Historical perspectives in clinical pathology: Bence Jones protein-early urine chemistry and the impact on modern day diagnostics.

This is the third in the series of historical articles dealing with developments in clinical pathology. Bence Jones proteins are immunoglobulin light chains found in excessive quantities in urine in multiple myeloma and are believed to be one of the first tumour markers ever discovered . Dr Henry Bence Jones is credited with the discovery of this protein in 1847 that bears his name and he can also be regarded as the first chemical pathologist/clinical chemist. Since then, numerous advances and refinements have been made in the measurement and detection of urine light chain proteins which have resulted in the current sensitive serum free light chain assays used today.

As the world turns, evolving lymphoma classifications-past, present and future.

The last century and a half has seen first the recognition of lymphomas, and then the publication of one lymphoma classification after another often together with highly critical comments about preceding classifications or a welcome that was less than warm. The introduction of HUMAN PATHOLOGY in 1970 came just before one of the very acrimonious periods in lymphoma classification, as we were learning more about the normal immune system and with the proposed functional lymphoma classifications of Lukes/Collins and Kiel in 1974 relating the lymphomas to their normal B-cell or T-cell 'counterparts'. Those difficult times were followed by the regressive strictly morphologic NCI Working Formulation in 1982, with the REAL classification in 1994 putting us back on a rational path, once again grouping the lymphoid neoplasms first into those of B-cell and T- and putative NK-cell origin, and then using multiple parameters to define specific entities. Planning for the first modern WHO lymphoma classification began soon afterward, with concordance and collegiality leading to the 2001 WHO classification, which then evolved with publication of the 2008 and 2016 WHO classifications. While this review looks at these important past developments which have gotten us to where we are today, it also concentrates on where we are now, what has been learned since the most recent WHO classification and 'Blue Book' were published and on some of the unanswered questions that remain as we look to the future.

Don't stop the champions of research now: a brief history of head and neck pathology developments.

The field of head and neck pathology was just developing 50 years ago but has certainly come a long way in a relatively short time. Thousands of developments in diagnostic criteria, tumor classification, malignancy staging, immunohistochemistry application, and molecular testing have been made during this time, with an exponential increase in literature on the topics over the past few decades: There were 3506 articles published on head and neck topics in the decade between 1969 and 1978 (PubMed source), with a staggering 89266 manuscripts published in the most recent decade. It is daunting and impossible to narrow the more than 162000 publications in this field and suggest only a few topics of significance. However, the breakthrough in this anatomic discipline has been achieved in 3 major sites: oropharyngeal carcinoma, salivary gland neoplasms, and sinonasal tract tumors. This review will highlight selected topics in these anatomic sites in which the most profound changes in diagnosis have occurred, focusing on the information that helps to guide daily routine practice of surgical pathology.

Five decades of urologic pathology: the accelerating expansion of knowledge in renal cell neoplasia.

Those who are knowledgeable in cosmology inform us that the expansion of the universe is such that the velocity at which a distant galaxy is receding from the observer is continually increasing with time. We humbly paraphrase that as "The bigger the universe gets, the faster it gets bigger." This is an interesting analogy for the expansion of knowledge in the field of renal tumor pathology over the past 30 to 50 years. It is clear that a multitude of dedicated investigators have devoted incalculable amounts of time and effort to the pursuit of knowledge about renal epithelial neoplasms. As a consequence of the contributions of numerous investigators over many decades, the most recent World Health Organization classification of renal neoplasms includes about 50 well defined and distinctive renal tumors, as well as various miscellaneous and metastatic tumors. In addition, a number of emerging or provisional new entities are under active investigation and may be included in future classifications. In this review, we will focus on a number of these tumors, tracing as accurately as we can the origins of their discovery, relating relevant additions to the overall knowledge base surrounding them, and in some instances addressing changes in nomenclature.

A half century of change in diagnostic neuropathology: from the giants of yore to current brain tumor classification.

The first issue of Human Pathology contains a laudatory review of one of the most treasured books in the history of neuropathology: Neurological Clinicopathological Conferences of the Massachusetts General Hospital, a collection of neurological cases that appeared first in the New England Journal of Medicine in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Each patient history is discussed by well-known neurologists, neurosurgeons, and neuropathologists. Review of these cases provides a framework to explore diagnostic shifts that have occurred over the past half century. Importantly, while the discussants of these cases were great diagnosticians, they were somewhat limited by the methods available to them at the time; subsequent novel technologies provided opportunities for new insights that were made by the next generation of experts. Today's pathologists (whether neuropathologists or any other pathology subspecialists) are similarly skilled at diagnosis, although their diagnoses are now more often made on biopsies (rather than autopsies) and informed by pre-operative imaging studies as well as post-operative molecular analyses. In turn, one would conclude that, even in the face of future technological changes brought about by disruptive innovations like artificial intelligence and deep molecular analyses, a need will continue for the expertise of pathologists and other clinical diagnosticians.

Fifty years of thyroid pathology: concepts and developments.

The past half century has seen a number of advances in pathology of thyroid diseases, especially neoplastic lesions. These include the description of new entities, the definition of prognostically important lesions, the incorporation of fine needle aspiration biopsy and its functional risk stratification of diagnoses into the clinical evaluation and therapeutic recommendations of the patient with thyroid nodules and the understanding of thyroid neoplastic development, diagnostic and prognostic parameters by use of molecular analysis so that such techniques are becoming standard of care for patients with thyroid tumors. The histopathologist and cytopathologist have been and continue to be at the forefront in the definition and understanding of these areas of thyroid disease. This review describes many of the most important advances in this area in an attempt bring the practicing pathologist up to date in these developments.

"Hey! Whatever happened to hemangiopericytoma and fibrosarcoma?" An update on selected conceptual advances in soft tissue pathology which have occurred over the past 50 years.

Hemangiopericytoma and fibrosarcoma represented at one time two of the most common diagnoses in soft tissue pathology. Both terms are now largely extinct. This article will review the clinicopathologic, immunohistochemical and molecular genetic advances that have led to these changes, and review the pathologic features of a select group of soft tissue tumors previously classified as hemangiopericytoma or fibrosarcoma.

Pathology of breast cancer in the last half century.

The past 50 years has been an era of technological innovation converging with the now dominant culture of testing hypotheses using clinical trials and case cohort methodology with rigorous statistical analysis. Great advances have been made in early diagnosis and, especially, less toxic and disfiguring primary therapy. Many of the advances in pathology have been in conjunction with efforts to support clinical initiatives, improve diagnostic reliability and translate basic science discoveries into tests that stratify patient management. Pathologists, with the support of epidemiologists, have lead significant advancements in the description and clinical significance of benign breast disease. Despite considerable efforts, the cure for breast cancer awaits better understanding of the pathophysiology of metastasis. We stand now at the brink a new era of technology, in which powerful genomic assays may be put to use in uncovering targets of therapy and defining mechanisms of disease progression. Pathologists must be active in ensuring that discoveries in this realm are optimized by assuring association with appropriate histological correlation and valid clinical endpoints.

From Breslow to BRAF and immunotherapy: evolving concepts in melanoma pathogenesis and disease progression and their implications for changing management over the last 50 years.

Since it was first recognized as a disease entity more than two centuries ago, advanced melanoma has, until recently, followed a very aggressive and almost universally fatal clinical course. However, over the past 50 years crucial ground breaking research has greatly enhanced our understanding of the etiology, risk factors, genomic pathogenesis, immunological interactions, prognostic features and management of melanoma. It is this combined body of work which has culminated in the exciting improvements in patient outcomes for those with advanced melanoma over the last ten years. In this the 50th anniversary of Human Pathology, we highlight the key developments in melanoma over this period.

Introduction: How We Encountered TCTP and Our Purpose in Studying It.

In this brief introduction, we describe our encounter with TCTP. Back in 2000, we discovered TCTP in two quite different ways: first, we looked at protein partners of TSAP6 and one of them was TCTP. Then, in collaboration with Sidney Brenner, we performed a high-throughput differential screening comparing the parental cancer cells with revertants. The results indicated that TCTP was of the most differentially expressed genes. These two approaches were carried out only months apart. They guided our research and led to the discoveries of drugs that inhibit the function of TCTP. Much of the preclinical data on sertraline as an inhibitor of TCTP in cancer were obtained with Judith Karp at Johns Hopkins. This drug is now given in combination with Ara-C to patients in a phase I clinical trial for Acute Myeloid Leukemia. We will here detail how all this happened in our lab while working around one central project: tumor reversion.

A thirty-year quest for a role of R-Ras in cancer: from an oncogene to a multitasking GTPase.

Since the identification of R-Ras, which is the first Ras-related GTPase isolated based on sequence similarity to the classical RAS oncogene, more than 160 members of the Ras superfamily of GTPases have been identified and classified into the Ras, Rho, Rap, Rab, Ran, Arf, Rheb, RGK, Rad, Rit, and Miro subfamilies. R-Ras belongs to the Ras subfamily of small G-proteins, which are frequently implicated in cell growth and differentiation. Although the roles of R-Ras in cellular transformation and integrin-mediated cell adhesion have been extensively studied, the physiological function of this enigmatic G-protein was only revealed when a mouse strain deficient in R-Ras was generated. In parallel, a plethora of research findings also linked R-Ras with processes including tumor angiogenesis, axon guidance, and immune cell trafficking. Several upstream factors that modulate R-Ras GTP-binding were identified including Notch, semaphorin, and chemokine C-C motif ligand 21. A review of our evolving understanding of the role of R-Ras in oncogenesis is timely, as this year marks the 30th anniversary of the publication describing the cloning of R-Ras.

Fifty years of discovery of alpha-fetoprotein as the first tumor marker.

Alpha-fetoprotein represents the most prominent oncobiomarker, widely used in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma for monitoring of tumor progression, presence of metastasis, assessment of cancer prognosis and successful antitumor therapeutic measures. Yuri Semenovich Tatarinov is a Russian scientist who first published antigen specific for human hepatocellular carcinoma in 1963. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of alpha-fetoprotein, 9th International Scientific-Practical Conference entitled "Achievements of fundamental science and translational medicine capabilities in solving actual problems of practical public health" was held from May 6-8th, 2013 in Astrakhan, Russia.The conference was held in memory of historical scientific work of Yuri Semenovich Tatarinov.

[History of tumor markers for cancers of the digestive system]. / Az emésztoszervi tumorjelzok története.

Tumor markers are gene products which signal the occurrence of tumors in different organs as well as their response to surgery and chemotherapy. The discovery of tumor markers occurred after the demonstration of tumor-specific transplantation antigens in chemically or virally induced tumors in syngenic rodents. The history of currently used tumor markers began in the 1940s, the first discovered being alpha-fetoprotein in 1956, followed by that of carcinoembryonic antigen in 1965. Since then the range of tumor markers has widened continously. Their chemical structure and genetics is now well known. Some may play part in tumor growth and development of metastases. The potential uses of tumor markers are general or high risk population screening, adjunct in diagnosis of cancer, preoperative indicator of tumor burden, indicator of therapeutic success, evidence of postoperative recurrences and use in tumor localization. However, there is no ideal tumor marker fulfilling all the criteria. Isotope-labeled anti-carcinoembryonic antigen antibodies and small molecular E-selectin inhibitors could play a role in the molecular radio- and chemotherapy of colon and pancreatic carcinomas.

Prostate specific antigen through the years.

PSA was first identified in the 1960s. Some controversy exist as to who should be credited with its discovery as different groups, simultaneously, isolated the same protein but gave it a different name. PSA was firstly approved by FDA in 1986 as a test to aid the management of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer. In 1994, it was approved by the FDA as a diagnostic tool and up to date its beneficial role as a screening test is largely unknown. The results of the PLCO and ERSPC trials are awaited. Increasing interest is also emerging on the use of PSA as a tool in the management of BPH. Recently some embryonic data on the use of other novel markers such as EPCA and prostasomes is emerging and the data on PCA3 as a diagnostic tool for prostate cancer is maturing.