularly update their diagnostic criteria. We also propose that institutions issue an annual report of incidences and malignancy rates to help other clinicians improve the case management of patients with thyroid nodules.
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Follicular dendritic cell (FDC) sarcoma is rare and is classified either as conventional type or inflammatory pseudotumor (IPT)-like variant. Extranodal presentation is uncommon and nearly all gastrointestinal FDC tumors are of the conventional type. IPT-like variant tumors occur almost exclusively in the liver and spleen and are consistently associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Here we report the case of a 78-year-old woman with an IPT-like FDC sarcoma presenting as a pedunculated colonic polyp. Histologically, scanty atypical ovoid to spindle cells were mixed with a background of florid lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate, which led to an initial misdiagnosis of pseudolymphoma. These atypical cells expressed CD21, CD23, CD35, and D2-40, and were positive for EBV by
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Osteosarcoma of the skull is a very rare condition. Moreover, it is extremely rare for osteosarcoma to present as multiple lesions confined to the skull. A 58-year-old woman was admitted with two masses in the parietal area of the skull, accompanied by mild headache and tenderness. Imaging revealed two masses with a heterogeneous consistency in the cranial bones. Excision craniectomy was performed and the pathology was consistent with osteoblastic osteosarcoma. Two nodules in the heart were found on routine follow-up imaging while the patient was undergoing chemotherapy. The nodules were biopsied and found to be metastatic osteosarcoma.
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Peripheral ameloblastoma (PA) in gingiva is rare and often confused with oral basal cell carcinoma (OBCC). The tissues of one case of PA and one case of OBCC with the same mandibular molar area affected were compared via an immunohistochemical examination using 50 antisera. The PA and OBCC showed similar proliferation of basaloid epithelial strands, but toluidine blue staining revealed that the PA had pinkish juxta-epithelial myxoid tissue, whereas the OBCC was infiltrated by many mast cells. Immunohistochemical comparisons showed that the PA was strongly positive for ameloblastin, KL1, p63, carcinoembryonic antigen, focal adhesion kinase, and cathepsin K, and slightly positive for amelogenin, Krox-25, E-cadherin, and PTCH1, whereas the OBCC was not. On the other hand, the OBCC was strongly positive for EpCam, matrix metalloprotease (MMP)-1, α1-antitrypsin, cytokeratin-7, p53, survivin, pAKT1, transforming growth factor-β1, NRAS, TGase-1, and tumor nescrosis factor-α, and consistently positive for β-catenin, MMP-2, cathepsin G, TGase-2, SOS-1, sonic hedgehog, and the β-defensins-1, -2, -3, while the PA was not. These data suggest that the tumorigeneses of PA and OBCC differ, and that PAs undergo odontogenic differentiation and generate oncogenic signals for infiltrative growth and bone resorption, whereas OBCCs undergo basaloid epidermal differentiation as a result of growth factor/cytokine-related oncogenic signals.
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