The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2). COVID‐19 symptoms are not limited to the respiratory tract, but complications have been described involving other organs including brain. At present, data on SARS‐CoV‐2 neuropathological features are limited [4, 5, 8, 10] and most frequently focused on cases presenting neurological symptoms.

The WHO 2021 classification of central nervous system cancers distinguishes diffuse gliomas that arise in adults (referred to as the “adult type”) and those that arise in children (defined as “paediatric”) based on clinical and molecular characteristics.”). However, paediatric-type gliomas may occasionally be present in younger adults and occasionally adult-type gliomas may occur in children. Diffuse low-grade paediatric glioma includes diffuse astrocytoma altered by MYB or MYBL1, low-grade polymorphic juvenile neuroepithelial tumour, angiocentric glioma, and diffuse low-grade glioma with an altered MAPK pathway. Here, we examine these newly recognised entities according to WHO diagnostic criteria and propose an integrated diagnostic approach that can be used to separate these clinically and biologically distinct tumor groups.

Triple-negative breast carcinomas constitute a wide spectrum of lesions, mostly being highly aggressive. Nevertheless, some special histologic subtypes can have low malignant potential. The purpose of the present paper is to review diagnostic criteria and prognostic parameters of breast neoplasms of special histotypes. Specifically, adenoid cystic carcinoma, adenomyoepithelioma, acinic cell carcinoma, mucoepidermoid carcinoma, tall cell carcinoma with reverse polarity, and secretory carcinoma will be discussed. For each tumour, definition and morphological and molecular features, together with prognostic parameters, will be presented. Paradigmatic cases will be illustrated.

Background: Prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is difficult to exactly assess on pre-operative biopsies. Since OSCC DNA methylation profile has proved to be a useful pre-operative diagnostic tool, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic impact of DNA methylation profile to discriminate OSCC with high and low aggressive potential. Methods: 36 OSCC cases underwent neoplastic cells collection by gentle brushing of the lesion, before performing a pre-operative biopsy. The CpG islands methylation status of 13 gene (ZAP70, ITGA4, KIF1A, PARP15, EPHX3, NTM, LRRTM1, FLI1, MiR193, LINC00599, MiR296, TERT, GP1BB) was studied by bisulfite Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). A Cox proportional hazards model via likelihood-based component-wise boosting was used to evaluate the prognostic power of the CpG sites. Results: The boosting estimation identified five CpGs with prognostic significance: EPHX3-24, EPHX3-26, ITGA4-3, ITGA4-4, and MiR193-3. The combination of significant CpGs provided promising results for adverse events prediction (Brier score = 0.080, C-index = 0.802 and AUC = 0.850). ITGA4 had a strong prognostic power in patients with early OSCC. Conclusions: These data confirm that the study of methylation profile provides new insights into the molecular mechanisms of OSCC and can allow a better OSCC prognostic stratification even before surgery.

Neurological symptoms are increasingly recognized in SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals. However, the neuropathogenesis remains unclear and it is not possible to define a specific damage pattern due to brain virus infection. In the present study, 33 cases of brain autopsies performed during the first (February–April 2020) and the second/third (November 2020–April 2021) pandemic waves are described. In all the cases, SARS-CoV-2 RNA was searched. Pathological findings are described and compared with those presently published.

Analysis of genetic or epigenetic markers from saliva or brushing specimens has been proposed as a diagnostic aid to identify patients at risk of developing oral cancer. However, no reliable non-invasive molecular method for this purpose is commercially available. In the present report, we describe the potential application of a procedure based on a 13-gene DNA methylation analysis using oral brushing samples from a patient affected by oral leukoplakia who developed two metachronous oral carcinomas during the follow-up period. A positive or a negative score was calculated for each brushing sample based on a predefined cut-off value. In this patient, a positive score was detected in the oral leukoplakia diagnosed more than 2 years before the development of oral squamous cell carcinoma and subsequently in clinically healthy mucosa 8 months before the appearance of a secondary tumor. This suggests a potential role of our procedure as an indicator of oral cancer risk.