Aim Barrett’s esophagus (BE) is a predisposing factor of esophageal adenocarcinoma/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (ECA/GEJ Aca). BE patients are stratified and subsequently monitored according to the risk of malignant progression by the combination of endoscopy and biopsy. This study is to evaluate the maspin expression patterns as early diagnostic markers of malignancy in BE patients. Materials and methods Immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining was performed on 62 archival core biopsies from 35 patients, including BE without dysplasia (intestinal metaplasia, IM), BE with low grade dysplasia, BE with high grade dysplasia, carcinoma in situ, and well to poorly differentiated ECA/GEJ Aca (PD-ECA/GEJ Aca). The intensity and the subcellular distribution of immunoreactivity were evaluated microscopically. Statistical analysis was performed using the χ2 and Fisher exact tests. Results The level of epithelial-specific tumor suppressor maspin protein inversely correlated with the progression from IM to PD-ECA/GEJ Aca. Lesions of each pathological grade could be divided into subtypes that exhibited distinct maspin subcellular distribution patterns, including nuclear only (Nuc), combined nuclear and cytoplasmic (Nuc+Cyt), cytoplasmic only (Cyt) and overall negligible (Neg). The Cyt subtype, which was minor in both IM and dysplasia (approximately 10%), was predominant in ECA/GEJ Aca as early as well-differentiated lesions (more than 50%: p = 0.0092). In comparison, nuclear staining of the tumor suppressor TP53 was heterogeneous in dysplasia, and did not correlate with the differentiation grades of ECA/GEJ Aca. Conclusion The Cyt subtype of maspin expression pattern in core biopsies of BE patients may serve as a molecular marker for early diagnosis of ECA/GEJ Aca.

Dear Editor, We highly appreciate Dr Altundag's feedback regarding our recently published manuscript in The Breast Journal.1 We are also thankful to the editor in chief (Dr S. Masood) for giving us the opportunity to address Dr Altundag's comments. Neo‐adjuvant chemotherapy has been widely used for breast cancer treatment due to the effective pathologic responses seen with newer therapeutic agents.2 Recently, it has also been introduced for the treatment of early breast cancer.3 Despite this, there is ongoing debate and controversies related to the use of neo‐adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer (critically appraised in a recent review by Vaidya et al2). We find Dr Altundag's point regarding our neo‐adjuvant cohort quite valid. In our study, ~43% of patients with invasive apocrine carcinoma (IAC) presented at the advanced stage (III or IV) with only 19% of the patients having the tumor size ≤2 cm at presentation. This is mainly due to the lack of organized screening program at the national level. In this regard, our small IAC cohort treated in neo‐adjuvant setting is somehow biased but it essentially reflected the previous and current overall breast cancer presentation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Consequently, the response rates to neo‐adjuvant therapy in our study may be different from the previously published data. Noteworthy, IAC is a rare breast cancer subtype (~1%‐2% of all breast cancers)4,5 and future larger and multi‐institutional studies are required to validate the effectiveness of (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with IAC.

Predatory or pseudo journals have recently come into focus due to their massive internet expansion and extensive spam email soliciting. Recent studies explored this urging problem in several biomedical disciplines. In the present study, we identified 69 potential predatory (pseudo) pathology journals that were contrasted to 89 legitimate pathology journals obtained from the major bibliographic databases. All potential predatory journals in pathology shared at least one of the features proposed by previous studies (e.g. a poor web-site integrity, submissions via email, unclear or ambiguous peer-review process, missing names of the editorial board members, missing or pending the journal ISSN). Twenty-one (30%) of the potential predatory pathology journals had misleading titles mimicking those of legitimate journals. Only one of the identified journals was listed in the Directory of Open Access journals whereas none (0%) was indexed in PubMed/MEDLINE or Web of Science, listed in the Committee on Publication Ethics nor have they had a legitimate impact factor in the Journal Citation Reports.

School of Medicine, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Department of Pathology, Clinical Center, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Department of Radiology, Clinical Center, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Department of Oncology, Clinical Center, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina College of Medicine, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

e12661Background: Neoadjuvant treatment is one of cornerstones of HER2 directed treatment in breast cancer. Today it is considered that patients with complete pathological response (pCR) to neoadjuvant therapy have a better disease-free survival and overall survival, especially with Her2-positive breast cancer. Current standard is use of dual anti-HER2 blockade, but this therapeutic approach in real life is often inaccessible, particularly in countries with limited resources. Aim of this study was to investigate neoadjuvant effects of trastuzumab + pertuzumab in patients with locally advanced Her2-positive disease in a country with limited resources. Methods: During the period 2017-2018, we identified 27 patients with locally advanced Her2 positive breast cancer. All patients were treated with neoadjuvant therapy that included trastuzumab and pertuzumab and conventional chemotherapy regimens. All patients underwent surgery and a pathologist evaluated pCR using MD Anderson Residual Burden Calculator (RCB)....