Bartholin's gland hyperplasia in a young woman.

BACKGROUND: Tumors arising from the Bartholin's gland are very rare; the majority are benign. As most instances of swelling in the Bartholin's gland area represent a duct cyst, clinicians tend to perform incision and drainage, rather than excision of the tumor. CASE: A young woman with prolonged dyspareunia underwent total excision of the Bartholin's gland because it felt firm and irregular. Histological examination revealed a well-circumscribed lesion containing an increased number of acini with a preserved tubular/acinar ratio - findings were consistent with nodular hyperplasia. CONCLUSION: Bartholin's gland hyperplasia may be a cause of swelling in the gland area and dyspareunia. We recommend that whenever the gland feels firm or enlarged, total excision be considered, rather than drainage.

Strigolactone analogs act as new anti-cancer agents in inhibition of breast cancer in xenograft model.

Strigolactones (SLs) are a novel class of plant hormones. Previously, we found that analogs of SLs induce growth arrest and apoptosis in breast cancer cell lines. These compounds also inhibited the growth of breast cancer stem cell enriched-mammospheres with increased potency. Furthermore, strigolactone analogs inhibited growth and survival of colon, lung, prostate, melanoma, osteosarcoma and leukemia cancer cell lines. To further examine the anti-cancer activity of SLs in vivo, we have examined their effects on growth and viability of MDA-MB-231 tumor xenografts model either alone or in combination with paclitaxel. We show that strigolactone act as new anti-cancer agents in inhibition of breast cancer in xenograft model. In addition we show that SLs affect the integrity of the microtubule network and therefore may inhibit the migratory phenotype of the highly invasive breast cancer cell lines that were examined.