BackgroundBreast cancer is one of the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide and increasing rapidly in developing countries. In the present study, we investigated the potential role and association of HSP70-2 with breast cancer.MethodsHSP70-2 expression was examined in 154 tumor and 103 adjacent non-cancerous tissue (ANCT) specimens and breast cancer cell lines (MCF7, BT-474, SK-BR-3 and MDA-MB-231) by RT-PCR, quantitative-PCR, immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, flow cytometry and indirect immunofluorescence. Plasmid driven short hairpin RNA approach was employed to validate the role of HSP70-2 in cellular proliferation, senescence, migration, invasion and tumor growth. Further, we studied the effect of HSP70-2 protein ablation on signaling cascades involved in apoptosis, cell cycle and Epithelial-Mesenchymal-Transition both in culture as well as in-vivo human breast xenograft mouse model.ResultsHSP70-2 expression was detected in majority of breast cancer patients (83 %) irrespective of various histotypes, stages and grades. HSP70-2 expression was also observed in all breast cancer cells (BT-474, MCF7, MDA-MB-231 and SK-BR-3) used in this study. Depletion of HSP70-2 in MDA-MB-231 and MCF7 cells resulted in a significant reduction in cellular growth, motility, onset of apoptosis, senescence, cell cycle arrest as well as reduction of tumor growth in the xenograft model. At molecular level, down-regulation of HSP70-2 resulted in reduced expression of cyclins, cyclin dependent kinases, anti-apoptotic molecules and mesenchymal markers and enhanced expression of CDK inhibitors, caspases, pro-apoptotic molecules and epithelial markers.ConclusionsHSP70-2 is over expressed in breast cancer patients and was involved in malignant properties of breast cancer. This suggests HSP70-2 may be potential candidate molecule for development of better breast cancer treatment.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13046-016-0425-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor (DNT) is a relatively newly described entity and is an important cause of intractable epilepsy. We report 32 cases of DNT who were operated and treated in our hospital over a period of 12 years. Immunostaining for various proliferative markers and tumor suppressor gene proteins was done to assess the proliferative potential of these tumors. The most common presentation was partial complex seizures followed by generalized tonic-clonic seizures, focal motor seizures, and myoclonus. The most common location was temporal lobe followed by frontal and in one patient lesion was multifocal. All patients were seizure free at the last postoperative follow-up which varies from 12 to 96 months with mean of 33.7 months. Microscopic examination showed classical histology comprising of intracortical multinodular microcystic lesions with floating neurons. Proliferative indices were very low (<1%) and tumor suppressor gene protein expression was not seen in the present study. Cortical dysplasia of the surrounding brain was observed in 37.3% of cases.

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Thymic carcinoids are aggressive and present at an advanced stage. This article describes the utility of (68)Gallium-1,4,7,10-traazacyclododecane-NI, NII, NIII, NIIII-tetra acetic acid-(D)-Phel1-Tyr3-octreotide positron emission tomography ((68)Ga DOTATOC PET-CT-scan) and clinicopathological features of four thymic carcinoid tumours. Two typical, one atypical, and one large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) were analysed. There were three males and one female with a mean age of 33 years. Three patients had a stage III and one had a stage II tumour. Preoperative (68)Ga DOTATOC PET-CT-scan of three patients did not show uptake of radiotracer in the tumour. Three patients were disease free at 19-27 months follow-up. The patient with LCNEC developed recurrence in the lumbar vertebrae. There is no locoregional recurrence of tumour in any of our patients. Complete surgical resection of the tumour with invaded adjacent structures, postoperative radiotherapy to the tumour bed helps in obtaining disease free survival.

Inflammatory pseudotumors (IPs) arising in the CNS (IP-CNS) are quite rare. We report here a case of IP in a 5-year-old boy. Intraoperatively there was a well-defined extra-axial lesion in the right frontobasal region with CSF all around. There was no dural attachment. The tumor was removed piece-meal. On pathological examination, the lesion was well circumscribed and comprised of spindled cells in a collagenous background with sprinkling of inflammatory cells. The case was worked up considering the possibilities of low grade glioma, lymphoplasmacyte-rich meningioma, fungal/tubercular infection or inflammatory pseudotumors. Appropriate immunohistochemical stains were performed to rule out the rare possibility of lymphoma or plasmacytoma. The spindled cells were diffusely immunopositive for vimentin and only occasional cells were positive for smooth muscle actin (SMA). The cells did not show anaplastic lymphoma kinase-1 immunopositivity. Based on the above morphological and immunohistochemical analysis, a diagnosis of inflammatory pseudotumor was rendered.