scholarly journals Mesonephric-Like Adenocarcinoma of the Endometrium: Diagnostic Advances to Spot This Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. A Review of the Literature

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 698
Author(s):  
Ellen Deolet ◽  
Jo Van Dorpe ◽  
Koen Van de Vijver

Mesonephric-like adenocarcinoma is a recently described rare neoplasm occurring in the uterine corpus and ovary. This under-recognized subtype of carcinoma can be very challenging to diagnose. In mesonephric adenocarcinoma a variety of growth patterns can be present within the same tumor, as a result of which they can be misinterpreted and diagnosed as low-grade endometrioid adenocarcinoma, clear cell carcinoma, or even serous carcinoma and carcinosarcoma. We report a case of mesonephric-like adenocarcinoma misdiagnosed as a low-grade endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma that had an early local recurrence and metastasized to the liver and the lungs. Histopathological, immunohistochemical and molecular analysis were performed and compared to published literature, providing a comprehensive overview of the current knowledge. Databases (Pubmed, Web of Science, Google Scholar) were searched with a combination of the following search terms: mesonephric-like, mesonephric, adenocarcinoma, carcinoma, uterine body, uterine corpus, endometrium. Mesonephric-like adenocarcinoma is a difficult-to-diagnose entity. Advanced diagnostics, including improved morphologic, immunohistochemical and molecular knowledge can help develop new therapeutic strategies against this specific subtype of endometrial cancer with an aggressive clinical behavior.

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 1091-1094 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vesna S. Antovska ◽  
Iskra Krstevska ◽  
Milka Trajanova ◽  
Jasmina Chelebieva ◽  
Irena Gosheva ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Endometrial cancer is the third-ranked genital malignancy in women and includes 3% of cancer deaths. There is a 2.8% chance of a woman developing endometrial cancer during her lifetime. Low-grade endometrioid adenocarcinomas are often seen along with endometrial hyperplasia, but high-grade endometrioid adenocarcinomas have more solid sheets of less-differentiated tumour cells, which are no longer organised into glands, often associated with surrounded atrophic endometrium.CASE REPORT: We present an unusual case of endometrial adenocarcinoma arising in adenomyoma in 74-year old woman presented with genital prolapse, without other clinical symptoms. Ultrasound evaluation revealed endometrium with 4 mm-thickness and atrophic ovaries. The cervical smear was normal. The patient underwent a total vaginal hysterectomy. The histopathology of the anterior uterine wall revealed an intramural adenomyoma of 4 mm in which some endometrial glands with malignant transformation of well-differentiated endometrioid adenocarcinoma without infiltration in surrounding myometrium and lymphovascular invasion were present. The endometrium lining the uterine cavity was predominantly atrophic, and only one focus of simplex and complex hyperplasia was found, with cell-atypia. According to AJCC/FIGO 2010, the tumour was classified: pTNM = pT1B pNX pMX G1 R0 L0 V0 NG1, Stage I. On dismiss, the near-future oncological consultation was recommended.CONCLUSION: We would like to point out the rare occurrence of such type of malignancy and the importance of meticulous histopathology evaluation, even after reconstructive surgery for genital prolapse.


2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (15) ◽  
pp. 2376-2385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Morrison ◽  
Vanna Zanagnolo ◽  
Nilsa Ramirez ◽  
David E. Cohn ◽  
Nicole Kelbick ◽  
...  

Purpose To evaluate HER-2 expression and amplification in a large cohort of endometrial cancer with complete surgical staging and outcome data. Patients and Methods A tissue microarray was constructed of 483 patients with endometrial cancer of diverse histologic type and stage and tested for HER-2 expression and amplification using current standards of practice. There was outcome data for 83% of all patients and 81% with complete surgical staging. Results Both expression and amplification of HER-2 was associated with high-grade (P = .0001) and high stage (P = .0001) endometrial cancer. The highest rate of HER-2 expression and amplification was seen in serous carcinoma (43% and 29%), while grade 1 endometrioid adenocarcinoma showed the lowest levels (3% and 1%). For all histologic types, the rate of HER-2 expression and amplification was remarkably different (P < .0001) for grade 3 cancers (31% and 15%) versus grade 2 (7% and 3%) and grade 1 cancers (3% and 1%), with similar results for endometrioid type (P < .0001). Both HER-2 expression and amplification correlated with disease-specific survival and progression-free survival in univariate analyses. By multivariate analysis HER-2 expression in the presence of amplification (P = .012) correlated with overall survival, but not expression in the absence of amplification. Overall survival was significantly shorter (P = .0001) in patients who overexpressed (median, 5.2 years) and/or showed amplification of HER-2 (median, 3.5 years) versus those that did not (median of all cases, 13 years). Conclusion Our results would suggest that HER-2 is an important oncogene in high grade and stage endometrial cancer, but plays only a minor role in the much more common low grade and stage tumors that encompass the majority of clinical practice.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guanghui Xu ◽  
Yuhao Wang ◽  
Hushan Zhang ◽  
Xueke She ◽  
Jianjun Yang

Neuroendocrine neoplasias (NENs) are a heterogeneous group of rare tumors scattered throughout the body. Surgery, locoregional or ablative therapies as well as maintenance treatments are applied in well-differentiated, low-grade NENs, whereas cytotoxic chemotherapy is usually applied in high-grade neuroendocrine carcinomas. However, treatment options for patients with advanced or metastatic NENs are limited. Immunotherapy has provided new treatment approaches for many cancer types, including neuroendocrine tumors, but predictive biomarkers of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in the treatment of NENs have not been fully reported. By reviewing the literature and international congress abstracts, we summarize the current knowledge of ICIs, potential predicative biomarkers in the treatment of NENs, implications and efficacy of ICIs as well as biomarkers for NENs of gastroenteropancreatic system, lung NENs and Merkel cell carcinoma in clinical practice.


Author(s):  
Li Lian Kuan ◽  
Ashley R. Dennison ◽  
Giuseppe Garcea

Abstract Background The clinical significance of indeterminate pulmonary nodules (IPN) in patients with resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is unknown. The rate of detection on IPN has risen due to enhanced staging investigations to determine resectability. IPNs detected on preoperative imaging represent a clinical dilemma and complicate decision-making. Currently, there are no recommendations on the management of IPN. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the current knowledge on the natural history of IPN detected among patients with resectable PDAC. Methods A systematic review based on a search in Medline and Embase databases was performed. All clinical studies evaluating the significance of IPN in patients with resectable PDAC were included. PRISMA guidelines were followed. Results Five studies met the inclusion criteria. The total patient population was 761. The prevalence of IPN reported ranged from 18 to 71%. The median follow-up duration was 17 months. The median overall survival was 19 months. Patients with pre-operative IPN which subsequently progressed to clinically recognizable pulmonary metastases, ranged from 1.5 to 16%. Four studies found that there was no significant difference in median overall survival in patients with or without IPNs. Conclusion This is a first review on the significance of IPN in patients with resectable PDAC. The preoperative presence of IPN does not demonstrate an association with overall survival after surgery. The identification of IPN is a significant finding however it should not preclude patients with resectable PDAC from undergoing curative resection.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1054
Author(s):  
Sean M. Barber ◽  
Saeed S. Sadrameli ◽  
Jonathan J. Lee ◽  
Jared S. Fridley ◽  
Bin S. Teh ◽  
...  

Chordoma is a low-grade notochordal tumor of the skull base, mobile spine and sacrum which behaves malignantly and confers a poor prognosis despite indolent growth patterns. These tumors often present late in the disease course, tend to encapsulate adjacent neurovascular anatomy, seed resection cavities, recur locally and respond poorly to radiotherapy and conventional chemotherapy, all of which make chordomas challenging to treat. Extent of surgical resection and adequacy of surgical margins are the most important prognostic factors and thus patients with chordoma should be cared for by a highly experienced, multi-disciplinary surgical team in a quaternary center. Ongoing research into the molecular pathophysiology of chordoma has led to the discovery of several pathways that may serve as potential targets for molecular therapy, including a multitude of receptor tyrosine kinases (e.g., platelet-derived growth factor receptor [PDGFR], epidermal growth factor receptor [EGFR]), downstream cascades (e.g., phosphoinositide 3-kinase [PI3K]/protein kinase B [Akt]/mechanistic target of rapamycin [mTOR]), brachyury—a transcription factor expressed ubiquitously in chordoma but not in other tissues—and the fibroblast growth factor [FGF]/mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase [MEK]/extracellular signal-regulated kinase [ERK] pathway. In this review article, the pathophysiology, diagnosis and modern treatment paradigms of chordoma will be discussed with an emphasis on the ongoing research and advances in the field that may lead to improved outcomes for patients with this challenging disease.


Diagnostics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Santandrea ◽  
Simonetta Piana ◽  
Riccardo Valli ◽  
Magda Zanelli ◽  
Elisa Gasparini ◽  
...  

The term “ovarian carcinoma” encompasses at least five different malignant neoplasms: high-grade serous carcinoma, low-grade serous carcinoma, endometrioid carcinoma, mucinous carcinoma, and clear cell carcinoma. These five histotypes demonstrated distinctive histological, molecular, and clinical features. The rise of novel target therapies and of a tailored oncological approach has demanded an integrated multidisciplinary approach in the setting of ovarian carcinoma. The need to implement a molecular-based classification in the worldwide diagnostic and therapeutic setting of ovarian cancer demanded a search for easy-to-use and cost-effective molecular-surrogate biomarkers, relying particularly on immunohistochemical analysis. The present review focuses on the role of immunohistochemistry as a surrogate of molecular analysis in the everyday diagnostic approach to ovarian carcinomas.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Amante ◽  
Filipa Santos ◽  
Teresa Margarida Cunha

AbstractLow-grade serous carcinoma (LGSC) is an infrequent subtype of ovarian cancer, corresponding to 5% of epithelial neoplasms. This subtype of ovarian carcinoma characteristically has molecular features, pathogenesis, clinical behaviour, sensitivity to chemotherapy, and prognosis distinct to high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC). Knowing the difference between LGSC and other ovarian serous tumours is vital to guide clinical management, which currently is only possible histologically. However, imaging can provide several clues that allow differentiating LGSC from other tumours and enable precise staging and follow-up of ovarian cancer treatment. Characteristically, LGSC appears as mixed lesions with variable papillary projections and solid components, usually in different proportions from those detected in serous borderline tumour and HGSC. Calcified extracellular bodies, known as psammoma bodies, are also a common feature of LGSC, frequently detectable within lymphadenopathies and metastases associated with this type of tumour. In addition, the characterisation of magnetic resonance imaging enhancement also plays an essential role in calculating the probability of malignancy of these lesions. As such, in this review, we discuss and update the distinct radiological modalities features and the clinicopathologic characteristics of LGSC to allow radiologists to be familiarised with them and to narrow the differential diagnosis when facing this type of tumour.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucía Fuentes ◽  
Tamás Rőszer ◽  
Mercedes Ricote

Visceral obesity is coupled to a general low-grade chronic inflammatory state characterized by macrophage activation and inflammatory cytokine production, leading to insulin resistance (IR). The balance between proinflammatory M1 and antiinflammatory M2 macrophage phenotypes within visceral adipose tissue appears to be crucially involved in the development of obesity-associated IR and consequent metabolic abnormalities. The ligand-dependent transcription factors peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARs) have recently been implicated in the determination of the M1/M2 phenotype. Liver X receptors (LXRs), which form another subgroup of the nuclear receptor superfamily, are also important regulators of proinflammatory cytokine production in macrophages. Disregulation of macrophage-mediated inflammation by PPARs and LXRs therefore underlies the development of IR. This review summarizes the role of PPAR and LXR signaling in macrophages and current knowledge about the impact of these actions in the manifestation of IR and obesity comorbidities such as liver steatosis and diabetic osteopenia.


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