Scholars@Duke
Wen Chi Foo

Wen Chi Foo

Associate Professor of Pathology
Pathology
wenchi.foo@duke.edu
Rm 3421 Duke Hosp South, Box 3712, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications

Teaching interventional cytopathology.

Journal Article Semin Diagn Pathol · November 2022 Interventional cytopathology is a unique area of pathology, where cytopathologists play a primary role in obtaining fine needle aspiration biopsies and/or making determinations through rapid on-site evaluations to guide sample procurement in real-time. Uns ... Full text Link to item Cite

Characterization of a castrate-resistant prostate cancer xenograft derived from a patient of West African ancestry.

Conference Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis · September 2022 BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer is a clinically and molecularly heterogeneous disease, with highest incidence and mortality among men of African ancestry. To date, prostate cancer patient-derived xenograft (PCPDX) models to study this disease have been difficu ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Structured approach to resolving discordance between PI-RADS v2.1 score and targeted prostate biopsy results: an opportunity for quality improvement.

Journal Article Abdom Radiol (NY) · August 2022 BACKGROUND: Prostate multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) can identify lesions within the prostate with characteristics identified in Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) v2.1 associated with clinically significant prostate ca ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Hybrid Human-Machine Learning Approach for Screening Prostate Biopsies Can Improve Clinical Efficiency Without Compromising Diagnostic Accuracy.

Journal Article Arch Pathol Lab Med · June 1, 2022 CONTEXT.—: Prostate cancer is a common malignancy, and accurate diagnosis typically requires histologic review of multiple prostate core biopsies per patient. As pathology volumes and complexity increase, new tools to improve the efficiency of everyday pra ... Full text Link to item Cite

Prostate Cancer Detection Using 3-D Shear Wave Elasticity Imaging.

Journal Article Ultrasound Med Biol · July 2021 Transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) B-mode imaging provides insufficient sensitivity and specificity for prostate cancer (PCa) targeting when used for biopsy guidance. Shear wave elasticity imaging (SWEI) is an elasticity imaging technique that has been commerci ... Full text Link to item Cite

Clinicopathological features to distinguish malignant solitary fibrous tumors of the prostate from prostatic stromal tumors.

Journal Article Virchows Arch · April 2021 Mesenchymal tumors of the prostate are rare but encompass a wide differential diagnosis. In our study, we aimed to investigate the clinicopathological features that can be used to differentiate malignant solitary fibrous tumors (mSFTs) occurring in the pro ... Full text Link to item Cite

PD-L1 Assay Concordance in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma and Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma.

Journal Article Clin Genitourin Cancer · December 2020 BACKGROUND: Immune checkpoint inhibitors are now standard of care for many patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) and metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC). Given real-world limitations in programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) testing, concordanc ... Full text Link to item Cite

Multiparametric Ultrasound for Targeting Prostate Cancer: Combining ARFI, SWEI, QUS and B-Mode.

Journal Article Ultrasound Med Biol · December 2020 Diagnosing prostate cancer through standard transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided biopsy is challenging because of the sensitivity and specificity limitations of B-mode imaging. We used a linear support vector machine (SVM) to combine standard TRUS imaging ... Full text Link to item Cite

Discordant and heterogeneous clinically relevant genomic alterations in circulating tumor cells vs plasma DNA from men with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer.

Journal Article Genes Chromosomes Cancer · April 2020 Circulating tumor cell (CTC) and cell-free (cf) DNA-based genomic alterations are increasingly being used for clinical decision-making in oncology. However, the concordance and discordance between paired CTC and cfDNA genomic profiles remain largely unknow ... Full text Link to item Cite

Multiparametric Ultrasound for the Targeting of Prostate Cancer using ARFI, SWEI, B-mode, and QUS

Conference IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium, IUS · October 1, 2019 Prostate cancer diagnosis using standard transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) and systematic biopsy is challenging. To improve the performance of TRUS imaging, we combined it with acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging and shear wave elasticity imaging ( ... Full text Cite

Correction to: N-Myc promotes therapeutic resistance development of neuroendocrine prostate cancer by differentially regulating miR-421/ ATM pathway.

Journal Article Mol Cancer · June 19, 2019 Following publication of the original article [1], the authors reported that name that appeared in published online version is incorrect. Aifeng Wang should be Aifen Wang. Corrected name is provided in the author group section above. ... Full text Link to item Cite

N-Myc promotes therapeutic resistance development of neuroendocrine prostate cancer by differentially regulating miR-421/ATM pathway.

Journal Article Mol Cancer · January 18, 2019 BACKGROUND: MYCN amplification or N-Myc overexpression is found in approximately 40% NEPC and up to 20% CRPC patients. N-Myc has been demonstrated to drive disease progression and hormonal therapeutic resistance of NEPC/CRPC. Here, we aim to identify the m ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pharmacodynamic study of radium-223 in men with bone metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2019 BACKGROUND: Radium-223 is a targeted alpha-particle therapy that improves survival in men with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), particularly in men with elevated serum levels of bone alkaline phosphatase (B-ALP). We hypothesized tha ... Full text Link to item Cite

Ultrasound-Guided Fine-Needle Aspiration Practice Patterns

Journal Article AJSP: Reviews and Reports · July 1, 2018 How ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (USFNA) is performed in the United States varies considerably among institutions. The critical role of the cytopathologist for diagnosis is indisputable, although the degree of collaboration with other specialti ... Full text Cite

Ultrasound-Guided Fine-Needle Aspiration of Thyroid Nodules: Pearls and Potential

Journal Article AJSP: Reviews and Reports · July 1, 2018 Thyroid nodules are a commonplace clinical problem. Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy is often the first step in the diagnosis and management of these nodules. We provide a review of technical considerations, performance, and techniques for t ... Full text Cite

Diabetic bladder dysfunction is associated with bladder inflammation triggered through hyperglycemia, not polyuria.

Journal Article Res Rep Urol · 2018 PURPOSE: Diabetes is a grave and progressive condition characterized by debilitating complications. Diabetic bladder dysfunction (DBD) is a very common complication with no specific treatments currently available. Unlike other tissues affected by this dise ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Immunocytochemistry for SOX-11 and TFE3 as diagnostic markers for solid pseudopapillary neoplasms of the pancreas in FNA biopsies.

Journal Article Cancer Cytopathol · November 2017 BACKGROUND: Solid pseudopapillary neoplasms (SPNs) of the pancreas are rare malignant tumors that can be sampled via endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA). Although diagnosing SPNs can be straightforward in cases with a classic morp ... Full text Link to item Cite

Over half of contemporary clinical Gleason 8 on prostate biopsy are downgraded at radical prostatectomy.

Journal Article Can J Urol · October 2017 INTRODUCTION: Contemporary clinical guidelines utilize the highest Gleason sum (HGS) in any one core on prostate biopsy to determine prostate cancer treatment. Here, we present a large discrepancy between prostate cancer risk stratified as high risk on bio ... Link to item Cite

Anticipatory Positive Urine Tests for Bladder Cancer.

Journal Article Ann Surg Oncol · June 2017 PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to establish the criteria defining an anticipatory positive test for bladder cancer. METHODS: We reviewed all patients at our institution who underwent urine cytology or UroVysion fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) ... Full text Link to item Cite

Urinary NID2 and TWIST1 methylation to augment conventional urine cytology for the detection of bladder cancer.

Journal Article Cancer Biomark · 2017 BACKGROUND: Abnormal methylation of urinary TWIST1 and NID2 conferred high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of urothelial carcinoma. OBJECTIVE: We examine the performance of the urine-based TWIST1/NID2 methylation assay with the addition of ur ... Full text Link to item Cite

Treatment-related neuroendocrine prostate cancer resulting in Cushing's syndrome.

Journal Article Int J Urol · December 2016 Here we present, to the best of our knowledge, the first case of a paraneoplastic Cushing's syndrome (hypercortisolism) resulting from treatment-related neuroendocrine prostate cancer - a highly aggressive and difficult disease to treat. A 51-year-old man ... Full text Link to item Cite

Snail promotes resistance to enzalutamide through regulation of androgen receptor activity in prostate cancer.

Journal Article Oncotarget · August 2, 2016 Treatment with androgen-targeted therapies can induce upregulation of epithelial plasticity pathways. Epithelial plasticity is known to be important for metastatic dissemination and therapeutic resistance. The goal of this study is to elucidate the functio ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

The diagnostic accuracy of urine-based tests for bladder cancer varies greatly by patient.

Journal Article BMC Urol · June 13, 2016 BACKGROUND: Spectrum effects refer to the phenomenon that test performance varies across subgroups of a population. When spectrum effects occur during diagnostic testing for cancer, difficult patient misdiagnoses can occur. Our objective was to evaluate th ... Full text Link to item Cite

Usefulness of translocation-associated immunohistochemical stains in the fine-needle aspiration diagnosis of salivary gland neoplasms.

Journal Article Cancer Cytopathol · June 2016 BACKGROUND: Fine-needle aspiration diagnosis of pleomorphic adenoma (PA) and adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) is challenging due to cytologic overlap with one another and with other salivary gland tumors having prominent epithelial and myoepithelial componen ... Full text Link to item Cite

The NLRP3 Inflammasome Mediates Inflammation Produced by Bladder Outlet Obstruction.

Journal Article J Urol · May 2016 PURPOSE: While bladder outlet obstruction is well established to elicit an inflammatory reaction in the bladder that leads to overactive bladder and fibrosis, little is known about the mechanism by which this is initiated. NLRs (NOD-like receptors) and the ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Image-guided fine-needle aspiration of secondary pancreatic neoplasms: A case series and review of the literature

Journal Article Pathology Case Reviews · July 10, 2015 Background Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) has become a well-established diagnostic method for evaluation of focal lesions in the pancreas. While the majority of malignant lesions evaluated are primary pancreatic adenocarcinomas, ... Full text Cite

Diagnosis of metastatic renal cell carcinoma on fine-needle aspiration cytology.

Journal Article Arch Pathol Lab Med · October 2014 Fine-needle aspiration has assumed an increasingly important role in the diagnosis and management of patients with advanced stage cancer. Given its predilection for metastases to distant sites and organs at the time of presentation, metastatic renal cell c ... Full text Link to item Cite

Radiologic-pathologic correlation of uncommon mesenchymal liver tumors.

Journal Article Curr Probl Diagn Radiol · 2013 Mesenchymal liver tumors are rarely encountered in clinical practice. We review the spectrum of mesenchymal liver tumors with radiologic-pathologic correlation. There is an overlap of cross-sectional imaging findings of mesenchymal liver tumors with that o ... Full text Link to item Cite

Biospecimens and biorepositories for the community pathologist.

Journal Article Arch Pathol Lab Med · June 2012 Pathologists have long served as custodians of human biospecimens collected for diagnostic purposes. Rapid advancements in diagnostic technologies require that pathologists change their practices to optimize patient care. The proper handling of biospecimen ... Full text Link to item Cite

Acoustic radiation force impulse imaging of human prostates: initial in vivo demonstration.

Journal Article Ultrasound Med Biol · January 2012 Reliably detecting prostate cancer (PCa) has been a challenge for current imaging modalities. Acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging is an elasticity imaging method that uses remotely generated, focused acoustic beams to probe tissue stiffness. A ... Full text Link to item Cite

Vulvar manifestations of Crohn's disease.

Journal Article Am J Dermatopathol · August 2011 Crohn's disease is an inflammatory bowel disorder with several well-known extraintestinal manifestations, such as erythema nodosum, uveitis, and arthritis. Less commonly observed are vulvar manifestations, which have primarily been discussed in case report ... Full text Link to item Cite

Primary intracerebral Hodgkin lymphoma with recurrence.

Journal Article Clin Neuropathol · 2011 OBJECTIVE: To report a case of primary intracerebral Hodgkin lymphoma with disease recurrence. METHODS: Case report and review of the literature. RESULTS: A 58-year-old immunocompetent male presented with aphasia. Neuroimaging revealed a left temporal lobe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Concurrent classical Hodgkin lymphoma and plasmablastic lymphoma in a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma treated with fludarabine: a dimorphic presentation of iatrogenic immunodeficiency-associated lymphoproliferative disorder with evidence suggestive of multiclonal transformability of B cells by Epstein-Barr virus.

Journal Article Hum Pathol · December 2010 A small fraction of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma develop Epstein-Barr virus-positive B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders. These Epstein-Barr virus-B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders are thought to be related to i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Characterizing stiffness of human prostates using acoustic radiation force.

Journal Article Ultrason Imaging · October 2010 Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) imaging has been previously reported to portray normal anatomic structures and pathologies in ex vivo human prostates with good contrast and resolution. These findings were based on comparison with histological slide ... Full text Link to item Cite

Acquired vulvar lymphangioma circumscriptum: a comparison of 12 cases with Crohn's associated lesions or radiation therapy induced tumors.

Journal Article J Cutan Pathol · September 2010 BACKGROUND: Lymphangioma circumscriptum (LC) is a benign lesion of lymphatic origin. Vulvar involvement occurs in various clinical settings. METHODS: We present 12 cases, and compare lesions in patients with Crohn's disease and those associated with pelvic ... Full text Link to item Cite

Acoustic radiation force impulse imaging of human prostates ex vivo.

Journal Article Ultrasound Med Biol · April 2010 It has been challenging for clinicians using current imaging modalities to visualize internal structures and detect lesions inside human prostates. Lack of contrast among prostatic tissues and high false positive or negative detection rates of prostate les ... Full text Link to item Cite

Brain cancer stem cells display preferential sensitivity to Akt inhibition.

Journal Article Stem Cells · December 2008 Malignant brain tumors are among the most lethal cancers, and conventional therapies are largely limited to palliation. Novel therapies targeted against specific molecular pathways may offer superior efficacy and less toxicity than conventional therapies, ... Full text Link to item Cite