Pulmonary pseudoangiosarcomatous squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC) is a rare aggressive variant of squamous cell carcinoma. Histopathologically, PSCC is characterized by interanastomosing cords and channels, lined by atypical cells, with spaces containing erythrocytes or floating tumour cells. PSCC mimics angiosarcoma, so careful attention should be paid to immunohistochemical differences. Two PSCC cases are described here: in a 79-year-old male, bronchoscopy revealed mucosal swelling and hypertrophy and an adrenal mass was found 1 month later; in a 76-year-old male, computed tomography revealed rib destruction due to a non-calcified softtissue tumour and, although the tumour resembled an angiosarcoma, endothelial markers were negative and cytokeratin and p63 markers were positive. Immunohisto chemical analyses may be helpful in establishing an accurate diagnosis. PSCC had a progressive course in both patients, who died ≤ 3 months postdiagnosis.
The high mobility group A1 (HMGA1) protein is associated with poor prognosis in patients with a wide range of cancers. However, the affect of HMGA1 on the risk of mortality from breast cancer (BC) has not been fully characterized. In the present retrospective multiple center study, the HMGA1 expression level was determined by performing immunohistochemistry on surgical tissue samples of 273 BC specimens from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University (Zhejiang, China) and 310 BCs from the National Engineering Center for Biochip (Shanghai, China). Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazard model were employed to analyze the survivability. HMGA1 expression was significantly associated with tumor histological degree and body mass index (BMI). However, HMGA1 expression showed no prognostic value in patients with BC. Combined evaluation of HMGA1 expression and high BMI (≥24 kg/m2) predicted worse overall survival of BC. Therefore, HMGA1 and BMI were considered to serve synergistic roles in the development and progression of BC, and combined evaluation of HMGA1 expression and high BMI may be an effective marker in predicting poor prognosis of BC patients.
With the modern technological developments in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, the survival rate of cancer patients has increased. On the other hand, the incidence of multiple primary tumors is increasing annually. Lynch syndrome (LS), an autosomal dominant disorder with germline mutations in DNA mismatch repair genes, increases the risk of cancer in patients carrying those mutations. In this report, we present an extremely rare case of an 81-year-old male patient with eight primary malignancies and LS. The patient is still alive having survived for more than 41 years since the initial discovery of the first tumor. The eighth and most recently diagnosed primary cancer was a malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor. Although there have been numerous reports of malignancies in LS, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors have not been reported previously with LS. Here, we report, to the best of our knowledge, the first case of a malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor with LS.
Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is one of the most important adjunctive techniques in surgical pathology. Quality controls are essential for staining interpretation. The most common controls are cut from the formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks in advance. In contrast, we developed paraffin-embedded tissue fragment suspension (PETFS), a novel method in liquid form, for quality control preparation. The liquid form controls were cut from the donor formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded paraffin blocks, stored in the 4°C fridge easily, and added to the top and bottom of the test slide directly by pipetting. The tissue fragments from the PETFS had a comparable IHC staining pattern to that of the control sections from the original donor blocks. Over a 180-day testing period, the IHC staining pattern and intensity remained strong and specific. The clinical value of PETFS method was further validated by their successful application as controls for the expression of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and C-erbB-2 in 240 breast invasive ductal carcinomas. We concluded that PETFS is a fast, low-cost, and less donor tissue consumption robust technique as quality controls for routine IHC staining in surgical pathologic practice.
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