The Development of a Three-Dimensional Platform for Patient-Derived Ovarian Cancer Tissue Models: A Systematic Literature Review.

There is an unmet biomedical need for ex vivo tumour models that would predict drug responses and in turn help determine treatment regimens and potentially predict resistance before clinical studies. Research has shown that three dimensional models of ovarian cancer (OvCa) are more realistic than two dimensional in vitro systems as they are able to capture patient in vivo conditions in more accurate manner. The vast majority of studies aiming to recapitulate the ovarian tumour morphology, behaviors, and study chemotherapy responses have been using ovarian cancer cell lines. However, despite the advantages of utilising cancer cell lines to set up a platform, they are not as informative as systems applying patient derived cells, as cell lines are not able to recapitulate differences between each individual patient characteristics. In this review we discussed the most recent advances in the creation of 3D ovarian cancer models that have used patient derived material, the challenges to overcome and future applications.

Would extirpative pelvic surgery improve survival in gynecological metastases of lung cancer? Case report and review of the literature.

Lung cancer is the 3rd most common cancer in the UK and the numbers of new cases increase every year. In contrast to gastrointestinal tumours and breast cancer, lung cancer, metastases to the female genital tract are incredibly rare with only five cases reported with uterine metastases on review of the published English literature. We report an interesting case of successful ongoing management of metastatic lung cancer to the pelvis along with an extensive literature review. A 47-year-old lady with recurrent respiratory tract symptoms and chest pain was diagnosed with advanced stage non-small-cell lung cancer (Stage T4N2M1A). Five years following diagnosis and several cycles of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, aged 52, she complained of post-menopausal bleeding and pelvic discomfort. An endometrial biopsy confirmed a malignancy morphologically and immunohistochemically similar to her lung adenocarcinoma, in keeping with metastatic disease. She underwent robotic surgery to excise the pelvic organs and successfully gain local disease control. The patient remains clinically stable 3 years following hysterectomy. Although metastases of lung cancer to uterus are very rare, any patient with abnormal uterine bleeding with known cancer should be investigated thoroughly to rule out metastatic disease. Combined multimodal treatment as in this case may increase overall survival.