The variability in measurements of complex permittivities of tumor tissues between multiple samples could be attributed to the volume fraction of cancer cells in the excised tumor tissue. By the use of a digital photomicrograph image and hematoxylin-eosin staining, it was found that the malignant tumor tissue was not fully occupied by the cancer cells, but the cells were distributed locally in the stroma cells depending on the growth of cancer. The results showed that the volume fraction of cancer cells in the tumor tissue had a correlation to the measured conductivity and dielectric constant in the frequency range from 1 GHz to 6 GHz. It introduces a method to understand and gauge variability in measurements between different tumors.

Elevated soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) in sera is observed in patients with malignant lymphoma (ML). Therefore, sIL-2R is commonly used as a diagnostic and prognostic marker for ML, but the mechanisms responsible for the increase in sIL-2R levels in patients with B-cell lymphomas have not yet been elucidated. We first hypothesized that lymphoma cells expressing IL-2R and some proteinases such as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in the tumor microenvironment can give rise to increased sIL-2R in sera. However, flow cytometric studies revealed that few lymphoma cells expressed IL-2R α chain (CD25) in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and follicular lymphoma (FL), and most CD25-expressing cells in the tumor were T-cells. Distinct correlations between CD25 expression on B-lymphoma cells and sIL-2R levels were not observed. We then confirmed that MMP-9 plays an important role in producing sIL-2R in functional studies. Immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis also revealed that MMP-9 is mainly derived from tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). We therefore evaluated the number of CD68 and CD163 positive macrophages in the tumor microenvironment using IHC analysis. A positive correlation between the levels of sIL-2R in sera and the numbers of CD68 positive macrophages in the tumor microenvironment was confirmed in FL and extranodal DLBCL. These results may be useful in understanding the pathophysiology of B-cell lymphomas.

Our results suggested that the assessment of hTERT expression in preoperative pancreatic juice increased the sensitivity and accuracy of diagnosis of PDACs and malignant IPMNs without using special techniques.

The Ki-67 labeling index values determined by automated analysis and visual counting could equally predict disease-free survival in patients with luminal B breast carcinoma, including those who received endocrine therapy.

The estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PgR) status of 163 surgical breast cancer specimens determined on real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using frozen tumor tissue were compared with that determined using three automated immunohistochemistry (IHC) assays including Dako (Glostrup, Denmark), Ventana (Tucson, AZ, USA) and BioGenex (San Ramon, CA, USA) assay. All specimens were semiquantified according to the Allred score and J-score. The cut-offs for ER determined by log (ER/glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH)) were -3.6 and -3.2 based on the Allred score and J-score, respectively, and those for PgR determined by log (PgR/GAPDH) were -3.2 and -2.8, respectively. The Allred total score (TS) and the J-score for ER and PgR on IHC were significantly correlated with the result on RT-PCR (P < 0.00001). There was a high degree of concordance among ER and PgR status on IHC and those on RT-PCR, suggesting that RT-PCR is a useful method for evaluation of ER and PgR status. Some discrepancies between the IHC and RT-PCR results were identified, however. Accordingly, further studies of RT-PCR assays for hormone receptor (HR) are necessary with regard to biological behavior and responsiveness to hormone therapy.