Our case highlights the importance of recognizing the atypical radiological response of patients with hematological malignancies treated with polatuzumab vedotin or other antibody-drug conjugates.

Intraoperative frozen section (IFS) on endometrial cancer is an invaluable skill for pathologists-in-training to master. Within limited time constraints, pathologists are expected to determine tumor type, grade, and depth of myometrial invasion. During their training, pathology residents gradually gain experience in handling the majority of cases. However, significant errors can still be seen among senior level trainees. We aimed to improve training effectiveness by evaluating our trainees' performance, identifying common errors, and recommending focused curriculum. Twenty-two residents [postgraduate year (PGY)-1-PGY-4] performed 260 IFS during a 4-yr period. We compared their independent IFS diagnoses with final diagnoses. Overall resident IFS accuracy was 73%. Accuracy for tumor type and depth of myometrial invasion was 80% and 93%, respectively. Two thirds of errors were due to sampling with the rest because of interpretation. Major deficiencies lay in recognizing high-risk histologic types (serous, clear cell, sarcoma) and unconventional myometrial invasion patterns (MELF, adenoma malignum, and adenomyosis-like). Resident IFS errors would theoretically result in suboptimal staging for 32 (12%) patients and unnecessary staging for 1 (0.4%). Overall IFS performance improved as training level increased (76% accuracy for PGY-1 accompanied by PGY-5; 59% for PGY-2; 74% for PGY-3; and 86% for PGY-4). We recommend a dedicated curriculum targeting these difficult yet clinically important entities through review literature and a collection of classic cases demonstrating the diverse morphology variations. Implementing such focused training would greatly improve our trainees' competence on IFS, preparing them to handle a wide variety of cases and situations in future practice.

Introduction Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) is a myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasm that has been associated with a number of genetic mutations, most commonly TET2 mutations in up to 50-60% of cases. Mutations in epigenetic genes such as TET2 are known to disrupt the conversion of 5-methycytosine to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), contributing to oncogenesis. We hypothesized that CMML cases would exhibit decreased 5hmC expression, reflecting the propensity for TET2 mutations in CMML. We also sought to determine whether 5hmC IHC status reflected disease severity in terms of progression to AML and overall patient survival. Methods Thirty-five cases of CMML from between 1/2006 and 12/2014 were identified from the pathology archives at UMass, under an IRB-approved protocol. IHC was performed on FFPE bone marrow biopsy specimens with an anti-5hmC antibody. Staining was scored based on intensity of nuclear staining: 0 (neg) to 3+ (strong); and proportion of cells staining: 0 ( < 1%), 1 (1-25%), 2 (26-50%), 3 (51-75%), 4 ( > 76%). A combined product score was calculated yielding scores of 0-12. Correlation to clinical parameters (age, blast count, progression to AML, and overall patient survival) was investigated. Results 60% (21/35) of CMML cases showed low expression of 5hmc (combined score < =4). This loss of 5hmC expression correlated significantly with poorer overall survival in Kaplan-Meier curves (p=0.0287). There was no significant correlation between 5hmC score and patient age, blast count, or AML progression. Conclusion IHC detection of 5hmC in CMML is significantly correlated with patient overall survival and could potentially be utilized as a prognostic biomarker. Loss of 5hmC expression likely reflects mutations to epigenetic pathways and could be useful in guiding treatment with hypomethylating agents.

Influenza is an acute respiratory illness caused by influenza A or B viruses that occur in outbreaks, mainly during the winter season. Rapid laboratory diagnosis of influenza can help guide the clinical management of suspected patients effectively. Clinical sensitivities and specificities of the rapid influenza diagnostic tests have varied considerably in the literature. Most of these studies are evaluated using previously frozen or stored specimens that had previously tested positive. This study compares the performance of the rapid SOFIA Influenza A+B test to nucleic acid multiplex test x-TAG respiratory viral panel (RVP) assay in freshly collected nasal aspirates and measured simultaneously by both assays. Retrospective data from 1649 nasal aspirates (September 2014 to May 2015) collected from adults as well as from children tested simultaneously by both rapid SOFIA Influenza A+B FIA immunofluorescence (Quidel, San Diego, CA) and qualitative nucleic acid multiplex RVP assay X-TAG Luminex technology (Luminex, Austin, Texas, USA) were analyzed. Concordance, and analytical sensitivity and specificity were evaluated for influenza A, subtypes H1 and H3, and influenza B. Prevalence for influenza A by RVP was 15%, for subtype H3 it was 11.2%, and for influenza B, 2.9%. None of the aspirates were positive for influenza A subtype H1. SOFIA Influenza rapid test demonstrated good specificity and low sensitivity compared with a nucleic acid test for influenza A, subtype H3, and for influenza B. SOFIA Influenza A + B test performed well in providing a rapid diagnosis, however, confirmatory molecular testing is recommended for negative test results. Re-evaluation of test performance should be periodically carried out during outbreaks with the emergence and circulation of new influenza strains.