Enumerating pelvic recurrence following radical cystectomy for bladder cancer: A Canadian multi-institutional study.

INTRODUCTION: We aimed to enumerate the rate of pelvic recurrence following radical cystectomy at university-affiliated hospitals in Canada. METHODS: Canadian, university-affiliated hospitals were invited to participate. They were asked to identify the first 10 consecutive patients undergoing radical cystectomy starting January 1, 2005, who had urothelial carcinoma stages pT3/T4 N0-2 M0. The first 10 consecutive cases starting January 1, 2005 who met these criteria were the patients submitted by that institution with information regarding tumour stage, age, number of nodes removed, and last known clinical status in regard to recurrence and patterns of failure. RESULTS: Of the 111 patients, 80% had pT3 and 20% pT4 disease, with 62% being node-negative, 14% pN1, and 27% pN2; 57% had 10 or more nodes removed. Cumulative incidence of pelvic relapse was 40% among the entire group. CONCLUSIONS: This review demonstrates a high rate of pelvic tumour recurrence following radical cystectomy for pT3/T4 urothelial cancer.

Remediation of residents in difficulty: a retrospective 10-year review of the experience of a postgraduate board of examiners.

PURPOSE: To determine, through a 10-year review, (1) the prevalence of residents in difficulty, (2) characteristics of these residents, (3) areas of residents' weakness, and (4) outcomes of residents who undergo remediation. METHOD: A retrospective review of resident records for the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine's (UT-FOM) Board of Examiners for Postgraduate Programs (BOE-PG) was done from July 1, 1999 to June 30, 2009 using predetermined data elements entered into a standardized form and analyzed for trends and significance. Outcomes for residents in difficulty were tracked through university registration systems and licensure databases. RESULTS: During 10 years, 103 UT-FOM residents were referred to the BOE-PG, representing 3% of all residents enrolled. The annual prevalence of residents referred to the BOE-PG ranged from 0.2% to 1.5%. The CanMEDS framework was used to classify areas of residents' weaknesses and organize remediation plans. All 100 residents studied had either medical expertise (85%) or professionalism (15%) weaknesses or both. Residents had difficulties with an average of 2.6 CanMEDS Roles, with highest frequencies of Medical Expert (85%) Professional (51%), Communicator (49%), Manager (43%), and Collaborator (20%). Often, there were multiple remediation periods, with an average of six months' duration. Usually, remediation was successful; 78% completed residency education, 17% were unsuccessful, and 5% remained in training. CONCLUSION: Residents in difficulty have multiple areas of weakness. The CanMEDS framework is an effective approach to classifying problems and designing remediation plans. Successful completion of residency education after remediation is the most common outcome.

Rare bone metastases of the olecranon.

Abstract Bone metastases are prevalent in patients with cancer, especially with primary lung, breast, renal cell, thyroid, and prostate carcinomas. When looking specifically at primary renal cell carcinoma, approximately 40% of patients will develop bone metastases during the course of their disease. However, distal bony involvement to the appendicular skeleton occurs less frequently, developing below the elbow and knee in approximately 7% of metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients. The incidence of olecranon metastasis is extremely rare in all cancers and so far only two cases have been reported in literature. We report the third case of an olecranon metastasis in a patient with renal cell carcinoma.

The study of endocrine tumors by flow and image cytometry.

Both DNA flow and image cytometry are methods that can be used for the quantitative determination of cellular DNA content. Objective, quantitative analysis of cellular morphology can also be obtained using image cytometry. Data thus generated have been shown to be of diagnostic and prognostic use in the study of many solid tumors and would be of particular value in the evaluation of endocrine tumors that show a poor correlation between their histology and biological behavior. The main application of these techniques to endocrine tumors has been in the analysis of thyroid nodules, although a limited number of studies of parathyroid, pituitary, adrenal, and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and tumors of the dispersed neuroendocrine system have been reported. Review of these studies shows that in the endocrine organs DNA and morphometric measurements have a very limited role in the diagnosis of individual cases, but are important as prognostic variables. The high incidence of abnormal DNA content in histologically benign lesions of the endocrine glands has important biological implications. Further investigation of this phenomenon may help to elucidate the process of endocrine tumorigenesis.