The invited lecture at the XXXth Congress of the International Academy of Pathology, 2014 in Bangkok had two aims: to clarify a role of HPV infection in pathogenesis of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and squamous intraepithelial lesions (SILs). In recent epidemiological studies of laryngeal cancers HPV DNA prevalences vary from 3 to 60%. Nowadays, it has become evident HPV DNA alone is not sufficient to identify HPV driven cancers. The concept of HPV causal involvement require presence of at lest one genome copy/tumor cell, active transcription of viral oncogenes E6 and E7, interaction of viral oncoproteins with central cellular proteins and apoptosis signaling pathways. Biological active HPV has been established in a small fraction of laryngeal SCC ((5%); such analyses for SILs need to be performed in a near future. Up to date only three studies (Waters HH et al. Laryngoscope 2010, Pagliuca G et al. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2014, and our recent preliminary study) revealed that high risk, transcriptionally active HPV was detected in only 3 of 100 patients. Therefore, HPV infection is probably not important etiological factor in laryngeal carcinogenesis. The proposal in the WHO 2005 “Tumours of the Head and Neck” for classifying epithelial precursor lesions is not optimal. A new proposal (the amended Ljubljana classification) with three grades presents an attempt to unify different classifications: low-grade SIL, high-grade SIL and carcinoma in situ.. The new proposal is based on our retrospective study (1444 patients/31 years) - the results justify a division of the SILs into low-grade and high-grade SILs with the significant difference in malignant progression. Separation between high-grade SILs and CIS is mandatory from therapeutic point of view.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 31696345The invited lecture at the world's largest pathology meeting – 103nd USCAP Annual Meeting, San Diego was devoted to current views and perspectives in classification of squamous intraepithelial lesions of the head and neck. The current state in the field of classifying oral and laryngeal precursor lesions, as proposed in the WHO 2005 Blue Book is not ideal. The results of various interobserver studies have shown that the currently used grading systems, with different basic concepts and different terminology, cannot continue to be reliably used in the future. Trying to harmonize different classifications of the oral and laryngeal precursor lesions, we have proposed four crucial steps to set up a unified classification of squamous intraepithelial lesions (SILs): (a) the classification should contain two grades, low-grade and high-grade lesions and, specifically for the larynx, an additional grade - carcinoma in situ (CIS) which must be separated from high-grade laryngeal SILs; (b) the terminology should be unified; our preference is for the term SIL over squamous intraepithelial neoplasia; (c) all leading morphological criteria for low- and highgrade lesions, as well as for CIS, should be clearly defined; (d) agreement between clinicians and pathologists should be achieved on the most appropriate choice of treatment of different grades of SILs in separate head and neck areas.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 31229913In epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), epithelial cells lose their features and acquire a mesenchymal cell phenotype. It is a fundamental process in various physiologic and pathologic conditions including carcinoma metastasizing, but we haven’t found data in the literature confirming the role of EMT in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and spindle cell carcinoma (SpCC) of the oral cavity. Our aim was to analyse the role of EMT in the development of SpCC and metastasizing of SCC of the oral cavity. We confirmed the hypothesis that EMT is involved in the development of oral SpCC, whereas the hypothesis about its role in metastasizing of oral SCC was not confirmed. Analysis of microRNA expression can be successfully used for analysis of EMT. Several markers must be used for determining EMT, otherwise the role of EMT in metastasizing will be overrated.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 31863001The topic of the invited lecture at the XXXth Congress of the International Academy of Pathology, 2014 in Bangkok was hypocomplementemic urticarial vasculitis syndrome (HUVS), a rare immune-complex small vessel systemic vasculitis involving kidney in about 50% of patients. Characteristic clinical features are recurrent urticaria, decreased serum complement, skin vasculitis, arthritis, eye inflammation, abdominal pain, glomerulonephritis and positive anti-C1q antibodies. We reported a 36-year-old woman with a 12-year history of recurrent urticaria and 2 years of urticarial vasculitis. She also had arthritis, plevritis and pericarditis, abdominal pain, pathologic urinalysis, low serum values of C3, C4 and CH50. All immunoserology was negative except for ANA 1:80 and anti-C1q 620 IU. “Full-house” immune complex vasculitis was demonstrated in skin and lung biopsies. A kidney biopsy showed diffuse proliferative segmental active and sclerosing glomerulonephritis with “full-house” glomerular and extensive extraglomerular vascular and tubulointerstitial immune deposits. By electron microscopy electron dense deposits showed an ultrastructural “fingerprint” pattern. The patient fulfilled the criteria for HUVS and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), in accordance with the not infrequent clinical and immunoserological overlapping of the two diseases. There is still a controversial opinion whether HUVS represent a disease entity. Some researchers believe that HUVS could be considered as a spectrum of manifestations that may progress to SLE, or as a specific form of SLE. We assume that HUVS might be primary or secondary in association with an underlying autoimmune systemic disease, particularly SLE.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 31757529Virchows Archiv, published by Springer, is official journal of the European Society of Pathology. Articles concerned with surgical pathology, experimental morphology, ultrastructural research, immunocytochemical analysis, and molecular biology are published. The journal is indexed by many international indexes, among them PubMed and Science Citation Index. The journal Impact Factor is 2.305.
C.04 Editorial board of an international magazine