Springer Nature

Most succinate dehydrogenase (SDH)-deficient RCCs demonstrate classic morphology characterized by bland eosinophilic cells with intracytoplasmic inclusions. Increasingly, “variant” morphologic features are recognized. Drs. Anthony Gill and Talia Fuchs discuss with the host their findings in a recent publication in Modern pathology where features such as high-grade nuclear features, necrosis, papillary, solid, and tubular architecture are present. These features appear to be associated with more aggressive behavior emphasizing the need for a low threshold for performing SDHB immunohistochemistry in any difficult to classify renal tumor; particularly if occurring at a younger age.

Maladaptive aggression, while not a diagnosable neuropsychiatric disorder on its own, often presents as an important comorbid condition with other neuropsychiatric disorders. But while both men and women can and do display aggression, there’s been a bias to thinking of aggression, in both its adaptive and maladaptive forms, as a male behavior.

Sam Golden is an assistant professor at the University of Washington in the department of biological structure and also has an appointment in the Center for Excellence in the Neurobiology of Addiction, Pain, and Emotion. He’s one of the authors of a recent study on aggression in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

Read the full study here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-022-01375-5

The vast majority of image-detected breast abnormalities are currently diagnosed by percutaneous core needle biopsy (CNB). While management of frankly malignant lesions diagnosed by CNB is now well-defined, there is less consensus on the optimal management of high-risk and selected benign lesions diagnosed by CNB. In this episode, Dr. Benjamin Calhoun from University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill eloquently discusses the evidence for and against immediate excision of such lesions.

Can the sleep and activity patterns of fruit flies help us better understand human metabolic disorders? It’s a big question, and one that we are going to touch upon today, as we hear from Dr Pedro Vale, Katy Monteith (University of Edinburgh), and Lucy Anderson. This episode also touches upon the undergraduate research experience, first publications, and the benefits of peer-review.

This episode explores the recent Heredity paper: “Variation in mitochondrial DNA affects locomotor activity and sleep in Drosophila melanogaster” https://www.nature.com/articles/s41437-022-00554-w

For depressed preterm neonates, initiating positive pressure ventilation is the most important factor in facilitating transition. Therefore the recommendation for depressed neonates is to immediately cut the umbilical cord and begin resuscitation. However, many studies have shown that delaying the clamping of the umbilical cord also benefits preterm infants by increasing a neonate's blood volume, oxygenation and circulatory stabilisation, thus aiding transition.

In this episode, we meet Early Career Investigator, Praveen Chandrasekharan from the State University of New York. He has used an asphyxiated preterm ovine model to ascertain the best practice of placental transfusion in a depressed neonate requiring resuscitation.

Read the full article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-022-02086-9

Modern Pathology have recently launched a new series of reviews addressing controversial issues in pathology. In this episode of ModPath CHAT, Dr. Elizabeth Montgomery, a world renowned expert in gastrointestinal pathology gives her point of view on the utility of ancillary testing for risk stratification of Barrett’s esophagus and dysplasia.

Ki-67 assessment is a key step in the diagnosis of neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) from all anatomic locations.

The application of digital pathology coupled with machine learning has been shown to be highly accurate and reproducible for the evaluation of Ki-67 in NENs. The guest, Dr. Claudio Luchini from the University of Verona in Italy, discusses his recently published systematic review on the subject of Ki-67 assessment in pancreatic NENs (PanNENs) employing digital image analysis (DIA). The most common advantages and disadvantage of using DIA are highlighted.

Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) occurs in around 45% of infants born below 26 weeks gestational age, causing significant lifelong morbidity and mortality. However, there is currently no effective treatment. In part, this is due to the lack of well-characterised representative preterm animal models with long-term follow up.

In this episode, we meet our highlighted Early Career Investigator Olga Romantsik, from Lund University in Sweden. She and her team used an established preterm rabbit pup model of IVH to analyse neurobehavioral and neuropathological outcomes, to one month of age.

Read the full article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-022-02075-y

On the 20th July, The Genetics Society held a fantastic Garden Party to celebrate the 200th birthday of Gregor Mendel: a man regarded by many as the "father of modern genetics". In this episode we showcase a talk given on the day by Prof. Alison Woollard (University of Oxford) titled: ‘Mendel to Modern Genetics’.

You can find a recording of the full event on the Genetics Society’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP8hB4ijAEc&t=3426s

You can also find the Heredity Special Issue - Mendel 200th birthday, here: https://www.nature.com/hdy/volumes/129/issues/1

In a subset of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), the peritoneum is the predominant site of dissemination. While cure can be achieved by cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), this procedure is associated with long-term morbidity and high relapse rates.

In this episode of ModPath CHAT, Drs. Siesing and Jirstrom from Lund University in Sweden discuss their recent study in Modern Pathology on the topic. Multi-region immunohistochemical profiling and deep targeted DNA-sequencing was performed on 7 mCRC patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC). SATB2 was lacking in the majority of cases, and a conspicuous intra-patient heterogeneity was denoted for expression of (RBM3). Mutations in key CRC driver genes, i.e., KRAS, APC and TP53, were homogenously distributed across all samples. The authors conclude that their findings should trigger additional studies addressing the potential distinctiveness of mCRC with PC, which might pave the way for improved personalized treatment of these patients.