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Objective: The aim of the study was to test the expressions of Livin and insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II) in colorectal cancers and discuss their significance of carcinogenesis and progression in colorectal cancers, to provide a new target and theory basement for cancer therapy. Methods: The expressions of Livin and IGF-II were detected by immunohistochemistry SABC in 60 cases of colorectal cancer and their associated colorectal tissues, and the associations between the expression levels of Livin and IGF-II and clinical pathological characteristics were analyzed. Results: The positive rates of Livin and IGF-II in colorectal carcinomas were 68.33% and 63.33% respectively, higher than those of para-carcinomatous normal tissues and colorectal adenomas. There were no significant correlations between the expressions of Livin, IGF-II in colorectal carcinomas and the patient's age, sex, tumor size and location, while distant metastasis, Dukes stage, histological type, lymph node metastasis, and whether the tumors have received radiotherapy and chemotherapy were significantly correlated with the expressions of Livin, IGF-II in colorectal carcinomas. Conclusion: Livin and IGF-II play important roles in carcinogenesis and progression of colorectal cancer. This study showed obvious correlation between the expressions of Livin and IGF-II in colorectal cancers. It could be used as the reference for further researches. Livin is hopeful to be a new molecular target in cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A great majority of adrenocortical tumors are benign, and many adrenocortical carcinomas (ACC) are obviously malignant at presentation. The histopathological diagnosis of ACC is occasionally difficult, particularly with stage I and stage II disease. The prognosis of ACC is generally poor. Surgery is the major treatment, with chemotherapy and radio-therapy being applicable to only restricted patients. The Weiss criteria are useful in diagnosing the common adult type of ACC. Histopathological prognostic factors of ACC have not been fully established because of the rarity of the disease. In this article, we first describe the current histopathological diagnostic and prognostic factors of ACC, highlighting the special types of ACC to which Weiss’s criteria are not fully applicable. These special type tumors include pediatric adrenocortical tumors, oncocytomas, and aldosterone-producing tumors of pure zona glomerulosa type. Then we present three cases with unusual small adrenocortical tumors. One patient had an unequivocal ACC showing metastatic disease. One had a histologically defined ACC with no metastasis or macroscopic invasion. The third was a pediatric patient with a tumor showing a nodule-in-nodule pattern with insulin-like growth factor II expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]