Sungkyunkwan University · Medicine
Professor Soomin Ahn's research lab specializes in molecular pathology and biomarker discovery in gastrointestinal, thyroid, and neuroendocrine neoplasms. The lab focuses on identifying predictive and prognostic biomarkers—particularly PD-L1 and HER2—across various cancers to guide precision oncology and immunotherapy strategies. Key research directions include the clinicopathological correlation of immune checkpoint expression, tumor heterogeneity, and molecular alterations such as TERT promoter mutations and BRAF status in thyroid and biliary tract cancers.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) protein overexpression and/or HER2 gene amplification is found in about 20% of invasive breast cancers. It is a sole predictive marker for treatment benefits from HER2 targeted therapy and thus, HER2 testing is a routine practice for newly diagnosed breast cancer in pathology. Currently, HER2 immunohistochemistry (IHC) is used for a screening test, and in situ hybridization is used as a confirmation test for HER2 IHC equivocal cases. Since the Amer
PD-L1 expression is being considered a potential biomarker for response of anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 agents in various tumors. The reported frequency of PD-L1 positivity varies in thyroid carcinomas, and multiple factors may contribute to the variability in PD-L1 positivity. We evaluated the PD-L1 expression in various thyroid cancers on a large scale. A total of 407 primary thyroid cancers with a median 13.7-year of follow-up were included. We evaluated the frequency of PD-L1 expression using a r
Pembrolizumab appears promising for patients with programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1)-positive solid tumors. However, data on immunotherapy for biliary tract cancers (BTC) are limited. We aimed to investigate the predictive value of PD-L1 expression as an immunotherapeutic biomarker in BTC. Patients with advanced BTC (n = 175) were screened for PD-L1 expression using PharmDx assay and microsatellite instability (MSI) status. Of the total of 175 patients, 125 (71%) showed tumoral PD-L1 positiv
NSCLC can acquire a neuroendocrine phenotype with or without EGFR TKI treatment.
Thymic neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs) are uncommon, for which there is no established information available because of a limited number of epidemiological study in Asia.We reviewed 21 cases of surgically resected thymic NECs, and evaluated their pathological and clinical features.It showed male predominance (male/female ratio, 15/6) with wide age range from 20 to 72 years (mean age, 49 years). All 21 cases were divided into two types according to the World Health Organization criteria: atypica
In some cases, the distinction between these three neoplasms remains difficult in that all exhibit some degree of myoepithelial participation. However, FNA showed a high diagnostic accuracy in diagnosing benign salivary tumors with myoepithelial differentiation, and triage into this category provides sufficient information for clinicians to make treatment decisions.
- A significant difference in the Ki-67 index between core biopsy and surgical specimens was observed. Our findings indicate that it may be better to perform the Ki-67 assay on the core needle biopsy and the surgical specimen than on only one sample.
High MTDH expression may be a prognostic predictor of shorter DFS in HCC patients after curative hepatectomy.
Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) levels have prognostic and predictive values in treatment-naïve breast cancers. However, there have been controversies regarding TIL subset changes and their clinical implications in post-treatment breast cancers. This study aimed to explore change and prognostic significance of TIL subset infiltration after primary systemic therapy (PST) in breast cancer. One-hundred-fifty-five patients who had residual disease after anthracycline- or anthracycline plus taxan
Background/Aims: The prognosis after surgical resection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains poor because of a high rate of recurrence. Thus, it is crucial to identify patients with a high risk of recurrence after curative hepatectomy and to develop more effective and targeted treatment strategies to improve disease outcomes. In this study, we investigated the roles of metadherin (MTDH) in the prognosis of HCC. Methods: We investigated MTDH expression using immunohistochemistry in tumor tis
ER and HER2 status changed little after PST, whereas PR status changed significantly. In particular, negative conversion of PR status was revealed as a poor prognostic indicator, suggesting that re-evaluation of basic biomarkers is mandatory in breast cancer after PST for proper management and prognostication of patients.
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