Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 21, 2020; 26(43): 6822-6836
Published online Nov 21, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i43.6822
Tissue microarray-chip featuring computerized immunophenotypical characterization more accurately subtypes ampullary adenocarcinoma than routine histology
Matteo Palmeri, Niccola Funel, Gregorio Di Franco, Niccolò Furbetta, Desirée Gianardi, Simone Guadagni, Matteo Bianchini, Luca E Pollina, Claudio Ricci, Marco Del Chiaro, Giulio Di Candio, Luca Morelli
Matteo Palmeri, Gregorio Di Franco, Niccolò Furbetta, Desirée Gianardi, Simone Guadagni, Matteo Bianchini, Giulio Di Candio, Luca Morelli, General Surgery Unit, Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa 56124, Italy
Niccola Funel, Luca E Pollina, Division of Surgical Pathology, University-Hospital of Pisa, Pisa 56124, Italy
Claudio Ricci, Department of Surgical, Medical, Molecular Pathology and Critical Area, University of Pisa, Pisa 56124, Italy
Marco Del Chiaro, Department of Surgery, University of Colorado, Denver, CO 80045, United States
Author contributions: Palmeri M, Funel N, and Morelli L conceived and designed the study; Palmeri M, Di Franco G, Furbetta N, Gianardi D, Guadagni S, Bianchini M, Ricci C and Pollina LE acquired the data; Palmeri M, Funel N, Del Chiaro M and Morelli L interpreted and analyzed the data; Palmeri M, Di Franco G, Guadagni S, Furbetta N, Gianardi D, Funel N, Pollina LE and Di Candio G drafted the manuscript; Del Chiaro M and Morelli L made critical revisions; Palmeri M, Di Franco G, Guadagni S, Bianchini M, Furbetta N, Gianardi D, Funel N, Pollina LE, Di Candio G, Del Chiaro M and Morelli L provided final approval of the study; Palmeri M and Funel N contributed equally.
Supported by ARPA Foundation (www.fondazionearpa.it).
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by Ethics committee of “Area Vasta Nord Ovest (CEAVNO)”.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Niccola Funel, BSc, PhD, Academic Research, Postdoc, Research Scientist, Division of Surgical Pathology, University-Hospital of Pisa, Via Paradisa 2, Pisa 56124, Italy. niccola.funel@gmail.com
Received: May 29, 2020
Peer-review started: May 29, 2020
First decision: June 12, 2020
Revised: June 24, 2020
Accepted: August 27, 2020
Article in press: August 27, 2020
Published online: November 21, 2020
Processing time: 175 Days and 2.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Ampullary adenocarcinomas are heterogeneous tumors with different responses to specific chemotherapy regimens and prognosis, probably because they are a heterogenous group including differing ampullary growth and overlapping histological phenotypes. Conventional histology does not allow a definitive identification of the three subgroups. We used an immunohistochemical score based on CDX2, CK7 and CK20 and identified only two sub-types, representing two groups of apparently separate neoplastic disorders with different oncological outcomes.