Search

Undifferentiated carcinoma of the pancreas with osteoclast-like giant cells (UC-OGC) is a rare subtype of pancreatic cancer, accounting for less than 1% of all pancreatic tumors. Preoperative diagnosis is cumbersome as cross-sectional imaging is often not capable to distinguish between UC-OGC and other pancreatic tumors such as pancreatic adenocarcinoma, mucinous carcinoma or neuroendocrine tumors and specific tumor markers seem to be lacking. Endoscopic ultrasound r `m(EUS) with tissue acquisition via fine-needle aspiration (FNA) or biopsy (FNB) with microscopic HE staining and immunohistochemistry allows for an accurate diagnosis, thus influencing further treatment. We present herein the cases of two patients with osteoclast-like giant cells tumors of the pancreas diagnosed by EUS-guided fine needle biopsy and perform a literature review on the role of EUS-guided biopsy for diagnosis.

Background and aims.Patients with COVID-19 frequently present abnormal elevated liver function tests of unknown clinical significance. We aimed to investigate the characteristics and factors influencing outcome in patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and liver injury on admission.

Mast cells proteases, tryptase and chymase are directly involved in the growth and progression of solid tumors due to their important role in tumor angiogenesis. We examined the density of tryptase positive mast cells and the mean density of new blood vessels in gastric malignant tumors of patients with and without Helicobacter pylori infection, using immunohistochemical staining for tryptase (for mast cells) and CD 105 (for new vessels). Tryptase and CD 105 expression was detected in gastrectomy specimens. In this study, mast cell density correlates with angiogenesis and the growth and progression of gastric cancer. It also shows that the participation of Helicobacter pylori infection in the growth and progress of gastric neoplasia is due to an increase of peritumoral angiogenesis, with subsequent local and distant tumor spread and perivascular growth, but without perineural and nodal involvement.

Background. Gastric cancer continues to be a platoon leader of mortality causes. A significant number of recent studies show direct or indirect involvement of mast cells (MC), with a complex role both pro- and anti-tumor growth.

Gastrointestinal tract is the most common location for extralymphonodular lymphomas. The small intestine is affected only in 9% of the cases. Intestinal lymphoma may have single or multiple location. This paper describes a case of multiple location in the small intestine of a non-Hodgkin B-cell in a 53 years old patient, who was initially diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia with pleurisy with E. coli, steeper on the right side, but the persistence of symptoms as fever, malaise, despite appropriate treatment, required further investigation. The CT exam observed fluid collection in the hypogastrium around a digestive loop. The patient underwent surgery, the intraoperative foundings being: a large mesenteric tumor ~ 5 cm in diameter, a terminal ileal mesenteric tumor, a mesenteric tumor ~ 6 cm in diameter, omentum with nodular formations, a tumor ~ 3.3/2.5.1 cm in the abdominal wall, pseudotumoral appendix. Segmental enterectomy with entero-enterostomy, excision of mesenteric tumors, appendectomy and omentectomy were performed. Pathological diagnosis was non-Hodgkin marginal zone B-cell MALT type lymphoma of the small intestine with extension to the appendix, meso, omentum and abdominal wall. Postoperatively, the patient received chemotherapy for remission.