CpG Island Methylator Phenotype-High Colorectal Cancers and Their Prognostic Implications and Relationships with the Serrated Neoplasia Pathway

The concept of a CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) was first introduced by Toyota and Issa to describe a subset of colorectal cancers (CRCs) with concurrent hypermethylation of multiple CpG island loci. The concept of CIMP as a molecular carcinogenesis mechanism was consolidated by the identification of the serrated neoplasia pathway, in which CIMP participates in the initiation and progression of serrated adenomas. Distinct clinicopathological and molecular features of CIMP-high (CIMP-H) CRCs have been characterized, including proximal colon location, older age of onset, female preponderance, and frequent associations of high-level microsatellite instability and BRAF mutations. CIMP-H CRCs arise in sessile or traditional serrated adenomas and thus tend to display the morphological characteristics of serrated adenomas, including epithelial serration, vesicular nuclei, and abundant cytoplasm. Both the frequent association of CIMP and poor prognosis and different responses of CRCs to adjuvant therapy depending on CIMP status indicate clinical implications. In this review, we present an overview of the literature documenting the relevant findings of CIMP-H CRCs and their relationships with the serrated neoplasia pathway.

Analysis of immunophenotypes of 111 cases with T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia / 中国免疫学杂志

Using indirect immunofluorescent method, immunocytochemical staining (APAAP) technique and molecular hybridization, 111 cases of T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) were subclassified by a panel of monoclonal antibodies against human cell surface antigens and TcR ? and JH gene probes. According to their immunophenotypes, the T-ALL could be divided into three main subtypes: immature T-ALL (I, 41.5%), common thymocytic T-ALL (Ⅱ, 20.7%) and mature T-ALL (Ⅲ, 36.9%), in addition to one hybrid acute leukemia (0.9%). Among the 46 immature T-ALL, fifty percent cases expressed CD7 T-cell-associated antigen in blast surface only, so called as pre-T-ALL. Whereas 73.9% of pre-T-ALL blasts expressed cytoplasmic CD 3 (cCD3) antigen and presented TcR ? gene rearrangement. Those mentioned above confirmed their origin from T lymphoid lineage. Thus, CD7 and cCD 3 diagnostic combination provided a very sensitive assay for T-ALL, and had advantages over CD7 only. because the latter appeared on some cases with AML. Our data indicated that most of immunophenotypes in T-ALL reflected the phenotypic characters of normal thymocytes at various differentiation stages or certain rare population of lymphocytes. But a few of phenotypes had not been found normal counterparts in human thymus and bone marrow lymphoid. therefore, the heterogeneity of T-ALL was also observed.