Ann Pathol
-
Prognosis and treatment of advanced melanoma have been transformed by the success of immunotherapies, in particular agents targeting PD-1. PD-L1 expression assessed by immunohistochemistry in not an effective predictive biomarker to select patients in this tumor type, since significant clinical benefit was observed in the group of patients with negative tumors. ⋯ Other tissue biomarkers are emerging to identify sensitive tumors to anti-PD-1 agents. In particular, assessment of immune infiltrates in tumor tissue, mutational load and tumor neoantigens seem promising in melanoma.
-
Endobronchial aspergillosis is a rare presentation of pulmonary aspergillosis in immunocompetent patients; this raises questions about structural changes inducing airflow stasis in order to colonize the bronchial lumen. We present the case of a patient diagnosed with endobronchial aspergilloma covering a bronchial adenocarcinoma.
-
Practice Guideline
[Ductal carcinoma in situ diagnosis: 3 French national guidelines].
Since the last guidelines published by the French National Cancer Institute (INCa) and the learning society "Société française de sénologie et de pathologie mammaire (SFSPM)" in 2009 about diagnosis and management of ductal carcinoma in situ, new data raised issues about overdiagnosis and its consequences, overtreatment. Therefore, an update was necessary, to provide healthcare professionals up-to-date guidelines and study therapeutic desescalation in particular. ⋯ This article presents French guidelines about MRI and vacuum assisted breast biopsy indications for DCIS diagnosis and the management of low-grade DCIS.
-
[Lung cancer molecular testing, what role for Next Generation Sequencing and circulating tumor DNA].
Molecular screening has become a standard of care for patients with advanced cancers and impacts on how to treat a patient. Advances in genomic technologies with the development of high throughput sequencing methods will certainly improve the possibilities to access a more accurate molecular diagnosis and to go beyond the identification of validated targets as a large number of genes can be screened for actionable changes. Moreover, accurate high throughput testing may help tumor classification in terms of prognosis and drug sensitivity. ⋯ Today, there are practical challenges to a successful implementation of NGS technologies for clinical applications. Broadly, some are linked to the tumor (heterogeneity), to the tissue (availability, storage, fixative), to the design of specific assays or set of genes, to the interpretation of non-driver mutations and to a possible access to drugs once a target is identified. Technical challenges are solved, NGS (at least targeted-NGS) plateforms have been validated by INCa labeled laboratories, in this context, we will address different questions: How, for whom, what kind of profiling and what can we expect?
-
Breast cancer prognosis and predictive biomarkers development would allow sparing some patients from chemotherapy or identifying patients for whom chemotherapy would be indicated. In this context, in 2009, the French National Cancer Institute, a National Health and Science Agency dedicated to cancer, in collaboration with the French society of senology and breast pathology (SFSPM) published a report on the assessment of the prognostic and the predictive clinical validity of tissular biomarkers, uPA/PAI-1, Oncotype DX™ and MammaPrint(®), in breast cancer management. They concluded that only the uPA/PAI-1 prognosis value reached the highest level of evidence (LOE I according to Hayes 1998 classification). In 2012, it was decided to update this report since new data have emerged and because information disparities among clinicians have been identified. This article aims to present the main conclusions together with the levels of evidence associated with those conclusions. ⋯ Among patients without lymph-node involvement, uPA/PAI-1, invasion process biomarkers, reach the highest level of evidence for 10 years recurrence free survival prognosis (LOE IA according to Simon). The predictive value to anthracyclins chemotherapy remains to be confirmed. Oncotype DX™ and MammaPrint(®) prognosis and predictive value do not reach the LOE I level. This updating' process confirms the 2009 levels of evidence for all the three biomarkers prognosis value. Besides, concerning Oncotype DX™ and MammaPrint(®), new data do not allow to conclude neither to their complementary clinical information to other clinicopathological existing biomarkers nor to a favorable cost-efficiency ratio in therapeutic decision making and this because of the methodological weakness and uncertainty that are identified in the selected studies. Practically, beyond the prognosis and predictive biomarkers validity, the clinical utility of a new biomarker for chemotherapy indication depends on its clinical added information with regard to validated biomarkers (HR, HER2 and Ki67) and to clinicopathological parameters. Since they are the sole validated biomarkers of the invasion process, uPA/PAI-1 could complete clinical information of other clinicopathological factors and consequently could confer an added clinical value. However, data concerning the impact of this information on chemotherapy clinical indication are lacking.