Epithelioid inflammatory myofibroblastic sarcoma with VCL-ALK fusion of central nervous system: case report and brief review of the literature

Epithelioid inflammatory myofibroblastic sarcomas are an aggressive variant of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor described primarily in the abdomen and less commonly in pulmonary location. The anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) fusion partners described in this tumor include RANB2, RRBP1 and EML4. While rare examples of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors have been described in the central nervous system, the epithelioid variant has never been described. The ALK-VCL fusion has been described in renal cell carcinoma, high-grade glioma and epithelioid fibrous histiocytoma but has not been described in epithelioid inflammatory myofibroblastic sarcoma or even inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor. Herein, we report the first case of epithelioid inflammatory myofibroblastic sarcoma in the central nervous system as well as the first case with VCL as the fusion partner for ALK. READ ARTICLE

Brain Tumor Pathology DOI:10.1007/s10014-021-00416-z

Authors: Shefali Chopra, Nolan Maloney & Wei Lien Wang

Emerging Lab-on-a-Chip Approaches for Liquid Biopsy in Lung Cancer: Status in CTCs and ctDNA Research and Clinical Validation

Lung cancer (LCa) remains the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide,
with late diagnosis and limited therapeutic approaches still constraining patient’s outcome. In recent years,
liquid biopsies have significantly improved the disease characterization and brought new insights into
LCa diagnosis and management. The integration of microfluidic devices in liquid biopsies have shown
promising results regarding circulating biomarkers isolation and analysis and these tools are expected to
establish automatized and standardized results for liquid biopsies in the near future. Herein, we review the
status of lab-on-a-chip approaches for liquid biopsies in LCa and highlight their current applications for
circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) research and clinical validation studies. READ ARTICLE

Cancers DOI:10.3390/cancers13092101

Authors: Carvalho, Â., Ferreira, G., Seixas, D., Guimarães-Teixeira, C., Henrique, R., Monteiro, F.J., Jerónimo, C.

Review PaperKirk SmithApril 27, 2021inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors, IMT, rare ALK fusions

Gastric CLTC-ALK fusion-positive inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor showing an endoscopic superficial depressed-type appearance

We present a 76-year-old Japanese male who had a history of removal of a gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) 6 years ago. Although asymptomatic and having no evidence of recurrence, follow-up endoscopy revealed a small, white depressed lesion of approximately 1 cm with converging mucosal folds in the greater curvature of the fundus, which was suspicious of depressed-type early gastric cancer (GC) by conventional endoscopy. However, no evidence of GC except a “white globe appearance”-like area was identified by magnifying endoscopy with blue laser imaging. The biopsy specimens showed a proliferation of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive spindle cells in the gastric mucosa, and ALK-rearrangement was detected by fluorescent in situ hybridization. Furthermore, clathrin heavy chain (CLTC)-ALK fusion was seen by genetic analysis, thus the lesion was preoperatively diagnosed as gastric inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT). For the curative intent, a laparoscopic endoscopi..... READ ARTICLE

Human Pathology DOI:10.1016/j.ehpc.2018.12.005

Authors: Mai Nakanishi, Jiro Watari, Toshihiko Tomita, Yasutaka Nakanishi, Yoshitane Tsukamoto, Shohei Matsuo, Takashi Uchihashi, Junichi Miyazaki, Hironori Tanaka, Shoudou Kojima, Nobukazu Kuroda,Ikuo Matsuda, Hiroto Miwa, Hisashi Shinohara, Seiichi Hirota