Percutaneous Computed Tomography-Guided Lung Biopsies using a Virtual Navigation Guidance: Our Experience.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a virtual CT-guided navigation system (Sirio-MASMEC Biomed) in performing lung biopsies, with greater attention to lesions smaller than 1 cm, compared to the traditional procedure. METHODS: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of our Institute. Two hundred patients were prospectively selected. Of these, 100 were subjected to percutaneous procedure with the use of Sirio and 100 to traditional CT-guided percutaneous procedure. The two methods were compared in terms of absorbed dose, procedure time, complications, and number of non-diagnostic specimens (diagnostic success). RESULTS: Sirio has shown a significant reduction in the absorbed dose and procedure times (p < 0.05), with a lower incidence of complications compared to the traditional procedure. Sirio has also allowed to carry out biopsies of lesions' diameter ≤10 mm, obtaining fewer non diagnostic specimens thus resulting more effective in terms of diagnostic success. CONCLUSIONS: The use of Sirio in sampling biopsy showed a statistically significant reduction in terms of performed scans and procedural time with lower incidence of post-procedural complications compared to the traditional percutaneous procedure, especially for lesions ≤10 mm. The best diagnostic result, the reduction of the dose absorbed and procedural complications makes the procedures more reliable, safety and less invasive. In addition, the reduction of execution time will increase the number of daily interventional procedures improving clinical management.

Can Diffusion-Weighted Imaging and Related Apparent Diffusion Coefficient be a Prognostic Value in Women With Breast Cancer?

PURPOSE: To analyze diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and the related apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in women with breast cancer, correlating these values with the presence at 3 years of distant metastases, and to demonstrate that DWI-Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and related ADC values may represent a prognostic value in the study of women with breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty women (aged 45-73 years) affected with breast cancer with a follow-up in 3 years were enrolled. On DWI, we obtained the ADC values, and these were correlated with the clinical condition of patients at 3 years. Moreover, tumour size, lymph node status, and molecular markers, including estrogens receptor, progesterone receptor, Ki-67 index, and human growth factor receptor 2 protein, were correlated with ADC values. This study was approved by the Scientific Committee of our institution. RESULTS: We considered patients with metastasis at 3 years (12 patients - 20%) and without metastasis (48 patients - 80%). The mean ADC value in patients with no metastases at 3 years was 1.06 ± 0.38, while for patients with metastases it was 0.74 ± 0.34 (p = .011). The receiver-operator curve analysis identified a value of 0.75 (<0.75 with risk to develop metastasis) as the best predictive cutoff for ADC values, with the highest sensitivity (81.25%) and higher specificity (66.67%). After regression analysis, ADC value, positivity to estrogen-progestin receptors, and presence of lymph nodes were the only prognostic factors found to be statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: DWI-MRI and related ADC values may represent a prognostic value in women with breast cancer.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Pre-Surgical Staging of Breast Cancer: Our Experience.

PURPOSE: To investigate the clinical impact of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the detection of multifocal-multicentric breast cancers, already identified by mammography and ultrasound, and analyzed histologically, to evaluate its role in preoperative staging. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From January 2012 to February 2014, 188 patients, aged 28 to 74 years, newly diagnosed with breast cancer on conventional imaging (mammography and ultrasound) were enrolled. They underwent preoperative contrast-enhanced 3T MRI. Patients underwent surgery according to international guidelines. Results of all diagnostic procedures were compared. RESULTS: Among the 188 patients, 163 (87%) had a unilateral and unifocal tumor at both conventional imaging; MRI diagnosed 22/22 (100%) of multifocal and multicentric tumors, the combination of mammography and ultrasound diagnosed 12/22 (54%), and mammography alone diagnosed 8/22 (36%) multifocal and multicentric tumors. MRI prompted a change in surgical strategy in 10/188 (5%) patients. This change comprised mastectomy instead of conservative surgery (n = 7) and more extensive conservative surgery (n = 3). CONCLUSIONS: MRI was confirmed to show higher sensitivity than conventional imaging in detecting multifocal and multicentric breast cancers.

Diffusion weighted imaging and apparent diffusion coefficient in 3 tesla magnetic resonance imaging of breast lesions.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the utility of diffusion-weighted-imaging (DWI) and apparent-diffusion-coefficient (ADC) in a 3T magnetic-resonance-imaging (MRI) study of breast cancer. In particular, the study aims to classify ADC-values according to histology either for benign or malignant lesions. METHODS: 110 Breast MRI with MRI-DWI sequences and quantitative evaluation of the ADC were retrospectively reviewed. Results obtained with MRI-DWI and with biopsy were analyzed and ADC values were compared to histological results. RESULTS: MRI showed a 95.5% sensitivity and a 83.7% specificity. The mean ADC values of benign and malignant lesions were 2.06 ± 0.19 and 1.03 ± 0.07 mm(2)/s, respectively (p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: DWI and ADC-values could help distinguishing malignant and benign breast masses.

Challenges in the diagnosis and management of tumor-induced osteomalacia: A case report.

The present case report is aimed to highlight the difficulty and the reason for the delayed diagnosis of phosphaturic mesenchymal tumors, emphasizing the need of standardized protocols for diagnosis, surgery and follow-up in high-volume hospitals. The clinical signs and symptoms, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, immunohistological features were analyzed. Delayed diagnosis of phosphaturic mesenchymal tumor was primarily due to non-specific clinical symptoms such as fatigue, muscular and bone pain, and multiple fractures. This cryptic clinical picture made the diagnosis tricky that led to treatment of patient for non-specific pain and stress fractures before to consider the tumor-induced osteomalacia syndrome. Some well-documented studies were found in the literature in which the history of trauma is a critical trigger of glomus tumors. Extra-subungual tumors most frequently occur in the knee and ankle regions, particularly among young adults, and the diagnosis is typically made approximately 7.2 years after initial symptom onset. The difficult tumor localization represented an additional obstacle to the prompt treatment, leading to delayed curative surgery.

Comparison between Gleason score and apparent diffusion coefficient obtained from diffusion-weighted imaging of prostate cancer patients.

OBJECTIVES: To correlate the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of prostate cancer patients with pathological Gleason scores (GS). METHODS: 40 patients with GS 2 + 3, 3 + 3, 3 + 4, or 4 + 4 were selected. The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study was performed adding axial diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) sequences to the standard MRI protocol. ADC values obtained were correlated with the GS data. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences of ADC (p < .05) were found among GS groups with a trend of decreasing ADC values with increasing GS. CONCLUSIONS: The ADC values may help clinicians to delineate prostate carcinoma, recognizing its high- or low-grade compartments.

A prostate utricle cyst as a cause of haematospermia in a young adult: a case report.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Prostatic utricle cyst is an embryological remnant of the Muller duct system, resulting from an incomplete regression of these structures during embryological development. Most of the time such congenital alteration is asymptomatic, but may sometimes present with various signs and symptoms, from urinary tract infections to episodes of haematospermia in a small percentage of cases. METHODS: We reported the case of a 42-years-old man who suffered from recurrent episodes of haematospermia for about 20 years; the instrumental examinations, first of all TRUS and then MRI evaluation, demonstrated the presence of a cystic formation, located in the posterior median site of the prostate closely to the prostatic urethra. RESULTS: The cytological examination on the liquid taken by transperineal US-guided fine-needle aspiration, confirmed the presence of seminal fluid and normal prostatic tissue consistent with the diagnostic hypothesis of prostatic utricle cyst. CONCLUSIONS: It's important to recognize the imaging characteristics of the prostatic utricle cyst since it may be one of the possible benign causes of hematospermia in the young adult subject.

IORT in breast cancer. Our experience of the first patients treated.

AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the therapeutic effect of intraoperative radiotherapy, describe the method and examine the results of our experience. BACKGROUND: Breast conserving therapy has recently become a standard treatment modality in patients with early invasive cancer. Radiotherapy, along with surgery, is an integral part of such treatment. The important thing of radiotherapy is to deliver a high dose to the tumour bed. One of the methods is the intraoperative radiotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The analysis comprised 41 breast cancer patients treated with breast conserving surgery. Patient's range age was 35-80 years. Cancer type distribution inlcuded: 95% ductal carcinoma, 5% other carcinoma. Applicator size: 4 cm. (12%), 5 cm. (64%), 6 cm. (17%), 7 cm. (7%). Electron energies: 6 MeV (22%), 8 MeV (56%), 10 MeV (22%). Intraoperative radiation therapy was delivered in the operating theatre during surgery. After that, all patients were treated with whole breast irradiation. RESULTS: 41 patients treated with IORT procedures completed. In general there were no severe postoperative complications and we did not detect tumor recurrence in any patient even if the time elapsed from the treatment is still short. CONCLUSIONS: Due to its exceptional physical and radiobiological properties, intraoperative radiation therapy can be a good alternative to other methods of boosting dose to the postoperative site in management. KEY WORDS: Breast cancer, IORT, intraoperative radiotherapy, Surgery.

Axillary treatment of patients with breast cancer and micrometastatic disease in the sentinel lymph node Our experience.

AIM: Since the introduction of the sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in patients with breast cancer, micrometastases are detected frequently in the sln. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between July 2005 and June 2016, 1244 patients were submitted to surgery for breast cancer. 431 patients cT1-2 N0 underwent to sentinel lymph node (SLN) and micrometastases were found in 68 of 431 screen-detected patients. Nearly all patients with both micro and macrometastases had axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). RESULTS: The SLN was negative in 69% of patients (296 of 431), 121 patients (28%) instead turned positive for lymph node metastases and in 14 patients (3%) were identified isolated tumor cells (ITC). SLN micrometastases were detected in 15,7% of patients (68 of 431). All patients with micrometastases underwent a completion ALND. In 85% of cases, therefore, the sentinel node with micrometastases was the only site of nodal disease. Neither loco-regional recurrences or distant metastases occurred in any of the Patients with sln micrometastases. DISCUSSION: There is considerable interest in foregoing axillary dissection (AD) when the sentinel node (SN) is positive in early breast cancer, particularly when axillary involvement is minimal (micrometastases or isolated tumor cells). Several trials are addressing the problem. In breast cancer patients survival is not affected by the presence of micrometastatic lymph node involvement. CONCLUSION: In our experience we always underwent to ALND all patients with micrometastases. In the light of the results we observed our attitude no longer provides for the axillary lymphadenectomy. KEY WORDS: Axillary dissection ,Breast cancer, Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy.

[Voluminous cystic lymphangioma of the retroperioneum in an adult. A case report]. / Voluminoso linfangioma cistico retroperitoneale nell'età adulta. Presentazione di un caso.

Intra-abdominal cystic lymphangiomas are very rare tumours in adults. They are preferentially located in the neck, extremities and axillae in children. The authors report a case occurring in a 37-year-old female who had been experiencing dyspepsia and abdominal tension for a few weeks and was successfully treated surgically.

Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in patients with prostate cancer treated with radiotherapy.

AIMS: To evaluate the utility of a multiparametric 3T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study using diffusion-weighted images (DWI) for the assessment of prostate cancer before and after radiotherapy (RT). METHODS: A total of 34 patients, who received a histologic diagnosis of prostate adenocarcinoma, underwent MRI examination before and after local RT for the assessment of response to treatment. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values were calculated and compared. RESULTS: Before RT, DWI shows pathologic restriction of signal, while after RT pathologic restriction of signal was reduced or disappeared. The ADC values were significantly increased after therapy (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The use of DWI with ADC measurements may be an imaging biomarker in the assessment of prostate cancer.

Malignant rectal melanoma. Case report.

AIM: The aim of this study was to report a case concerning diagnostic and management of Anorectal melanoma. MATERIAL: A 71 years old white man presented in our Institute with anal pain, tenesmus, blooding rectal during the last five months. The ano-rectal examination showed a brownish painful mass in the anal canal. The colonscopy and endoscopy showed a big stenotic mass from anal canal to medium rectum with a diameter of approximately 90 mm. RESULTS: Biopsy of the rectal mass was performed and the histopatological examination showed malignant ephitelioid cells, pigmented melanoma. The patient was treated by abdominoperineal resection with dissection of lymph nodes. Result of histopatological examination was ulcerated Malignant melanoma of the anal canal, growing polypoid with spindle cells and epithelioid infiltrating the mucosa, submucosa and the internal sphincter muscle. Vascular invasion. Subtotal lymph node metastasis in 3 of 17. DISCUSSION: Anorectal melanoma is an uncommon and aggressive disease. The anorectum is the third most common location of malignant melanoma after the skin and retina. Lesions are difficult to diagnose because many are amelanotic and patients present with nonspecific complaints such as anal discomfort or rectal bleeding. After diagnosis, the main treatment available is surgical resection. Sentinel lymph node mapping has an unclear role in its management. Adjuvant therapy has long been recommended; however, there are no strong data to support its use. CONCLUSIONS: There is no convincing evidence to indicate that abdominoperineal resection did not improve the survival rate of patients with malignant rectal melanoma as compared to the wide local excision, while the wide local excision had advantages in lower surgical risk and allowing patients to avoid permanent colostomy.

Comparison between magnetic resonance spectroscopy and diffusion weighted imaging in the evaluation of gliomas response after treatment.

PURPOSE: To compare magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) in the assessment of progression and regression of brain tumors in order to assess whether there is correlation between MRS and DWI in the monitoring of patients with primary tumors after therapy. METHODS: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been performed in 80 patients, 48 affected by high grade gliomas (HGG) and 32 affected by low grade gliomas (LGG). The variation of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value and metabolite ratios before and after treatment has been used to test DWI sequences and MRS as predictor to response to therapy. Comparison between post contrast-enhancement sequences, MRS and DWI has been done in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV). Moreover statistical correlation of ADC deviations with MRS metabolites variations before and after therapy have been studied. RESULTS: In the case of HGG, MRS shows better sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy compared to DWI, especially when considering the Choline/N-acetylaspartate (Cho/NAA) ratio. Regarding the LGG, the technique that better evaluates the response to treatment appears to be the DWI. A moderate correlation between ADC deviations and Cho, Lipide (Lip) and Lactate (Lac) has been found in LGG; while NAA revealed to be weakly correlated to ADC variation. Considering HGG, a weak correlation has been found between ADC deviations and MRS metabolites. CONCLUSION: Combination of DWI and MRS can help to characterize different changes related to treatment and to evaluate brain tumor response to treatment.

Pulmonary blastoma after liver transplant: a case report.

There is an increased risk of cancer after organ transplantation mainly due to the immunosuppressive therapy required in these patients. We report a case of biphasic pulmonary blastoma in an adult male who underwent liver transplant for hepatocellular carcinoma in March 1999, followed by immunosuppressive treatment and adjuvant chemotherapy with epirubicin. Disease-free survival lasted 18 months, then a diagnosis of biphasic pulmonary blastoma was made and the patient underwent a lung lobectomy. Five months after surgical resection a recurrence of this rare tumor was recorded and two cycles of cisplatin + etoposide and ifosfamide + etoposide and one cycle of second-line chemotherapy with vinorelbine were administered. The tolerability and the efficacy of this treatment were poor. The patient died less than one year after diagnosis. To our knowledge this is the first reported case of pulmonary blastoma in a transplant patient. Our findings confirm that organ transplant recipients deserve long-term medical surveillance also in the absence of graft complications, and that pulmonary blastoma is an aggressive tumor with a poor prognosis.

Prostate cancer in magnetic resonance imaging: diagnostic utilities of spectroscopic sequences.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of our work is to determine the efficacy of a combined study 3 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging (3T MRI), with phased-array coil, for the detection of prostate cancer using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and diffusion-weighted images (DWI) in identifying doubt nodules. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: In this study, we prospectively studied 46 patients who consecutively underwent digital-rectal exploration for high doses of prostate specific antigen (PSA), as well as a MRI examination and a subsequent rectal biopsy. The study of magnetic resonance imaging was performed with a Philips Achieva 3T scanner and phased-array coil. The images were obtained with turbo spin-echo sequences T2-weighted images, T1-weighted before and after the administration of contrast medium, DWI sequences and 3D spectroscopic sequences. The ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy was performed approximately 15 days after the MRI. The data obtained from MR images and spectroscopy were correlated with histological data. RESULTS: MRI revealed sensitivity and specificity of 88% and 61% respectively and positive predictive value (PPV) of 73%, negative predicted value (NPV) of 81% and accuracy of 76%. In identifying the location of prostate cancer, the sensitivity of 3T MRS was 92%, with a specificity of 89%, PPV of 87%, NPV of 88% and accuracy of 87%; DWI showed a sensitivity of 88%, specificity of 61%, PPV of 73%, NPV of 81% and accuracy of 76%. CONCLUSIONS: The 3T MR study with phased-array coil and the use of DWI and spectroscopic sequences, in addition to T2-weighted sequences, revealed to be accurate in the diagnosis of prostate cancer and in the identification of nodules to be biopsied. It may be indicated as a resolute way before biopsy in patients with elevated PSA value and can be proposed in the staging and follow-up.