Journal of Cytology & Histology

Introduction: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a poor prognosis with surgery or chemotherapy. PD-L1 immunotherapy has been successful for treating lung and other cancers with PD-L1 expression. However,in many unresectable PDAC cases, cytological samples are the only available tissues for PD-L1 testing. The aim of this study is to retrospectively compare the expression of PD-L1 using cytological and surgical samples.

Materials and Methods: Paired formalin-fixed cell blocks and surgical samples from the same patients with confirmed diagnoses of PDAC (n=28) were sectioned for PD-L1 immunohistochemistry. Using tumor proportion score (TPS) and combined positive score (CPS) to evaluate paired cell blocks and surgical samples, we counted and analyzed the data.

Results: With TPS, the PD-L1 was expressed in 9/28 (32%) of PDAC surgical samples and in 9/28 (32%) of paired cytological samples. Overall, the PD-L1 expression had a correlation of 26/28 (93%). With CPS, the PD-L1 was expressed in 20/28 (71%) of PDAC surgical samples and in 16/28 (57%) of paired cytological samples. The PD-L1 expression had a correlation of 20/28 (71%) and a discrepancy of 8/28 (29%). The PD-L1 expression was significantly higher in moderately-differentiated PDAC than in well-differentiated with TPS.

Conclusions: Cytological samples are useful for evaluating PD-L1 expression with TPS because the concordant rate was 93%. With CPS, cytological samples are limited due to the scant inflammatory cells with the concordant rate of 71%. Extensive sampling of the pancreatic tumor may improve the detection of immune cells expressing PD-L1 in cytological samples. With TPS, PD-L1 expression was significantly higher in moderate-differentiation of PDAC than in poor- and well-differentiation.

Introduction: Breast masses with satellite adenopathies are a frequent reason for consultation, of various etiologies. Breast cancer, a major public health problem, remains the main obsession of the practitioner.

Goals: Describe the epidemiological and morphological profile of mammary masses with satellite adenopathies, and determine the prevalence of breast cancer in this context.

Patients and Methodology: A retrospective, descriptive, and analytical study from January 2012 to December 2016, based on the reports of patients who presented a breast mass associated with lymphadenopathy and cytological examination, in the laboratory of Pathological anatomy and cytology of Aristide le Dantec University Hospital.

Results: We counted 422 patients, of whom 98.8% were women. The study population was predominantly urban (53.6%). The average age was 38.5 years with extremes of 10 and 81 years. The consultation period was an average of 17 months. Lesions in favor of breast carcinoma accounted for 55.7% of cases and lymph node involvement was observed in 46.7% of cases. Inflammatory benign lesions (10.9%) were dominated by mastitis (42 cases or 9.9%). Noninflammatory benign lesions (29.1%) were predominantly epithelial and epithelio-conjunctive hyperplasias (20.8%)

Conclusion: Breast carcinoma constituted more than half of the breast mass with satellite lymphadenopathy causes, in the laboratory of Pathological anatomy and cytology of the University Hospital Aristide le Dantec.

Palmoplantar keratodermas(PPK) are group of cornification disorders characterized by epidermal hyperkeratotic lesions involving the palms and soles. A 50years old healthy male, presented with history of multiple punctate hyperkeratotic papules since last 5 years.

Satellite cells (SC) constitute the stem cell population of skeletal muscle and conduct myogenic growth and differentiation. Recently, aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) has been identified as a novel myogenic factor in experimental models of SCs. ALDH1 constitutes a subfamily of the ALDH enzyme super family. The enzymatic functions of ALDH1 isoforms include both protection against oxidative stress products and regulation of differentiation as pacemaker enzyme in retinoic acid signaling. Although ALDH enzymatic activity has been demonstrated in SCs it is not clear which isoforms are important in human skeletal muscle. Here, we show that ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 are expressed in human SCs. Using antibodies directed against ALDH1 and its isoforms ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3, respectively, we demonstrate immunohistochemical staining in peri-fascicular position matching the localization of SCs. Consistently, co-immunofluorescence reveals ALDH1 expression in CD56 positive stem cells and co-localization of the isoforms ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 in Pax7 positive SCs. Quantitative analysis of immunohistochemical staining showed no significant differences in the distribution of ALDH1 positive SCs in the skeletal muscle groups pectoralis, diaphragm and psoas that have been investigated in the present study. In conclusion, human SCs co-express the ALDH1 isoforms ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3.