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The term collision tumor is used to describe two neoplasms occurring in the same anatomic location with juxtaposition of different tumor elements. Such a coexistence of tumors anywhere in the body is relatively rare. We report a case of 32-year-old female with collision tumor of rectum. The tumor showed two distinct histological patterns with predominant component consisting of malignant melanoma and a minor component of squamous cell carcinoma. The morphological picture of collision was further confirmed by specific immunohistochemical profile of the two tumors. Collision tumors of rectum are uncommon with most of the reported cases comprising adenocarcinoma and neuroendocrine tumors. To the best of our knowledge this is the first case of collision tumor of malignant melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma in the rectum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combination therapy with intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) plus interferon-α2b (IFN-α2b) for superficial transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) seems to be immune-dependent and activation of Th1 immune response is required for clinical efficacy. The present study evaluates circulating serum cytokine profiles (Th1/Th2 cytokines IFN-γ, IL-2 TNF-α, IL-4, IL-6 and IL-10) in 41 bladder cancer patients prior to transurethral resection of tumor (TURBT) (pre-therapy), and following intravesical combination immunotherapy (post-therapy) and their association with recurrence. Mean levels of IL-2 and TNF-α were significantly reduced while IL-4, IL-6 and IL-10 were significantly enhanced in pre-therapy samples as compared to controls. Mean levels of IFN-γ, IL-2 and TNF-α were significantly increased while IL-4 and IL-10 were significantly reduced in patients after instillation of combination immunotherapy. These findings suggest that bladder cancer patients develop Th2 dominant status with deficient type 1 immune response that shows tendency to reversal following therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Urothelial carcinoma (UC) is one of most common genitourinary malignancy and the spectrum of disease ranges from in situ lesions to muscle-invasive cancers. The non-muscle-invasive lesions have tendency to recur or progress to muscle-invasive disease. The study of the immune profile may identify immune determinants associated with high-grade, recurrence, and invasion in patients with UC.Methods: Pathway-focused RT(2) profiler arrays were used to screen patients with UC for dysregulation of candidate genes of Th1-Th2-Th3 and NFκB pathways, which were then validated by real-time polymerase chain reaction on tumor samples and correlated with grade, recurrence, and invasion of tumors to identify their role in predicting behavior of the tumor. The cytokines found associated with recurrence were then validated in urine of patients with UC.Results: IFNγ, IL2, IL4, IL10, IL17, CCL7, CTLA4, and SPP1 of the cytokine pathway and TLR4, TLR3, RELA, NFκB1, and MYD88 of the NFκB pathway were found differentially expressed in patients with urothelial cancer by array and quantative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Among these, IL10 and SPP1 were found consistently up-regulated in high-grade, invasive, and recurrent cases and up-regulated IL10 and CTLA4 were found associated with a short recurrence-free survival time (P = 0.001 and P = 0.065). Urinary IL10 concentration was significantly higher in both patients with cancer and cystitis compared with healthy controls, but the difference in concentration between patients with cancer and cystitis patients was not statistically significant. However, urinary CTLA4 concentrations were found to be significantly higher in urothelial cancer patients compared with healthy controls and cystitis cases and found to be associated with poor recurrence-free survival.Conclusion: The study indicates that high urinary CTLA4 concentration raises the index of suspicion of recurrence in a known case of urothelial cancer and may be used as a surveillance marker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]