BACKGROUND: Analysis of immunohistochemical expression of a large number of tumor tissue samples with conventional techniques is costly, tedious and slow. Tissue microarray (TMA) technology can facilitate the sampling of over 500 tumors on a one-glass slide, which then can be analyzed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), RNA in situ hybridization, or immunohistochemistry. We attempted to validate this technique in breast cancer specimens by comparing the staining result obtained by TMA with the conventional whole-section method. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Eighty cases of breast cancer of diverse subtypes were used to build a breast cancer biomarker evaluation model. serial sections of the recipient block were immunostained with a panel of 4 antibodies (ER, SR, HER2 and p53). concordance of immunohistochemical expression between TMA sections and whole-sections was expressed as a K statistic. RESULTS: Target tumors were accurately sampled by two cores in 19 of 26 donor blocks, and by only one core in 5 blocks. Failure to sample tumor was seen in 2 blocks. concordance between the staining results of TMA and whole sections was good for PR (K=0.67) and ER (K=0.67) and very good for p53 (K=0.91) and HER2 (K=0.91), when all the 26 recipient blocks were included. The rate improved to excellent for p53 (K=1.0) and did not change for the other markers when concordance analysis was limited to recipient blocks that had been sampled by two cores. CONCLUSION: TMA is a reliable technique for examining a large set of tumors. it shows immunostaining scores comparable to those obtained by conventional whole-section evaluation in breast cancer. However, some alterations are not detected due to heterogeneity of biomarker expression inherent in these tumors, but this shortfall can be improved.

Introduction: Breast cancer (BC) is one of the commonest cancers among women worldwide. Differences regarding tumor biology, presentation, genetics, and molecular subtypes may contribute to the relatively poorer prognosis among younger women. Limited information exists regarding pathologic characteristics and long-term outcomes among this group. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 695 BC patients diagnosed over a 10-year period and investigated the clinicopathological characteristics and long-term disease outcomes among patients diagnosed at age less than or equal to 40 years compared with older ones. Cox regression analysis was performed, and Kaplan-Meier curves were generated to assess overall survival (OS). Results: Compared with the younger patients (⩽40 years) estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) expression was mainly positive in older patients (>40 years) (76.2% vs 61.3% and 64.2% vs 49.6%, respectively). The most common molecular subtype in both age groups was luminal B (44.1% in older and 40.3% in younger). A clinical complete remission after neoadjuvant therapy was observed more frequently in older patients (76.7%; N = 442) in comparison with the younger patients (66.4%; N = 79) ( P = .018). Recurrence and disease progression were significantly more likely to occur among younger patients accounting for 12.6% and 29.4% of the cases, compared with 6.3% and 18.2% in older patients ( P = .016 and P = .006, respectively). The overall mortality was 132 (19%) of 695, with 88% cancer-related deaths. Estrogen receptor and PR expression ( P ⩽ .001 and P = .003, respectively), molecular subtype ( P = .002), tumor grade ( P = .002), and N stage ( P = .038) were the variables that were found to be significantly influenced by age. The OS was not statistically different among 2 age groups, but younger patients with luminal A molecular subtype showed significantly poor outcome ( P = .019). Conclusion: Overall survival in women diagnosed with BC at age less than or equal to 40 years is not significantly worse than older patients. However, among patients with luminal A subtype, younger women had relatively poor survival. Further research is needed to understand this age-based disparity in outcomes.

This work reports the fabrication of iron oxide mesoporous magnetic nanostructures (IO-MMNs) via the nano-replication method using acid-prepared mesoporous spheres (APMS) as the rigid silica host and iron (III) nitrate as the iron precursor. The obtained nanosized mesostructures were fully characterized by SEM, TEM, DLS, FTIR, XRD, VSM, and nitrogen physisorption. IO-MMNs exhibited relatively high surface areas and large pore volumes (S_BET = 70–120 m²/g and V_pore = 0.25–0.45 cm³/g), small sizes (~300 nm), good crystallinity and magnetization, and excellent biocompatibility. With their intrinsic porosities, high drug loading efficiencies (up to 70%) were achieved and the drug release rates were found to be pH-dependent. Cytotoxicity, confocal microscopy, and flow cytometry experiments against different types of cancerous cells indicated that Dox-loaded IO-MMNs reduced the viability of metastatic MCF-7 and KAIMRC-1 breast as well as HT-29 colon cancer cells, with the least uptake and toxicity towards normal primary cells (up to 4-fold enhancement). These results strongly suggest the potential use of IO-MMNs as promising agents for enhanced and effective drug delivery in cancer theranostics.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a malignant neoplasm that originates from undifferentiated myogenic progenitor cells. It is predominantly a pediatric disease, and its occurrence in adults is exceedingly rare. Adult primary RMS of gynecologic origin is an uncommon phenomenon, and the cervix is the most frequently involved site. The incidence of adult primary uterine RMS is extremely scarce. Herein, we present the case of primary uterine RMS in a 54-year-old Saudi postmenopausal woman who presented to clinic attention with a six-month history of abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding.

Radiation-related osteosarcomas are well described malignant mesenchymal neoplasms, yet their pathogenesis is not fully understood. They are generally classified into either skeletal osteosarcomas, or their and rare soft tissue counterpart. The occurrence of osteosarcoma in the urinary bladder (UB) following radiotherapy is exceedingly rare. To the best of our knowledge, only two cases of radiation-related urinary bladder osteosarcoma have been published; we herein describe another case of an 85-year-old man who developed post radiotherapy chondroblastic osteosarcoma of the urinary bladder four years following initial surgical resection and radiotherapy for bladder urothelial carcinoma. We believe that this is the first case of radiation-related chondroblastic osteosarcoma arising in the urinary bladder. In addition, we review the literature and explore the possible histogenesis of this rare neoplasm.

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors (IMTs) are soft-tissue tumors that are rarely malignant. They can occur throughout the body but are rarely seen in the female genital tract. To our knowledge, the literature reports only a few cases of uterine IMTs. This article describes a 60-year-old female with a uterine IMT presumed to be a fibroid. The correct diagnosis was made based on a combination of gross appearance, microscopic findings from multiple hematoxylin and eosin-stained tumor slides, and immunohistochemical staining. We also provide a literature review and compare our findings to other reported cases.