Researchers led by Robert Odze at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston report on their clinical and pathological analysis of Crohn's disease in Modern Pathology. The researchers compared patients with colonic Crohn's disease and those with colonic and ileal Crohn's disease. "Patients with isolated colonic Crohn's disease at initial presentation show distinct clinical and pathological features compared with the colon of patients who present with both ileal and colonic involvement," the authors write, adding that "further studies should be conducted to determine whether the histology of the colon in patients with colonic Crohn's disease is related to the development of malignancy, molecular phenotype, and specific outcome, on a prospective basis."

University of Minnesota Medical School's Youngki Kim and his colleagues describe their study of laminin isoform expression in diabetic neuropathy and other renal diseases in an advance, online Modern Pathology article. They found that α5, β2 and γ1 chains — which are part of the glomerular basement membrane — are over-expressed in diabetic nephropathy kidneys. "The alterations in basement membrane composition in various renal diseases seem to not only reflect the balance between synthesis and degradation of normal basement membrane constituents, but also the aberrant new expression of basement membrane molecules," Kim and his colleagues say. "Thus, tissue remodeling may incorporate both an increase of normal constituents and emergence of abnormal constituents during disease exemplified by diabetes."

Researchers led by Christian Mueller from University Hospital Basel in Switzerland report in Clinical Chemistry on growth differentiation factor-15's potential as a diagnostic and risk-stratification marker for acute myocardial infarction as GDF-15 is a stress-responsive marker. In their prospective, mulitcenter study, the researchers measured GDF-15, high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T, and B-type natriuretic peptide levels in 646 patients with acute chest pain. "GDF-15 predicts all-cause mortality in unselected patients with acute chest pain independently of and more accurately than hs-cTnT and BNP," the researchers report. "However, GDF-15 does not seem to help in the early diagnosis of AMI."

Cornell University's Michael King and his colleagues describe their device to capture circulating tumor cells in an online early Clinical Chemistry article. "We designed a microscale flow device with a functionalized surface of E-selectin and antibody molecules against epithelial markers. The device was additionally enhanced with a halloysite nanotube coating," the researchers say. In their test, the device captured about half of the circulating tumor cells with purities greater than 50 percent. "[This] demonstrates the functionality of this device in a clinical setting and opens the door for personalized cancer therapies," the researchers add.

Part of the payroll tax cut agreement between the US House of Representatives and the Senate affects clinical labs. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the current plan includes a 2 percent cut in Medicare payments to clinical labs in 2013. Additionally, Goldman Sachs'Isaac Ro says in a research note on the pending legislation that "we believe that these potential unexpected cuts highlight ongoing pricing risk to the US clinical lab industry in an environment centered on austerity and reducing healthcare costs."

Andresa Borges Soares from the São Leopoldo Mandic Institute and Research Center in Brazil and colleagues report in the Journal of Clinical Pathology that a number of growth factors are involved in the recurrence of pleomorphic adenoma, a common, benign salivary gland tumor. Using immunohistochemistry and qPCR, the researchers determined the expression levels of the growth factors PDGF-A, PDGF-B, PDGF-Rα, FGF-2, Flg and BEK in pleomorphic adenoma, recurrent pleomorphic adenoma, and recurrent pleomorphic adenoma with malignant transformation. They found that there were significant differences in growth factor expression in the different tumor types. "This research suggests that PDGF-A, PDGF-B, PDGF-Rα, FGF-2, BEK and Flg can be related to the recurrence of PA," Soares and colleagues say. "In addition, this study shows that TRPA cells overexpress all growth factors, which has been reported in association with the malignant transformation."

Researchers in Nantes, France, look at KRAS heterogeneity in some metastatic colorectal carcinomas in the Journal of Clinical Pathology. In addition to determining the KRAS status of the 18 patients' metastases, the researchers also examined the primary tumors, the synchronous and metachronous metastases, and a recurrence. KRAS status was determined using PCR and direct sequencing. "In addition to heterogeneity between primary tumour and metastases, other levels of KRAS status heterogeneity exist between (1) different metastases in a given patient, and also (2) within a given metastasis," the researchers report. They add that "In the clinical practice, the knowledge of patients with KRAS mutated primary tumour and wild-type metastases is of great importance for treatment planning, since these patients could benefit from monoclonal anti-EGFR antibody. Furthermore, these results imply that the KRAS mutation analysis of residual metastatic lesions should be considered in patient management."

Finally, researchers from the Università di Udine in Italy report in the Journal of Clinical Pathology that Dicer and Drosha expression is varied in triple-negative breast cancers. Using both immunocytochemistry and RT-qPCR, the researchers examined the Dicer and Droshap expression levels in 31 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded breast cancer samples, six controls, and four breast cancer cell lines. Despite variation, "as a group, triple-negative breast cancers overexpress Drosha mRNA," the researchers say, adding that "as a group, instead, Dicer mRNA levels were not significantly different between triple-negative breast cancer and normal breast tissues."

In Modern Pathology, researchers from Shimane University School of Medicine, in Izumo, Japan, examine whether ARID1A mutations, which are common in ovarian clear cell carcinoma, are of prognostic value. From their study of 77 formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded ovarian cancer samples — 60 clear cell carcinomas and 17 high-grade serous adenocarcinomas — the researchers found that ARID1A expression is more frequently lost in ovarian clear cell carcinomas than serous adenocarcinomas. Further, the "loss of ARID1A in ovarian clear cell carcinomas predicted a shorter progression-free interval," the researchers say, as those tumors did not respond as well to chemotherapy.

Rafael Fonseca from the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., and his colleagues report on their genomic analysis of marginal zone lymphomas and lymphoplasmacytic lymphomas, two cancers that can be difficult to distinguish from other non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. "Although the entities share a common set of genomic abnormalities they are also characterized by the presence of genes and cellular pathways differentially affected," the authors write. "Elucidation of the genetic alterations contributing to the pathogenesis of the analyzed non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes may guide design of specific therapeutic approaches."

Researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School report in the online early edition of Modern Pathology that breast metaplastic carcinomas express epithelial-to-mesenchymal-transition markers. In particular, they looked at the expression of ZEB1 and E-cadherin, and the presence or absence of tumor-initiating cells in 27 primary metaplastic carcinomas of the breast. "Our study shows that metaplastic carcinomas of the breast have histological evidence and express biological markers of an epithelial to mesenchymal transition characterized by progressive overexpression of ZEB1 and downregulation of E-cadherin," the researchers report, adding that "as the process of epithelial to mesenchymal transition and the presence of breast cancer stem cells have been reported to enhance breast cancer metastasis, our data support the hypothesis that blockade of the epithelial to mesenchymal transition and/or tumor stem cells may improve the outcome of patients with metaplastic breast carcinomas."