Sarcomatoid carcinoma of the upper aerodigestive tract: An immunohistochemical analysis demonstrating latent <i>Epstein-Barr</i> virus in a subset of eight cases

Background: Sarcomatoid or spindle cell carcinomas are rare malignancies which are considered as a poorly differentiated variant of squamous cell carcinoma. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with a wide variety of malignancies. Materials and Methods: We examined the expression of EBV latent membrane protein-1 (LMP-1) and EBV EBNA-2 as well as the immunohistochemical profile of AE-1/AE-3, vimentin, desmin, CK 5-6, smooth muscle actin (SMA), p63, S-100, p53 and CD-117 with the clinicopathological correlation of eight patients of sarcomatoid carcinoma (SC) in the upper aerodigestive tract. Results: Four cases showed EBV LMP-1 positivity (50&#x0025;) and there was no EBV EBNA-2 positivity. However, the EBV LMP-1 results of our series could be considered only as a coincidental finding in the SCs of the upper aerodigestive tract. Conclusions: This finding supports the idea that further studies based on larger series might be helpful enlighting the role played by EBV in carcinogenesis of SC

Potential pitfalls of computed tomography in advanced laryngeal cancer

Objective: In laryngeal cancer the most suspected regions of invasion are preepiglottic space (PES), anterior commissure (AC), thyroid cartilage (TC), subglottic region (SR) and extralaryngeal spread (ELS). The objective of this study is to compare the results of preoperative computed tomography (CT) with postoperative histopathologic analysis in these critical regions for the total or partial laryngectomy

Potential pitfalls of computed tomography in advanced laryngeal cancer

Objective: In laryngeal cancer the most suspected regions of invasion are preepiglottic space (PES), anterior commissure (AC), thyroid cartilage (TC), subglottic region (SR) and extralaryngeal spread (ELS). The objective of this study is to compare the results of preoperative computed tomography (CT) with postoperative histopathologic analysis in these critical regions for the total or partial laryngectomy

Inter-observer Agreement in Laryngeal Pre-neoplastic Lesions

In this series, laryngeal preneoplastic lesions were evaluated by the classifications of the World Health Organization (WHOC), Ljubljana (LC) and squamous intraepithelial neoplasia (SINC) by multiple observers. The inter-observer agreement (IA) by WHOC for laryngeal lesions had been previously evaluated, but to the best of our knowledge, there are no data for LC and SINC. H&E stained slides from 42 laryngeal biopsies were evaluated by fourteen participants according to WHOC and LC, and SINC was additionally applied by 6. The results were analyzed statistically. The diagnoses which were favored by most participants for each case, according to WHOC, were as follows: squamous cell hyperplasia (n = 5; 12%), mild dysplasia (n = 11; 26.2%), moderate dysplasia (n = 12; 28.6%), severe dysplasia (n = 7; 16.7%), carcinoma in situ (n = 5; 12%), and invasive squamous cell carcinoma (n = 2; 4.8%). There was a significant difference between the participants for all three classifications; some participants gave lower or higher scores than the others. The mean correlation coefficients (MCC) of the participants were higher for WHOC compared to LC (0.55 ± 0.15 and 0.48 ± 0.14, respectively). The mean linear-weighted kappa (wKappa) values of participants were not significantly different (0.42 ± 0.10, 0.41 ± 0.12 and 0.37 ± 0.07 for WHOC, LC and SINC, respectively). The kappa values in this series are in agreement with those in previous literature for WHOC, and the similar results obtained for LC and SINC are novel findings. Although the MCC of WHOC was higher, as the wkappa was not significantly different, the findings in this series are not in favor of any of the classifications for better IA for pre-neoplastic laryngeal lesions. © 2010 Humana