Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumor in the Setting of Dorsal Agenesis of the Pancreas

Dorsal agenesis of the pancreas (DAP) is an uncommon embryological abnormality where there is absence of the distal pancreas. DAP is mostly asymptomatic, but common presenting symptoms include diabetes mellitus, abdominal pain, pancreatitis, enlarged pancreatic head, and, in a few cases, polysplenia. MRCP and ERCP are the gold standard imaging techniques to demonstrate the absence of the dorsal pancreatic duct. The literature on the association of pancreatic neoplasia and DAP is limited. We present the case of a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor in a patient with dorsal agenesis of the pancreas, with a review of the related literature

Nonlinear microscopy for detection of prostate cancer: analysis of sensitivity and specificity in radical prostatectomies

Intraoperative evaluation of specimens during radical prostatectomy using frozen sections can be time and labor intensive. Nonlinear microscopy (NLM) is a fluorescence microscopy technique that can rapidly generate images that closely resemble H&E histology in freshly excised tissue, without requiring freezing or microtome sectioning. Specimens are stained with nuclear and cytoplasmic/stromal fluorophores, and NLM evaluation can begin within 3 min of grossing. Fluorescence signals can be displayed using an H&E color scale, facilitating pathologist interpretation. This study evaluates the accuracy of prostate cancer detection in a blinded reading of NLM images compared with the gold standard of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded H&E histology. A total of 122 freshly excised prostate specimens were obtained from 40 patients undergoing radical prostatectomy. The prostates were grossed, dissected into specimens of ~10 × 10 mm with 1–4 mm thickness, stained for 2 min for nuclear and cytoplasmic/stromal contrast, and then rinsed with saline for 30 s. NLM images were acquired and multiple images were stitched together to generate large field of view, centimeter-scale digital images suitable for reading. Specimens were then processed for standard paraffin H&E. The study protocol consisted of training, pretesting, and blinded reading phases. After a washout period, pathologists read corresponding paraffin H&E slides. Three pathologists achieved a 95% or greater sensitivity with 100% specificity for detecting cancer on NLM compared with paraffin H&E. Pooled sensitivity and specificity was 97.3% (93.7–99.1%; 95% confidence interval) and 100.0% (97.0–100.0%), respectively. Interobserver agreement for NLM reading had a Fleiss κ = 0.95. The high cancer detection accuracy and rapid specimen preparation suggest that NLM may be useful for intraoperative evaluation in radical prostatectomy.National Institutes of Health (Grants R01-CA178636-05, R01-CA075289-20, F32-CA183400-02)Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Contracts FA9550-12-1-0551 and FA9550-15-1-0473