The Stem Cell Marker Bmi-1 Is Sensitive in Identifying Early Lesions of Carcinoma ex Pleomorphic Adenoma

BMI-1 Expression Heterogeneity in Endometriosis-Related and Non-Endometriotic Ovarian Carcinoma

BMI-1 is a key component of stem cells, which are essential for normal organ development and cell phenotype maintenance. BMI-1 expression is deregulated in cancer, resulting in the alteration of chromatin and gene transcription repression. The cellular signaling pathway that governs BMI-1 action in the ovarian carcinogenesis sequences is incompletely deciphered. In this study, we set out to analyze the immunohistochemical (IHC) BMI-1 expression in two different groups: endometriosis-related ovarian carcinoma (EOC) and non-endometriotic ovarian carcinoma (NEOC), aiming to identify the differences in its tissue profile. Methods: BMI-1 IHC expression has been individually quantified in epithelial and in stromal components by using adapted scores systems. Statistical analysis was performed to analyze the relationship between BMI-1 epithelial and stromal profile in each group and between groups and its correlation with classical clinicopathological characteristics. Results: BMI-1 expression in epithelial tumor cells was mostly low or negative in the EOC group, and predominantly positive in the NEOC group. Moreover, the stromal BMI-1 expression was variable in the EOC group, whereas in the NEOC group, stromal BMI-1 expression was mainly strong. We noted statistically significant differences between the epithelial and stromal BMI-1 profiles in each group and between the two ovarian carcinoma (OC) groups. Conclusions: Our study provides solid evidence for a different BMI-1 expression in EOC and NEOC, corresponding to the differences in their etiopathogeny. The reported differences in the BMI-1 expression of EOC and NEOC need to be further validated in a larger and homogenous cohort of study.

Nestin Expression Is Associated with Relapses in Head and Neck Lesions

BACKGROUND

The aim was to investigate the clinical significance of nestin immunohistochemical expression in head and neck area lesions and to study its role in patient survival and recurrence.

METHODS

39 (44.3%) nasosinus, 37 (42%) major salivary gland (6 submandibular and 31 parotid) and 12 (13.6%) oral cavity lesions of paraffin-embedded samples were retrospectively included.

RESULTS

The expression was categorized into grades, negative for 55 (62.5%) cases, grade 1 in 10 cases (11.4%), grade 2 in 12 cases (13.6%), and grade 3 in 11 cases (12.5%); 100% of pleomorphic adenomas were positive for nestin with grade 3 intensity, 100% of polyps and inverted papillomas were negative (p < 0.001). The lowest estimate of disease-free-survival (DFS) was for grade 1 expression, with 50 months, confidence interval (CI): 95% 13.3-23.9 months and the highest for grade 3 expression, 167.9 months (CI: 95% 32.1-105 months; Log-Rank = 14.846, p = 0.002). ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curves revealed that the positivity for nestin (+/-) in relation to malignancy, presented a sensitivity of 50.98%, a specificity of 81.08%, with an area under the curve of 0.667 (p = 0.009).

CONCLUSIONS

Nestin could be a useful marker to detect the presence of stem cells in head and neck tumors that have a role in tumor initiation and progression.

The current markers of cancer stem cell in oral cancers

Head and neck cancer (HNC) constitute 5% of all reported cancers. Among all, the oral cavity cancer is the most frequent type of HNC which accounts for over half of HNC cases. Mouth cancer ranks the sixth leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Generally, conventional chemotherapy has shown success at decreasing relapse and metastasis rates and improves the overall prognosis. Recently, target therapy and targeted drug delivery systems have been introduced as promising treatments. The elimination of efficiency of current therapeutic strategies due to the spared cancer stem cells that cause chemotherapy resistance, relapse and metastasis. Inefficiency methodologies in the elimination of all cancer cells in the body are a major problem that remained to be resolved before to confront the new cancer therapies. Many studies imply to cancer stem cell markers as important agents for targeted anti-cancer as well as improving chemotherapy efficiencies. The potentials of targeted cancer therapy led us to search for novel markers in the mouth cancer stem cells especially in rare cancers. The aimed of this research was, first a comprehensive critical review of the previous studies on the markers of cancer stem cells in oral cancers including oral squamous cell carcinoma, salivary gland cancers, and to highlight the most common cancer stem cell markers which have potential to be exploited as indicators for the preneoplastic lesion malignancy, oral cancer progression, and/or treatment prognosis.

Primary pulmonary myoepithelial carcinoma in a young woman: A case report and review of literature

RATIONALE

Myoepithelial carcinoma mainly occurs in the salivary glands, but myoepithelial carcinoma of the lung is extremely rare neoplasm whose biological behavior and clinical course still remain to be fully elucidated. Although considered as low-grade carcinoma, these tumors have a high rate of recurrence or distant metastasis.

PATIENT CONCERNS

To date there are only 11 cases of pulmonary myoepithelial carcinoma reported in the English literature. We report a case of a 24-year-old woman diagnosed with primary pulmonary myoepithelial carcinoma. Informed consent was obtained from the patient.

DIAGNOSES

The tumor derived from superior lobe of left lung and exhibited only myoepithelial differentiation without any ductal formation by histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis.

INTERVENTIONS

The patient underwent the left superior lobe resection. In addition, we first introduce second-generation sequencing technology as a novel strategy for primary pulmonary myoepithelial carcinoma, and these tumors should be included in the differential diagnosis of thoracic neoplasms.

OUTCOMES

The patient was alive with no evidence of disease for up to 12 months.

LESSONS

Individualized treatment is the promising clinical strategy for thoracic neoplasms, and the underlying molecular events should be investigated to find the potential therapeutic targets.