Kinesin family protein 2A (KIF2A) is a microtubule depolymerase that participates in the progression of various cancers; however, its clinical utility in endometrial carcinoma (EC) remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to assess KIF2A expression and its relationship with prognosis in patients with EC. Data from 230 patients with EC who underwent tumor resection were reviewed in the current, retrospective study. KIF2A expression was measured in 230 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens of tumor tissue and 50 FFPE specimens of non-tumor tissue using immunohistochemistry (IHC). KIF2A expression was elevated in EC tumor tissue vs. non-tumor tissue (P<0.001). Furthermore, tumor KIF2A expression was linked with lymphovascular invasion (P=0.004) and higher International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage (P=0.001). High tumor KIF2A expression (IHC score>3) was correlated with shorter disease-free survival (DFS; P=0.014) and overall survival (OS; P=0.012). Moreover, the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curves revealed that tumor KIF2A expression had an acceptable use for estimating the relapse and death risks at each timepoint within 6 years, with each area under the curve remaining stable at ≥0.7. Notably, tumor KIF2A expression (high vs. low) independently forecast shorter DFS (hazard ratio, 2.506; P=0.013), but not OS (P>0.05). Furthermore, information from The Human Protein Atlas database indicated that high tumor KIF2A expression was associated with worse OS in patients with EC (P=0.027). Tumor KIF2A is not only associated with lymphovascular invasion and higher FIGO stage, but also reflects unfavorable survival in patients with EC.

UNASSIGNED: Driver genes are essential predictors of targeted therapeutic efficacy. Detecting driver gene mutations in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients can help to screen for targeted drugs and improve patient survival benefits. This study aims to investigate the mutation characterization of driver genes and their correlation with clinicopathological features in LUAD.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 440 LUAD patients were selected from Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital between July 2019 and September 2022. Postoperative tissue specimens were analyzed for gene mutations using next-generation sequencing technology, focusing, including epidermal growth factor receptor EGFR, ALK, ROS1, RET, KRAS, MET, BRAF, HER2, PIK3CA and NRAS. At the same time, clinicopathological data were collected and organized for multidimensional correlation analysis.
UNASSIGNED: Of 440 LUAD patients, driver gene mutations were not detected in 48 patients. The proportion of patients with driver gene mutations was as high as 89.09%. The top three driver genetic mutations were EGFR, KRAS, and MET. Sixty-nine types of EGFR mutations were detected and distributed in the protein tyrosine kinase catalytic domain (56, 81.16%), Furin-like cysteine-rich region (9, 13.04%), receptor binding domain (3, 4.35%), and EGFR transmembrane domain (1, 1.45%). Single gene locus mutation occurred in 343 LUAD patients, but the mutation gene types covered all tested genes. Our findings showed that EGFR mutations were more commonly observed in non-smoking and female patients (P<0.01), KRAS mutations were more prevalent in male patients and smokers (P<0.01), ROS1 mutations had larger tumor diameters (P<0.01) and RET mutations were more prevalent in smokers (P<0.05).
UNASSIGNED: LUAD patients exhibit diverse genetic mutations, which may co-occur simultaneously. Integrated analysis of multiple mutations is essential for accurate diagnosis and effective treatment of the disease. The use of NGS can significantly expand our understanding of gene mutations and facilitate integrated analysis of multiple gene mutations, providing critical evidence for targeted treatment methods.

BACKGROUND: Cerebral echinococcosis is relatively rare, and it is important to distinguish cerebral cystic echinococcosis (CCE) from cerebral alveolar echinococcosis (CAE) in terms of pathological diagnosis. We aim to describe the different clinicopathological features among patients with CCE and CAE.
METHODS: We collected 27 cases of cerebral echinococcosis which were diagnosed in the Department of Pathology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University from January 1, 2012, to June 30, 2023. We compared the patients\' clinical characteristics, MRI features, and pathologic manifestations of CCE and CAE.
RESULTS: Among 27 cases of cerebral echinococcosis, 23 cases were CAE and 4 cases were CCE. The clinical manifestations of both CCE and CAE patients mainly included headache (21 patients, 77.78%), limb movement disorders (6 patients, 22.22%), epileptic seizures (4 patients, 14.81%) and visual disturbances (2 patients, 7.41%). The average onset age of CAE cases was 34.96 ± 11.11 years, which was 9.00 ± 7.26 years in CCE cases. All CAE patients presented with multiple involvements in the brain and extracranial organs while all CCE patients observed a solitary lesion in the brain and 3 CCE cases had no extracranial involvement. Lesions of CCE in MRI showed a single isolated circular, which was well demarcated from the surrounding tissues and with no obvious edema around the lesions, whereas CAE lesions presented as multiple intracranial lesions, with blurred edges and edema around the lesions, and multiple small vesicles could be observed in the lesions. The edge of CAE lesions could be enhanced, while CCE lesions have no obvious enhancement. CCE foci were clear cysts with a wall of about 0.1 cm. Microscopically, the walls of the cysts were characterized by an eosinophilic keratin layer, which was flanked on one side by basophilic germinal lamina cells, which were sometimes visible as protocephalic nodes. While the CAE lesion was a nodular structure with a rough and uneven nodule surface, and the cut section was cystic and solid; microscopically, the CAE lesion had areas of coagulative necrosis, and the proto-cephalic nodes were barely visible. Inflammatory cell areas consisting of macrophages, lymphocytes, epithelioid cells, plasma cells, eosinophils, and fibroblasts can be seen around the lesion. Brain tissues in the vicinity of the inflammatory cell areas may show apoptosis, degeneration, necrosis, and cellular edema, while brain tissues a little farther away from the lesion show a normal morphology.
CONCLUSIONS: With the low incidence of brain echinococcosis, the diagnosis of echinococcosis and the differential diagnosis of CAE and CCE are challenging for pathologists. Grasping the different clinical pathology characteristics of CAE and CCE is helpful for pathologists to make accurate diagnoses.

OBJECTIVE: Pulmonary papillary adenoma is an extremely rare benign tumor. It is derived from type II lung cells and club cells, suggesting that it may originate from stem cells with two-way differentiation. Only one case has been reported with FGFR2-IIIb overexpression.
METHODS: Two cases of pulmonary papillary adenoma with available data on clinical features, histological morphology, immunophenotype and molecular characteristics were analyzed.
RESULTS: Both tumors were well-circumscribed unencapsulated nodules composed of papillary structures with fibrovascular cores lined by a single layer of cuboidal or columnar epithelium without necrosis, nuclear atypia and mitoses, or invasion. But malignant transformation features include complex branching structures and significantly enlarged, irregular, and crowded malignant cells in one case. Immunohistochemistry showed that the tumor cells were strongly positive for TTF1, NapsinA, EMA and CK7 and negative for CEA and P63, with a low Ki-67 proliferation index. The EGFR somatic mutation exon19:c.2236_2256delinsATC (p.E746_S752delinsI) was found in one case by next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology.
CONCLUSIONS: Pulmonary papillary adenoma is very rare. Virtually all papillary adenomas are clinically silent and discovered incidentally. They are benign tumors, and resection is curative. An EGFR 19 exon deletion mutation in a patient with this tumor type was detected for the first time by NGS, and our results suggest that the malignant transformation of pulmonary papillary adenoma may be mediated by EGFR mutation.

Rearrangements involving the neurotrophic-tropomyosin receptor kinase (NTRK) gene family (NTRK1, NTRK2, and NTRK3) have been identified as drivers in a wide variety of human cancers. However, the association between NTRK rearranged thyroid carcinoma and clinicopathological characteristics has not yet been established. In our study, we retrospectively reviewed medical records of thyroid cancer patients and identified 2 cases with NTRK rearrangement, no additional molecular alterations were observed in either of these cases. The fusion of the rearrangement in both cases was ETV6(E4)::NTRK3(E14). By analyzing the clinicopathological features of these two cases, we found that both were characterized by multiple tumor nodules, invasive growth, and central lymph node metastases, indicating the follicular subtype of papillary thyroid carcinoma. Immunohistochemical staining profiles showed CD56-, CK19+, Galectin-3+, HBME1+. These clinicopathological features suggest the possibility of ETV6-NTRK3 rearranged thyroid carcinoma and highlight the importance of performing gene fusion testing by FISH or NGS for these patients.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the differences and correlation between blood inflammatory indexes such as monocytes (MONO), lymphocytes (LYM), haemoglobin (HGB), neutrophils (NEU), platelets (PLT), ultrasensitive C-reactive protein, albumin and platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), NEU/LYM ratio (NLR), MONO/LYM ratio (MLR) and clinicopathologic characteristics of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
METHODS: 187 patients with NSCLC who were first diagnosed in 2017-2023 and 102 with healthy check-ups during the same period (control group) were retrospectively selected as study subjects to compare the differences in inflammatory indexes between the two groups and the levels of inflammatory indexes in NSCLC patients with different clinicopathologic characteristics.
RESULTS: Correlation analysis between blood inflammatory indexes and clinicopathologic features in NSCLC group showed that C-reactive protein, CAR, and PLR values were different in different pathologic types (P<0.05). The values of NEU, MONO, C-reactive protein, MLR, NLR, CAR and albumin were different among various degrees of differentiation (P<0.05). There were differences in LYM, albumin, MLR, NLR, CAR, and C-reactive protein among M stage subgroups (P<0.05). Analysis of the efficacy of early diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer has been shown, the AUC of NLR was 0.796, sensitivity of 0.679, specificity of 0.176, 95% CI=0.743-0.849 (P<0.001). The AUC of albumin was 0.977, the sensitivity was 0.941, the specificity was 0.941, and 95% CI was 0.959-0.994 (P<0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Blood inflammatory indexes are closely associated with NSCLC and vary according to pathologic features. Blood inflammatory indices can predict tumor pathologic staging and guide treatment for patients with NSCLC.

BACKGROUND: Although the incidence of double primary cancers (DPCs) involving lung cancer is rising, they have not been studied sufficiently. This study retrospectively analyzed the clinicopathological and prognostic characteristics of DPC patients with lung cancer and developed a survival nomogram to predict the individual OS rates.
METHODS: We included 103 DPC patients with lung cancer from Shengjing Hospital between 2016 and 2021. Based on the 6-month cancer occurrence interval, the cases were categorized as synchronous DPCs (sDPCs) or metachronous DPCs (mDPCs). Furthermore, the mDPCs were subdivided based on whether the lung cancer occurred first (LCF cohort) or the other cancer occurred first (OCF cohort).
RESULTS: Among the patients, 35 (33.98%) and 68 (66.02%) had sDPCs and mDPCs, respectively. In the mDPCs cohort, 18 (26.47%) belonged to the LCF cohort and 50 (73.53%) to the OCF cohort. The most frequent primary cancer sites were the breast (27.18%), colorectum (22.33%), and urinary system (18.45%). Independent risk factors for progression-free survival were Stage IV lung cancer (p = 0.008) and failure to undergo radical lung cancer surgery (p = 0.028). The risk factors for OS included squamous carcinoma (p = 0.048), Stage IV lung cancer (p = 0.001), single cancer resection plus drug therapy (p < 0.001), drug therapy alone (p = 0.002), failure to undergo radical lung cancer surgery (p = 0.014), and chemotherapy (p = 0.042). The median OS was 37 months, with 3- and 5-year rates of 50.9% and 35.9%, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: DPCs involving lung cancer account for 1.11% of cases. The breast, colorectum, and urinary system were the most common extra-pulmonary sites, and mDPCs were more frequent than sDPCs. Radical lung cancer surgery significantly affects prognosis, and drug therapy alone may be preferable when only one tumor is operable. The developed nomogram can accurately predict individual 3-year and 5-year OS rates.

UNASSIGNED: Invasive micropapillary carcinoma (IMPC) treatment only relies on the standard treatment of nonspecific invasive breast cancer (NSIBC), and it remains controversial whether the survival of patients improves. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the clinicopathological features of IMPC and to investigate the factors affecting its prognosis.
UNASSIGNED: This retrospective cohort study included 104 IMPC patients who met the study\'s inclusion criteria out of a total of 4,532 patients with invasive breast cancer between January 2015 and December 2019. A contemporaneous cohort of 230 patients with non-specific invasive breast cancer (NSIBC) who underwent surgery was identified and matched using propensity scores.
UNASSIGNED: The survival rate for patients with IMPC ranged from 1.12% to 7.03%. Statistically significant differences were observed in the proportion of endocrine treatment, lymphatic invasion, estrogen receptor (ER)-positive rate, molecular subtypes, molecular typing, and 5-year loco-regional recurrence-free survival (LRRFS) between the two cohorts (p < 0.05). The univariate analysis showed that T stage, N stage, lymphatic invasion, vascular invasion, ER-positive rate, and progesterone receptor (PR)-negative rate were all prognosis risk factors (p < 0.05) for IMPC. Furthermore, the multivariate analysis indicated that lymphatic invasion and N stage were independent prognostic factors (p < 0.05).
UNASSIGNED: The incidence of micropapillary IMPC, among other pathological subtypes, is steadily increasing. ER-positive and PR-positive rates, as well as luminal subtypes, are frequent, with a concurrent increase in the 5-year locoregional recurrence rate. It would be interesting to compare the effect following these therapeutic modifications in larger cohorts in future studies.

BACKGROUND: The tripartite motif (TRIM) proteins have been reported to play crucial roles in various malignancies. However, the clinical significance of TRIM proteins in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the association between TRIM proteins and the clinicopathological features and survival outcomes in patients with CRC.
METHODS: We performed a meta-analysis to investigate whether TRIM is a prognostic factor in CRC. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CNKI and Weipu databases were searched to identify eligible studies that evaluated the association between TRIM proteins and overall survival (OS), as well as the clinicopathological features of patients with CRC. Hazard ratios (HR) or odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were derived and pooled using a fixed-effects model.
RESULTS: From inception to March 2023, we extracted study characteristics and prognostic data for each identified study. Twelve studies enrolling 1608 patients were eligible for inclusion. Data on OS and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were available for 12 and 2 studies, respectively. The pooled analysis results showed a significant correlation between the elevated TRIM proteins and shorter OS (HR = 2.42, 95% CI: 1.96-2.99) and worse RFS (HR = 2.51, 95% CI: 1.78-3.54) in patients with CRC. The combined ORs indicated that TRIM protein over-expression was significantly associated with advanced TNM stage (OR = 2.26, 95% CI: 1.25-4.10), deep tumor invasion (OR = 2.01, 95% CI: 1.04-3.88), lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.99, 95% CI: 2.19-4.09) and perineural invasion (OR = 1.95, 95% CI: 1.18-3.23).
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that TRIM proteins can predict tumor progression and poor prognosis in CRC. Therefore, TRIM proteins may be promising therapeutic targets for patients with CRC.

BACKGROUND: Recently, increasing data have suggested that the lncRNA small nucleolar RNA host genes (SNHGs) were aberrantly expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the association between the prognosis of HCC and their expression remained unclear. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine the prognostic significance of lncRNA SNHGs in HCC.
METHODS: We systematically searched Embase, Web of Science, PubMed, and Cochrane Library for eligible articles published up to February 2024. The prognostic significance of SNHGs in HCC was evaluated by hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Odds ratios (ORs) were used to assess the clinicopathological features of SNHGs.
RESULTS: This analysis comprised a total of 25 studies covering 2314 patients with HCC. The findings demonstrated that over-expressed SNHGs were associated with larger tumor size, multiple tumor numbers, poor histologic grade, earlier lymphatic metastasis, vein invasion, advanced tumor stage, portal vein tumor thrombosis (PVTT), and higher alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level, but not with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, and cirrhosis. In terms of prognosis, patients with higher SNHG expression were more likely to have shorter overall survival (OS), relapse-free survival (RFS), and disease-free survival (DFS).
CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, upregulation of SNHGs expression correlates with shorter OS, RFS, DFS, tumor size and numbers, histologic grade, lymphatic metastasis, vein invasion, tumor stage, PVTT, and AFP level, suggesting that SNHGs may serve as prognostic biomarkers in HCC.