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In this issue Published online: 11 August 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
This issue contains a miniseries of articles on the burning topic of COVID-19. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has tremendously changed our private and professional life and burdened our health care systems. World-wide, research groups put their efforts on unraveling the pathogenesis of this disease and organ damage associated with severe and fatal course. So far, pathology has made significant contributions to answer crucial questions with great clinical impact. The mini-series particularly reflects the importance of autopsies for progress in COVID-19 research which is stressed in an editorial (https:// doi.org/10.1007/s00428-020-02887-5; electron microscopic image of the virus is illustrated on the cover page). Further articles deal with different aspects of COVID-19 including pulmonary changes (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-02002881-x; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-020-02886-6) and the feasibility of post-mortem examination (https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s00428-020-02861-1). The infiltrative growth pattern and the immune environment seem to be predictive for lymph node metastasis and overall survival in particular cancer types and stages. This has been demonstrated in a large series for early stages of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by Zhao et al. (https://doi.org/10. 1007/s00428-020-02801-z). An infiltrative growth pattern seems to be frequently associated with low tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), reflecting immunosuppression, presence of lymph node metastasis and poor overall survival. The authors propose growth pattern and TILs as a putative novel histologic risk stratification model. Primary glandular tumors of the urinary bladder are rare and their molecular pathogenesis is poorly understood. Based on a study by Maurer et al. (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428020-02787-8) using next generation sequencing similar pathways seem to be involved for adenocarcinomas of the bladder independent of their tissue origin. There is further evidence for a precancerous nature of intestinal metaplasia based on alterations of TERT and FBXW7 in single cases. A significant subset of bladder and urachal adenocarcinomas
also harbor PD-L1 expressing immune cells which may be of therapeutic impact. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of salivary glands and its various histological patterns including that with oncocytic cells (Warthin-like) frequently harbors rearrangement of MAML2 but this alteration is not present in Warthin tumor. Therefore, Bieńkowski et al. (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-02002798-5) suggest to use MAML2 FISH analysis to rule out mucoepidermoid carcinoma, particularly, when a Warthin tumor is suspected in young female non-smokers. Sato et al. (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-020-02781-0) studied the expression of L-type amino-acid transporter 1 (LAT1), which is considered to play an essential role in cancer cell growth and survival, in a large cohort of endometrial carcinoma. They found high LAT1 expression as
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