Objectives We performed data collection concerning the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic-related delay in the diagnosis of cancers to individuate proper corrective procedures. Methods A comparison was made among the number of first pathologic diagnoses of malignancy made from weeks 11 to 20 of 2018, 2019, and 2020 at seven anatomic pathology units serving secondary care hospitals in northern-central Italy. Results Cancer diagnoses fell in 2020 by 44.9% compared with the average number recorded in 2018 and 2019. Melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer represented 56.7% of all missing diagnoses. The diagnostic decrease in colorectal (–46.6%), prostate (–45%), and bladder (–43.6%) cancer was the most relevant among internal malignancies; for prostate, however, high-grade tumors were only moderately affected (–21.7%). Conclusions Diagnosis of cutaneous malignancies was mostly affected by the lockdown; among internal malignancies, corrective actions were mostly needed for colorectal cancer and invasive bladder cancer.

Among 843 cases of breast cancer, p53 oncoprotein was detected by the monoclonal antibody (MoAb) Pab-1801 in only 13%. Low-grade carcinomas (tubular, mucinous, papillary, and invasive cribriform types) did not express p53 protein, but it was observed in 4.2% of infiltrating lobular carcinomas (6 of 140 cases) and 50% of pure medullary carcinomas (5 of 10 cases). In intermediate-grade neoplasms, no correlation was seen between p53 status and other putative determinants of a poor prognosis. The latter included high tumor stage, lymph nodal involvement, high growth fraction (as determined by labeling with the MoAb Ki-67), negative results for estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) proteins, and amplification of the c-erbB-2 oncogene product in the neoplastic cells. Ninety-nine of 640 (15.5%) cases of high-grade, invasive, ductal breast carcinoma, however, showed an inverse relationship between expression of p53 protein and positive results for ER/PR proteins and a direct correlation with large tumor size, Ki-67-determined growth fraction, and amplification of c-erbB-2 oncopeptide. All of the latter associations were highly significant statistically. The authors conclude that mutant p53 protein may serve a prognostic role in a subset of cases of invasive ductal mammary carcinoma.

Since the intimate structure of the gel mimics extracellular matrix cells as would be expected to be found in an in vivo context, this polymeric formulation is a promising base for building 3D constructs for neural cell housing, in which cells are embedded and kept alive directly from the time of polycondensation.

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