Data Set for Reporting Carcinoma of the Stomach in Gastrectomy

Context.— A standardized detailed surgical pathology report is the cornerstone of gastric cancer management. Objective.— To guide management and prognostication for patients with gastric carcinomas globally, the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting aimed to produce an evidence-based international pathology reporting data set with a panel of globally recognized expert pathologists and clinicians. Design.— Based on published guidelines/data sets for gastric carcinomas, a working draft was developed by the chair of the expert panel of pathologists and clinicians. The draft was then circulated to the panel and discussed in a series of teleconferences and email communications until consensus was achieved. The draft data set was uploaded on the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting Web site for public comment. The data set was reviewed in consideration of the feedback, and a final version was approved by the panel. Results.— This data set was developed for gastrectomy specimens for primary gastric carcinomas, including neuroendocrine carcinomas and mixed neuroendocrine-nonneuroendocrine neoplasms. Well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors, nonepithelial malignancies, and secondary tumors were excluded from this data set. The final data set contains 15 core (required) elements and 8 noncore (recommended) elements. A commentary is provided for each element. Conclusions.— The International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting has published freely available, evidence-based data sets for gastric cancer reporting. Standardized reporting has been shown to improve patient care and facilitates data exchange and analysis for quality assurance, cancer epidemiology, and clinical and basic research.

Autophagy-related prognostic signature in HER2 positive gastric carcinomas

Background: The immunohistochemical analysis of autophagy-related proteins (ATGs) has been recently applied in human pathology to study differentiation and cancer progression. The aim of the present study is to analyze a cohort of gastric carcinomas (GC) by five ATG antisera (Beclin-1, LC3A/B, p62, ULK-1 and AMBRA-1), also evaluating their possible relationship with clinicopathological parameters, HER2 status and final outcome of patients. Methods: A cohort of 123 GCs has been studied by ATG antisera utilizing Masuda's criteria that define positive cases in which at least two out of five protein expressions were documented. Results: The immunohistochemical signature for autophagy (A-IHC) was 49.59% as a whole. The percentage of A-IHC ranged from 31% for poorly cohesive carcinomas to 56% for adenocarcinomas. The performance of each ATG immunomarker documented high values for sensitivity, specificity and efficiency for LC3A/B, Beclin-1 and p62. In univariate analysis of GC, grade, stage, Ki67 expression, HER2 status as well as A-IHC appeared as emerged as relevant parameters with a high p-value (p < 0.001). Finally, in multivariate analysis, HER2 status, stage and A-IHC emerged as independent prognostic variables. In the comparison of survival curves, GC cases immunoreactive for A-IHC exhibited a shorter survival with a worse outcome. Conclusions: We have hypothesized that A-IHC could represent an additional morphological tool to provide prognostic elements in order to identify patients affected by aggressive with shorter survival and worse outcome.

Features of expression of somatostatin receptors in gastric carcinomas depending on the proportion of the neuroendocrine component

In 50 patients with gastric cancer, a neuroendocrine component was screened using immunohistochemical studies with antibodies to chromogenic and synaptophysin in the surgical material, as well as a somatostatin receptor status researcher (SSTR). The neuroendocrine component in various proportions was found in 62% of observers. In 2 neuroendocrine carcinomas, expression of type 2 SSTR was observed at the level of “2+”, and only one adeno-neuroendocrine carcinoma produced the same expression. In carcinomas with and without neuroendocrine component, the expression of various types of SSTR was detected in 61.8% of observers in both neuroendocrine and exocrine structures. In the group of highly differentiated neuroendocrine tumors, 100% of the observers detected the expression of at least one of the 5 types of somatostatin receptors, and in 95% - at the «3+» level. The data obtained do not allow making statistically significant conclusions about the dependence of the expression of SSTR on the presence of the neuroendocrine component, but with the prospect of further study not only in neuroendocrine tumors, but also in exocrine and mixed carcinomas.

Prevalence of Gastric Cancer Associated with the Epstein-Barr Virus at Brazzaville Chu

Introduction: Several studies have shown an association between infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and the occurrence of many cancers in humans, including certain gastric carcinomas (GC). Indeed, recent studies have reported that 10% of CGs are associated with EBV. Materials and Methods: Samples of gastric carcinomatous tissues (biopsies and surgical specimens) were analyzed by PCR for the detection of EBV. Samples were collected retrospectively between January 2008 and December 2018. Results: during this period, 52 samples were analyzed. PCR results show the EBV infection rate to be 3.8%. Conclusion: The results obtained during this preliminary study confirm the association of EBV in 3.8% of CG cases, which is consistent with the data in the literature. Key words: EBV, gastric carcinoma, PCR.

Sex-specific prognostic effect of CD66b-positive tumor-infiltrating neutrophils (TANs) in gastric and esophageal adenocarcinoma

Background Tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) have recently been identified as a relevant component of the tumor microenvironment (TME) in solid tumors. Within the TME TANs mediate either tumor-promoting or tumor-inhibiting activities. So far, their prognostic relevance remains to be determined. This study aims to evaluate the prognostic relevance of TANs in different molecular subtypes of gastric and esophageal adenocarcinoma. Methods We analyzed a total of 1118 Caucasian patients divided into gastric adenocarcinoma (n = 458) and esophageal adenocarcinoma cohort (n = 660) of primarily resected and neoadjuvant-treated individuals. The amount of CD66b + TANs in the tumor stroma was determined using quantitative image analysis and correlated to both molecular, as well as clinical data. Results An accumulation of TANs in the tumor stroma of gastric carcinomas was associated to a significant favorable prognosis (p = 0.026). A subgroup analysis showed that this effect was primarily related to the molecular chromosomal instable subtype (CIN) of gastric carcinomas (p = 0.010). This was only observed in female patients (p = 0.014) but not in male patients (p = 0.315). The same sex-specific effect could be confirmed in adenocarcinomas of the esophagus (p = 0.027), as well as in female individuals after receiving neoadjuvant therapy (p = 0.034). Conclusions Together, we show a sex-specific prognostic effect of TANs in gastric cancer within a Caucasian cohort. For the first time, we showed that this sex-specific prognostic effect of TANs can also be seen in esophageal cancer.