Complications and adverse events in lymphadenectomy of the inguinal area: worldwide expert consensus.

BACKGROUND: Inguinal lymph node dissection plays an important role in the management of melanoma, penile and vulval cancer. Inguinal lymph node dissection is associated with various intraoperative and postoperative complications with significant heterogeneity in classification and reporting. This lack of standardization challenges efforts to study and report inguinal lymph node dissection outcomes. The aim of this study was to devise a system to standardize the classification and reporting of inguinal lymph node dissection perioperative complications by creating a worldwide collaborative, the complications and adverse events in lymphadenectomy of the inguinal area (CALI) group. METHODS: A modified 3-round Delphi consensus approach surveyed a worldwide group of experts in inguinal lymph node dissection for melanoma, penile and vulval cancer. The group of experts included general surgeons, urologists and oncologists (gynaecological and surgical). The survey assessed expert agreement on inguinal lymph node dissection perioperative complications. Panel interrater agreement and consistency were assessed as the overall percentage agreement and Cronbach's α. RESULTS: Forty-seven experienced consultants were enrolled: 26 (55.3%) urologists, 11 (23.4%) surgical oncologists, 6 (12.8%) general surgeons and 4 (8.5%) gynaecology oncologists. Based on their expertise, 31 (66%), 10 (21.3%) and 22 (46.8%) of the participants treat penile cancer, vulval cancer and melanoma using inguinal lymph node dissection respectively; 89.4% (42 of 47) agreed with the definitions and inclusion as part of the inguinal lymph node dissection intraoperative complication group, while 93.6% (44 of 47) agreed that postoperative complications should be subclassified into five macrocategories. Unanimous agreement (100%, 37 of 37) was achieved with the final standardized classification system for reporting inguinal lymph node dissection complications in melanoma, vulval cancer and penile cancer. CONCLUSION: The complications and adverse events in lymphadenectomy of the inguinal area classification system has been developed as a tool to standardize the assessment and reporting of complications during inguinal lymph node dissection for the treatment of melanoma, vulval and penile cancer.

Potential role of CD4+CD25HIGH regulatory T cells in morbidity in Chagas disease.

Several immunoregulatory mechanisms are proposed to be effective both in human and experimental Trypanosoma cruzi infection. However, the role of CD4+CD25high T cells in Chagas disease has not yet been elucidated. These cells are critical for the regulation of immune response to infectious agents and in the control of autoimmune diseases. In this study, the presence of CD4+CD25high regulatory T cells in the whole blood of non-infected individuals (NI), and patients with the indeterminate (IND) and cardiac form (CARD) of Chagas disease was evaluated. To further characterize this population of regulatory cells, the co-expression of CTLA-4, CD62L, CD45RO, CD45RA, HLA-DR, CD40L, CD69, CD54, IL-10R and the intracellular molecules FOXP3 and IL-10 on the CD4+CD25high T lymphocytes was examined. FOXP3 was expressed by the majority of CD4+CD25high when compared with the other CD4+ T cells subsets in patients with Chagas disease. Patients with the IND form of the disease had a higher frequency of circulating regulatory CD4+CD25high T cells than patients with the CARD form. Moreover, there was an increase in CD4+CD25highFOXP3+ cells that were also IL-10+ in the IND group whereas, in the CARD group, there was an increase in the percentage of CD4+CD25high FOXP3+ cells that expressed CTLA-4. These data suggest that IL-10 produced by regulatory T cells is effective in controlling disease development in patients with the IND form. However, in individuals with the CARD form of the disease, the same regulatory mechanism, mediated by IL-10 and CTLA-4 expression is not sufficient to control the progression of the disease. The data suggest that CD4+CD25highFOXP3+ regulatory T cells in patients with Chagas disease might play a role in the immune response against T. cruzi infection although with distinct effects in patients with the IND and CARD forms of disease.

Inflammatory mediators from monocytes down-regulate cellular proliferation and enhance cytokines production in patients with polar clinical forms of Chagas disease.

Exposure to Trypanosoma cruzi parasites induces monocytes and macrophages to produce various endogenous mediators, including prostaglandins and cytokines. To clarify the involvement of monocytes as an important source of inflammatory mediators in Chagas disease patients, we evaluated PBMC before and after depletion of adherent cells (monocytes) from patients with indeterminate (IND) and cardiac (CARD) clinical forms and from non-infected individuals (NI). We demonstrated that after the partial depletion of adherent cells, production of PGE2 was slightly decreased in patients with Chagas disease. Inhibition of the cells by indomethacin increased the proliferation in PBMC cells from patients after antigen stimulation. Pro-inflammatory cytokines as IL-2 and IFN-γ also had a greater decrease after partial depletion of adherent cells in both clinical forms of Chagas disease. IL-10 and IL-5 levels were also reduced after partial depletion of adherent cells both in IND and CARD patients. In addition, we evaluated the APC potential of B cells and observed that the MHCII and CD80 molecules had an increased expression after partial depletion of most monocytes in all groups. Thus, inflammatory mediators produced by monocytes seem to be important to modulate immune responses in Chagas disease by regulating the processes of inflammation and antigen presentation.