Pulmonary nodular lymphoid hyperplasia in a 53-year-old man with malignant sign: a case report

Background Pulmonary nodular lymphoid hyperplasia (PNLH) is a rare benign illness. Due to atypical clinical and radiographic presentations, diagnosis largely depends on postoperative pathological examination. Thus, preoperative misdiagnosis is often occurred. Case presentation We present a case of asymptomatic PNLH that was seen as ground-glass opacity (GGO) on computed tomography (CT). After 3-year observation, the diagnosis tends to adenocarcinoma owing to increasing density of the node and vessel convergence sign, which were signs of malignancy. Video-assisted segmentectomy (S10) was carried out. Histopathologic examination of postoperative specimen showed follicular lymphoid hyperplasia with interfollicular lymphoplasmacytosis, consistent with PNLH. The follow-up chest CT images showed no recurrence or metastasis. Conclusion Although it is a benign disease, PNLH can exhibit malignant signs in the imaging examinations, which could lead to misdiagnosis. This reminds us of the uncertainty between imaging findings and diagnosis. The diagnosis depends on postoperative pathological examination. Volume doubling time is a potential parameter to differentiate PNLH from lung cancer.

Clinical Implication of Monitoring Circulating Tumor DNA in Untreated Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Patients

CtDNA has been utilized to monitor the clinical course of the patients of NSCLC who receive therapies targeting druggable mutations. However, despite providing valuable information on how NSCLC would naturally progress, the clinical utility of ctDNA for clinical-course monitoring and prediction of the treatment-naïve NSCLC patients without druggable mutations remain unknown. We longitudinally followed a total of 12 treatment-naïve NSCLC patients, who did not harbor EGFR and ALK mutations, by collecting clinical information, radiological data, and plasma samples. Changes in ctDNA levels and tumor burden (TB) were also compared with each other. Volume doubling time (VDT), and overall survival (OS) were analyzed regarding ctDNA detection at diagnosis. CtDNA was detected in the plasma of seven (58.3%) patients. Changes in ctDNA levels correlated with those in TB in a substantial fraction (57.1%) of patients and was also associated with brain metastasis, tumor necrosis, or pneumonia in other patients. In addition, the patients with ctDNA detection had shorter VDT (p = 0.039) and worse OS (p = 0.019) than those without ctDNA detection. The natural course of NSCLC progression can be monitored by measuring ctDNA levels. Detection of ctDNA at diagnosis can predict rapid tumor growth and poor survival of NSCLC patients.

Radiologic Assessment of Osteosarcoma Lung Metastases: State of the Art and Recent Advances

The lung is the most frequent site of osteosarcoma (OS) metastases, which are a critical point in defining a patient’s prognosis. Chest computed tomography (CT) represents the gold standard for the detection of lung metastases even if its sensitivity widely ranges in the literature since lung localizations are often atypical. ESMO guidelines represent one of the major references for the follow-up program of OS patients. The development of new reconstruction techniques, such as the iterative method and the deep learning-based image reconstruction (DLIR), has led to a significant reduction of the radiation dose with the low-dose CT. The improvement of these techniques has great importance considering the young-onset of the disease and the strict chest surveillance during follow-up programs. The use of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/CT is still controversial, while volume doubling time (VDT) and computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems are recent diagnostic tools that could support radiologists for lung nodules evaluation. Their use, well-established for other malignancies, needs to be further evaluated, focusing on OS patients.

Assessment of Tumor Take Inhibitory Activity of Ethanolic Leaf Extract of Piper betle L. in Mice

The present study was undertaken to explore the tumor take inhibitory effects of ethanolic extract of Piper betle in rodents. Tumor takes inhibitory activity was investigated in hybrid mice (of C57BL strain + Swiss albino strain). Preventive group animals were injected daily with the extract at a dose of 50mg/kg body weight, i.p. for 10 consecutive days. The animals were observed to grow tumors after injection of B16F10 melanoma cells into mice's dorsal skin. Pretreatment with the extract and showed delays in tumor growth by increasing the volume doubling time, VDT (p<0.01), growth delay, GD (p< 0.01), and mean survival time, MST (p<0.001). Tumor regression studies showed a regression response for tumor growth in vivo of murine mouse melanoma tumor cell lines, demonstrated by increasing the VDT and GD.

The Natural History of Parapharyngeal Solitary Fibrous Tumor/Hemangiopericytoma: A Case Report

Solitary fibrous tumor/hemangiopericytoma (SFT/HPC) is extremely rare, and most of them are immediately treated for radical resection. However, the information concerning its natural history remains unclear. In this report, we presented a patient with parapharyngeal SFT/HPC, who was not immediately treated with surgical resection at first diagnosis. After approximately 3 years, the tumor volume doubling time (TVDT) and specific growth rate (SGR) could be measured through 3 serial magnetic resonance imagings. The TVDTs in the early and late pretreatment stages were 350 and 180 days, respectively, while the SGRs were 0.002 and 0.003, respectively. The growth rate of this disease entity is generally slow and may accelerate in the disease process.

A Mathematical Model to Predict Diagnostic Periods for Secondary Distant Metastases in Patients with ER/PR/HER2/Ki-67 Subtypes of Breast Cancer

Previously, a consolidated mathematical model of primary tumor (PT) growth and secondary distant metastasis (sdMTS) growth in breast cancer (BC) (CoMPaS) was presented. The aim was to detect the diagnostic periods for visible sdMTS via CoMPaS in patients with different subtypes ER/PR/HER2/Ki-67 (Estrogen Receptor/Progesterone Receptor/Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2/Ki-67 marker) of breast cancer. CoMPaS is based on an exponential growth model and complementing formulas, and the model corresponds to the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging system and BC subtypes (ER/PR/HER2/Ki-67). The CoMPaS model reflects (1) the subtypes of BC, such as ER/PR/HER2/Ki-67, and (2) the growth processes of the PT and sdMTSs in BC patients without or with lymph node metastases (MTSs) in accordance with the eighth edition American Joint Committee on Cancer prognostic staging system for breast cancer. CoMPaS correctly describes the growth of the PT in the ER/PR/HER2/Ki-67 subtypes of BC patients and helps to calculate the different diagnostic periods, depending on the tumor volume doubling time of sdMTS, when sdMTSs might appear. CoMPaS and the corresponding software tool can help (1) to start the early treatment of small sdMTSs in BC patients with different tumor subtypes (ER/PR/HER2/Ki-67), and (2) to consider the patient almost healthy if sdMTSs do not appear during the different diagnostic periods.