Context:Intraoperative cytology and frozen section play an important role in the diagnosis of neurosurgical specimens. There are limitations in both these procedures but understanding the errors and pitfalls may help in increasing the diagnostic yield.Aims:To find the diagnostic accuracy of intraoperative cytology and frozen section for central and peripheral nervous system (PNS) lesions and analyze the errors, pitfalls, and limitations in these procedures.Settings and Design:Eighty cases were included in this prospective study in a span of 1.5 years.Materials and Methods:The crush preparations and the frozen sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin method. The diagnosis of crush smears and the frozen sections were compared with the diagnosis in the paraffin section, which was considered as the gold standard.Statistical Analyses Used:Diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity.Results:The diagnostic accuracy of crush smears was 91.25% with a sensitivity of 95.5% and specificity of 100%. In the frozen sections, the overall diagnostic accuracy was 95%, sensitivity was 96.8%, and specificity was 100%. The categories of pitfalls noted in this study were categorization of spindle cell lesions, differentiation of oligodendroglioma from astrocytoma in frozen sections, differentiation of coagulative tumor necrosis of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) from the caseous necrosis of tuberculosis, grading of gliomas in frozen section, and differentiation of the normal granular cells of the cerebellum from the lymphocytes in cytological smears.Conclusions:Crush smear and frozen section are complimentary procedures. When both are used together, the diagnostic yield is substantially increased.

Renin angiotensin system (RAS) comprising Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), Angiotensin II (Ang II) and its receptor Angiotensin II receptor type I (AGTR1), plays a critical role in several diseases including cancer. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) A1166C located in 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of AGTR1 and an insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism present in intron 16 of ACE gene have been associated with many diseases, but their association with Breast cancer (BCa) is still debatable. Here, we for the first time investigated the association of these polymorphisms in a North Indian BCa cohort including 161 patients and 152 healthy women. The polymorphisms were evaluated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) respectively. The association between these polymorphisms and BCa risk was estimated by calculating Odds Ratio (OR) and chi-square (χ2) test. The DD genotype/D allele of ACE (I/D) polymorphism and “AC and CC” genotype/C allele of AGTR1 (A1166C) polymorphism were associated with higher risk of BCa when evaluated independently. Furthermore, interaction analysis of “AC and CC” and DD genotype and combination of “C and D” alleles of both polymorphisms revealed significantly greater BCa risk than that observed independently. Conclusively, women harboring “AC or CC” genotype/C allele for AGTR1 (A1166C) polymorphism and DD genotype/D allele for ACE (I/D) polymorphisms have a predisposition to develop more aggressive disease with advanced staging and larger tumor size. Our study indicates importance of genetic screening based on these polymorphisms for women, who may have higher risk of BCa.

The lethality of cancer is mainly caused by its properties of metastasis, drug resistance, and subsequent recurrence. Understanding the mechanisms governing these properties and developing novel strategies to overcome them will greatly improve the survival of cancer patients. Recent findings suggest that tumors are comprised of heterogeneous cell populations, and only a small fraction of these are tumorigenic with the ability to self-renew and produce phenotypically diverse tumor cell populations. Cells in this fraction are called tumor-initiating cells (TICs) or cancer stem cells (CSCs). TICs have been identified from many types of cancer. They share several similarities with normal adult stem cells including sphere-forming ability, self-renewability, and expression of stem cell surface markers and transcription factors. TICs have also been proposed to be responsible for cancer metastasis, however, scarce evidence for their metastatic potential has been provided. In this review article, we have attempted to summarize the studies which have examined the metastatic potential of TICs in solid tumors.

BACKGROUNDMolecular stratification of prostate cancer (PCa) based on genetic aberrations including ETS or RAF gene‐rearrangements, PTEN deletion, and SPINK1 over‐expression show clear prognostic and diagnostic utility. Gene rearrangements involving ETS transcription factors are frequent pathogenetic somatic events observed in PCa. Incidence of ETS rearrangements in Caucasian PCa patients has been reported, however, occurrence in Indian population is largely unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of the ETS and RAF kinase gene rearrangements, SPINK1 over‐expression, and PTEN deletion in this cohort.METHODSIn this multi‐center study, formalin‐fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) PCa specimens (n = 121) were procured from four major medical institutions in India. The tissues were sectioned and molecular profiling was done using immunohistochemistry (IHC), RNA in situ hybridization (RNA‐ISH) and/or fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH).RESULTS ERG over‐expression was detected in 48.9% (46/94) PCa specimens by IHC, which was confirmed in a subset of cases by FISH. Among other ETS family members, while ETV1 transcript was detected in one case by RNA‐ISH, no alteration in ETV4 was observed. SPINK1 over‐expression was observed in 12.5% (12/96) and PTEN deletion in 21.52% (17/79) of the total PCa cases. Interestingly, PTEN deletion was found in 30% of the ERG‐positive cases (P = 0.017) but in only one case with SPINK1 over‐expression (P = 0.67). BRAF and RAF1 gene rearrangements were detected in ∼1% and ∼4.5% of the PCa cases, respectively.CONCLUSIONSThis is the first report on comprehensive molecular profiling of the major spectrum of the causal aberrations in Indian men with PCa. Our findings suggest that ETS gene rearrangement and SPINK1 over‐expression patterns in North Indian population largely resembled those observed in Caucasian population but differed from Japanese and Chinese PCa patients. The molecular profiling data presented in this study could help in clinical decision‐making for the pursuit of surgery, diagnosis, and in selection of therapeutic intervention. Prostate 75:1051–1062, 2015. © 2015 The Authors. The Prostate, published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

BACKGROUNDThe viability and functionality of stored human blood cells is an important clinical issue in transfusion. 1 During storage, in fact preserved blood cells undergo progressive structural and functional changes that may reduce red cell function and viability a fter transfusion. 2 Storage has a negative effect on RBC oxygen delivery 3 and emerging evidence suggests that allogenic RBC infusion may actually harm some recipients. Considerable evidence suggests that transfusion increases the risk of serious complications and death in critically ill patients, especially in patients who are undergoing cardiac surgery. Current research indicated that the RBC storage lesion is responsible for impaired tissue oxygen use, pro-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects, increased infections, multiple organ system failure and ultimately increased morbidity and mortality. 4 The aim of present study was to evaluate the morphological changes in blood cells due to processing and storage at interval of 1 day, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks and 5 weeks and compare with the morphology at the time of collection (day 0).