Ilaria Girolami

Ospedale Centrale di Bolzano · Department of Pathology

Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression is currently used in the clinic to assess eligibility for immune-checkpoint inhibitors via the tumor proportion score (TPS), but its efficacy is limited by high interobserver variability. Multiple papers have presented systems for the automatic quantification of TPS, but none report on the task of determ...

Objectives The high incidence of prostate cancer causes prostatic samples to significantly affect pathology laboratories workflow and turnaround times (TATs). Whole-slide imaging (WSI) and artificial intelligence (AI) have both gained approval for primary diagnosis in prostate pathology, providing physicians with novel tools for their daily routine...

Introduction Artificial intelligence (AI) integration in nephropathology has been growing rapidly in recent years, facing several challenges including the wide range of histological techniques used, the low occurrence of certain diseases, and the need for data sharing. This narrative review retraces the history of AI in nephropathology and provides...

Objective Digital pathology (DP) is currently in the spotlight and is rapidly gaining ground, even though the history of this field spans decades. Despite great technological progress, the adoption of DP for routine clinical diagnostic use remains limited. Methods A systematic search was conducted in the electronic databases Pubmed-MEDLINE and Emb...

Background After a series of standardized reporting systems in cytopathology, the Sydney system was recently introduced to address the need for reproducibility and standardization in lymph node cytopathology. Since then, the risk of malignancy for the categories of the Sydney system has been explored by several studies, but no studies have yet exam...

Objective: The digital revolution in pathology represents an invaluable resource fto optimise costs, reduce the risk of error and improve patient care, even though it is still adopted in a minority of laboratories. Barriers include concerns about initial costs, lack of confidence in using whole slide images for primary diagnosis, and lack of guida...

Simple Summary In surgical pathology, the assessment of the presence of lymph node metastases is a key aspect in terms of the staging and prognosis of cancer patients. This type of work is time-consuming and prone to error. Owing to digital pathology, artificial intelligence (AI) applied to whole slide images (WSIs) of lymph nodes can be exploited...

Although controversial, procurement kidney biopsies and histology are commonly used in kidney allocation from deceased donors. The long series of models developed for this question, incorporating a variety of clinical and histologic variables, failed to properly predict the long-term graft survival. This failure could be explained by many factors,...

Background: Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) checkpoint inhibitors represent a mainstay of therapy in head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC). However, little is known about the influence of combined therapy on PD-L1 expression. The study aims to gather evidence on this topic. Methods: A systematic search was carried out in electronic databa...

The Covid‐19 pandemic has acted as a powerful change driver in the field of pathology and has had relevant consequences on the practice of cytopathology, in terms of changes in workload, rates of malignancy, and performance of cytology. At the same time, regulatory authorities have relaxed their requirements for the deployment of digital pathology...

Infectious diseases still threaten the global community, especially in resource-limited countries. An accurate diagnosis is paramount to proper patient and public health management. Identification of many microbes still relies on manual microscopic examination, a time-consuming process requiring skilled staff. Thus, artificial intelligence (AI) has...

Digital imaging, including the use of artificial intelligence, has been increasingly applied to investigate the placenta and its related pathology. However, there has been no comprehensive review of this body of work to date. The aim of this study was to therefore review the literature regarding digital pathology of the placenta. A systematic liter...

INTRODUCTION: Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently being used to augment histopathological diagnostics in pathology. This systematic review aims to evaluate the evolution of these AI-based diagnostic techniques for diagnosing head and neck neoplasms. MATHERIALS AND METHODS: Articles regarding the use of AI for head and neck pathology published...

Background In the last two decades, there has been marked development in virtual slide technology as well as its application in various subspecialties of pathology. In particular, there have been several studies examining the utility of whole slide imaging (WSI) in breast and gynecological pathology. The aim of this systematic review is to analyse...

Objective: Whole slide imaging (WSI) allows pathologists to view virtual versions of slides on computer monitors. With increasing adoption of digital pathology, laboratories have begun to validate their WSI systems for diagnostic purposes according to reference guidelines. Among these the College of American Pathologists (CAP) guidelines include t...

Skin often represents a target organ for adverse drug reactions and this also applies to the mRNA vaccines against Sars-CoV-2. Here we present a case of extensive livedoid reaction after 2nd dose of BNT162b-2 vaccine with massive blood skin extravasation and no systemic symptoms apart from anemization. The 30-year-old woman developed progressively...

Despite increased use of digital pathology, its application in the transplantation setting remains limited. One of the restraints is related to concerns that this technology is inadequate for supporting diagnostic work. In this study, we sought to establish non inferiority of whole slide imaging (WSI) to light microscopy (LM) for intraoperative tra...

Objective/Background Telepathology has been widely adopted to allow intraoperative pathology examinations to be performed remotely and for obtaining second opinion teleconsultation. In the Italian northern region of South Tyrol, the widespread geographical distances and consequent cost for the health system of having a travelling pathologist cover...

Digital pathology plays an important role in accelerating the progression of healthcare and the potential benefits of adopting digital technologies have been solidly established. Despite this, real-world data suggest that a fully digital approach to the histological workflow has been implemented in a minority only of pathology laboratories. The e-l...

Different programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) assays and scoring algorithms are being used in the evaluation of PD-L1 expression for the selection of patients for immunotherapy in specific settings of advanced urothelial carcinoma (UC). In this paper, we sought to investigate three approved assays (Ventana SP142 and SP263, and Dako 22C3) in UC w...

Background: Innovative drugs targeting the PD1/PD-L1 axis have opened promising scenarios in modern cancer therapy. Plenty of assays and scoring systems have been developed for the evaluation of PD-L1 immunohistochemical expression, so far considered the most reliable therapeutic predictive marker. Methods: By gathering the opinion of acknowledg...

Background: Patients with a history of primary brain tumors can be eligible for organ donation under extended criteria. The risk assessment of tumor transmission via organ transplant in primary brain tumors is primarily based on the assessment of tumor histotype and grade. Previous surgeries, chemo-/radiotherapy, and ventriculo-peritoneal shunt pl...

Objective Digital pathology with whole-slide imaging (WSI) has many potential clinical and non-clinical applications. In the past two decades, despite significant advances in WSI technology adoption remains slow for primary diagnosis. The aim of this study was to identify common pitfalls of WSI reported in validation studies and offer measures to o...

Objective The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on new diagnoses of head and neck cancer (HNC) in South Tyrol, northern Italy in terms of the number of new diagnoses and worsening disease stage due to diagnostic delay.Methods Patients were divided into two groups: the control group with a first diagnosis of HNC in...

Meningiomas are common tumors of the central nervous system. Although their histological diagnosis is usually straightforward, their differential diagnosis versus other tumors may be challenging at times. The objective of this study is to assess the diagnostic value of CD13 immunoexpression in the differential diagnosis between meningiomas and thei...

Objectives and background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a highly malignant disease with an increasing incidence. The need to improve therapeutic strategies for patients affected by OSCC is an urgent challenge. Currently, the advent of immunotherapy represents an important step toward this aim. Programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), a me...

Background Transplant nephropathology is a highly specialized field of pathology comprising both the evaluation of organ donor biopsy for organ allocation and post-transplant graft biopsy for assessment of rejection or graft damage. The introduction of digital pathology with whole-slide imaging (WSI) in clinical research, trials and practice has ca...

Ki-67 assessment is a key step in the diagnosis of neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) from all anatomic locations. Several challenges exist related to quantifying the Ki-67 proliferation index due to lack of method standardization and inter-reader variability. The application of digital pathology coupled with machine learning has been shown to be high...

In this era of personalized medicine, targeted immunotherapies like immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) blocking the programmed death‐1 (PD‐1)/program death ligand‐1 (PD‐L1) axis have become an integral part of treating advanced stage non‐small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) and many other cancer types. Multiple monoclonal antibodies are available comm...

The introduction of immunotherapy targeting the programmed death-1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand-1 (PD-L1) axis has represented a turning point in the treatment of HNSCC. Harmonization studies comparing the different antibodies and immunohistochemistry platforms available for the evaluation of PD-L1 expression with Combined Positive Score (CPS) in...

About 80-90% of minor salivary glands neoplasms are malignant. Adenoid cystic carcinoma is the most common. • In 1991 Spiro et al stated that the staging criteria and the surgical approach to MSGC was identical to that of SCC in the same locations. • The concept of DOI is not applicable to MSGCs developed in the submucosa surrounded by connective...

Patient: Male, 51-year-old Final Diagnosis: Sinonasal inverted papilloma Symptoms: Nasal congestion • nasal mass Medication: — Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Pathology Objective Rare disease Background Inverted papilloma is a benign epithelial lesion of the nasal cavities. Although commonly encountered in clinical practice, it rarely presents w...

Background: In the setting of kidney transplantation, histopathology of kidney biopsies is a key element in the organ assessment and allocation. Despite the broad diffusion of the Remuzzi-Karpinski score on preimplantation kidney biopsies, scientific evidence of its correlation to the transplantation outcome is controversial. The main issues affec...

Background: Digital pathology has widened pathologists' opportunities to examine both surgical and cytological samples. Recently, portable mobile devices like tablets and smartphones have been tested for application with digital technologies including static, dynamic, and more recently whole slide imaging. This study aimed to review the published...

Although gene fusions occur rarely in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, they represent a relevant target in treatment decision algorithms. To date, immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization are the two principal methods used in clinical trials. However, using these methods in routine clinical practice is often impractic...

Aims The introduction of immunotherapy in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) raises the need for harmonization between different types of antibodies and immunohistochemistry platforms for evaluating the expression of (Programmed death-ligand 1) PD-L1 with Combined Positive Score (CPS) in this tumor. We compare the expression of PD-L1, us...

Cytology effusions are often the only material available for diagnosing malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). However, the cytomorphological features alone are not always diagnostic, and cytology samples preclude an assessment for pleural tissue invasion. Accordingly, immunohistochemical, soluble, and molecular biomarkers have been developed. The a...

Immunohistochemical assessment with combined positive score (CPS) of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is the prerequisite for administration of checkpoint inhibitor therapy in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Practicing pathologists are required to assess PD-L1 in routinary work and can be faced up with practical issues not always ad...

Pilomatricoma is a relatively common benign cutaneous adnexal tumor and a well-recognized entity, while its pigmented variant is far less common and less reported. Its estimated frequency ranges from 11 to 24%, according to a limited number of published case series. This article describes the case of a 42-year-old man presenting a firm subcutaneous...

Congenital granular cell epulis is a rare benign lesion usually arising as single mass from the alveolar ridge of maxillary bone of female newborns, composed of polygonal granular cells that typically stain negative for S-100, in contrast to the adult counterpart. Larger lesions can disturb breathing and breast-feeding, requiring surgery. Prenatal...

Background: Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression with combined positive score (CPS) ≥1 is required for administration of checkpoint inhibitor therapy in recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The 22C3 pharmDx Dako immunohistochemical assay is the one approved as companion diagnostic for pembrolizumab, but many...

Limited studies on whole slide imaging (WSI) in surgical neuropathology reported a perceived limitation in the recognition of mitoses. This study analyzed and compared the inter- and intra-observer concordance for atypical meningioma, using glass slides and WSI. Two neuropathologists and two residents assessed the histopathological features of 35 m...

The application of next generation sequencing (NGS) technology to cytological samples has significantly modified molecular cytopathology practice. Cytological samples represent a valid source of high‐quality DNA for NGS analysis, especially for predicting patients' response to targeted treatments and for refining the risk of malignancy in indetermi...

Patient: Female, 41-year-old Final Diagnosis: Diffuse leiomyomatosis Symptoms: None Medication:— Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Pathology Objective Rare disease Background Guidelines have been designed to stratify the risk of cancer transmission in donors with a history of or ongoing malignancy, although this evaluation is not always straightfo...

Molecular cytopathology is a rapidly evolving field embracing both conventional microscopy and molecular pathology. Its growing popularity stems from the fact that in many types of advanced cancers, including non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), cytological samples often constitute the only available specimens for morphomolecular analysis. Indeed, n...

Background clinical and imaging investigations allow a detailed assessment of an organ donor, but a quota of cancer still elude detection. Complete autopsy of donors is even less frequently performed, due to economic issues and increasing availability of high-quality imaging. The aim of this study is to gather evidence from the literature on donor...

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-associated Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become a global threat to public health. COVID-19 is more pathogenic and infectious than the prior 2002 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-1. The pathogenesis of certain disease manifestations in COVID-19 such as diffuse al...

Malignant mesothelioma is a rare malignancy with a poor prognosis whose development is related to asbestos fiber exposure. An increasing role of genetic predisposition has been recognized recently. Pleural biopsy is the gold standard for diagnosis, in which the identification of pleural invasion by atypical mesothelial cell is a major criterion. Pl...

Objective Human leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G) is a non-classical HLA class I molecule involved in inducing tolerance at the feto-maternal interface and in escape of immune response by tumor cells. The aim of the study is to review the published literature on the expression of HLA-G in malignant melanomas and its clinicopathological and prognostic cor...

Background: In the setting of kidney transplantation, histopathology of kidney biopsies is a key element in the organ assessment and allocation. Despite the broad diffusion of the Remuzzi-Karpinski score on preimplantation kidney biopsies, scientific evidence of its correlation to the transplantation outcome is controversial. The main issues affect...

Background Immune‐checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) represent an important treatment option for patients who have advanced stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Currently, evaluation of the expression level of programmed death‐ligand 1 (PD‐L1) has proven highly successful as a positive predictive biomarker for ICIs. In addition to PD‐L1, other promi...

The expression of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is an established prerequisite for the administration of checkpoint inhibitor therapy and is of prognostic value in several cancer types. Data concerning the potential effect of PD-L1 on the prognosis of thyroid carcinoma are limited. Therefore, this study aimed to provide a systematic review of t...

The risk of transmission of malignancy from donor to recipient is low; however, this occurrence has dramatic consequences. Many reports of donor derived cancers in liver transplant recipients have been published, but they have not been a systematically summarized into a lucid and unified analysis. The present study is an attempt to provide clarity...

Background Studies concerning programmed death‐ligand 1 (PD‐L1) expression in precancerous lesions of head and neck (HN) region have shown variable results. Methods We systematically reviewed the published evidence on PD‐L1 expression in HN precancerous lesions. Results Of 1058 original articles, 14 were included in systematic review and 9 in met...

The transmission of cancer from a donor organ is a rare event but has important consequences. Aim of this systematic review was to summarize all the published evidence on cancer transmission in kidney recipients. We reviewed published case reports and series describing the outcome of recipients with donor-transmitted cancer until August 2019. A tot...

Telepathology has been an important application for second opinion consultation ever since the introduction of digital pathology. However, little is known regarding teleconsultation for second opinion in transplantation. There is also limited literature on telepathology during organ donor procurement, typically utilized when general pathologists on...

Patient: Female, 39-year-old Final Diagnosis: Goiter with periprocedural complication Symptoms: None Medication:— Clinical Procedure: Fine-needle aspiration cytology Specialty: Radiology Objective Challenging differential diagnosis Background The complications of fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) are rare but can be challenging for performin...

Objective Thyroid pathology has great potential for automated/artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm application as the incidence of thyroid nodules is increasing and the indeterminate interpretation rate of fine‐needle aspiration remains relatively high. The aim of the study is to review the published literature on automated image analysis and AI...

Whole slide imaging (WSI) allows generation of large whole slide images and their navigation with zoom in and out like a true virtual microscope. It has become widely used in surgical pathology for many purposes, such as education and training, research activity, teleconsultation, and primary diagnosis. However, in cytopathology, the use of WSI has...

Mesothelial/monocytic incidental cardiac excrescence (MICE) is a rare benign finding made of mesothelial cells, histiocytes, and fibrin, usually found during heart valve surgery. The clinical relevance resides in the potential misdiagnosis as metastatic carcinoma or arterial embolism. The pathogenesis remains uncertain, with artifactual and reactiv...

Introduction Newly discovered thyroid nodules in deceased donors are investigated to rule out cancer that can be transmitted, but there are no established protocols. The aim of the study was to compare fine needle aspiration versus intraoperative frozen section in the donor management with limited time. Methods Data were extracted only from the re...

Many studies have examined the diagnostic concordance of whole slide imaging (WSI) and light microscopy (LM) for surgical pathology. In cytopathology, WSI use has been more limited, mainly because of technical issues. The aim of this study was to review the literature and determine the overall diagnostic concordance of WSI and LM in cytopathology....

Background Evidence about the reliability of pre-implantation biopsy is still conflicting, depending on both biopsy type and pathologist’s expertise. Aim of the study is to evaluate the agreement of general v specialist pathologists and to compare scores on biopsy and whole organs in a set of discarded kidneys. Methods 46 discarded kidneys were id...

Aberrant function of Smad2, a crucial member of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) signaling, is associated with the development of malignancies, particularly in the gastrointestinal district. However, little is known about its possible prognostic role in such tumor types. With the first meta-analysis on this topic, we demonstrated that the la...

Synovial sarcoma arising in the pharynx is a rare entity, with very few cases described in literature, mainly as surgical‐oriented case reports. We report the case of a healthy 20‐year old man who presented with a painless right neck mass, clinically suspicious for a thyroid nodule. Ultrasound scan and fine‐needle aspiration cytology failed to prov...

Background: Digital pathology has progressed over the last two decades, with many clinical and nonclinical applications. Transplantation pathology is a highly specialized field in which the majority of practicing pathologists do not have sufficient expertise to handle critical needs. In this context, digital pathology has proven to be useful as it...

Astroblastoma is a rare glial neoplasia of the central nervous system. It is histologically defined by the presence of neoplastic cells with non‐ or slightly tapering processes arranged around blood vessels (astroblastic rosettes) and conventionally subdivided into well‐differentiated and anaplastic. It commonly affects children and young adults, a...

Patient: Male, 62 Final Diagnosis: Tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica Symptoms: Cough Medication: — Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Pulmonology Objective Rare disease Background Tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica (TO) is a rare idiopathic disease with a stable course, which involves the lumen of the tracheobronchial tree. Clinical...

Guidelines for donor selection have changed to expand the donor pool, considering potential donors affected by a neoplasm. Aim of this retrospective study is to look at the use of organs from donors with a current or history of neoplasm within the Italian Transplant Network. Data, collected and validated by Italian National Health Institute for the...

Urachal carcinoma (UrC) is an exceedingly rare neoplasm that develops from the urachus, an embryologic remnant of the urogenital sinus and allantois. The most commonly encountered histologic subtype is adenocarcinoma. The aim of this study is to characterize a series of UrC by morphology, immunohistochemistry, and molecular analysis. We retrospecti...

Introduction Whole-slide imaging (WSI) technology can be used for primary diagnosis and consultation, including intraoperative (IO) frozen section (FS). We aimed to implement and validate a digital system for the FS evaluation of cancer and transplant specimens following recommendations of the College of American Pathologists. Materials and Method...

The international symposium entitled “Innovation in Transplantation: The Digital Era” took place on June 7 and 8, 2018 in Verona, Italy. This meeting was borne out of the productive collaboration between the Universities and Hospital Trusts of Verona and Padua in Italy, in the context of a vast regional project called Research and innovation projec...

Primary melanocytic tumors of central nervous system represent rare tumors arising from melanocytes of the leptomeninges. These neoplasms include focal forms like melanocytoma and primary malignant melanoma and diffuse forms like leptomeningeal melanocytosis and primary leptomeningeal melanomatosis. The clinical diagnosis remains challenging, with...

CD200 has been recently indicated as a robust marker of well-differentiated neuroendocrine neoplasms. Here, we evaluate its role in differential diagnosis of solid pancreatic neoplasms. We immunostained for CD200 22 solid pseudopapillary neoplasms (SPNs), 8 acinar carcinomas (ACs), 2 pancreatoblastomas (PBs), 138 neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs), an...

Mesothelial/monocytic incidental cardiac excrescence (MICE) is a benign lesion composed of histiocytes and mesothelial cells, usually found during cardiac surgery. To date, no more than 50 cases are reported in literature, and pathogenesis is still unclear even if different theories have been proposed. Here we report a case of MICE encountered duri...

Denosumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody directed against RANKL, has recently been introduced in the treatment strategy of giant cell tumour of bone (GCTB). Aim of this study was to investigate the phenotypical modifications induced by denosumab treatment in a series of 15 GCTB. The tumours were characterised for histone 3.3 mutations, and stud...