Hysteroscopic biopsy compared with endometrial curettage to assess the preoperative rate of atypical hyperplasia underestimating endometrial carcinoma.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the rate of atypical hyperplasia (AH) underestimating endometrial cancer (EC) comparing endometrial biopsy (EB) accomplished by hysteroscopic biopsy with dilatation and curettage (D&C). Second, to compare the two techniques to foresee EC grading. METHODS: This trial was based on the findings of two Gynecological Departments within the same Public Utility, sharing pathological service and database but routinely performing EB under hysteroscopic visualization (group A) or hysteroscopy followed by D&C (group B). We retrieved the clinical data of patients showing EC on hysterectomy throughout a 10-year period. The accuracy of hysteroscopic-view diagnosis and EB pathology were compared, having the pathologic findings of hysterectomy as reference. RESULTS: A total of 161 patients met the inclusion criteria. Among these, 109 and 52 were included in groups A and B, respectively. In group A, 32.1% of patients underwent EB in an out-patient setting. To foresee EC, hysteroscopic view showed a sensitivity of 82.5% and 70.2% in groups A and B, respectively (P = 0.019). An underestimation of EC diagnosed as AH on EB was found in 20 patients (12.4%). Among these, 18 (16.5%) and 2 (3.8%) were included in groups A and B, respectively (P = 0.022). In group A, a fault diagnosis of AH resulted higher when EB was performed as out-patient setting (P = 0.006). EB allowed the grading of EC in 73.3% and 90.3% of patients in groups A and B, respectively. The agreement was 73.7% and 85.1%, leading to moderate (κ = 0.56) and good (κ = 0.77) "κ" coefficient of concordance for groups A and B, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: EB performed by D&C lowers the rate of AH underestimating concurrent EC and improves the grading agreement when compared with hysteroscopic sampling.

Clinical suspicion of bilateral carotid body paraganglioma and an unexpected histologic diagnosis.

Carotid body tumor (CBT) is the most common of the head and neck paragangliomas (PGLs). Conversely, synovial sarcomas are usually located around knee and ankle joint and rare variants occur in the oral cavity. A 68-year-old man presented with a left voluminous painless cervical mass. The diagnosis of CBT of type III Shamblin was suspected. The cervical mass was removed en bloc. Unexpectedly, pathologic examination showed monophasic synovial sarcoma. Excision of PGLs remains the therapy of choice, especially to make a correct histologic diagnosis.

Erlotinib administration for advanced non-small cell lung cancer during the first 2 months of unrecognized pregnancy.

Although several antineoplastic agents have been proven to be safe for the fetus after the organogenesis period, there is limited information on their use during the first trimester of pregnancy. Herein we report the first case of a patient with metastatic lung cancer treated with erlotinib during the first 2 months of an unrecognized pregnancy. A 30-year-old woman was diagnosed with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer with bone and lung metastasis. The patient received 4 months of palliative cisplatin/gemcitabine chemotherapy and biphosphonates. After 12 months the disease progressed and the patient received erlotinib 100 mg/day. During this period the patient became pregnant. Since she recalled the date of her last menstrual period at about 15 days prior to the start of the therapy, we did consider the possibility of conception at the time of the first day of erlotinib administration. Informed about the risk for the fetus due to erlotinib, the patient stopped anticancer treatment. After 42 weeks of regular gestation, cesarean section was performed, delivering a 3490 g female new-born with no evidence of congenital malformations. The disease evaluation performed with thoracic CT scan, after 1 month from the childbirth, showed a progressive lung metastasis and erlotinib treatment was resumed at the dose of 150 mg/day.

Dose and outcome: the hurdle of neutropenia (Review).

The development of chemotherapy in the early 1970s resulted in the availability of curative therapeutic strategies for hematological malignancies and several types of solid tumors. It is evident that drugs should be used at their optimal dose and schedule, and drug combinations should be given at consistent intervals. According to the mathematical models that suggested the direct dose-response relationship in the improvement of outcomes in cancer chemotherapy, the dose intensity and, more recently, the dose-dense approach was considered one of the most important tools in conventional chemotherapy. Anticancer drugs are often associated with myelotoxicity, and reducing the dose or increasing the time interval between each cycle of treatment is a frequent empiric approach. Unfortunately, a dose reduction of >or=20% causes a loss of 50% in the cure rate, particularly in chemosensitive tumors. To accelerate bone marrow recovery and prevent the onset of severe myelosuppression and its complications, the standard use of granulocyte colony-stimulating factors (G-CSF), such as filgrastim and the long-acting pegfilgrastim, is recommended. The aim of this review is to analyze how dose intensification concepts and dose-dense regimens are able to increase the cure rate of chemosensitive solid tumors and lymphomas.

Sigmoid colon metastasis from sarcomatoid renal cell carcinoma.

The sarcomatoid histological type of renal cell carcinoma is a clinically aggressive variant of parenchymal tumor, typically resistant to systemic treatment. We report the case of a 65-year-old female patient who had undergone a left radical nephrectomy for a sarcomatoid renal cell carcinoma together with enucleation of a mass of the right kidney and a contralateral nodule diagnosed as clear cell carcinoma. One year later lung, adrenal and sigmoid colon metastases from sarcomatoid renal cell carcinoma were detected and the patient was started on systemic immunotherapy with interleukin-2 and interferon-alpha. Computed tomography showed marked disease progression and the patient died 3 weeks later. Sigmoid colon metastasis from a primary sarcomatoid renal cell carcinoma has never been described in the literature.