Vol 8, No 4 (2025)

Background. Histopathological examination of cutaneous melanoma is crucial for diagnosis, staging, and prognostic assessment. Despite the existence of international standards, the structure and scope of pathology reporting protocols vary across countries.

Aim. To compare the structure and degree of commonality among major international and national protocols for melanoma pathology reporting.

Materials and methods. A comparative analysis was performed for the latest versions of the ICCR, CAP, RCPath, RCPA, and INCa datasets. Each protocol was assessed for mandatory and optional parameters across 12 key diagnostic items.

Results. All protocols include essential parameters determining tumor stage: Breslow thickness, ulceration, mitotic rate, lymphovascular and perineural invasion, margin status. The number of required elements varies from 6 in the French INCa protocol to 16 in the RCPath and RCPA protocols. The highest degree of harmonization is observed among the Australian, New Zealand, and UK datasets developed under the common ICCR framework.

Conclusion. International efforts are moving toward the unification of melanoma pathology reporting. Establishing a core list of mandatory parameters improves reproducibility, facilitates data comparability, and provides a foundation for developing a national unified protocol in Russia.

Gliomas are characterized by extremely aggressive growth and resistance to therapy. The tumor progression is known to be closely linked to its microenvironment, with stromal characteristics playing a key role.

The aim of the study was to investigate the features of mesenchymal stroma in high-grade gliomas.

A retrospective study was conducted on biopsy specimens from 31 patients with grade 4 astrocytic tumors at the A.L. Polenov Russian Scientific Research Institute of Neurosurgery. Based on molecular profiling, 10 patients were diagnosed with IDH-mutant astrocytoma, and 21 patients were diagnosed with IDH-wildtype glioblastoma. The tumor stroma was assessed using immunohistochemical (IHC) staining for IDH1R132h and vimentin and histochemical staining with Alcian Blue, Toluidine Blue, and Mallory’s trichrome. Analysis revealed statistically significant differences between the groups for all histochemical stains (p <0.05, Student’s t-test). The presence of desmoplastic stroma and high vimentin expression indicates a glial-mesenchymal transition in IDH-wildtype glioblastoma, which underlies its aggressive progression.

The presence of nervous tissue is a key characteristic of mature and immature ovarian teratomas, therefore, differential diagnosis between ependymal tubules and neuroectodermal rosettes is of fundamental diagnostic and prognostic importance. Ependymal tubules are differentiated glial tissue characteristic of mature teratomas and indicate a favorable prognosis. In contrast, neuroectodermal rosettes reflect primitive neuroepithelial differentiation and are a pathognomonic sign of an immature teratoma. Their number directly determines the degree of malignancy of the tumor and the patient’s treatment strategy. Thus, a thorough morphological analysis combined with immunohistochemical examination underlies accurate diagnosis and optimal management of patients with ovarian teratomas.

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma is a rare malignant tumor characterized by aggressive course and unfavorable prognosis for patients. It is believed that its development is associated with genomic imbalance, leading to transformation of previous carcinomas with subsequent progressive course of the disease. Patients often seek help due to rapid progression of anaplastic carcinoma, which is verified by cytological examination, but the effectiveness of therapy and patient survival are extremely low. The article provides a brief review of the literature and a clinical case of this disease in a 77-year-old man with a demonstration of the cytological picture.

Hepatocholangiocarcinoma is a rare malignant liver tumor characterized by its structural complexity and aggression. One possible treatment option is liver transplant, but due to worldwide shortage of transplants and difficulties with early diagnosis, transplantation is an option only when successful treatment is possible, and this is not so in case of hepatocholangiocarcinoma. Other treatments are also available, but they are less effective.

In the described clinical case, a 59-year-old woman, who had suffered from cirrhosis for many years due to viral hepatitis C, has been diagnosed with liver cancer without morphological verification in April 2025. She then underwent a liver transplant in June 2025 due to verified cancer. The surgical specimen was examined in the pathology department, and histological and immunohistochemical studies confirmed intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma with a leading aggressive cholangiocarcinoma component. Two months after the transplant, the patient was diagnosed with distant metastases.