Giant lumbar schwannoma with retroperitoneal extension and vertebral body invasion: a case report.

Schwannoma is a type of peripheral nerve sheath tumor derived from Schwann cells. There have been only a few cases of giant lumbar schwannoma with retroperitoneal extension eroding the vertebral body documented. Thus, managing these tumors presents various challenges. This paper reports a case of a 59-year-old woman who experienced lower back radicular pain for a year. A lumbar magnetic resonance imaging revealed the presence of a giant extradural soft tissue tumor measuring 8.6x7.4x9.7 cm, compressing the right L5-S1 neural foramen and extending into the retroperitoneal space while eroding the L5 vertebral body. The patient underwent surgery via a retroperitoneal approach, and the tumor was successfully resected. Histopathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of schwannoma. In conclusion, giant retroperitoneal lumbar schwannomas with bone invasion are rare, and gross total resection is the preferred treatment option, but the size and location of the tumor can make the surgery challenging.

Study on the Quality of Life among Cancer Survivors Attending a Tertiary Care Cancer Center in Malaysia.

Background: Cancer is a major public health problem across the globe. According to the Malaysian National Cancer Registry Report (MNCR), between 2007 and 2011, there has been a greater increase in the number of reported cancer cases among females (99.3 per 100,000 people) than males (86.9 cases per 100,000 people). Nearly 15 million new cancer cases were projected by 2020. We conducted this study to assess the quality of life (QoL) among cancer patients. Design and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the oncology department of Malaysian hospitals from October to November 2019. The study population comprised Malaysians in the age range of18 to 100 years diagnosed with cancer, irrespective of their treatment status, cancer type and prognosis. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used in seventy cancer patients' using a convenient sampling method. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey after obtaining permission from the hospital administrators. Data were entered in MS Excel and analysis was done using the SPSS-version 23. Participants' socio-demographic characteristics were described using descriptive statistics. Results are presented using graphs, tables, mean, percentages, standard deviation, frequency, and significance. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was performed to find out the association between socio-demographic variables and overall QoL scores of the patients. Results: Of the seventycancer patients, 29 (41.43%) were males and 41 (58.57%) were females. The most affected socio-demographic factors were marital status and occupation (employment). It was found that there were 55 (78.57%) married patients and 49 (70%) employed patients. QoL of most of the patients was influenced by the education level and treatment. It was found that 35 (50%) of them had low QoL scores. It was observed that QoL among the study participants was significantly (p<0.05) associated with their level of education and the level of treatment. Conclusions: There is a need to develop measures for community education, involvement of family physicians for the treatment of cancer and to increase awareness to improve the QoL among cancer patients. The focus should be on the development of strategies empowering patients to seek treatment and gain control over their illness with the collaboration with primary care physicians.

Myopathy is a Risk Factor for Poor Prognosis of Patients with Systemic Sclerosis: A retrospective cohort study.

To compare clinical characteristics and identify long-term outcomes of Chinese patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) with and without muscle involvement.We retrospectively investigated the medical records, laboratory results, and computed tomography images of 204 consecutive SSc patients. Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to determine survival rates. Patients were allocated into groups with and without myopathy.The prevalence of myopathy was 21.6%. The myopathy group was more likely to develop diffuse cutaneous involvement (90.9% vs 56%, P = .006), interstitial lung disease (90% vs 56%, P < .001), digestive system involvement (56.7% vs 29.3%, P = .001), pulmonary hypertension (29.5% vs 10.5%, P = .004), and pericardial effusion (25% vs. 10%, P = .019). Patients with myopathy had lower single-breath diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon oxide (46.5 ±â€Š11.1 vs 57.1 ±â€Š13.4, P < .001).Further, the myopathy group has similar results in interstitial lung disease associated higher resolution computed tomography score (186.8 ±â€Š64.5 vs 152.3 ±â€Š45.5, P = .037), Valentini score for disease activity (3.4 ±â€Š0.9 vs 2.0 ±â€Š0.9, P < .001) and modified Rodnan total skin score (19.4 ±â€Š6.1 vs 15.1 ±â€Š7.7, P = .002), compared with non-myopathy group. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed decreased overall survival rate of the myopathy group (P = .028).SSc Patients with myopathy had more severe clinical manifestations and higher disease activity compared with those without, which affected survival rates and indicated worse prognosis.