The human RNASET2 alarmin-like molecule differentially affects prostate cancer cells behavior in both cell autonomous and non-cell autonomous manners.

The identification of molecules that make cancer cells detectable by the immune system represents a major challenge in tumor immunology. Alarmins, endogenous, stress-induced molecules, serve as early warning signals triggering immune responses. The human RNASET2 protein has demonstrated both oncosuppressive and immunoregulatory functions across various cancer types, yet its role as an oncosuppressor or alarmin-like molecule in prostate cancer (PCa) is unexplored.

Dual-Layer Spectral CT as Innovative Imaging Guidance in Lung Biopsies: Could Color-Coded Z-Effective Images Allow More Diagnostic Samplings and Biomarkers Information?

The aim of the study was to try to obtain more information on diagnostic samplings and biomarkers using dual-layer spectral CT in lung biopsies. Lung biopsies were performed by merging images obtained with CBCT with those from spectral CT to use them as functional guidance, experimenting with double sampling to determine the difference between the area with a higher Z-effective number and that with a lower Z-effective number. Ten patients with large lung lesions on spectral CT were selected and underwent percutaneous transthoracic lung mass biopsy.

Neuroendocrine Carcinoma of the Urinary Bladder: CT Findings and Radiomics Signature.

: We present a case series of Neuroendocrine Carcinoma of the Urinary Bladder (NECB) to analyse their radiologic appearance on CT, find a "Radiomic signature", and review the current literature. : 14 CT cases of NECB were reviewed and compared with a control group of 42 patients with high-grade non-neuroendocrine bladder neoplasm for the following parameters: ring enhancement; implantation site; dimensions; density; margins; central necrosis; calcifications; number of lesions; wall thickness; depth of invasion in the soft tissue; invasion of fat tissue; invasion of adjacent organs; lymph-node involvement; abdominal organ metastasis. To extract radiomic features, volumes of interest of bladder lesions were manually delineated on the portal-venous phase.

Could Maximum SUV be Used as Imaging Guidance in Large Lung Lesions Biopsies? Double Sampling Under PET-CT/XperGuide Fusion Imaging in Inhomogeneous Lung Uptaking Lesions to Show That it can Make a Difference.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic value of positron emission computed tomography-cone beam computed tomography (PET/CT-CBCT) fusion guided percutaneous biopsy, targeted to the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) and minimum standardized uptake value (SUVmin) of large lung lesions. Inside a larger cohort of PET/CT-CBCT guided percutaneous lung biopsies, 10 patients with large pulmonary lesions (diameter > 30 mm) were selected retrospectively. These patients have been subjected to double biopsy sampling respectively in the SUVmax area and in the SUVmin area of the lesion.

Biphenotypic sinonasal sarcoma: European multicentre case-series and systematic literature review.

Objective: Biphenotypic sinonasal sarcoma (BSNS) is a rare low-grade cancer that was included from the 4th edition of WHO classification of head and neck tumours. The purpose of this study is to analyse clinical behaviour, pattern of recurrences and survival outcomes of this neoplasm.

Methods: Retrospective review of patients affected by BSNS who were treated via an endoscopic-assisted approach in 6 European tertiary-care referral hospitals.

Impact of High-Grade Patterns in Early-Stage Lung Adenocarcinoma: A Multicentric Analysis.

Objective: The presence of micropapillary and solid adenocarcinoma patterns leads to a worse survival and a significantly higher tendency to recur. This study aims to assess the impact of pT descriptor combined with the presence of high-grade components on long-term outcomes in early-stage lung adenocarcinomas.

Methods: We retrospectively collected data of consecutive resected pT1-T3N0 lung adenocarcinoma from nine European Thoracic Centers.

Pathological and clinical features of multiple cancers and lung adenocarcinoma: a multicentre study.

Objectives: Lung cancer is increasingly diagnosed as a second cancer. Our goal was to analyse the characteristics and outcomes of early-stage resected lung adenocarcinomas in patients with previous cancers (PC) and correlations with adenocarcinoma subtypes.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed data of patients radically operated on for stage I-II lung adenocarcinoma in 9 thoracic surgery departments between 2014 and 2017.

Prognostic role of standard uptake value according to pathologic features of lung adenocarcinoma.

Objective: To evaluate the influence of lung adenocarcinoma second predominant pattern on the maximal standard uptake value (SUVmax) and its prognostic effect in different histologic groups.

Methods: We retrospectively collected surgically resected pathologic stage I and II lung adenocarcinoma from nine European institutions. Only patients who underwent preoperative PET-CT and with available information regarding SUVmax of T (SUVmaxT) and N1 (SUVmaxN1) component were included.

Surgical management of tracheal chondrosarcoma.

Tracheal chondrosarcoma is an extremely rare, slow-growing, malignant tumour. This study aims to analyze the cases of tracheal chondrosarcoma published in the literature and our case report, in order to better define tracheal chondrosarcoma management. A systematic review of the English literature was carried out for fully described tracheal chondrosarcoma cases.

Prognostic impact of lung adenocarcinoma second predominant pattern from a large European database.

Background And Objectives: Adenocarcinoma patterns could be grouped based on clinical behaviors: low- (lepidic), intermediate- (papillary or acinar), and high-grade (micropapillary and solid). We analyzed the impact of the second predominant pattern (SPP) on disease-free survival (DFS).

Methods: We retrospectively collected data of surgically resected stage I and II adenocarcinoma.

T790M detection rate in lung adenocarcinomas at baseline using droplet digital PCR and validation by ultra-deep next generation sequencing.

Background: Routine testing of baseline T790M mutation may have important clinical impact but many discordant data have been reported regarding the diagnostic, prognostic and predictive role of this marker. In this study we aimed to assess T790M frequency in 164 untreated -mutated NSCLCs using methods with different sensitivity as well as to analyze the relationship between baseline T790M mutation status, patient's clinicopathologic features and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) treatment outcomes.

Methods: We compared the diagnostic performance, sensitivity and specificity of three methods, namely MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (MS), Allele-Specific Real Time PCR (AS-PCR), droplet digital PCR (ddPCR).

Beta1- and Beta2-Adrenoceptors Expression Patterns in Human Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: Relationship with Cancer Histology.

Assessment of Beta-AR protein expression on tumour tissues might be a plausible strategy to select cancer patients who can benefit from Beta-blockers therapy. The aim of this study is to evaluate the differences between resected tissue specimens from primary lung cancer (adenocarcinoma (ADC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC)) in terms of expression pattern of Beta1- and Beta2-AR in both tumour and adjacent surrounding non-tumour tissue. This retrospective study was based on the analysis of 80 patients with histologically confirmed diagnosis of primary Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) who received surgical treatment.

LINE-1 hypomethylation is associated to specific clinico-pathological features in Stage I non-small cell lung cancer.

Objectives: We hypothesize that selected genetic and/or epigenetic changes associated with advanced tumours may help identifying early non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) that recur after resection. Among epigenetic changes, long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1) hypomethylation is seen early during carcinogenesis and may act in concert with genetic alterations to cancer progression. LINE-1 hypomethylation and gene mutations frequently involved in lung cancer, were analysed to evaluate their prognostic role in resected stage I NSCLC.

Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA)-from morphology to molecular testing.

In recent years, endobronchial ultrasound-guided TBNA (EBUS-TBNA) has emerged as an innovative technique for diagnosis and staging of lung cancer and has been successfully introduced into daily clinical practice with several advantages including minimally invasive approach, safe, cost-effective, real time image guidance, broad sampling capability, and rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE). Both cytological and histological approach could be useful to have material for diagnosis, immunohistochemical and molecular analyses which may be very important for targeted therapy with successful rate ranging from 89% to 98%. The utility of ROSE during EBUS-TBNA has been matter of debate.

Pyrosequencing for EGFR mutation detection: diagnostic accuracy and clinical implications.

EGFR-activating mutations predict responsiveness to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Mutation screening is crucial to support therapeutic decisions and is commonly conducted using dideoxy sequencing, although its sensitivity is suboptimal in clinical settings. To evaluate the diagnostic performance of pyrosequencing and dideoxy sequencing, we examined EGFR mutation status in a retrospective cohort of 53 patients with NSCLCs clinically selected for TKI therapy and whose clinical outcome was available.

The proangiogenic phenotype of natural killer cells in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

The tumor microenvironment can polarize innate immune cells to a proangiogenic phenotype. Decidual natural killer (dNK) cells show an angiogenic phenotype, yet the role for NK innate lymphoid cells in tumor angiogenesis remains to be defined. We investigated NK cells from patients with surgically resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and controls using flow cytometric and functional analyses.

Clinicopathologic study of 62 acinar cell carcinomas of the pancreas: insights into the morphology and immunophenotype and search for prognostic markers.

Acinar cell carcinoma (ACC) of the pancreas is a very rare tumor that has various morphologic features, which may give rise to diagnostic difficulties. Because of its rarity, many clinicopathologic characteristics remain to be further elucidated, and prognostic factors are yet to be well established. With the aim of better characterizing this carcinoma and searching for prognostic indicators, we collected 62 ACCs and investigated the following parameters: site, size, local infiltration, node and distant metastases, architectural pattern, nuclear atypia, presence of necrosis, lymphovascular and perineural invasion, proliferation, BCL10, trypsin, carboxyl ester lipase, amylase, lipase, PDX1, cytokeratin 19 (CK19), CK7, p53, and β-catenin expression.

Mixed exocrine-neuroendocrine carcinoma of the nasal cavity: clinico-pathologic and molecular study of a case and review of the literature.

Sinonasal intestinal-type adenocarcinomas (ITACs) are rare neoplasms histologically resembling intestinal adenocarcinomas. Although a neuroendocrine differentiation in ITACs has been described, true mixed exocrine-neuroendocrine carcinomas, neoplasms in which each component represents at least 30 % of the lesion, are extremely rare and their molecular alterations are largely unknown. We describe herein the clinico-pathologic features, the methylation profile, chromosomal gains and losses, and mutation analysis of KRAS, BRAF and p53 in a nasal mixed exocrine-neuroendocrine carcinoma resected in a 79-year-old man.

Serotonin-producing enterochromaffin cell tumors of the pancreas: clinicopathologic study of 15 cases and comparison with intestinal enterochromaffin cell tumors.

Objectives: Serotonin-producing tumors of the pancreas are rare endocrine neoplasms composed of enterochromaffin (EC) cells that have been mainly described in the literature as case reports. This study analyzes the clinicopathologic features of a series of pancreatic EC cell neoplasms and their similarities to and differences from intestinal EC cell tumors.

Methods: The morphological, immunohistochemical, ultrastructural, and fluorescent in situ hybridization features of 15 pancreatic and 20 intestinal serotonin-producing neoplasms were compared.

Ectopic congenital thymic cyst in the right pleural cavity.

A 37-year-old man with a huge pleural cyst, presented with symptoms of right heart compression. The mass on the right side of the chest seemed initially to be in connection with the mediastinum. Computed tomography failed to define its relationship with the pericardium, and echocardiography excluded any involvement of the mediastinal structures.

Osteopontin is not a specific marker in malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Background And Aims: Osteopontin (OPN) is an integrin-binding protein recently shown to be related to tumorigenesis, progression and metastasis in different experimental models of malignancy. Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a fatal disease in which the prognosis remains very poor and the knowledge of predictive factors for outcome is insufficient. The identification of new molecules involved in cancer initiation and development is a fundamental step for improving the curability of this kind of tumor.

Different intracellular compartmentalization of TA and DeltaNp73 in non-small cell lung cancer.

The p53 homologue p73 is overexpressed in many tumors, including lung cancer. We have evaluated the differential expression and subcellular localization of the functionally distinct apoptotic (TA) and anti-apoptotic (DeltaN) isoforms of p73 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), their possible association with p53 expression and determined the methylation status of the two p73 gene promoters (P1 and P2) in this tumor type. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that both isoforms are expressed in the majority of cases.

BACE2 is stored in secretory granules of mouse and rat pancreatic beta cells.

BACE2 is a protease homologous to BACE1 protein, an enzyme involved in the amyloid formation of Alzheimer disease (AD). However, despite the high homology between these two proteins, the biological role of BACE2 is still controversial, even though a few studies have suggested a pathogenetic role in sporadic inclusion-body myositis and hereditary inclusion-body myopathy, which are characterized by vacuolization of muscular fibers with intracellular deposits of proteins similar to those found in the brain of AD patients. Although BACE2 has also been identified in the pancreas, its function remains unknown and its specific localization in different pancreatic cell types has not been definitively ascertained.

The monoclonal anti-BCL10 antibody (clone 331.1) is a sensitive and specific marker of pancreatic acinar cell carcinoma and pancreatic metaplasia.

Acinar cell carcinoma (ACC) is a rare pancreatic cancer which may be difficult to distinguish from other solid nonadenocarcinoma tumors. The diagnosis depends on the demonstration of acinar differentiation, obtained with antibodies recognizing various pancreatic enzymes that, although specific, show different sensitivity. The C-terminal portion of the BCL10 protein shows homology with carboxyl ester hydrolase (CEH), an enzyme produced by pancreatic acinar cells.

Prognostic factors for ampullary adenocarcinomas: tumor stage, tumor histology, tumor location, immunohistochemistry and microsatellite instability.

Prognostic factors for ampullary carcinomas (ACs) are poorly defined. Fifty three resected ACs were analyzed for CDX2, MUC1, MUC5AC, MUC6, MUC2, and for mismatch repair proteins (hMLH1, hMSH2, PMS2, hMSH6) using immunohistochemistry. Microsatellite instability (MSI) status was evaluated by fluorescently labeled PCR using an automated sequencer.