Objective:To elucidate the cytopathological characteristics,molecular subtypes,and clinical prognoses of metastatic breast car-cinoma with serosal effusions.Methods:Seventeen cases that included effusion cytology and clinical data were retrospectively analyzed.Two patients were diagnosed between April 2016 and September 2023 at the Suzhou Ninth Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University,and 15 patients were diagnosed at The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University.Cytopathological characteristics,molecular subtypes,and prognoses were analyzed.Results:The cytopathological features of metastatic breast carcinoma in serosal effusions were as follows:1)In-vasive ductal carcinoma:one cell type was relatively densely arranged in nests or colored spheres,which displayed an elevated nuclear/cyto-plasmic ratio,irregular nuclear membrane,and cytoplasmic mucin vacuoles.The other cell type was tiled,single scattered,and varied in size and shape,with enlarged nuclei and elevated nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio.2)Invasive lobular carcinoma:cells were scattered and uniform in size and shape.The nuclei had a relatively regular shape,but displayed an elevated nuclear-to-cytoplasmic ratio.Among the 17 breast can-cer cases,6 had transitioned in molecular subtyping,including 1 case from Luminal A to triple-negative type,1 case from Luminal B to hu-man epidermal growth factor receptor 2(HER-2)-overexpressing type,and 4 cases from Luminal B to triple-negative type.Conclusions:The cytopathological characteristics of serous effusion cells combined with immunocytochemical staining and fluorescence in situ hybridization(FISH)suggest that it is important to determine the origin and molecular typing of tumor cells.This provides an important basis for precise clinical treatment and prognosis.

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic,non-specific inflammatory disease.The persistent damage to its intestinal epithelium is key to the development of the disease.In recent years,a new form of cell death has been identified by researchers-iron death-which is thought to be an important contributor to intestinal epithelial cell death.The occurrence of iron death is often associated with abnormal intracellular iron metabolism,reduced cystine/glutamate reverse transporter activity,abnormal lipid metabolism,voltage-dependent anion channel activation and overexpression of the Nrf2 gene.Iron death can lead to smaller mitochondria,increased membrane density and reduced number of cristae,unlike conventional cell death,which does not exhibit specific phenomena.Studies have found that TCM can alleviate iron death in intestinal epithelial cells by reducing intracellular iron content,inhibiting lipid reactive oxygen species production and regulating Nrf2 gene expression,thus acting as a treatment for ulcerative colitis.Therefore,Chinese medicine may become an important tool for the treatment of ulcerative colitis.This paper reviews the relationship between cellular iron death and ulcerative colitis and the research progress of Chinese medicine in treating ulcerative colitis through the iron death pathway.