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Systemic inflammatory markers derived from peripheral blood cell, such as the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (dNLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR), have been demonstrated as prognostic markers in several types of malignancy. Here, we investigated and compared the association between systemic inflammatory markers and survival and developed a prognostic nomogram in breast cancer patients. We reviewed the clinical and pathological records of 661 patients diagnosed with invasive breast carcinoma between 1993 and 2011. The NLR, dNLR, PLR and LMR in the immediate preoperative period were assessed. We analyzed the relationship between these inflammatory markers and clinicopathologic variables, disease-specific survival (DSS), and disease-free survival (DFS) in patients. A nomogram was developed to predict 3- and 5-year DSS for breast cancer. In the univariate analysis, high NLR, dNLR, PLR and low LMR were all significantly associated with poor DSS and DFS. In the multivariate analysis, only the PLR (HR 3.226, 95% CI 1.768-5.885 for DSS and HR 1.824, 95% CI 1.824-6.321 for DFS) was still identified as an independent predictor of outcomes. A subgroup analysis revealed that the PLR was the sole independent marker predicting poor DSS in patients with lymph node metastasis (HR 2.294, 95% CI 1.102-4.777) and with luminal subtype (HR 4.039, 95% CI 1.905-8.562). The proposed nomogram, which includes the PLR, shows good accuracy in predicting DSS with a concordance index of 0.82. PLR is an indicator of systemic inflammation as a part of the host immune response. As an independent prognostic factor, an elevated preoperative PLR is superior to the NLR, dNLR, and LMR in predicting clinical outcomes in patients with breast cancer. Moreover, the nomogram incorporating the PLR could accurately predict individualized survival probability in breast cancer., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

In diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the germinal center B-cell (GCB) subtype is associated with a better prognosis compared with the nongerminal center B-cell-like (non-GCB) subtype. However, validity of this immunohistochemical subgrouping in primary DLBCL of the central nervous system is unclear. A total 45 cases of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNS)/DLBCL were selected, and immunohistochemistries for CD10, Bcl-6, MUM1, and Ki-67 were performed. Each of the cases was subclassified as either GCB or non-GCB based on its immunoprofile. Among clinical and immunologic markers, patients under 70 years of age and who had methotrexate chemotherapy showed a significantly better overall survival (OS). High Ki-67 (ie, a Ki-67 index ≥90%) was an independent prognostic factor for a poor OS in the whole cohort and in the patients with non-GCB subtype tumors (P=0.017, HR=4.267, 95% CI, 1.3-14.0; P=0.031, HR=3.752, 95% CI, 1.3-12.5). Tumors were dominantly non-GCB subtype (41/45, 91.1%); only 4 (8.9%) were GCB subtype. The 2-year OS rates for these groups were 73% and 100%. There was, however, no statistically significant difference between these groups for OS and progression-free survival. The subclassification of PCNS/DLBCL into GCB and non-GCB subtypes did not seem to have a prognostic value. In non-GCB subtype PCNSL patients, high Ki-67 index was an adverse independent prognostic marker that could be used to stratify patients for more suitable management.

Thyroid tumors formerly classified as non-invasive encapsulated follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma were recently renamed 'non-invasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features'. The current study investigated the frequency of lymph node metastasis and mutational profile of encapsulated follicular variant in the setting of a clinical practice where central neck dissection was the standard of practice. We defined the impact of rigid diagnostic criteria by regrouping such tumors based on the complete absence of papillae or presence of ≤1% papillae. Of a total of 6,269 papillary thyroid carcinomas, 152 tumors fulfilled the criteria for encapsulated follicular variant. The results were stratified according to two different diagnostic cutoff criteria with respect to the extent of papillae. When the cutoff of 1% papillae was used, the rates of lymph node metastasis and BRAF V600E mutation were 3% and 10% in non-invasive tumors and 9% and 4% in invasive tumors, respectively. Despite the lack of invasive growth, one patient with BRAF V600E mutant-tumor displaying predominant follicular growth and subtle papillae developed a bone metastasis. When absence of papillary structure was applied as rigid diagnostic criteria, no BRAF V600E mutation was found in all tumors. However, central lymph node micrometastasis still occurred in 3% of non-invasive tumors. Non-V600E BRAF and RAS mutations were detected in 4% and 47% of non-invasive tumors, respectively. Our findings suggest that non-invasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features should not be regarded as a benign thyroid neoplasm as it can present with lymph node micrometastasis and should not be diagnosed in the presence of even a single papillary structure. Our findings underscore the original American Thyroid Association recommendation that defined non-invasive encapsulated follicular variants as low risk thyroid cancers. Clinical surveillance similar to low risk differentiated thyroid cancers and capture of this diagnostic category by Cancer Registries should be considered.

The most common BRAF mutation in thyroid cancer is c.1799T>A (p.Val600Glu), and other BRAF mutations are rarely reported. We investigated the clinicopathological features of thyroid cancer with rare BRAF mutations. A total of 2,763 patients with thyroid cancer underwent molecular testing by direct DNA sequencing for mutations in BRAF exon 15. Among them, 2,110 (76.4%) had BRAF mutations. The c.1799T>A mutation was found in 2,093 (76.9%) of 2,722 papillary carcinomas and in one of 7 medullary carcinomas. Sixteen cases (0.76%) harbored rare mutation types. Five cases had single-nucleotide substitutions, 5 cases had small in-frame deletion or insertion, and one harbored a two-nucleotide substitution. Of these mutations, 2 were novel (c.1797_1798insGAGACTACA, c.[1799T>A; 1801_1812del]). The c.1801A>G mutation was identified in 4 follicular variant papillary carcinomas and one follicular carcinoma. None of the patients with the c.1801A>G mutation showed extrathyroidal extension or lymph node metastasis. The prevalence of rare BRAF mutations was 0.76% of all BRAF-positive thyroid cancers, and the rare mutations were associated with less aggressive pathologic features. Although BRAF mutations are detected exclusively in papillary carcinoma, they are also found in medullary carcinoma and follicular carcinoma. [Corrected]