The diagnosis of SFT may be suggested by a combination of cytological and radiological findings. The precise determination of malignancy for SFT, however, is not usually straightforward on the basis of cytological features alone. The findings of highly cellular clusters and mitotic activity in the FNA cytological smear can help differentiate malignant from benign SFTs.

The role of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) promoter mutations as an independent poor prognostic factor in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients is well known, but there is no prognostic system that combines the TERT promoter mutation status with tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage to predict cancer-specific survival (CSS). A total of 393 patients with pathologically confirmed DTC after thyroidectomy were enrolled. After incorporating wild-type TERT and mutant TERT with stages I, II, and III/IV of the AJCC TNM system 8th edition (TNM-8), we generated six combinations and calculated 10-year and 15-year CSS and adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for cancer-related death using Cox regression. Then, a new mortality prediction model termed TNM-8T was derived based on the CSS and HR of each combination in the four groups. Of the 393 patients, there were 27 (6.9%) thyroid cancer-related deaths during a median follow-up of 14 years. Patients with a more advanced stage had a lower survival rate (10-year CSS for TNM-8T stage 1, 2, 3, and 4: 98.7%, 93.5%, 77.3%, and 63.0%, respectively; p < 0.001). TNM-8T showed a better spread of CSS (p < 0.001) than TNM-8 (p = 0.002) in the adjusted survival curves. The C-index for mortality risk predictability was 0.880 (95% CI, 0.665–0.957) in TNM-8T and 0.827 (95% CI, 0.622–0.930) in TNM-8 (p < 0.001). TNM-8T, a new prognostic system that incorporates the TERT mutational status into TNM-8, showed superior predictability to TNM-8 in the long-term survival of DTC patients.

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is divided into two groups: one with the t(14;18)(q32;q21) and the other without this translocation but with other chromosomal abnormalities including t(3q27) break. The majority of FLs in Western countries have the former chromosomal changes with characteristic clinical features and low histological grades. The goal of this study was to investigate the characteristics of Korean FLs with regard to the underlying molecular defects. Sixty-one cases of FL were evaluated from two centers in Korea by immunostaining for CD10, bcl-2, and bcl-6 proteins. Fluorescence in situ hybridization was performed to detect the t(14;18) and t(3q27) break. Cases with FL grade 3 accounted for 57% of all 61 cases. The t(14;18) was detected in 43.9% of the cases studied, and the frequency was 80, 50, 34.8, and 9.1% from grade 1 through grade 3b. The t(3q27) was detected in 16.1% of cases. Cases without a t(14;18) were mainly histological grade 3 (P < 0.001) and had a tendency to have the t(3q27) and bcl-2 amplification. The incidence of t(14;18)-positive low-grade FL was found to be lower in Korea than in Western countries. The increased frequency of t(14;18)-negative grade 3 FL attributes to the lower incidence of t(14;18) in Korean FL.