Renal CIC-LEUTX rearranged sarcoma with multiple pulmonary metastases: a case report and literature review.

BACKGROUND: CIC-rearranged sarcomas (CRS) are a group of heterogeneous tumors which mostly occur in the soft tissues of limbs and trunk, and are highly invasive with poor prognosis. Here, we describe a rare case of CRS that occurred in the left kidney with a CIC-LEUTX rearrangement. CASE PRESENTATION: A 45-year-old male was admitted to hospital with a dry cough for more than two months without obvious cause. Physical examination and laboratory tests revealed no notable abnormality. The CT scan demonstrated a mass in the left kidney and multiple nodules in both lungs. The percutaneous core needle biopsy showed similar histomorphology and immunophenotype of small round cell malignant tumors. Genetic test revealed a CIC-LEUTX gene fusion. CONCLUSIONS: We present a rare primary renal CRS with multiple pulmonary metastases, and LEUTX is confirmed as the fusion partner of CIC gene for the first time in a renal case.

Clinicopathological and prognostic values of MET expression in pancreatic adenocarcinoma based on bioinformatics analysis.

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) is regarded as one of the most lethiferous cancers worldwide because treatment of pancreatic cancer remains challenging and mostly palliative. Little progress had been made to select certain reliable biomarkers as clinical prognosis. In this context, GSE28735 and GSE16515 were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). GEO2R tool was used to recognize differentially expressed genes (DEGs). 351 DEGs were screened which included 230 up-regulated genes and 121 down-regulated genes. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were performed to analyze the DEGs and associated signal pathways in the DAVID database. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was then constructed to screen 10 hub genes by STRING database and Cityscape software. Analyses of 10 hub genes were performed on GEPIA database and GSCA database, which revealed that MET was high expressed and significantly associated with survival of PAAD patients. Immunohistochemical staining showed that MET was higher expressed in PAAD tissues than adjacent tissues in 20 samples. The clinicopathological analysis revealed that high expression of MET was associated with the degree of differentiation, lymph node metastasis, vascular cancer thrombus and nerve invasion in PAAD tissues (P < .05). Furthermore, the Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) database analyzed the correlation between the MET expression level and immune infiltration levels, which elucidated that MET expression was appreciably positively correlated with the infiltration levels of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). Here, these results strongly indicate MET is an unique prognostic biomarker. Its expression level is correlated with certain clinicopathological features and immune cell infiltration.

Case report: Urothelial injury in a female with breast cancer: a rare adverse event after the combination of paclitaxel and trastuzumab.

Several breast cancer (BC) patients showed urinary tract infection after adjuvant trastuzumab plus paclitaxel, but no case of urothelial injury has been reported. In this case, we report a 47-year-old female patient with stage I invasive ductal carcinoma in the left breast presenting with urothelial injury after the combination of trastuzumab and paclitaxel. Initially, the patient was highly suspected of having urinary tract infection as she showed abdominal and low back pain, as well as urinary irritation symptoms and hematuria. Unfortunately, the conditions were not attenuated after anti-infection therapy. Contrast-enhanced CT showed extensive exudation and edema in the bilateral renal pelvis, ureter, and bladder, together with dilatation and effusion in the renal pelvis and ureter. Cystoscopy showed extensive congestion, edema, and erosion in the bladder epithelium. Pathological analysis demonstrated slight thinning or even loss in the uroepithelial cell layer and interstitial congestion. In addition, there was growth arrest in the epithelial cells. Immunohistochemistry indicated HER2 expression in the urothelial cells. Finally, the patient was diagnosed with urothelial injury after combination of paclitaxel and trastuzumab. The symptoms were spontaneously cured with no administration of any antibiotics in the 3-month follow-up.

Expression of CDK13 Was Associated with Prognosis and Expression of HIF-1α and beclin1 in Breast Cancer Patients.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate role and clinical significance of CDK13 in breast cancer patients. METHODS: A total of 189 cases of breast cancer were enrolled during March 2013 to March 2015. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used for measurement of CDK13, HIF-1α and beclin1. Clinical characteristics of age, BMI, TNM stage, pathological types, and tumor diameter, were recorded. Patients' 5-year overall survival and recurrence were followed up. All patients were followed up for 5 years or to the last follow-up. RESULTS: The expression levels of CDK13 and HIF-1αin breast cancer tissues were up-regulated and beclin1 was down-regulated than in the paracancerous non-tumor tissues. CDK13 was positively correlated with HIF-1α and negatively correlated with beclin1 in breast cancer tissues. The patients with higher expression of CDK13 showed significantly higher rates of TNM III-IV, higher rates of lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and larger tumor size. The mortality and recurrence rates were higher in high expression CDK13 patients than in low CDK13 expression patients, however with no significant difference. K-M curve showed patients with higher CDK13 showed lower 5-year overall survival and lower disease-free survival time, however with no significant difference. CONCLUSION: CDK13 was overexpressed in breast cancer tissues, and patients with higher CDK13 had poorer clinical outcomes. Further studies are still needed to reveal the clinical significance of CDK13 in breast cancer.

LINC02535 promotes cell growth in poorly differentiated gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND: Abnormal long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) expression plays important roles in gastric cancer. However, the functions of many lncRNAs in poorly differentiated gastric cancer (PDGC) remain unknown. METHODS: Three sets of paired tissues from patients with PDGC were used, and transcriptome sequencing was performed, followed by the construction and sequencing of a library and mapping of the reads. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways and protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks were analysed, and canonical pathway significance was calculated among the differentially expressed genes (DEGs; p < 0.05). Gene expression in 30 paired PDGC specimens and four cell lines was validated through quantitative PCR. Cell proliferation, migration, invasion, apoptosis, and wound healing were analysed. RESULTS: A total of 499 upregulated DEGs and 627 downregulated DEGs were identified between peritumoral and gastric cancer tissues. The proportions of positive and negative correlations between LINC02535 and the DEGs were 98.40% and 92.66%, respectively, while the Spearman's correlation coefficient was greater than 0.5. The PPI network showed that approximately 73.15% of the top five genes were directly correlated with LINC02535 according to the STRING database. Based on KEGG analysis, the functions of LINC02535 target genes were enriched in signalling pathways related to cancer cell growth. Furthermore, cell function studies showed that LINC02535 upregulation contributed to cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and wound healing and that its inhibition facilitated cell apoptosis. CONCLUSION: LINC02535 expression was upregulated in PDGC and contributed to cell proliferation, migration, invasion and wound healing, whereas its inhibition in PDGC facilitated cell apoptosis.

[Clinicopathological features of colorectal neuroendocrine neoplasms and prognostic significance of WHO staging system].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinicopathological characteristics of colorectal neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) and the prognostic significance of the new WHO classification and staging system about gastroenteropancreatic NENs. METHODS: The clinical and pathological records were reviewed in 73 patients with colorectal NENs (carcinoids). All slides were retrieved and reviewed, immunohistochemical staining (EnVision method) was performed and follow-up information retrieved. RESULTS: Forty-one men and thirty-two women were included with a median age of 53 years (19 - 79 years). The location of the primary tumors in 65 patients was within 10 cm from the anorectal line. In 45 cases, the tumor diameter was ≤ 1 cm (no metastasis occurred); in 11 cases, the tumor diameter was > 1 cm but ≤ 2 cm (two patients had metastatic tumors); in 17 cases, the tumor diameter was > 2 cm (12 patients had metastatic tumors). The metastatic rate was significantly correlated with tumor size (P = 0.000). All tumors were immunoreactivity for synaptophysin and/or chromogranin A. According to the criteria of WHO classification and staging system about gastroenteropancreatic NENs, there were 65 cases of neuroendocrine tumors, including 51 cases of grade 1 (G1), 14 cases of grade 2 (G2), 4 cases of neuroendocrine carcinoma (G3) and 4 cases of mixed adenoneuroendocrine carcinoma. Following-up data showed that of the 34 patients with G1 tumor, there were no tumor-related death, but two patients showed metastases, and the remaining patients were disease free for 6 to 179 months. Of the 12 patients with G2 tumors, five developed metastasis, there were two tumor-related deaths, and the nine surviving patients were alive for 17 to 118 months. Of the four G3 patients, all developed metastasis and there were three tumor-related deaths. Of the four mixed adenoneuroendocrine carcinoma there were two tumor-related deaths. The difference of metastatic rate, tumor-related mortality, and overall survival among different grading groups in this series was statistically significant (P = 0.000). CONCLUSIONS: Colorectal neuroendocrine neoplasm is a group of tumors with distinct prognostic difference, and most of these tumors show an indolent clinical behavior. There is a good correlation between the new WHO classification and staging system of gastroenteropancreatic NENs and their clinical behaviors.