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Preoperative radiotherapy may improve the resectability and subsequent local control of rectal cancers. However, the extent of radiation induced regression in these tumours varies widely between individuals. To date no reliable predictive marker of radiation sensitivity in rectal cancer has been identified. At the cellular level, radiation injury initiates a complex molecular network of DNA damage response (DDR) pathways that leads to cell cycle arrest, attempts at re-constituting the damaged DNA and should this fail, then apoptosis. This review presents the details which suggest the roles of DNA mismatch repair proteins, the lack of which define a distinct subset of colorectal cancers with microsatellite instability (MSI), in the DDR pathways. Hence routine assessment of the MSI status in rectal cancers may potentially serve as a predictor of radiotherapy response, thereby improving patient stratification in the administration of this otherwise toxic treatment.
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Distinguishing small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) and large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) of the lung is difficult with little information about interobserver variability.
One hundred twenty-nine cases of resected SCLC and LCNEC were independently evaluated by four pathologists and classified according to the 2004 World Health Organization criteria. Agreement was regarded as "unanimous" if all four pathologists agreed on the classification. The kappa statistic was calculated to measure the degree of agreement between pathologists. We also measured cell size using image analysis, and receiver-operating-characteristic curve analysis was performed to evaluate cell size in predicting the diagnosis of high-grade neuroendocrine (NE) carcinomas in 66 cases.
Unanimous agreement was achieved in 55.0% of 129 cases. The kappa values ranged from 0.35 to 0.81. Morphometric analysis reaffirmed that there was a continuous spectrum of cell size from SCLC to LCNEC and showed that tumors with cells falling in the middle size range were difficult to categorize and lacked unanimous agreement.
Our results provide an objective explanation for considerable interobserver variability in the diagnosis of high-grade pulmonary NE carcinomas. Further studies would need to define more stringent and objective definitions of cytologic and architectural characteristics to reliably distinguish between SCLC and LCNEC.
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There is a subjective disagreement about nuclear chromatin in the field of pathology. Objective values of red, green, and blue (RGB) light intensities for nuclear chromatin can be obtained through a quantitative analysis using digital images.
We examined 10 cases of well differentiated neuroendocrine tumors of the rectum, small cell lung carcinomas, and moderately differentiated squamous cell lung carcinomas respectively. For each case, we selected 30 representative cells and captured typical microscopic findings. Using an image analyzer, we determined the longest nuclear line profiles and obtained graph files and Excel data on RGB light intensities. We assessed the meaningful differences in graph files and Excel data among the three different tumors.
The nucleus of hematoxylin and eosin-stained tumor cells was expressed as a combination of RGB light sources. The highest intensity was from blue, whereas the lowest intensity was from green. According to the graph files, green showed the most noticeable change in the light intensity, which is consistent with the difference in standard deviations.
The change in the light intensity for green has an important implication for differentiating between tumors. Specific features of the nucleus can be expressed in specific values of RGB light intensities.
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