Pathologist's perspectives on reporting of tumour budding in colorectal cancer.

PURPOSE: Tumour budding (TB) is an important adverse prognostic factor in colon cancer, which can also guide adjuvant treatment in stage II colorectal carcinoma. The International Tumor Budding Consensus Conference (ITBCC) recommended a three-tiered scoring system to streamline the scoring of budding across the globe. The goal of this survey is to understand the variation in reporting practice, globally. METHODS: A short survey was designed as an online questionnaire and shared via social media platforms and emails to pathology society groups in various countries. RESULTS: A majority of the 294 respondents (186/294; 63.3%) report budding in colorectal carcinoma. This figure differed significantly from 53.4% in Asia to 97.4% in North America. The most common (56.4%) reason for not reporting TB was because it is yet not a mandatory recommendation in the various datasets (e.g. The College of American Pathologists). The majority (78.9%) of the people who were reporting TB, used the ITBCC scoring system (scoring on a single hotspot 20× field). Most used 10× objective for screening (88.7%) and scored only at the invasive front (88.7%). Immunohistochemistry (8.6%) or deeper cuts (24.2%) were rarely used. TB scoring took 10 minutes or less in most (87.1%). CONCLUSION: Though budding is well accepted among specialist gastrointestinal pathologists, it is still not universally accepted as an important prognostic parameter across the globe. The hesitancy for reporting is due to a combination of lack of clinical demand and extra effort and time involved in counting the ITBCC score.

Optimal Blending of PbSe and CdSe in Polycrystalline PbCdSe Nanocomposite Film: Improved Carrier Multiplication and Enhanced Photoconversion Efficiency.

The present work reports galvanostatic electro-co-deposition of n-PbCdSe semiconductor (SC) films on FTO substrate from the respective precursors. Self-designed matrices were formulated at variable concentrations of Pb2+ in the deposition medium. The semiconductor films constitute an intermixed structure of close-packed PbSe and CdSe nanoparticles (NPs), and the band gap (Eg) was effectively tuned in the range 0.99-1.47 eV for the variable compositions. Energy dispersive spectroscopy studies revealed that Cd exists in low level in the film matrix compared to Pb, presumably due to competitive deposition kinetics of the two chalcogenide compounds and the crystallite sizes determined from XRD studies, ranges between 15 and 12 nm, which corresponds to the size quenching of SC-NPs with increased Pb2+ concentration. The durability studies identify the most stable film developed at 0.025 M Pb2+ concentration. PbSe materials are typically characterized with impact ionization which effectively induces carrier multiplication (CM) in the quasi Type-II PbCdSe composite, exhibiting reasonably high photoconversion efficiency (PCE) of 6.14% with current output of 19.2 mA cm-2 for the optimal PbCdSe film.

Reporting of tumor budding in colorectal adenocarcinomas using ×40 objective: A practical approach for resource constrained set-ups.

CONTEXT: Tumor budding (TBud) is recognized as a poor prognostic marker in colorectal cancer (CRC) with important treatment implications in Stage II cancers and malignant polyps. There are multiple propositions for bud count reporting but without an uniformly accepted system. The International TBud consensus conference (ITBCC) proposed mandatory reporting of budding on the single worst ×20 high power field (0.785 mm2 area) with a 3-tier scoring system (low/intermediate/high for 0-4, 5-9, and ≥10 buds/×20 field). AIMS: Due to the lack of availability of ×20 objective, we aimed to validate a simple ×40 field count (0.236 mm2 area) for wider applicability. METHODS: Bud count was done on hematoxylin and eosin-stained slides of 92 archived cases of colon cancer on the worst ×20 and ×40 fields (0.95 mm2 and 0.236 mm2 area) (hotspot method). Count for 0.785 mm2 area was calculated using ITBCC normalization factor of 1.2. Interobserver variability between two observers was assessed. Score groups for ×20 field and proposed score groups for 40× field (low/intermediate/high for 0-1, 2-4 and ≥5 buds) were compared with disease-free survival. RESULTS: High bud score was seen in 20.6% and 31.5% cases, respectively, using the ×20 and ×40 methods. High interobserver concordance was noted (ICC 0.95). Both the ITBCC bud score and our proposed 40× scoring correlated significantly with prognosis (P = 0.030, log-rank test). CONCLUSIONS: : In centers lacking 20× objective, we propose using the worst 40× hotspot method for reporting of budding for all CRCs as a simple, reproducible and prognostically significant scoring system.

Catalytic Intervention of MoO3 toward Ethanol Oxidation on PtPd Nanoparticles Decorated MoO3-Polypyrrole Composite Support.

Ethanol oxidation reaction has been studied in acidic environment over PtPd nanoparticles (NPs) grown on the molybdenum oxide-polypyrrole composite (MOPC) support. The attempt was focused on using reduced Pt loading on non-carbon support for direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) operated with proton exchange membrane (PEM). As revealed in SEM study, a molybdenum oxide network exists in polypyrrole caging and the presence of metal NPs over the composite matrix is confirmed by TEM analysis. Further physicochemical characterizations such as XRD, EDAX, and XPS are followed in order to understand the surface morphology and composition of the hybrid structure. Electrochemical techniques such as voltammetry, choroamperometry, and impedance spectroscopy along with performance testing of an in-house-fabricated fuel cell are carried out to evaluate the catalytic activity of the materials for DEFC. The reaction products are estimated by ion chromatographic analysis. Considering the results obtained from the above characterization procedures, the best catalytic performance is exhibited by the Pt-Pd (1:1) on MOPC support. A clear intervention of the molybdenum oxide network is strongly advocated in the EOR sequence which increases the propensity of the reaction by making the metallites more energy efficient in terms of harnessing sufficient numbers of electrons than with the carbon support.