Soomin Ahn, Yoonjin Kwak, Gui Young Kwon, Kyoung-Mee Kim, Moonsik Kim, Hyunki Kim, Young Soo Park, Hyeon Jeong Oh, Kyoungyul Lee, Sung Hak Lee, Hye Seung Lee
J Pathol Transl Med. 2024;58(3):103-116. Published online April 25, 2024
Nivolumab plus chemotherapy in the first-line setting has demonstrated clinical efficacy in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2–negative advanced or metastatic gastric cancer, and is currently indicated as a standard treatment. Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression is an important biomarker for predicting response to anti–programmed death 1/PD-L1 agents in several solid tumors, including gastric cancer. In the CheckMate-649 trial, significant clinical improvements were observed in patients with PD-L1 combined positive score (CPS) ≥ 5, determined using the 28-8 pharmDx assay. Accordingly, an accurate interpretation of PD-L1 CPS, especially at a cutoff of 5, is important. The CPS method evaluates both immune and tumor cells and provides a comprehensive assessment of PD-L1 expression in the tumor microenvironment of gastric cancer. However, CPS evaluation has several limitations, one of which is poor interobserver concordance among pathologists. Despite these limitations, clinical indications relying on PD-L1 CPS are increasing. In response, Korean gastrointestinal pathologists held a consensus meeting for the interpretation of PD-L1 CPS in gastric cancer. Eleven pathologists reviewed 20 PD-L1 slides with a CPS cutoff close to 5, stained with the 28-8 pharmDx assay, and determined the consensus scores. The issues observed in discrepant cases were discussed. In this review, we present cases of gastric cancer with consensus PD-L1 CPS. In addition, we briefly touch upon current practices and clinical issues associated with assays used for the assessment of PD-L1 expression in gastric cancer.
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Primary combined hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and neuroendocrine carcinoma is a rare entity, and so is hypercalcemia due to ectopic parathyroid hormone (PTH) secretion by tumor. A 44-year old man with hepatitis B virus associated chronic liver disease presented with a hepatic mass. Hemihepatectomy discovered the mass as combined HCC and poorly differentiated cholangiocarcinoma. During adjuvant chemoradiation therapy, he presented with nausea, and multiple systemic metastases were found. Laboratory tests revealed hypercalcemia with markedly elevated PTH and neuron specific enolase. Parathyroid scan showed normal uptake in parathyroid glands, suggestive of ectopic PTH secretion. Subsequently, immunohistochemistry of neuroendocrine marker was performed on the primary lesion, and confirmed the neuroendocrine differentiation in non-HCC component. The patient died 71 days after surgery. This report may suggest the possibility of ectopic PTH secretion by neuroendocrine carcinoma of hepatic origin causing hypercalcemia. Caution for neuroendocrine differentiation should be exercised when diagnosing poorly differentiated HCC.
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Two-in-one: A pooled analysis of primary hepatic neuroendocrine carcinoma combined/collided with hepatocellular carcinoma Jia-Xi Mao, Fei Teng, Ke-Yan Sun, Cong Liu, Guo-Shan Ding, Wen-Yuan Guo Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Diseases International.2020; 19(4): 399. CrossRef
Epithelial-myoepithelial carcinoma and basal cell adenocarcinoma are uncommon, low-grade malignant epithelial neoplasms of salivary gland.
They occur predominantly in the parotid glands with frequent recurrences and occasional distant metastases. We report an unusual case of combined epithelial-myoepithelial carcinoma and basal cell adenocarcinoma within the same mass of the parotid gland in a 32-year-old woman. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such a combined carcinoma case.
Eight cases of combine hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma(HCC-CC) of the liver were analysed along with their growth patterns and histologic subtypes to draw a possible implication in understanding of their histogenesis. The relative incidence of combined HCC-CC among the surgically resected primary carcinomas of the liver(485 cases) was 1.6%. The combination patterns varied and were classified as follows; the multinodular tumor, each consisting of HCC or CC element(type 1) was found in 1 case, the single tumor mass with two distinct compartments of HCC and CC(type 2) in 3, and the single tumor with random mixture of two elements(type 3) comprised the remaining 4 cases. Of the 7 cases of single tumor mass(type 2 and 3) HCC and CC comprised the major component in 5 and 2 cases, respectively. The histologic features of both HCC and CC elements were not different from those of isolated HCC and CC, except for two of CC element in type 3 which disclosed the intermediated differentiation or socalled cholangiolocellular carcinoma in part. We conclude that there is no significant difference in the relative incidence of combined HCC-CC among primary carcinomas of the liver and their subtypes compared to that in other countries, regardless of high incidence of both HCC and CC in Korea. Also, we discussed a possible histogenisis along a hypothesis that some of the combined HCC-CC be the consequence of interposition of different cell type from a new subclone into the growth of an initial single cell type of primary carcinoma of the liver.