Disseminated cancer cells detected by immunocytology in lymph nodes of NSCLC patients are highly prognostic and undergo parallel molecular evolution.

In melanoma, immunocytology (IC) after sentinel lymph node disaggregation not only enables better quantification of disseminated cancer cells (DCCs) than routine histopathology (HP) but also provides a unique opportunity to detect, isolate, and analyse these earliest harbingers of metachronous metastasis. Here, we explored lymph node IC in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). For 122 NSCLC patients, 220 lymph nodes (LNs) were split in half and prepared for IC and HP. When both methods were compared, IC identified 22% positive patients as opposed to 4.5% by HP, revealing a much higher sensitivity of IC (p < 0.001). Assessment of all available 2,952 LNs of the same patients by HP uncovered additional patients escaping detection of lymphatic tumour spread by IC alone, consistent with the concept of skip metastasis. A combined lymph node status of IC and complete HP on a larger cohort of patients outperformed all risk factors in multivariable analysis for prognosis (p < 0.001; RR = 2.290; CI 1.407-3.728). Moreover, isolation of DCCs and single-cell molecular characterization revealed that (1) LN-DCCs differ from primary tumours in terms of copy number alterations and selected mutations and (2) critical alterations are acquired during colony formation within LNs. We conclude that LN-IC in NSCLC patients when combined with HP improves diagnostic precision, has the potential to reduce total workload, and facilitates molecular characterization of lymphatically spread cancer cells, which may become key for the selection and development of novel systemic therapies. © 2022 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

[Management of intra-abdominal dysgerminoma During pregnancy - A Case Report and Literature Review]. / Management Unterbauchraumforderungen in der Schwangerschaft ­ Fallbeschreibung eines extraovariell-intraabdominalen Dysgerminoms mit Überblick über die Literatur.

INTRODUCTION: Dysgerminomas are rare malignant germ cell tumors. They usually arise from the ovary, but case reports describing extraovarian dysgerminomas do exist. When treated adequately the disease has a good prognosis. Dysgerminomas diagnosed during pregnancy are very rare. METHODOLOGY: Report of extraovarian intra-abdominal dysgerminoma during pregnancy. Systematic literature review. CASE REPORT: A 35-year-old second gravida was diagnosed with a suspected intra-abdominal mass at 20 gestational weeks. During an exploratory laparotomy, a tumor infiltrating the transverse colon and histologically identified as a dysgerminoma was resected. Ovaries were clinically unremarkable. The induction of chemotherapy was postponed until after delivery. At 34 gestational weeks the patient underwent cesarean section and tumor debulking. Four cycles of bleomycin, etoposide and cisplatin were administered. After 12 months, cystic ovaries were found. Hysterectomy with bilateral adnexectomy was performed but no malignancy found. After 16 months, the patient was still in complete remission. CONCLUSION: We describe the first-ever published dysgerminoma in gravida primarily evolving intraabdominally and not affecting the ovaries. The decision for cytoreductive surgery, prolongation of pregnancy and postponing chemotherapy until after delivery combined the best benefit for the baby with a good maternal prognosis. Due to limited data regarding dysgerminomas in pregnancy, individual interdisciplinary concepts are mandatory.