Machine-Learning-Based Classification Model to Address Diagnostic Challenges in Transbronchial Lung Biopsy.

BACKGROUND: When obtaining specimens from pulmonary nodules in TBLB, distinguishing between benign samples and mis-sampling from a tumor presents a challenge. Our objective is to develop a machine-learning-based classifier for TBLB specimens. METHODS: Three pathologists assessed six pathological findings, including interface bronchitis/bronchiolitis (IB/B), plasma cell infiltration (PLC), eosinophil infiltration (Eo), lymphoid aggregation (Ly), fibroelastosis (FE), and organizing pneumonia (OP), as potential histologic markers to distinguish between benign and malignant conditions. A total of 251 TBLB cases with defined benign and malignant outcomes based on clinical follow-up were collected and a gradient-boosted decision-tree-based machine learning model (XGBoost) was trained and tested on randomly split training and test sets. RESULTS: Five pathological changes showed independent, mild-to-moderate associations (AUC ranging from 0.58 to 0.75) with benign conditions, with IB/B being the strongest predictor. On the other hand, FE emerged to be the sole indicator of malignant conditions with a mild association (AUC = 0.66). Our model was trained on 200 cases and tested on 51 cases, achieving an AUC of 0.78 for the binary classification of benign vs. malignant on the test set. CONCLUSION: The machine-learning model developed has the potential to distinguish between benign and malignant conditions in TBLB samples excluding the presence or absence of tumor cells, thereby improving diagnostic accuracy and reducing the burden of repeated sampling procedures for patients.

Disappearance of recurrent thymic epithelial tumor following corticosteroid and cyclosporine treatment: A case report.

Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are considered orphan neoplasms, and treatment options for recurrent or metastatic stages are limited. Here, we have reported a case of recurrent TET that showed complete remission after receiving high-dose corticosteroids followed by low-dose corticosteroids and cyclosporine. No recurrence was observed for the next 2 years. The effects of corticosteroids on the TET and the associated pure red cell aplasia led to adjustment of the diagnosis from thymic carcinoma to thymoma. Low-dose corticosteroids and cyclosporine might be the reason for remission maintenance.

Difference of morphology and immunophenotype between central and peripheral squamous cell carcinomas of the lung.

BACKGROUND: Recent agents, that is, pemetrexed and bevacizumab, have shown reproductive negative association between squamous histology. According to these agents' effectiveness, ruling out of the squamous histology is a significant issue for surgical pathologists. Several articles have proposed the distinction of peripheral type from central type of squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC) due to its similarity to adenocarcinoma, although little evidence to support the difference between these two types was published. In this study, we compared the clinicopathologic findings of central and peripheral pulmonary SqCCs. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 15 central and 35 peripheral types of SqCC from 2005 to 2010 were examined. Twelve morphological features were scored based on their intensity in the original H&E slides, and then, tissue microarray holding triplicated cores from 43 cases was immunohistochemically examined for cytokeratin (CK)7, CK14, TTF-1, Napsin A, p63, CK34 ß E12, CK5/6, and p53. RESULT: Most of the histological findings did not separate central and peripheral SqCCs; only the presence of emphysema, interstitial fibrosis, and entrapped pneumocytes inside the tumor showed statistic predominance in peripheral SqCC. This is the first immunophenotypic research in the central and peripheral types of SqCC.