Correlation of Iron Status and Micronutrients With Anaemia of Childhood Haematopoietic Malignancies: A Study From Northern India.

BACKGROUND: Most cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy develop anemia during their course of treatment. There is a need for early treatment for chemotherapy-induced anemia to prevent morbidity and mortality. MATERIAL AND METHOD: This is a hospital-based study, conducted over one year and included 59 children who are known cases of hematological malignancy aged up to 18 years. Standard methods were used to measure micronutrients and complete blood count. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS for Windows, Version 15.0 (Released 2006; SPSS Inc., Chicago, United States). RESULTS: The majority of subjects (n=21; 35.6%) were aged six to nine years with male dominance. Micronutrient deficiency and significant anemia were noted in 40-50% and 64.4% of cases, respectively. Both malignancy and blood indices showed no association with micronutrients. CONCLUSION: Anemia with micronutrient deficiency is common in children with hematopoietic malignancies receiving chemotherapy. However, no significant association was noted between red cell indices and levels of micronutrients.

Erdafitinib as a Novel and Advanced Treatment Strategy of Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma.

Urothelial carcinoma has become the ninth most common malignancy in the world. Since the 1980s, diverse studies and treatment methods came out with their possible effects along with certain limitations. Initially, platinum chemotherapy was considered as first-line treatment of the disease. Although it was proved to be effective initially, the most number of cases reported the reoccurrence of the disease. Furthermore, aberrant ligand- dependent and constitutive ligand-independent fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) signaling has been reported in a large number of solid tumors, including urothelial carcinoma that became the basis for FGFR inhibition for the treatment of the disease. Erdafitinib is a pan-FGFR inhibitor that was recently approved in the USA for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic FGFR3 or FGFR2 urothelial carcinoma. The drug is also being investigated as a treatment for other cancers, including cholangiocarcinoma, liver cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, prostate cancer, lymphoma cancer and oesophageal cancer. This article summarizes the various treatments that evolved for bladder cancer till now, a brief description of the biology of FGFR inhibition, clinical pharmacology, and various clinical trials of erdafitinib.

Role of nm23H1 in predicting metastases in prostatic carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Non-metastatic nm23H1 gene is thought to play a critical role in cell proliferation. Studies of nm23H1 have been done in many other malignancies. But none of these studies took up nm23H1 gene as predictor in the metastases of prostatic carcinoma. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To study the expression of nm23H1 in prostatic lesion and to correlate nm23H1 expression with presence of metastases, tumour stage, tumour grade and with PSA level serum. SETTING AND DESIGN: Tertiary hospital based retrospective and prospective study done in a period of one year from thirty patients having prostatic lesion confirmed by biopsy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Immunohistochemistry for nm23H1 was performed on unstained coated sections of prostatic lesions to study the relation with prostatic lesion and their correlation with age, PSA level, tumour stage, grading. Clinical data was collected from medical records. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: SPSS Version 15 analysis software was used. The value were presented in number(%) and Mean ± SD. RESULTS: Majority of patients belong to age group 61 to 70yrs.Gleason score >7 were seen in 55% of patients of adenocarcinoma with and without metastasis. The difference in PSA levels between BPH and adenocarcinoma was significant (P < 0.001). IHC expression for nm23H1 gene showed positive findings in all the cases (P = 1). PSA values >20ng/ml showed maximum % mean expression (98.64%) as compared to PSA levels <10 ng/ml (96.91%). CONCLUSION: IHC expression of nm23H1 is not an effective tool to distinguish among the cases of BPH, adenocarcinoma of prostate with and without metastasis. Hence nm23H1 gene does not behave like an antimetastatic gene in prostatic lesions.

A rare presentation of gallbladder carcinoma metastasis.

Gallbladder carcinoma is the 5th most common gastrointestinal cancer. Gallbladder cancer preferentially metastasizes to regional lymph nodes and liver parenchyma. Bone metastases from gallbladder carcinoma are rare presentation. We report a case of gallbladder carcinoma with solitary metastasis to femur bone with surrounding soft tissue involvement, mimicking as soft tissue tumour involving bone.

Krukenberg tumor in a young woman: a rare presentation.

Krukenberg tumors mostly occur after 40 years. Metastatic ovarian tumors in young age are very rare and reported to be 2% of all the cases. Thirty percent of all ovarian neoplasms occurring during childhood and adolescence are malignant. A 25-year-old woman, parity-2, presented with abdominal distension, pain in abdomen and amenorrhea. On examination, 18 weeks lump was palpable, firm to hard in consistency, non-tender and mobile. On ultrasonography bilateral ovarian tumors were reported, without any peritoneal free fluid. Total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy was performed. Microscopic examination revealed signet ring cells with glandular differentiation, diffusely invading the ovarian parenchyma. Tumor cells exhibited strong, diffuse immunopositivity for CEA with focal strong immunopositivity for CK7 and CK20 and immunonegativity for SATB2. Diagnosis of Krukenberg tumor was made. Endoscopic biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of adenocarcinoma stomach. This case is reported because of its rarity in younger age group.

A rare case of primary fibrosarcoma of kidney.

Primary sarcomas of kidney are rare tumors accounting for 1% to 3% of all primary renal malignancies. Among sarcomas fibrosarcoma is rare. Here we report a case of primary fibrosarcoma of the kidney in a 70-year-old man who presented with gradually increasing abdominal swelling and pain.