Pathologie (Heidelberg, Germany)最新文献

Background: Over the past 20 years, pathology laboratories have seen significant technical innovation to achieve greater standardization of processes and enhance occupational safety.

Methods: Digital order entry and tracking systems designed specifically for histological applications facilitate and secure transportation and workflows, covering all aspects from clinical sampling, cassette printing, and automated processing and embedding to fully automated microtomy and slide printing as well as digitally supported archiving of blocks and slides.

Results and conclusion: These technologies are ideal for producing digital histological sections and offer promising solutions to replace time-consuming and error-prone manual steps, thus improving efficiency and accuracy in pathology workflows.

Cervical cancer ranks as the fourth most common malignant tumor in the female genital tract. Despite numerous efforts to reduce both the incidence and mortality in recent decades, it is still considered a major health issue worldwide. Previous classifications and diagnostic criteria relied on morphologic features only, lacking clinical and/or pathogenetic correlations. The present review focuses on some new developments regarding the significant role of human papillomavirus (HPV) status for the diagnosis, classification, and prognosis of the most frequent malignant cervical epithelial tumors (squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma) and their precursor lesions. The current World Health Organization (WHO) 2020 classification and morphologic criteria proposed by the International Endocervical Classification and Criteria (IECC) in 2018 are detailed. Ancillary studies to help the differential diagnosis are presented, including the critical role of p16, HPV test, and, more recently, p53. Although the management of HPV-associated and HPV-independent cervical cancer is similar at present according to current international guidelines, recent studies have highlighted the significance of HPV status for determining patient survival and response to treatment. As a consequence, personalized management approaches based on these factors could enhance treatment outcomes. Future national screening programs should integrate the information on recently described HPV-independent squamous and glandular precursor lesions.

Background: Bladder and urinary tract cancer show poor survival rates and demand novel therapeutic strategies. Advances in the omics domain have expanded genetic analysis, with prediction tools offering potential support. However, their performance may differ by tumor entity.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate prediction tool performance using genetic data from bladder and urinary tract cancer.

Methods: Variant data were obtained from ClinVar and cBioPortal for bladder cancer (n = 441), PanCancer (n = 361), and benign variants (n = 357). Sixteen prediction algorithms were assessed individually and in combinations of two or three; oncogenes and tumor suppressors were compared. A PanCancer dataset of Suybeng et al. was also analyzed.

Results: Prediction performance varied across datasets. Combinations of three tools achieved the highest sensitivity (100%: MutationTaster/MetaSVM/List-S2) and specificity (97.45%: MutationTaster/DEOGEN2/FATHMM_XF). Entity-specific and gene-type differences were observed.

Conclusion: Combining prediction tools enhances genetic analysis. Tool selection should depend on cancer entity, gene function, and study objective.

Background: A high quality of biosample-associated data (DQ) is critical for biomedical research. Synoptic reporting (SR) provides the chance to increase DQ for the secondary use of data from surgical pathology (SP) in Germany. Hence, it is of high interest for biobanks that data-providing SP departments force the implementation of SR.

Materials and methods: Synoptic reporting is already implemented in some use cases [1]. Recommendations for how to proceed are available [2-4]. Central efforts-such as the DGP's AG Semantik-are carried out to support standardisation in SR.

Results: Successful use of SR requires efforts from SP departments as well as from biobanks. Firstly, it requires revision of processes in SP departments. This also applies to the similar tissue assessment processes in biobanks. Secondly, biobanks need to prepare by implementing the required standards such as FHIR and SNOMED CT.

Conclusion: Common efforts in SP departments and biobanks are required to facilitate the utmost benefits of SR for DQ in patient care and research. Biobanks can serve as a platform for SP departments to attempt new processes that implement SR and can provide independent feedback on DQ in SP departments.

Coccidioidomycosis is a fungal infection that is often asymptomatic in immunocompetent individuals. When symptoms do occur, they often resemble a mild, flu-like illness. However, this disease can become clinically severe and disseminate, especially in immunocompromised patients or other high-risk groups. Failure to consider coccidioidomycosis in the differential diagnosis may lead to missed or delayed diagnosis, resulting in postponement of appropriate treatment.

Background: Human remains in historical collections pose a particular challenge when dealing with contexts of injustice.

Materials and methods: This paper examines a historical specimen from the Jena Forensic Medicine collection in the context of injustice in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), where a suitable burial solution was ultimately found.

Result: Fetus and mother were reunited in the same cemetery, 61 years after the mother's death.

Conclusion: New, ideally individualized, forms of burial are needed, especially for historical collection specimens.