Researchers led by Helenice Gobbi from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil report in Pathology that ALDH1 is frequently expressed in triple-negative breast cancer, and that its expression is linked to better outcome. The researchers examined the expression in ALDH1 as well as EZH2 both of which are cancer stem cell-related markers in 140 cases of triple negative breast cancer, and correlated it to clinicopathological features and disease outcome. "Our results showed that tumour cell expression of ALDH1 did not correlate with nodal status, outcome, or expression of basal markers," the researchers write. "Nonetheless, stromal expression of ALDH1 was significantly associated with better overall survival in our triple negative cohort."

Also in Pathology, the University of Western Australia's Benhur Amanuel and his colleagues examine the prevalence of BRAF p.Val600Glu and p.Val600Lys mutations in metastatic melanoma patients from an area with a high incidence of the disease. They performed dideoxy sequencing and fluorescent single-strand conformation analysis and found that the overall incidence of BRAF mutation in their cohort was similar to other studies, but that the frequency of p.Val600Lys mutations was higher. "The broad range of reported frequencies of BRAF p.Val600Glu and p.Val600Lys mutations and the observation that patients with the p.Val600Lys mutation were significantly older than those with p.Val600Glu mutation is intriguing," the researchers add. "These genetic aberrations may be linked to different tumour phenotypes, including possible association of the primary tumours with distinct precursor lesions."

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This Week in Pathology