Brain metastases from gestational trophoblastic neoplasia: review of pertinent literature.

Brain metastasis from gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) is rare with about 222 cases documented in the literature and an incidence of about 11% in living GTN patients. Brain metastasis from GTN was part of a disseminated disease in 90% of patients, single metastases in the brain - 80% and located in the cerebrum - 90%. Brain metastasis was the only manifestation of metastatic GTN in 11.3% of patients, appeared synchronously with metastatic GTN in other sites of the body - 30.6% and was diagnosed from 0.3 to 60 months after diagnosis of metastatic GTN in other sites (most often in the lung) - 58.1%. Overall, 83.9% of patients with brain metastases from GTN had also lung metastases from GTN. Brain metastases from GTN showed a greater tendency to be hemorrhagic compared to brain metastases from other primaries. In patients with brain metastases from GTN, the best outcome was achieved with multimodal therapy including craniotomy, whole brain radiotherapy, and EP-EMA or EMA-CO chemotherapy. Nonetheless, brain metastasis from GTN is a grave disease with a median survival time from diagnosis of brain metastasis of about 12 months.

Re-evaluation of post-wash sperm is a helpful tool in the decision to perform in vitro fertilisation or intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

The aim of this study was to find discriminatory parameters, based on sperm characteristics on the day of ovum pickup, that can help guide the decision to perform either intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) or in vitro fertilisation (IVF). We evaluated 112 cycles fertilised with both regular and ICSI insemination during the same cycle. A total of 112 cycles were analysed. In 62 cycles, fertilisation was obtained with both ICSI and IVF, and in 50 cycles, fertilisation was obtained by ICSI alone. The sperm samples were re-evaluated after the preparation process. The mean initial total motile sperm count (TMSC) was 66.3 × 10(6) ± 47.5 in the group that underwent both methods and 23.1 × 10(6) ± 20.4 in the ICSI only group (P < 0.05). After sperm preparation, the mean post-wash TMSC was 4.4 × 10(6) ± 3.4 and 1.06 × 10(6) ± 0.9 respectively (P < 0.05). A cutoff of 1.5 × 10(6) or fewer sperm after preparation as an indicator for ICSI has a sensitivity of 80% and a specificity of 77%. Re-evaluation of TMSC can prevent unexpected fertilisation failure. Fewer than 1.5 million TMSC after wash should be considered an indication for ICSI fertilisation.

Brain metastases from cervical carcinoma: overview of pertinent literature.

Brain metastasis from cervical carcinoma is rare with only about 100 cases documented in the literature and an incidence among cervical carcinoma patients of 0.6%. The median interval between diagnosis of cervical carcinoma and brain metastases is 18 months. The brain can be the only site of distant metastasis of cervical carcinoma ("isolated brain metastases") (46.8%) or brain metastasis can be part of a disseminated cervical carcinoma involving also other sites of the body (53.2%). Brain metastasis of cervical carcinoma affects most often the cerebrum (73%) and can be either single (one metastasis) (50.6%) or multiple (> or = two metastases) (49.4%). Treatment of brain metastases has evolved over the years from whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) alone to multimodal therapy including surgical resection (craniotomy) or stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) followed by WBRT +/- chemotherapy. The median overall survival after diagnosis of brain metastases is four months; however, a better survival is achieved with multimodal therapy (craniotomy followed by WBRT) compared to craniotomy alone or WBRT alone. The worst survival is observed in patients with no treatment. Although based on a very small number of patients, the best survival is noticed in patients having SRS either alone or in combination with other treatment modality.

A multicenter study of CA 125 level as a predictor of non-optimal primary cytoreduction of advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.

AIMS: To provide a large database of pre-operative CA 125 levels which may predict inappropriate cytoreductive surgery in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer. METHODS: A multicenter review of the records of 424 patients with FIGO stage III and IV epithelial ovarian cancer of patients who underwent primary cytoreductive surgery was performed. The validity of pre-operative CA 125 level measurement as a single predictor of the possibility to achieve only suboptimal cytoreduction was evaluated by calculating the sensitivity and the specificity of various cut-off values. The relative importance of different cut-off values in achieving the best predictive validity was assessed by a receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve. RESULTS: Optimal cytoreduction (largest diameter of residual tumour < or =1 cm) was achieved in 242 patients. The median CA 125 level in optimally cytoreduced patients was lower than in those patients suboptimally debulked (304 vs 863 U/mL; p<0.001). The area under the ROC curve was 0.65 (95% confidence interval, 0.60-0.71) and the CA 125 threshold derived from the ROC was 400 U/mL. The accuracy of the test at this level was 62%. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical applicability of the ROC derived CA 125 threshold is limited. The data accrued in the study provides a basis for decision-making regarding the place of primary surgery various CA 125 levels.