bims-netuvo Biomed News
on Nerves in tumours of visceral organs
Issue of 2023–01–22
six papers selected by
Maksym V. Kopanitsa, The Francis Crick Institute
  1. Benign peripheral nerve tumors: Analysis of 89 FNA cases emphasizing diagnostic accuracy and their morphologic spectrum.
  2. Ultrasonography of peripheral nerve tumours: a case series.
  3. Nerve Fiber Immunohistochemical Panel Discriminates between Nerve Sheath and Perivascular Wall Tumors.
  4. Evaluation and prognostic significance of tumor budding in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas.
  5. Circulating Monocytes Serve as Novel Prognostic Biomarker in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Patients.
  6. Breast cancer and neurotransmitters: emerging insights on mechanisms and therapeutic directions.
  1. Cancer Cytopathol. 2023 Jan 17.
    Benign peripheral nerve tumors: Analysis of 89 FNA cases emphasizing diagnostic accuracy and their morphologic spectrum.
    Paul E Wakely.
       INTRODUCTION: Benign peripheral nerve tumors (BPNTs) are a heterogenous group of soft tissue tumors that include a variety of nerve sheath tumors, granular cell tumor (GCT), and ganglioneuroma. Only a few large studies exist on cytopathology and diagnostic accuracy using fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy for this set of neoplasms.
    MATERIALS AND METHODS: Both surgical and cytopathology files were searched for cases of BPNT. FNA biopsy was performed using standard techniques.
    RESULTS: Eighty-nine cases from 88 patients (male:female = 1:1; age range: 16-85 years, mean age, 51 years) met inclusion criteria. FNA sites included extremities (58, 65%), head/neck (14, 16%), deep (9, 10%), and trunk (8, 10%). Aspirates were from primary neoplasms in all but one instance. There were 65 schwannomas, seven neurofibromas, seven perineuriomas, seven GCTs, and three ganglioneuromas/neuromas. Aspirates of schwannoma, GCT, neurofibroma (NF), and perineurioma (PN) were correctly diagnosed in 86%, 100%, 29%, and 0% of cases, respectively. Five tumors (6%) were interpreted as either a specific sarcoma or suspicious for sarcoma. Remaining aspirates were classified as spindle cell neoplasm, salivary gland neoplasm, and nondiagnostic. Cytologic features for schwannoma, NF, PN, and ganglioneuroma showed spindle cell-dominant smears arranged mainly in syncytial clusters. GCT aspirates contained a population of epithelioid cells harboring coarsely granular cytoplasm and bare nuclei. Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining in 55 (62%) cases showed S-100 expression in 95%.
    CONCLUSION: FNA biopsy coupled with IHC is reliable in correctly classifying schwannoma and GCT, but less so for NF. Perineurioma can be mistaken for sarcoma.
    Keywords:  fine needle; granular cell tumor; nerve sheath tumor; neurofibroma; perineurioma; schwannoma
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/cncy.22680
  2. Radiol Oncol. 2023 Jan 20.
    Ultrasonography of peripheral nerve tumours: a case series.
    Simon Podnar.
       BACKGROUND: Peripheral nerve tumours (PNTs) are rare, but important cause of peripheral nerve dysfunction. The aim of the study was to present a series of consecutive patients with PNTs evaluated in authors' ultrasonography (US) practice.
    PATIENTS AND METHODS: The electronic medical records of patients with PNTs examined at our US laboratory from February 2013 to May 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Data on gender, age, clinical features, PNT location, electrodiagnostic (EDx) features and US findings were collected.
    RESULTS: In the analyzed period 2845 patients were examined in our US laboratory. From these 15 patients (0.5%) with PNTs were identified. Four of them (3 with confirmed neurofibromatosis) had multiple PNTs. Half of patients (53%) presented with features of peripheral nerve damage, and others with palpable mass or pain. The most often involved nerve was ulnar (36%). PNT cross sectional areas varied from 24 mm2 to 1250 mm2 (median, 61 mm2). Based in 5 patients on histological and in remaining patients on US features, schwannoma was diagnosed in 40%, neurofibroma in 27%, and perineurioma in 27% of patients.
    CONCLUSIONS: As in previous reports, PNTs in our series presented with neurological symptoms, palpable mass or pain. In contrast to other focal neuropathies, particularly nerves with schwannomas, in spite of their large thickening, often demonstrated well preserved function. Adding US to our clinical practice, enabled us to diagnose these rare peripheral nerve lesions that we missed before.
    Keywords:  electrodiagnosis; nerve cross-sectional area; peripheral nerve tumors; peripheral nerves; ultrasonography
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2478/raon-2023-0005
  3. Vet Sci. 2022 Dec 21. pii: 1. [Epub ahead of print]10(1):
    Nerve Fiber Immunohistochemical Panel Discriminates between Nerve Sheath and Perivascular Wall Tumors.
    Sílvia Sisó, Paola Marco-Salazar, Paola Roccabianca, Giancarlo Avallone, Robert J Higgins, Verena K Affolter.
      Benign and malignant nerve sheath tumors (NST) pose a major challenge in routine diagnostic anatomic pathology because of shared histomorphological features with other soft-tissue tumors (STT). As a result, NST are often diagnosed as STT, a broad category that encompasses various entities including perivascular wall tumors (PWT) and that represents approximately 15% of all skin tumors in dogs. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) can assist the identification of histologic subtypes of STT. This IHC pilot study applies various markers largely expressed by peripheral nerves to twelve benign and six malignant NST and determines the intratumoral protein expression of laminin, periaxin-1, Sox-10 and S-100 in the NST subtypes. Furthermore, this study assesses the usefulness of peripheral nerve markers applied to diagnostic work cases and demonstrates the relevance of laminin expression patterns, periaxin-1 and Sox-10 in assisting the differentiation of NST from other STT, in particular from PWT.
    Keywords:  NST biomarkers; Sox-10; dog; immunohistochemistry; laminin; nerve sheath tumors; periaxin-1; perivascular wall tumors
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci10010001
  4. Indian J Pathol Microbiol. 2023 Jan-Mar;66(1):66(1): 38-43
    Evaluation and prognostic significance of tumor budding in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas.
    Asuman Argon, Özden Öz, Tulu Ayata Kebat.
       Aim: In this study, it was aimed to investigate the prognostic importance of Tumor budding (TB) in Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas(PDAC) and its correlation with histopathological findings according to the International Tumor Budding Consensus Conference(ITBCC) grading.
    Material and Methods: A total of 75 patients diagnosed with PDAC were included in this study. The demographic features of the cases (age, sex) and the macroscopic features of the tumors (localization,size) were obtained from the electronic archive system. All Hematoxylin-Eosin-stained sections were re-evaluated in terms of differentiation, presence of lymphovascular (LVI) and perineural invasion(PNI), surgical margin positivity, primary tumor(pT), lymph node metastasis(LNM) and tumor budding. Statistically, Chi-square test, cox-regression and Kaplan-Meier test were performed.
    Results: Thirty four of the cases were female and 41 were male. The mean age was 64.21±9.71years. The degree of TB was TB-few in 17 cases, TB-moderate in 25cases, and TB-high in 33cases. LVI, PNI, LNM and TB-high were poor prognostic factors. Moreover, TB-high was related with poor differantiation,LVI,PNI,LNM and short survival time. Tumor budding was independent negative prognostic factor in multivariable model analyzes.
    Conclusion: ITBCC scoring can also be used in PDACs. In addition, high tumor budding was a poor prognostic feature and might be a target for tumor-specific treatments as it could be a predictive finding for the locally invasive character of the tumor. Evaluation and grading of TB thought to represent EMT may be a histological feature that can be used in tumor selection for advanced molecular methods to identify subtypes that may be associated with poor prognosis and drug resistance.
    Keywords:  Mesenchymal phenotype; pancreas carcinoma; tumor budding tumor-spesific treatment
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.4103/ijpm.ijpm_905_21
  5. Cancers (Basel). 2023 Jan 05. pii: 363. [Epub ahead of print]15(2):
    Circulating Monocytes Serve as Novel Prognostic Biomarker in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Patients.
    Frederik J Hansen, Paul David, Marina Akram, Samuel Knoedler, Anke Mittelstädt, Susanne Merkel, Malgorzata J Podolska, Izabela Swierzy, Lotta Roßdeutsch, Bettina Klösch, Dina Kouhestani, Anna Anthuber, Alan Bénard, Maximilian Brunner, Christian Krautz, Robert Grützmann, Georg F Weber.
      Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) ranks among the most fatal cancer diseases, widely accepted to have the most dismal prognoses. Although immunotherapy has broadly revolutionized cancer treatment, its value in PDAC appears to be relatively low. Exhibiting protumoral effects, monocytes have recently been proposed as potential targets of such immunotherapeutic regimens. However, to date, the body of evidence on monocytes' role in PDAC is scarce. Therefore, we analyzed monocytes in the peripheral blood of 58 PDAC patients prior to surgery and compared them to healthy individuals. PDAC patients showed increased levels of monocytes when compared to healthy controls In addition, patients with perineural infiltration demonstrated a higher percentage of monocytes compared to non-infiltrating tumors and PDAC G3 was associated with higher monocyte levels than PDAC G2. Patients with monocyte levels > 5% were found to have an 8.9-fold increased risk for a G3 and perineural infiltrated PDAC resulting in poorer survival compared to patients with <5% monocyte levels. Furthermore, PDAC patients showed increased expressions of CD86 and CD11c and decreased expressions of PD-L1 on monocytes compared to healthy individuals. Finally, levels of monocytes correlated positively with concentrations of IL-6 and TNF-α in plasma of PDAC patients. Based on our findings, we propose monocytes as a novel prognostic biomarker. Large-scale studies are needed to further decipher the role of monocytes in PDAC and investigate their potential as therapeutic targets.
    Keywords:  grading; liquid biopsy; monocytes; pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; perineural invasion; prognostic biomarker
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15020363
  6. Oncogene. 2023 Jan 18.
    Breast cancer and neurotransmitters: emerging insights on mechanisms and therapeutic directions.
    Priya Jayachandran, Francesca Battaglin, Carly Strelez, Annika Lenz, Sandra Algaze, Shivani Soni, Jae Ho Lo, Yan Yang, Joshua Millstein, Wu Zhang, Jean C Shih, Janice Lu, Shannon M Mumenthaler, Darcy Spicer, Josh Neman, Evanthia T Roussos Torres, Heinz-Josef Lenz.
      Exploring the relationship between various neurotransmitters and breast cancer cell growth has revealed their likely centrality to improving breast cancer treatment. Neurotransmitters play a key role in breast cancer biology through their effects on the cell cycle, epithelial mesenchymal transition, angiogenesis, inflammation, the tumor microenvironment and other pathways. Neurotransmitters and their receptors are vital to the initiation, progression and drug resistance of cancer and progress in our biological understanding may point the way to lower-cost and lower-risk antitumor therapeutic strategies. This review discusses multiple neurotransmitters in the context of breast cancer. It also discusses risk factors, repurposing of pharmaceuticals impacting neurotransmitter pathways, and the opportunity for better integrated models that encompass exercise, the intestinal microbiome, and other non-pharmacologic considerations. Neurotransmitters' role in breast cancer should no longer be ignored; it may appear to complicate the molecular picture but the ubiquity of neurotransmitters and their wide-ranging impacts provide an organizing framework upon which further understanding and progress against breast cancer can be based.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-022-02584-4
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