A. At low power, the tumor cells show invasive growth pattern; B.

At high power, tumor cells shows feature of signet ring cells; C. Immunohistochemical stain of HER-2 in tumor … HER2 testing in gastric carcinoma opens a new promising therapeutic option for patients. The progress in molecular pathology enables understanding the biology of gastric and GEJ cancer and in discovering possible novel molecular therapy targets. These therapeutic strategies include epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors, antiangiogenic agents, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical cell cycle inhibitors, apoptosis promoters, and matrix metalloproteinases inhibitors. The agents targeting the human epidermal growth factor receptor HER 2 and epidermal growth factor receptor 1 (EGFR1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), MET and regulators of cell cycle are being integrated into therapeutic studies with the goal of improving therapeutic options for this disease (10). Molecular pathology of gastrointestinal stromaltumors Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST)

is one of the most common mesenchymal Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical tumors of the gastrointestinal tract, accounting for 80% of gastrointestinal mesenchymal tumors (10). However, they are rare with respect to all GI malignancies, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical as they ZD1839 purchase constitute only 1-3% (10). At presentation, nearly half of malignant GISTs are metastatic, however less than a third Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of GISTs are classified as malignant (10). Prior to 1998, GISTs were diagnostically problematic, being mistaken for smooth muscle tumors such as leiomyoblastomas, leiomyomas and leiomyosarcomas (11).Electron microscopy studies in the 1970s and immunohistochemical studies in the late 1980s revealed that these tumors were in fact not derived Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical from smooth muscle (11). Rather, these studies pointed to the interstitial cells of Cajal as the cell of origin

of GISTs. The interstitial cells of Cajal are the pacemaker cells of the gastrointestinal track. They regulate intestinal motility and peristalsis and are found in-between the autonomic nervous system and the muscular wall of the GI tract (11). These cells have immunophenotypic and ultrastructural features of smooth muscle and neuronal cells similar to GISTs (11). Like GISTs they stain positive by IHC for CD34, CD117, and DOG1 (Figure 4). Figure 4 A. H&E stained section of gastric spindle cell GIST; B. By immunohistochemistry, the tumor cells are diffusely positive because for CD117 with cytoplasmic and perinuclear staining (original magnification, 40×) In 1998 Hirota and colleagues published a sentinel paper showing that most GISTs harbored mutations in the c-kit gene which results in ligand-independent activation of KIT protein (12). They also showed that GISTs usually express the KIT protein, using an immunohistochemistry stain c-kit or CD117, providing pathologists with a critical diagnostic test (12).