Human epidermal growth factor receptor expression in colorectal cancer and its relationship with clinicopathological characteristics

Background: Some recent studies reported human epidermal growth factor receptor [HER-2/neu] as a marker that can be used in immunological studies of colorectal carcinoma for predicting the prognosis and the treatment. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the frequency of HER-2 expression in patients with colorectal cancer, and explore the relationship between clinicopathological prognostic factors and its expression based on immunohistochemical analysis

Methods: This study included 50 patients with a histologically proven diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma who received surgery at Imam Khomeini Hospital affiliated to Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. First, HER-2/neu protein expressions were detected by immunohistochemistry and then the data extracted from recorded files

Results: The median age of the patients was 60.2 +/- 13.9 years [range: 25-93 years]. There was no significant relationship between size of tumor, age, sex, lymph node metastases, distant metastasis, differentiation, and stage of the disease with positive expression of HER-2 in this study

Conclusion: No significant relationship between expression of HER-2 and clinicopathological prognostic factors was found in our study. Further comprehensive and prospective trial with standard method to evaluate the role of HER-2 expression among patients with colorectal cancer is needed

[Correlation of changes in serum pepsinogen 1, pepsinogen 2 with helicobacter pylori eradication]

H.pylori infection in the stomach was the first major cause of gastritis and peptic ulcer disease and gastric adenocarcinoma and lymphoma [MALT]. Evaluation of the infection eradication is important. H.pylori infection was associated with gastric glands dysfunction such as increased serum gastrin and increased secretion of Pepsinogen. In recent years the measurement of serum gastrin and pepsinogen were considered to evaluation of Helicobacter pylori eradication.In a case - control study, we evaluated the changes of serum pepsinogen type 1 and 2 in H.pylori-positive patients after eradication therapy, and we assessed the correlation of serum pepsinogen type 1 and 2 and with successful eradication therapy. Pepsinogen type 1 and 2 serum levels significantly decreased after successful eradication in comparison with unsuccessful eradication. The both 2 markers decreased after 8 weeks of therapy. Pepsinogen 1 by a 41.1% decrease in 8 weeks after eradication had 95% sensitivity and 100% specificity for successful eradication. 64.1% reduction in pepsinogen 2, 8 weeks after treatment had 97.5% sensitivity and specificity for successful eradication. According to the findings of this study and other previous studies, changes in the type 2 pepsinogen serum levels, can be a reliable indicator of successful eradication of H.pylori infection. Although our study showed that changes in pepsinogen1 levels have a sufficient sensitivity and specificity of treatment, but in our study some factors including atrophic gastritis and age that affected on type 1 pepsinogen serum levels, did not considered

[Correlation of colorectal cancer stem cell marker CD24 expression with clinicopathologic features and survival of patients with colorectal cancer from Sari, Iran]

Cancer stem cells are a subgroup of tumor cells that have the capability for self-renewal and differentiation and are characterized by multiple markers. Several studies have been conducted to identify these cells in colorectal cancer, including stem cell marker CD24. This study has evaluated the association of CD24 expression with clinicopathologic features and survival in an immunohistochemical [IHC] study that compared colorectal cancer tissues with adjacent normal tissues. The expression of CD24 in 50 paraffin embedded samples of colorectal cancer and adjacent normal tissue in patients referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital, Sari, Iran was examined by IHC. We studied the relationship between clinical and pathological features as well as the patient's condition in terms of metastasis, recurrence, type of treatment and death due to cancer treatment. The 50 cases studied included 25 males and 25 females with a mean age of 57.64 +/- 9.13 years range: 28-93 years] There were 3 mucinous carcinoma and 47 adenocarcinoma samples. CD24 was positive in 29 cases and negative in 21 cases. CD24 expression correlated with combined surgery and chemotherapytreatment p=0.04]. A correlation existed with patient survival but it was not statistically significant. The mean survival time of patients according to CD24 expression was 26.64 +/- 18.15 in cases that were CD24 negative and 41.75 +/- 28.67 months in cases that were CD24 positive. Correlation of CD24 expression with other clinicopathologic factors was not significant [p>0.05]. We have observed a relationship between the clinicopathologic feature of combined surgery and chemotherapy treatment to colorectal cancer stem cell marker expression. A nonsignificant correlation also existed with patient survival. To confirm these results, we recommend additional studies with larger sample sizes

[Severe lower gastrointestinal bleeding, small intestine lymphoma: a case report]

The patient was a 67-year-old female who presented with severe rectal bleeding since three days prior to hospital admission. She complained of mild abdominal pain. Rectal examination revealed the presence of fresh blood and a clot. She had a normal upper endoscopy. A colonoscopy showed a large clot with bloody secretions up to the cecum, with no obvious origin. Because of the severity of bleeding, a laparotomy was performed. Resection included large areas of the ileum and jejunum which were involved. Pathology report was remarkable for diffuse large B cell lymphoma.

48-year-old woman with left subclavian artery occlusion and intrathoracic lymphadenopathy

Sarcoidosis is a systemic disorder characterized by noncaseating granulomas, involving multiple organs including thyroid and great vessels. We present a 48 year-old women with sarcoidosis, left subclavian artery occlusion and sarcoidal thyroid gland involvement. The patient presented with a 1 week history of progressive left upper limb pain with coldness of left hand and fingers. On examination, radial, ulnar, and brachial artery pulses were not palpable. She had also enlarged thyroid gland with firm consistency. CT angiography of aortic arc demonstrated occlusion of left subclavian artery. Because of progressive ischemic necrosis of left hand and fingers, amputation above elbow was performed. Fine needle aspiration [FNA] was suspicious for thyroid neoplasm and total thyroidectomy was performed. Thoracic CT scan showed mediastinal and bilateral hilar lymphadenopathy. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy with transbronchial needle aspiration [TBNA] from right hilar lymph nodes and endobronchial biopsy showed multiple granulomas with negative acid-fast stain. Pathologic examination of thyroid also revealed fibrosis and granulomatous inflammation. On follow up, the ACE level was 104 u/l

[Comparison of p63 staining intensity between re-cut sections and de-stained sections of patient specimens with lung cancer]

Several studies have been carried out on re-cut and de-stained sections regarding prostate biopsies and cytologic specimens of squamous cell carcinoma. However, few studies on lung biopsy are done. Due to small size of lung biopsies and for the prevention of lung rebiopsy, in this study P63 staining intensity between re-cut and de-stained slides of patients, specimens with lung cancer is researched. This cross section study was performed on 100 patient specimens with lung cancer. We compared p63 staining intensity between re-cut and de-stained sections in lung cancer through 2 month intervals, until the 10[th]. Month after lung biopsy by immuno-histochemistry methods. Chi-square test was used for comparing the differences and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Technical tissue fall in the slide was not seen. 93.93% of SCC was stained by p63. None of small cell carcinoma was stained by p63. In the first 2 months, 53.34% of de-stained sections had similar staining intensity, compared with re-cut sections, and 46.66% were decreased in staining intensity and none of them were negative. During 2 to 10 months of storing, 38.98% of de-stained sections had similar staining intensity, 45 [77%] were decreased in staining intensity, while 15.25% were negative. With respect to results of this study and other studies, staining of p63 on re-cut and de-stained sections of lung cancer specimens in the first two months can be helpful. However, in the specimens which were stored for more than 2 months, we found no significant results