Background: Endometrial carcinoma is the most common gynecological malignancy in developed countries. About 80% of endometrial carcinomas are preceded by atypical endometrial hyperplasia. PTEN is a tumor suppressor gene involved in many vital intracellular biological processes. PTEN is altered in more than 45% of endometrial carcinomas. The aim of this study was to evaluate the value immunohistochemical expression of PTEN in normal, hyperplastic and neoplastic endometrial tissues. Methods: Ninety-two endometrial samples were enrolled in this study. They were classified into normal (n=6), hyperplastic (n=54) and neoplastic (n=32) endometrial tissues. Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue blocks were prepared from each specimen. Tissue sections were immunohistochemically stained by anti-PTEN antibodies. Results: In our study; PTEN was strongly expressed in all normal and hyperplastic endometrial tissues without atypia. Staining intensity was decreased in atypical endometrial hyperplasia and endometrial carcinoma (p<0.0001). we also detected an inverse relationship between PTEN expression on one side and tumor grade (p=0.006), stage (p< 0.0001) and myometrial invasion (p=0.001) on the other side. Conclusions: Our study proved that immunohistochemical expression of PTEN is down-regulated in atypical hyperplastic and neoplastic endometrial tissues. Evaluation of PTEN expression can be useful as a screening method to detect the potentially precancerous hyperplastic lesions.

The present study was carried out to evaluate the pathological effects of aspergillosis caused by Aspergillus Spp. in commercial broiler chickens. In this study, we discussed few outbreaks of Aspergillus infection of chicks a week aftter hatching in broiler farms of Duhok-Kurdistan region of Iraq during the period from February to May 2015 on the basis of clinical signs, post-mortem, histopathological and cultural findings. The main clinical signs of the disease in the infected flock included a 3-day onset of labored breathing and neurologic disorders displayed by incoordination, torticollis, and paralysis. Other clinical features included depression, ruffled feathers and gasping. Gross lesions were represented by cheesy granular materials in the air sacs, lungs, and trachea. Histopathology revealed fungal hyphae in sectioned lung tissue. Aspergillus was isolated by culturing in Sabouraud's dextrose agar from the lesions. The present study deals with the incidence of acute aspergillosis in broiler chicks from Duhok, Kurdistan-Iraq.

Background: Papillary thyroid carcinoma is the most common thyroid neoplasm. It has a very high incidence of regional lymph node metastasis at the initial presentation. However, vascular spread is a very uncommon event. Lungs and bones are the most frequent sites of vascular metastasis from papillary thyroid carcinoma. Case concerns: The currently discussed case was obtained from the archive of Pathology laboratory, Sohag University. A 46-year-old female patient admitted to Urology Department, Sohag University, in 2015. The patient had a left loin pain, no other clinical data included in her referral sheet . Radiological findings revealed a renal mass and left radical nephrectomy was performed. Histopathological evaluation revealed a circumscribed neoplasm, formed of densely packed acini with scanty stroma. The patient was diagnosed as renal oncocytoma. On re-evaluation of the Hematoxylin and Eosin-stained slides; the nuclear features were different from those described in renal oncocytomas. So, a panel of immunohistochemical markers was performed (anti-CK7, anti-EMA, anti-Vimentin, anti-Thyroglobulin and anti-TTF1). Results: The neoplastic cells showed strong and diffuse cytoplasmic expression for Thyroglobulin and CK7 and nuclear expression for TTF1. The neoplastic cells didn’t express EMA or Vimentin. Based on the characteristic nuclear features detected by Hematoxylin and Eosin-stained slides and the obtained immunohistochemical results; the diagnosis of metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma to the kidney was confirmed. Conclusions: Papillary thyroid carcinoma may metastasize to the kidney and form a solitary mass, that could be confused as a primary renal neoplasm.

Background and Aim: Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are thought to be responsible for tumor initiation, progression, and resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. CD133 is a trans-membrane glycoprotein which is considered as a putative CSCs marker. Emerging evidence suggests that CD133 may be a critical factor in tumor development, progression and metastasis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of CD133 in mammary infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC), and to correlate its expression with some known clinicopathological parameters. Methods: Fifty patients with mammary IDC who underwent modified radical mastectomy were included in this study. From each specimen, two tissue sections were obtained; one was stained by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stain to determine the histologic subtype, grade and indicators of local aggressiveness. The second tissue section was immunohistochemically stained by anti-human CD133 antibody. Results: The study revealed statistically significant associations between CD133 expression and poorly differentiated, advanced stage tumors with poor Nottingham Prognostic Index (NPI), triple negative phenotype, lymphovascular invasion (LVI) and lymph node metastasis (LNM). Conclusion: The current study revealed that CD133 is strongly associated with poor prognostic indices; it is positively correlated to poorly-differentiated tumors with high histologic grade and advanced stage

Background and aim: Chemokine receptor (CXCR)4 is a G-protein coupled receptor involved in many biological processes as inflammation, angiogenesis and immune responses. Previous researches illustrated that CXCR4 expression has been detected in many carcinomas of various origins. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible prognostic value of CXCR4 in RCCs by correlating immunohistochemical expression of CXCR4 with different patients' clinical and pathological criteria. Methods: Formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue blocks of 49 specimens of RCCs were evaluated for CXCR4 expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Correlation of CXCR4 expression with different clinical and pathological data was measured statistically. Results: Nuclear expression of CXCR4 was correlated to International society of urological pathology (ISUP) grading system that is applied for ccRCCs and papillary RCCs (p=0.024). Both cytoplasmic and membranous expression of CXCR4 were associated with histological subtypes of the studied RCC cases (p<0.0001) and Fuhrman nuclear grading system (p=0.008 &p<0.0001). Membranous CXCR4 was inversely correlated to pathological T stage of the studied RCCs (p=0.035). Conclusions: Expression of CXCR4 decreases in advanced stages of RCC. CXCR4 is a valuable prognostic biomarker in RCCs and should be evaluated in each subcellular localization.