Subject(s)
Carbazoles/therapeutic use , Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/drug therapy , Coronavirus Infections/therapy , Lung Neoplasms/drug therapy , Piperidines/therapeutic use , Pneumonia, Viral/therapy , Aged , Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase/antagonists & inhibitors , Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase/metabolism , Anti-HIV Agents/therapeutic use , Betacoronavirus/isolation & purification , COVID-19 , Carbazoles/pharmacology , Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/complications , Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/diagnosis , Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/pathology , Coronavirus Infections/complications , Coronavirus Infections/diagnosis , Coronavirus Infections/drug therapy , Coronavirus Infections/virology , Drug Combinations , Humans , Hydroxychloroquine/therapeutic use , Lopinavir/therapeutic use , Lung/diagnostic imaging , Lung Neoplasms/complications , Lung Neoplasms/diagnosis , Lung Neoplasms/pathology , Male , Masks , Noninvasive Ventilation/instrumentation , Pandemics , Piperidines/pharmacology , Pneumonia, Viral/complications , Pneumonia, Viral/diagnosis , Pneumonia, Viral/virology , Ritonavir/therapeutic use , SARS-CoV-2 , Tomography, X-Ray Computed , Treatment Outcome , COVID-19 Drug TreatmentABSTRACT
In the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, pathologists can be exposed to infection handling surgical specimens. Guidelines related to safety procedures in the laboratory have been released. However, there is a lack of studies performed on biopsy and surgical resection specimens. Here we report the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples from surgical resection of tongue squamous cell carcinoma of a patient who developed COVID-19 postsurgery. RNA of SARS-CoV-2 strain was detected in the tumour and the normal submandibular gland samples using real-time PCR-based assay. No viral RNA was found in metastatic and reactive lymph nodes. We demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 RNA can be detected in routine histopathological samples even before COVID-19 disease development. These findings may give important information on the possible sites of infection or virus reservoir, and highlight the necessity of proper handling and fixation before sample processing.