Metastasizing Pleomorphic Adenoma: A Fascinating Enigma

Among salivary gland neoplasms, metastasizing pleomorphic adenoma (MPA) constitutes an extremely rare group of tumors. The present paper reports a case of pleomorphic adenoma (PA) in submandibular gland that, after more than 30 years of initial treatment, recurred and metastasized to ipsilateral neck lymph nodes and parotid gland. In an attempt to elucidate the malignant behavior of metastasizing pleomorphic adenoma, we performed Ki-67, p53, p16, and bcl-2 immunohistochemistry staining of our case sample. Many immunohistochemistry staining studies have been done on malignant salivary gland tumors. However, to the best of our knowledge no immunohistochemistry staining of the aforementioned markers has been previously performed on metastasizing pleomorphic adenoma

Association of High Expression Levels of SOX2, NANOG, and OCT4 in Gastric Cancer Tumor Tissues with Progression and Poor Prognosis

BACKGROUND: Expression of the essential regulator genes, SOX2, NANOG, and OCT4, so-called as stemness factors, is prerequisite for the tumorigenic capability of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and their potential role in the formation and progression of various human cancers. METHODS: In this study, the expression levels of SOX2, NANOG, and OCT4 were quantified by a qRT-PCR method in 100 gastric cancer tumor tissues vs the paired adjacent normal tissues. Then, the relationship between the expression of the three genes in gastric cancer tumor tissues and the clinicopathological characteristics and overall survival of patients was investigated. RESULTS: Higher expression levels of SOX2, NANOG, and OCT4 were found in gastric cancer tumor tissues compared with those in paired adjacent normal tissues (P = 0.0001). Overexpression of the mentioned genes in gastric cancer tumor tissues was resolved to be significantly associated with tumor size (P < 0.05), TNM stage (P = 0.001), tumor grade (P < 0.01), and shortened overall survival time (P = 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicted that the stemness factors SOX2, NANOG, and OCT4 are significantly overexpressed in gastric cancer and may serve as potential biomarkers of gastric cancer progression and prognosis