A Retrospective Study of the Epidemiology, Histomorphological Features, Hormonal Status, and Radiological Features of Breast Cancer Diagnosed on Biopsies in Women in Bahrain Up to the Age of 40: A Single-Center Study.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women worldwide. There are many risk factors that contribute to breast cancer which involve modifiable and non-modifiable factors. Most of the patients diagnosed with breast cancer are over 50 years of age, with breast cancer in women less than 40 years of age being relatively rare and typically more aggressive variants. Moreover, radiological examination is essential for diagnosis and triaging patients for further diagnostic procedures including tissue biopsy sampling. Despite the rarity of malignancy among the younger age group, all of their breast lesions are usually biopsied. Hence, this paper outlines the percentage of benign and malignant breast lesions detected on biopsies obtained from female patients who presented to our hospital before or at the age of 40. METHODS:  We conducted a single institution retrospective study on 267 breast biopsies done for female patients before or at the age of 40 in the period from January 2020 to January 2023. The data was obtained from the National Health Information System at Salmaniya Medical Complex. The data collected included clinical history, histological, and radiological findings. Data on prognostic markers (estrogen receptor (ER)/progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status) were also included. The distribution of samples was established according to age ranges, pathological diagnostic categories (B1-5), and prognostic marker interpretation. Further subdivision was performed on cases with malignancy according to tumor grade. The frequency distribution was obtained for ER, PR, and HER status jointly. The association between age and grade, as well as age and categories, was also determined. All the analyses were performed using SPSS Statistics version 26.0 (IBM Corp. Released 2019. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp), and the statistical significance was tested at a 5% level. RESULTS: Out of 267 samples, the majority (62.9%) were in patients with a range of age between 30 and 40. There were 68.5% of samples with the B2 (benign) category, followed by 20.2% with the B5b (malignant-invasive carcinoma) category. Out of 61 malignant samples, there were 17 (6.4%) samples positive on ER and PR but negative on HER2, 16 (6.0%) samples negative on ER, PR, and HER2, eight (3.0%) samples negative on ER and PR negative but positive on HER2, and five (8.2%) samples positive on ER, PR, and HER2. The majority of malignant cases were of grade II which accounted for 29 (10.9%) samples, followed by 23 (8.6%) with grade III. The association between age and grade was statistically not significant (p=0.113). However, the association between age and B categories was statistically significant with a p-value of 0.0002. A significantly higher proportion of cases with B5a (malignant-in situ carcinoma) or B5b (malignant-invasive carcinoma) categories were in the age range of 31-35 years and 36-40 years. CONCLUSION: Breast cancer is rare among younger women. It mostly occurs in women over the age of 40 years. In women under the age of 40, it usually presents as a self-detected palpable mass and can show various radiological findings in accordance with the histological grade. Ultrasonography is the main method for the diagnosis of breast cancer especially in younger women, whereas mammography and MRI can contribute to both diagnosis and assessment of the extent of the disease.

Evaluation of thyroid nodules classified as Bethesda category III on cytology and their malignancy rate: An institutional experience.

BACKGROUND: Thyroid gland nodules are common and fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is the gold standard for screening those nodules. The Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytolopathology standardized reporting thyroid nodules aspirations, but atypia of undetermined significance or follicular lesion of undetermined significance (Bethesda category III) was the most controversial category. The aim of our study is to review our institutional experience and analyze the clinical implications of making a diagnosis of AUS/FLUS (Bethesda category III). METHODS: This is a retrospective study of an 889 thyroid FNAs from 825 patients in Salmaniya Medical Complex, during (January 2013-December 2017). RESULTS: The most common cause for designating cases as AUS/FLUS (Bethesda category III) was the presence of features suggestive of papillary thyroid carcinoma, but not quite fulfilling the criteria for such diagnosis. Ninety-six cases were diagnosed as AUS/FLUS (10.7%), in which 26 (27%) patients underwent surgery without repeating the FNA, 25 (26%) underwent a second FNA and 43 (44.7%) patients were followed up by ultrasound. On repeating the FNA, 1 (4%) was unsatisfactory, 13 (52%) were benign, 10 (40%) were AUS/FLUS, and only 1 (4%) was categorized as malignant. Thirty cases were surgically excised, in which 4 (13.3%) were diagnosed as follicular adenoma, 2 (6.6%) as Hurthle cell adenoma, 9 (30%) as multinodular goiter, 5 (16.6%) as multinodular goiter with Hashimoto thyroiditis, 1 (3.3%) as colloid nodule with Hashimoto thyroiditis, and 9 (30%) as papillary thyroid carcinoma. Among all the cases diagnosed initially as AUS/FLUS (Bethesda category III), 9 (9.3%) cases were diagnosed as papillary thyroid carcinoma. CONCLUSION: Diagnostically, we almost meet the international standards of designating cases with AUS/FLUS (Bethesda category III) and approximate the risk of malignancy. However, the clinical management's guidelines should be followed to decrease the risk of unnecessary surgeries and their complications. There is a statistically significant correlation between the age and gender with the final histopathology report, respectively.

Classification of thyroid fine-needle aspiration cytology into Bethesda categories: An institutional experience and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of thyroid is the initial screening test for thyroid nodules. The Bethesda system classifies thyroid FNAC into six categories. Each category is linked to a malignancy risk and has a recommended clinical management. The aim of this study is to analyze the thyroid cytology smears by Bethesda system and to correlate the diagnosis of cytopathology with histopathology, whenever surgery was done. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study presents our experience with the Bethesda system in 681 thyroid FNAs from 632 patients in the period between January 2013 and December 2016. RESULTS: Categories were as follows: 10.1% were Category I (nondiagnostic), 68.8% Category II (benign), 12.4% were Category III (atypia of undetermined significance), 2.9% were Category IV (suspicious for follicular neoplasm), 2.6% were Category V (suspicious for malignancy), and 4.1% were Category VI (malignant). Surgery was done on 126 nodules from 119 patients with an overall rate of malignancy of 27.8% (35/126 nodules). CONCLUSION: The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology proved to be an excellent reporting system.

Splenic lymphangioma in an adult.

Splenic lymphangiomas are exceedingly rare benign neoplasms that occur mainly in children. They are commonly seen in the neck and axillary region. Abdominal lymphangiomas accounts for less than 5% of cases. So far, fewer than 100 cases of spleen lymphangiomas have been reported in the literature. In this paper, we present one case of solitary splenic lymphangioma in a 34-year-old woman who presented with abdominal pain and weight loss for one month. The patient underwent splenectomy and diagnosis was confirmed by histopathology and immunohistochemistry studies. There was no clinical or radiological evidence of diffuse lymphangiomatosis syndrome. This case indicates that splenic lymphangiomas should be considered in the differential diagnosis of splenic cystic masses, even in adults, and should be managed with splenectomy once diagnosed to prevent complications.

Prostate Cancer Presenting as Huge Mediastinal and Retroperitoneal Masses: Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Mediastinum and retroperitoneum are exceedingly rare sites for metastatic prostate cancer to occur. Here, we present the case of a 67-year-old male patient with incidental findings of mediastinal and retroperitoneal masses which were found to be due to metastatic prostate adenocarcinoma based on histopathology and immunohistochemical studies and later on supported by the significantly elevated Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) levels. Prostate cancer should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of elderly men presenting with metastatic epithelial tumors even in unusual sites.