Neuroendocrine tumor of the gallbladder

Neuroendocrine tumors [NET] arise from neuroendocrine cells and are an exceedingly rare malignancy in the gallbladder. In this case report, a 52-year-old woman with complaints of episodic abdominal pain for two months prior was admitted to our hospital. She had no other signs and symptoms and her laboratory tests were within normal limits. Ultrasonography showed a broad-necked mass [26 x 12 mm] in the gallbladder for which she underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The final pathological diagnosis was a high grade neuroendocrine carcinoma of the gallbladder with involvement of the lymph nodes and omentum. The patient received the chemotherapy regimens of gemcitabine plus cisplatin, followed by docetaxel plus sunitinib for her metastatic liver lesions. She also underwent radiofrequency ablation. Serial CT-scans revealed metastatic liver lesions that had decreased in size, with no significant improvement. The patient refused additional treatment and at 46 months, she was doing well with no complaints of any pain, disease recurrence, or metastatic progression

[Frequency and importance of jak2v617f mutation among Iranian patients with polycythemia vera, essential thrombocythemia and primary myelofibrosis]

Detection of JAK2V617F mutation was widely used in the diagnosis and classification of myeloproliferative neoplasms. In this study, frequency of JAK2V617F mutation among Iranian patients with polycythemia vera [PV], essential thrombocythemia [ET] and primary myelofibrosis [PMF] was studied. In this basic study, blood samples of 174 patients with polycythemia vera [n=57], essential thrombocythemia [n=84] and primary myelofibrosis [n=33] were evaluated for JAK2V617F mutation. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood. After quality control of extracted DNA, the JAK2-V617F mutation was analyzed using allele-specific PCR. All PCR products were analyzed by polyacrylamide gel [5%] electrophoresis and silver staining. One hundred and eleven out of 174 patients [63.8%] were positive for the presence of the JAK2V617F mutation. Frequency of mutation was 82% [47/57] in PV, 57% [48/84] in ET and 48% [16/33] in PMF. This study showed that detection of JAK2-V617F mutation using allele-specific PCR lead to better diagnosis and treatment of Iranian patients with different MPNs