Primary Malignant Teratoma with a Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumor Component in Thyroid Gland : A Case Report

Teratomas comprise the most common extragonadal germ cell tumors in childhood. Most teratomas involving the thyroid are benign and occur in children. However, the adult cases reported are mostly malignant and commonly arise in the thyroid. We report a case of a 31-yr-old female with a huge neck mass. Pathologic examination revealed it to be malignant teratoma composed of primitive neuroepithelial tissue with primitive neural tubes and loose myxoid to fibrous immature mesenchymal stroma. The patient underwent extensive evaluation of the thyroid gland with computed tomography (CT) scan and positron emission tomography (PET) scan, which revealed no evidence of metastatic disease. She underwent total thyroidectomy with bilateral modified radical neck dissection, intensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy. At 22-months of follow-up, the patient has remained euthyroid and showed no evidence of recurrence. This is the first case, to our knowledge, of malignant thyroid teratoma with a exuberant primitive neuroectodermal tumor component in Korea

The invasive lobular carcinoma as a prototype luminal A breast cancer: A retrospective cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although the invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is the second most frequent histologic subtype in Western countries, its incidence is much lower in Asia, and its characteristics are less well known.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We assessed the clinical characteristics and outcomes of 83 Korean patients (2.8%) with ILC for comparison with 2,833 (97.2%) with the invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), including 1,088 (37.3%) with the luminal A subtype (LA-IDC).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean age of all patients was 48.2 years, with no significant differences among the groups. Compared to IDC, ILC showed a larger tumor size (≥T2, 59.8% vs. 38.8%, <it>P </it>= 0.001), a lower histologic grade (HG 1/2, 90.4% vs. 64.4%, <it>P </it>< 0.001), more frequent estrogen receptor positive (90.4% vs. 64.4%, <it>P </it>< 0.001), progesterone receptor positive (71.1% vs. 50.1%, <it>P </it>< 0.001) and HER2 negative (97.5% vs. 74.6%, <it>P </it>< 0.001) status, and lower Ki-67 expression (10.3% ± 10.6% vs. 20.6% ± 19.8%, <it>P </it>< 0.001), as well as being more likely to be of the luminal A subtype (91.4% vs. 51.2%, <it>P </it>< 0.001). Six (7.2%) ILC and 359 (12.7%) IDC patients developed disease recurrence, with a median follow-up of 56.4 (range 4.9-136.6) months. The outcome of ILC was close to LA-IDC (HR 0.77 for recurrence, 95% CI 0.31-1.90, <it>P </it>= 0.57; HR 0.75 for death, 95% CI 0.18-3.09, <it>P </it>= 0.70) and significantly better than for the non-LA-IDC (HR 1.69 for recurrence, 95% CI 1.23-2.33, <it>P </it>= 0.001; HR 1.50 for death, 95% CI 0.97-2.33, <it>P </it>= 0.07).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>ILC, a rare histologic type of breast cancer in Korea, has distinctive clinicopathological characteristics similar to those of LA-IDC.</p

Protein and lipid MALDI profiles classify breast cancers according to the intrinsic subtype

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) has been demonstrated to be useful for molecular profiling of common solid tumors. Using recently developed MALDI matrices for lipid profiling, we evaluated whether direct tissue MALDI MS analysis on proteins and lipids may classify human breast cancer samples according to the intrinsic subtype.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Thirty-four pairs of frozen, resected breast cancer and adjacent normal tissue samples were analyzed using histology-directed, MALDI MS analysis. Sinapinic acid and 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid/α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid were manually deposited on areas of each tissue section enriched in epithelial cells to identify lipid profiles, and mass spectra were acquired using a MALDI-time of flight instrument.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Protein and lipid profiles distinguish cancer from adjacent normal tissue samples with the median prediction accuracy of 94.1%. Luminal, HER2+, and triple-negative tumors demonstrated different protein and lipid profiles, as evidenced by permutation <it>P </it>values less than 0.01 for 0.632+ bootstrap cross-validated misclassification rates with all classifiers tested. Discriminatory proteins and lipids were useful for classifying tumors according to the intrinsic subtype with median prediction accuracies of 80.0-81.3% in random test sets.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Protein and lipid profiles accurately distinguish tumor from adjacent normal tissue and classify breast cancers according to the intrinsic subtype.</p

Influence of surrounding tissues on biomechanics of aortic wall

Abstract: The present study investigates effects of surrounding tissues and non-uniform wall thickness on the biomechanics of the thoracic aorta. We construct two idealised computational models exemplifying the importance of surrounding tissues and non-uniform wall thickness, namely the uniform-thickness model and the histology image-based model. While the former neglects a connective tissue layer surrounding the aorta, the latter takes it into account with non-uniform wall thickness. Using plane strain finite element analysis, stress distributions in the aortic media between the two models are compared. The histology image-based model substantially enhances the uniformity of stress throughout the aortic media. Furthermore, the altered mechanical properties of surrounding tissues change the stress distribution. These results suggest that surrounding tissues and non-uniform wall thickness should be included in biomechanical analysis to better understand regional adaptation of the aortic wall during normal physiological conditions or pathological conditions such as aortic aneurysms and dissections

Non-contact long-range magnetic stimulation of mechanosensitive ion channels in freely moving animals

Among physical stimulation modalities, magnetism has clear advantages, such as deep penetration and untethered interventions in biological subjects. However, some of the working principles and effectiveness of existing magnetic neurostimulation approaches have been challenged, leaving questions to be answered. Here we introduce m-Torquer, a magnetic toolkit that mimics magnetoreception in nature. It comprises a nanoscale magnetic torque actuator and a circular magnet array, which deliver piconewton-scale forces to cells over a working range of similar to 70 cm. With m-Torquer, stimulation of neurons expressing bona fide mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo1 enables consistent and reproducible neuromodulation in freely moving mice. With its long working distance and cellular targeting capability, m-Torquer provides versatility in its use, which can range from single cells to in vivo systems, with the potential application in large animals such as primates.11Nsciescopu