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Purpose: Anal cancer is an uncommon malignancy, but its incidence is increasing worldwide. Chemoradiation is the standard primary treatment for patients with loco-regional limited disease. However, once patients develop metastatic spread, the prognosis is very poor. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is present in around 80 % of anal cancers, but its prognostic and/or predictive value is essentially unknown in this disease., Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 50 patients with the diagnosis of anal squamous cell carcinoma treated at our institution with combined chemoradiotherapy for loco-regional limited disease. HPV status was evaluated from paraffin-embedded tumor tissues collected at the time of diagnosis by a polymerase chain reaction analysis., Results: Among 50 patients, 42 (84 %) were HPV-positive. Thirty-two (64 %) patients were positive to genotype 16, two (4 %) to genotype 18, and three (6 %) to both 16 and 18. Lymph nodal involvement and clinical stage at diagnosis were more advanced for HPV-positive patients. After a median follow-up of 4 years (range 0.4-13.8), 46 (92 %) patients were alive. Overall, eight patients relapsed: One regional, one loco-regional, and six distant recurrences were observed. Four patients died of metastatic disease. Five-year disease-free survival (DFS) in HPV-positive and HPV-negative patients was 92.5 and 50.0 %, respectively (P < 0.01). In multivariate analysis, HPV-positivity was associated with a statistically significant better 5-year DFS (HR HPV+ vs HPV- 0.10; 95 % CI 0.02-0.50). Five-year overall survival in HPV-positive and HPV-negative patients was 93.3 and 66.7 %, respectively (P = 0.12)., Conclusions: In our study, HPV-positive anal cancers had a statistically significant improved DFS compared to HPV-negative group.

NUT midline carcinoma (NMC) is a rare neoplasm with a poor prognosis and involving mostly young patients. Here we describe a classic NMC with a BRD4-NUT fusion gene in a middle-aged woman. We also analyzed some biological features that could potentially influence its clinical behavior such as HPV infection, EWSR1 rearrangement, and the status of the EGFR gene.

Purpose: An overlapping area of gain at 3q26 has been reported in lung squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), but whether this also occurs in preneoplastic/preinvasive squamous cell proliferations and early-stage invasive carcinomas of the lung is still unknown., Experimental Design: We evaluated the prevalence and the clinicopathologic implications of 3q26 amplification and polysomy of chromosome 3 in 31 preneoplastic/preinvasive squamous cell lesions of the bronchial mucosa and in 139 early-stage invasive pulmonary SCC, both of limited growth within the bronchial wall [early hilar SCC (EHSCC)] and involving the pulmonary parenchyma [parenchyma-infiltrating SCC (PISCC)]. Moreover, mRNA expression of two candidate genes (h-TERC and SKI-like), both mapping to the minimal common amplification region, was also studied by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR., Results: 3q26 amplification and polysomy of chromosome 3 were confined to malignant samples, with 37% of invasive SCC, and 27% of severe dysplasias/in situ carcinomas showing these chromosomal abnormalities. Amplification (with minimal common amplification region at 3q26.2), polysomy 3, concurrent amplification and polysomy 3, or other changes (monosomy) were found in 25 SCC and 1 dysplasia, 24 and 2, 2 and 0, and 1 and 0, respectively. Amplification was significantly associated with EHSCC, polysomy 3 with PISCC. 3q26 amplification correlated with increased tumor diameter and a history of smoking, whereas polysomy 3 correlated with tumor diameter, pT class, and p53, p21, and fascin immunoreactivity. No relationship of either 3q26 gain or polysomy was found with patients' survival. Overexpression of h-TERC or SKI-like mRNA was found in 3q26-amplified or polysomic SCC, with higher levels of h-TERC in the former and of SKI-like in the latter., Conclusions: 3q26 amplification and chromosome 3 polysomy may be related to the development of invasive SCC, with differential distribution in tumor subsets, despite substantial histologic uniformity. Both h-TERC and SKI-like may be involved in tumor progression.

p63 is a p53-related gene that encodes for multiple mRNA transcripts with (TA-p63) or without (DeltaN-p63) transactivating properties on p53-responsive genes. We evaluated for the first time the prevalence and clinical implications of p63 immunoreactivity (IR) and mRNA expression in laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas (LSCCs). Moreover, we also assessed the relationships between p63 expression and p53 gene status. p63 IR was detectable in the basal cell layers of non-neoplastic epithelium and in the whole thickness of dysplastic epithelium. All the 150 LSCCs analyzed were immunoreactive for p63, with 28 (18.7%) cases showing p63 IR in