Proliferation of fibrotic tissue (desmoplasia) is one of the hallmarks of several epithelial tumors including pancreatic adenocarcinoma. This tissue reaction may be deleterious or advantageous to the host or tumor. In a systematic analysis, we identified two growth factors expressed by human pancreatic carcinoma cells that are positively correlated with the ability to induce fibroblast prolifer...

Our understanding of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is shifting away from a disease of malignant ductal cells-only, toward a complex system where tumor evolution is a result of interaction of cancer cells with their microenvironment. This change has led to intensification of research focusing on the fibrotic stroma of PDAC. Pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) are the main fibroblastic cel...

Trichoepithelioma is a well-recognized hamartoma of hair germ clinically presenting as solitary or multiple papules. Uncommonly, it may present as a large solitary lesion, termed as giant solitary trichoepithelioma (GST). A 50-year old man presented with a large, pedunculated mass over the root of nose obstructing visual field. It was excised and sent for histopathological examination. H&E stai...

the endometrial stromal nodule is a benign tumor composed of differentiated endometrial stromal cells arranged as a well circumscribed nodule with smooth non-invasive margins. they are rare neoplasms, diagnosed in most instances by microscopy. although nodules are benign in nature, hysterectomy is the treatment of choice to enable evaluation of the tumor margins which are well demarcated in end...

BACKGROUND AND AIM Desmoplasia is a characteristic feature and a suspected mechanism of tumor progression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Main constituents of the stroma involve cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and extracellular matrix (ECM). The aim of this study was to dissect the interaction of CAFs, ECM, and PDAC cells in both an in vitro setting and a large-scale clinical c...