What is it about?
Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors may affect anyone regardless of age. Very few series have studied them within the first year of life; hence, their underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Our paper examines 12 infantile cases in an attempt to address these issues.
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Why is it important?
Given the scarcity of series targeting this age group, we felt compelled to conduct this study which expands our current understanding of their pathologic features emphasizing diagnostic pitfalls, supportive ancillary studies, and genetic alterations including three novel fusion partners. Our study also identifies three infants successfully treated with targeted therapy; highlighting its promising use in this age group despite the lack of clinical validation studies.
Perspectives
This article defines the beginning of my academic career as a pediatric pathologist with a particular interest in soft tissue tumors. It has been carefully structured under the excellent guidance of my mentors as well as other collaborators across the globe that now I consider my friends. I hope you find its contents interesting and useful for your practice.
Oscar Lopez-Nunez
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
This publication is a joint effort focused on these unusual infantile tumors. For me, it was an exciting experience to collaborate with young pathologists and to mentor them while having the pleasure of contributing small pieces of knowledge. The investigation of rare entities requires special commitment and curiosity. This team, and in particular Oscar, with his dedication, was simply great.
Rita Alaggio
Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesu
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Infantile inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors: clinicopathological and molecular characterization of 12 cases, Modern Pathology, November 2019, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1038/s41379-019-0406-6.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Omental mesenteric myxoid hamartoma, a subtype of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor? Considerations based on the histopathological evaluation of four cases.
Omental mesenteric myxoid hamartoma (OMH) is a distinctive myxoid lesion of infancy that it is considered as part of the morphologic spectrum of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors (IMT), but this relationship with IMT is still subject to debate. This paper describes a characteristic ALK-1 dot-like staining in OMH.
Abstracts from USCAP 2019: Pediatric Pathology (1771-1802)
This research was presented at the United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology 108th Annual Meeting, National Harbor, Maryland, March 2019.
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