Old ectopic pregnancy remnants with morphological features of placental site nodule occurring in fallopian tube and broad ligament.

Placental site nodule (PSN) is an asymptomatic benign proliferation of intermediate trophoblast from a previous gestation that failed to involute. It is most commonly found in the endometrium or endocervix; however, placental site nodule has recently been reported to occur at sites of ectopic gestation. This is the first case of PSN in the broad ligament in direct contact with the fallopian tube. The patient underwent surgery for an adenocarcinoma of the opposite tube. Microscopically and immunohistochemically, the lesion showed the characteristics of a proliferation of intermediate trophoblast.

Nm23 expression in breast ductal carcinomas: a ten year follow-up study in a uniform group of node-negative breast cancer patients.

The nm23 gene was originally identified in murine melanoma cell lines as a putative metastasis suppressor gene. 1a a limited number of studies in breast carcinomas nm23 mRNA and/or protein levels were found to correlate inversely with lymph node metastases, and positively with the survival of patients. Using a monoclonal antibody to nm23-Hl protein we have examined the immunohistochemical expression of nm-23 in breast ductal carcinomas of 44 lymph node-negative patients with similar tumor pathologic features. The mean follow-up period of the patients was 138 months. Thirty two out of 44 tumors (72%) disclosed high immunohistochemical expression of nm23 protein and 12 (28%) low or negative expression. No correlation was observed between nm23 expression and the relapse or death rate of the patients. Similarly, no association was found between nm23 protein levels and estrogen receptor status or p53 protein. Our results do not seem to agree with the proposed antimetastatic property of nm23 protein, and indicate that its immunohistochemical determination has no prognose significance in the management of node-negative breast cancer patients.

Tumor angiogenesis in node-negative breast cancer: relationship with relapse free survival.

There is growing evidence that angiogenesis plays an important role in the biologic aggressiveness of breast cancer. using immunohistochemical methods, several studies have shown a worse prognosis for those patients with tumors with high angiogenic activity. The aim of this study was to correlate the microvessel density with relapses in node-negative breast cancer patients who exhibited homogeneous pathologic features. The study was based on 52 women with primary invasive ductal carcinoma graded according to Bloom and Richardson classification as group II. All patients were node-negative and had a tumor 1-3 cm in diameter. Twenty six patients had a 10 year relapse free survival while the other group of 26 patients showed tumor recurrences in the same time interval. Microvessels were highlighted immunohistochemically using an antibody for Factor VIII which is an endothelial marker. Vascular density was quantified at the richest in vessels part of the tumor through an ocular eyepiece equipped with a grid with 100 subdivisions at a 400 x magnification. The vascular density counts ranged from 16 to 230 per grid field. For the relapse-free group the mean value was 35 whereas for the group with recurrences, the mean value of vessel density was 68. This difference proved to be statistically significant, and suggests that angiogenesis is closely associated with early relapse in primary breast cancer. Such results are found in the majority of the retrospective studies and show that angiogenesis is an important new prognostic indicator in early-stage breast carcinoma. This marker should be further evaluated in order to demonstrate whether adjuvant therapies with angiogenesis inhibitors could improve the prognosis of those patients at high risk, e.g., those with highly vascularized tumors.

Malacoplakia of the urethra: a case of unique localization with followup.

A case of malacoplakia of the urethral meatus, without any association of vesical involvement, or any other synchronous or metachronous localization is presented. To our knowledge this is the fourth case in the literature at this site. The patient was free of disease 9 years after excision.

Expression of ras Rb1 and p53 proteins in human breast cancer.

The ras, Rb and p53 genes have been implicated in the development of human breast cancer. Qualitative or quantitative changes in the expression of the ras p21 may lead to cell transformation, and this has been previously demonstrated in breast cancer. Both the retinoblastoma protein (Rb1) and the p53 gene product appear to function as negative regulators of cell division. We have investigated the expression of ras p21, Rb1 and p53 proteins in human breast cancer patients immunohistochemically, and correlated the results with a range of clinical and pathological parameters. Ras p21 expression was elevated in 65 per cent and p53 in 23 per cent of cases. Rb1 was expressed in 58 per cent of breast cancer tissues and in 75 per cent of normal tissue. Only four patients were found to have loss of Rb1 expression and also overexpression of both p53 and ras gene products. No correlations were found between the expression of these three genes and menopausal status, histological types or tumour grade. However, a correlation was found between Rb1 loss of expression and tumour diameter (greater than 2 cms), and no lymph node metastasis. Also, a significantly higher number of p53 staining specimens were found to be overexpressing the ras gene. These results suggest that all three oncogenes are most likely involved in the development of breast cancer but that their role is complex.

Ras and p53 expression in non-small-cell lung-cancer patients - p53 over-expression correlates with a poor prognosis.

Expression of the tumor suppressor gene p53 and the ras oncogene were examined in 46 tumor and nodal specimens of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using the antibodies p53 pAb 240 and ras Y13-259 respectively. p53 expression was elevated in 46% and ras p21 was over-expressed in 85% of the tumor specimens analyzed. Fifteen cases of benign lessions were also assessed for both ras p21 and p53 expression; all were found to have negative staining. p53 over-expression was found to correlate with a poor prognosis in both the tumor specimens (p<0.05) and in the nodal tissues (p<0.005). Ras p21 over-expression was found to be associated with survival (p<0.1) in both the tumor and the nodal specimens. Stage of the disease correlated with survival; similarly both p53 and ras p21 over-expression correlated with stage. No correlations were found with the pathological grade of the tumors nor with a history of smoking or duration of smoking. No K-ras mutations at codon 12 were observed in a further 15 NSCLC specimens analyzed. These results indicate that the p53 gene in particular plays a role in the stages of NSCLC.