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Distinguishing between benign and malign adenopathies remains a challenge and could represent a source of error in a diagnosis. We report a case of right laterocervical adenopathy in a 17-year-old teenager admitted to hospital with an episode of fever associated with dysphagia, congested pharynx, and pultaceous deposits. Initially the adenopathy was considered to be secondary to a coinfection with Streptococcus B-hemolytic and Epstein-Barr virus, as suggested by the positive bacteriological and serological tests. The onset of the adenopathy before the episode and the ultrasound modifications raised the suspicion of a malignancy, later confirmed by the histopathologic examination of the lymph node excision. The final diagnosis was nodal metastasis of an undifferentiated lymphoepithelial carcinoma with an ENT starting point. Currently, the adolescent is hospitalised in the ENT ward, where the pharynx carcinoma with nodal metastasis was confirmed. Sometimes the infectious context can mask or unmask a malign chronic disease with insidious evolution.
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BACKGROUND: Employing colonoscopy, the gold standard in colorectal cancer (CRC) diagnosis testing, for CRC screening presents a significant risk of complications. Alternative methods with a lower invasive-level and fewer risks are proposed in combination, though each with lower diagnosis performance when applied separately. The main objective of this cross-sectional pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility of a CRC screening program using combined flexible sigmoidoscopy and fecal-immunochemical test (FIT). METHODS: The patient population consisted of 2,201 consecutive-case symptomatic patients attending the gastroenterology outpatient clinic with mild complaints between 2012 and 2014. They were referred for FIT. A sample of 252 individuals underwent a subsequent colonoscopy, blind to FIT results, and theoretical sigmoidoscopy was simulated. On a subsample of 57 patients, real sigmoidoscopy was additionally performed. Prior probabilities in terms of patients' compliance and CRC prevalence were estimated, together with predictive ability of FIT and sigmoidoscopy in screening population. We assessed the merit of a screening strategy employing two-stage serial multiple testing: a) first stage by combining two parallel tests, that is, flexible sigmoidoscopy and FIT and b) colonoscopy as the second diagnosis test. The scheme was validated using the actual predictive values derived from the study population. RESULTS: Colonoscopy found 75 (29.76%) individuals with advanced neoplasia. FIT was positive in 30.3% of advanced neoplasia cases, while between 23.73% and 28.28% met the theoretical sigmoidoscopy simulation criteria, with good concordance between real and theoretical sigmoidoscopy. The colonoscopy referral compliance rate was 52% among FIT-positives. Sensitivity and specificity of the first-stage test combination were better than sigmoidoscopy alone (McNemar test: P<0.001). Negative predictive values for low prevalence levels were between 81.5% and 90.12%. CONCLUSION: Combining less resource challenging and less invasive testing procedures is worthwhile in colorectal neoplasia detection, improving sensitivity and specificity of either test alone, and leading to better posterior probabilities in usual screening scenarios.
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AIM: The aim of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) in colorectal cancer screening, detection of precancerous lesions and early colorectal cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study evaluated asymptomatic patients with average risk (no personal or family antecedents of polyps or colorectal cancer), aged between 50 and 74 years. The presence of the occult haemorrhage was tested with the immunochemical faecal test Hem Check 1 (Veda Lab, France). The subjects were not requested to have any dietary or drug restrictions. Colonoscopy was recommended in all subjects that tested positive. RESULTS: In our study, we had a total of 1389 participants who met the inclusion criteria, with a mean age of 61.2 ± 12.8 years, 565 (40.7%) men and 824 (59.3%) women. FIT was positive in 87 individuals (6.3%). In 57/87 subjects (65.5%) with positive FIT, colonoscopy was performed, while the rest of the subjects refused or delayed the investigation. A number of 5 (8.8%) patients were not able to have a complete colonoscopy, due to neoplastic stenosis. The colonoscopies revealed in 10 cases (0.7%) cancer, in 29 cases (2.1%) advanced adenomas and in 15 cases (1.1%) non advanced adenomas from the total participants in the study. The colonoscopies performed revealed a greater percentage of advanced adenomas in the left colon compared to the right colon, 74.1% vs. 28.6% (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In our study, FIT had a positivity rate of 6.3%. The detection rate for advanced neoplasia was 2.8% (0.7% for cancer, 2.1% for advanced adenomas) in our study group. Adherence to colonoscopy for FIT-positive subjects was 65.5%.
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AIM: The aim of the study was to evaluate the benefit of the immunochemical fecal blood test (FIT) for detection of advanced adenomas. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We have conducted a screening study on a average-risk cohort of subjects, aged 50 -74 years. We used a rapid quantitative FIT to perform the screening. Colonoscopy was recommended in all participants with positive FIT. We assessed the participation rate and analyzed advanced adenomas detected in the screening examinations. RESULTS: Our study enrolled 1111 asymptomatic participants. Immunochemical test results were positive in 72 subjects (6.5%). Colonoscopy was performed by 50/72 (69.4%) subjects. The detection rate for advanced adenomas was 2.2%. A total number of 28 advanced adenomas were detected in 24 subjects, meaning 1.2 advanced adenoma/subject. Analyzing the 3 characteristics of advanced adenomas, we observed in our study that 25/28 adenomas (89.3%) had sizes > or = 10 mm, 11/28 adenomas (39.3%) were tubulovillous/villous and 19/28 adenomas (67.9%) had high dysplasia. The majority of advanced adenomas were found in the left colon as compared to the right colon: 71.4% vs. 28.6%. p = 0.0008. CONCLUSIONS: In our study was obtained a 2.2% detection rate for advanced adenomas, most of them (71.4%) being located in the left colon. The dominant feature of advanced adenomas detected was the size > or = 10 mm (89.3% of cases).