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Epithelioid fibrous histiocytoma (EFH) is a type of uncommon skin tumor mostly harboring Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) gene rearrangement, with different fusion partners reported. Whether this tumor is a separate entity or has a relationship with conventional fibrous histiocytomas is still a matter of debate. Benign course is the rule after complete surgical excision. A rare subtype of EFH with fusiform cells has been described, with specific fusion partners. Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) is a type of soft tissue tumor rarer than EFH, and it can display distant metastases. Some cases of primary cutaneous IMT included two with Cysteinyl-tRNA Synthetase 1 (CARS)-ALK rearrangement. IMT can have the same fusion partners as EFH, such as DCTN1, TMP3 or EML4 genes. We report the case of a 42-year-old woman presenting EFH with fusiform morphology harboring CARS-ALK fusion and discuss similarities and differences with IMT.

BACKGROUND: Coagulation factors may inform on liver function during normothermic machine perfusion (NMP). We investigated whether graft ischemic injury impairs the accumulation of (anti)coagulation factors during NMP of porcine and human livers. METHODS: Dynamics of FV, FVII, FVIII, FIX, FX during NMP and their correlation with graft injury was investigated in porcine livers with minimal (no warm ischemia, n=5) or severe injury (60 minutes warm ischemia, n=5). Next, FV, FVIII, FIX, fibrinogen, and antithrombin were measured in 35 matched human liver NMPs from the COPE trial. Correlation of these factors with outcomes was explored. Livers were categorized in 4 groups depending on donor type and post-transplant peak aspartate aminotransferase (AST) as surrogate of minimal (peak<500 IU/L) or moderate injury (peak>1000 IU/L). RESULTS: Factor concentrations increased significantly during NMP regardless of severity of injury. In porcine livers, factor concentrations were 2-6 fold lower in severely injured grafts (all p<0.05). All factors negatively correlated with AST (coefficient range -0.50 to -0.93; all p<0.05) and lactate (range -0.51 to -0.67; all p<0.05). In human livers, no difference in factor accumulation rates and no correlation with other markers was observed. One graft with primary nonfunction had low rate of factor accumulation. CONCLUSION: (Anti)coagulation factors accumulate during NMP regardless of donor type and severity of injury. In pigs, severe ischemic injury resulted in significantly lower factor concentrations. In human livers with life-sustaining function, they do not correlate with hepatic injury. Whether low concentrations predict nonfunction in high-risk livers with severe injury requires further investigation.

We report a case of a 67-years-old woman presenting a severe acute lymphocytic gastritis induced by pembrolizumab, an immune check point inhibitor (ICI). This gastritis was her third auto-immune adverse event after 5 years of treatment with pembrolizumab, it was metabolically active at the PET Scan and confirmed by analysis of the gastric biopsies. Pembrolizumab treatment cessation and high doses of corticosteroids completely normalized the stomach clinically, endoscopically and histologically. This patient was in complete remission of her metastatic melanoma. Therefore, pembrolizumab therapy was not restarted and the patient is still in remission 6 months later. This strategy is supported by recent publications describing a relapse rate inferior to 10% in patients in complete remission after 2 years of immunotherapy. Particularities of this case are: rareness of this adverse event, late onset after introduction of pembrolizumab, evocative PET scan image, specific endoscopic aspect and histology. In addition, the favorable oncologic evolution of the patient after treatment cessation confirms the prolonged remission after immunotherapy.

A Belgian ring trial for pan-TRK immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining was organised to harmonise pan-TRK IHC staining protocols and interpretation. As a reference method, the VENTANA pan-TRK Assay (clone EPR17341) on the Benchmark Ultra platform was selected. Six samples were selected: 2 negative, 2 fusion positive and 2 samples with wild-type endogenous TRK expression. Each participating laboratory stained the slides using their routine pan-TRK IHC and reported their results. In addition, they were asked to return one TRK-stained slide from each case. The coordinating lab evaluated these slides, compared them with the reference method and scored them. Two clones were used during the ring trial: A7H6R (Cell Signaling) and EPR17341 (Abcam/Ventana). Seven protocols achieved a sufficient performance mark, and three labs were advised to further optimise the protocol. Interpretation of pan-TRK IHC proved to be challenging in cases with physiological TRK expression. In addition, depending on the NTRK fusion partner, the staining can vary strongly in both intensity and staining pattern. Labs using the Ventana ready-to-use system based on the EPR17341 clone and using the recommended protocol settings scored best. However, given some small optimisation, all labs scored well on the technical staining and the succeeding evaluation.

We read with great interest the report by Shaaban et al. on the UK Sloane Project.1 This unique prospective cohort of DCIS patients provides an unprecedented view on the real-world management and long-term follow-up of this pre-invasive disease. The Sloane Project provides an immense amount of valuable data.1 Although Shaaban and colleagues have extensively discussed their observations, we would like to focus on an interesting finding that was slightly neglected in the discussion, likely because it seems very banal at first glance. We use this particular observation to launch a new research hypothesis by emphasising the similarities between recurrence after breast-conserving surgery (BCS) for DCIS and intrahepatic recurrence after partial hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). [...]

Cytokeratin 5 is a marker of basal molecular subtypes of muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), which correlates with worse overall survival compared to luminal subtypes. Our observations have not confirmed CK5 as a marker of high-grade (HG) disease in Ta non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Therefore, to understand the basal-luminal immunohistochemistry profile in Ta NMIBC, we performed immunohistochemistry for CK5, P40, P63 (basal), GATA3 and CK20 (luminal) and studied the correlation with HG and clinical outcome in 109 patients with Ta NMIBC. HG and low-grade (LG) diseases were scored in each patient. Four different CK5 patterns were evaluated: absent (median 41.3%), normal (72.5%), rising (84.4%) and full thickness (23.9%). The median percentage of GATA3 was 100%. HG disease and CK5 expression and rising CK5 pattern had a significant inverse correlation, whereas HG disease and CK20 expression had a significant positive correlation. We also found a significant inverse correlation between CK5 expression and CK20 expression. Quantitative PCR confirmed that the presence of CK5 correlated with up-regulation of CK5 RNA. None of the markers could differentiate patients with regard to clinical outcome. Our results suggest a role for CK5 and CK20 in differentiating between LG and HG disease in Ta NMIBC.

TO THE EDITOR: Cobleigh et al1 have reported on the phase III NSABP B-43 trial. This unique randomized cohort provides the first data on the effectiveness of a dual dose of trastuzumab when added to adjuvant whole-breast irradiation after lumpectomy for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2–positive ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).1 As the number of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrences (IBTRs) in this extensive cohort was lower than originally estimated, the initially proposed 36% reduction in the IBTR hazard ratio was not achieved.Although not statistically significant, adjuvant rastuzumab was nevertheless associated with a 19% reduction in IBTRs. Subgroup analysis showed that this was because of a marked reduction in in situ IBTRs, without effect on invasive IBTRs.1 Although the authors mentioned two explanations, we would like to highlight another interpretation of this observation. [...]