0000000000101517
AUTHOR
Valeria Barresi
Letter to the Editor regarding the paper by Aurilio et al., A meta-analysis of oestrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 discordance between primary breast cancer and metastases
Sir,We have read with great interest the article in press ofAurilio et al., A meta-analysis of oestrogen receptor, pro-gesterone receptor and human epidermal growth factorreceptor 2 discordance between primary breast cancerand metastases (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejca.2003.10.004), which will appear in Eur J Cancer. In the paper,the Authors have performed a meta-analysis of the stud-ies published in the literature concerning the discor-dance rate in oestrogen receptor (ER), progesteronereceptor (PgR) and HER2 status between primarytumour and corresponding relapse. It is well known thata considerable controversy concerns the issue of hor-mone receptors (HRs) expression as well as HER2 sta…
Presurgical role of MRI tractography in a case of extensive cervicothoracic spinal ependymoma
Background: Intramedullary spinal ependymoma is a tumor, hardly characterizable with conventional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging only. MR diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with three dimensional fiber tracking reconstructions allows the evaluation of the relationship between neoplasm and white matter fiber tracts, being a powerful tool in presurgical planning. We present DTI findings in a case of a young female with an extensive cervicothoracic spinal ependymoma. Case Description: The patient complained of a 2 month history of acute urinary retention, weakness and numbness on the lower limbs and the upper left limb. She underwent MR imaging that showed an extensive cervicothoracic spinal mass…
Isolated Endometriosis on the Rectus Abdominis Muscle in Women without a History of Abdominal Surgery: a Rare and Intriguing Finding
We report 2 rare cases of endometriosis on the rectus abdominal muscle diagnosed incidentally during an operation for inguinal hernia repair in women with no surgical history. Two women sought medical attention for a mass found in the pubic abdominal wall. Only 1 woman reported occasional pain. At physical examination in both women, an ovoid swelling in the right pubic area was felt. One woman experienced pain on palpation, and one reported slight discomfort. Ultrasonography demonstrated a heterogeneous hypoechogenic formation with indistinct edges; diagnosis was difficult. Routine clinical and instrumental (pelvic ultrasonography) gynecologic examination in both patients performed shortly …
PD-L1 in small bowel adenocarcinoma is associated with etiology and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, in addition to microsatellite instability
Small bowel adenocarcinomas (SBAs) are often associated with poor prognosis and have limited therapeutic options. Programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) pathway blockade is an effective treatment in many microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) solid tumors. We aimed at investigating PD-L1 and PD-1 expression in non-hereditary, non-ampullary SBAs, associated with celiac disease (CeD), Crohn’s disease (CrD), or sporadic, recruited through the Small Bowel Cancer Italian Consortium. We assessed PD-L1 and PD-1 by immunohistochemistry in a series of 121 surgically resected SBAs, including 34 CeD-SBAs, 49 CrD-SBAs, and 38 sporadic SBAs. PD-L1 and PD-1 express…
Prognostic Role of Mismatch Repair Status, Histotype and High-Risk Pathologic Features in Stage II Small Bowel Adenocarcinomas
Abstract Background Small bowel adenocarcinoma is a relatively rare cancer, often diagnosed in an advanced stage. In localized and resectable disease, surgery alone or in combination with adjuvant chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatment. In the recently published National Comprehensive Cancer Network Clinical Practice guidelines, criteria for selecting patients with stage II small bowel adenocarcinoma to receive adjuvant chemotherapy are provided, and they are mainly extrapolated from studies on colorectal cancer. Patients and Methods In the present study, we aimed to verify whether mismatch repair deficiency phenotype, high-risk pathologic features (including T4, positive resection margi…
Discordance rate of HER2 status in primary breast carcinomas versus synchronous axillary lymph node metastases: a multicenter retrospective investigation.
Antonio Ieni,1 Valeria Barresi,1 Rosario Caltabiano,2 Anna Maria Cascone,3 Rachele Del Sordo,4 Daniela Cabibi,5 Pio Zeppa,3 Salvatore Lanzafame,2 Angelo Sidoni,4 Vito Franco,5 Giovanni Tuccari1 1Department of Human Pathology Gaetano Barresi, Section of Anatomic Pathology, University of Messina, Messina, 2Department GF Ingrassia, Section of Anatomic Pathology, University of Catania, Catania, 3Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Salerno, Salerno, 4Institute of Pathologic Anatomy and Histology, Division of Cancer Research, University of Perugia, Perugia, 5Department of Human Pathology, Section of Anatomic Pathology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy Background: Human epiderma…
Intracranial venous sinus thrombosis as unusual presentation of Bing-Neel syndrome: case illustration.
A 42-year-old woman presented with progressive blurred vision, vertigo, and headache. MRI showed bilateral intraocular protrusion of the optic nerve head and right transverse sinus thrombosis . Low-molecular-weight heparin was administered without symptom relief. Additional MRI showed left frontoparietal arachnoid space obliteration by pathological tissue, and infiltration of the sagittal and right transverse sinuses. After Gd administration, we observed diffuse enhancement of the dura in the left cerebral hemisphere and subdural and epicranial soft-tissue infiltration . A biopsy of the extra-axial tissue was performed. Histological examination showed a neoplasm composed of large cells with…
Perfusion computed tomography of intracranial meningiomas: In vivo correlation of cerebral blood volume and vascular permeability
Background A noninvasive method to predict the grade of a meningioma would be desirable since it would anticipate information about tumour nature, recurrence and improve tumour management and outcomes. The aim of the present study was to assess the ability of perfusion computed tomography (PCT) technique in predicting the meningioma grade before surgery. Data from PCT, such as cerebral blood volume (CBV) and permeability surface (PS), were correlated with immunohistolopathological information. Methods Twenty-three patients with a diagnosis of intracranial meningioma underwent PCT for pre-surgical evaluation of CBV and PS. During surgery, samples from the centre and periphery of the tumour w…
Embryonic and foetal Islet-1 positive cells in human hearts are also positive to c-Kit.
During embryogenesis, the mammalian heart develops from a primitive heart tube originating from two bilateral primary heart fields located in the lateral plate mesoderm. Cells belongings to the pre-cardiac mesoderm will differentiate into early cardiac progenitors, which express early transcription factors which are also common to the Isl-1 positive cardiac progenitor cells isolated from the developing pharyngeal mesoderm and the foetal and post-natal mice hearts. A second population of cardiac progenitor cells positive to c-Kit has been abundantly isolated from adult hearts. Until now, these two populations have been considered two different sets of progenitor cells present in the heart in…