RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: The instrument called "Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale" (HADS) is frequently used to evaluate anxious and depressive symptomatology in patients who receive Cancer Genetic Counseling (CGC). However, this instrument cannot identify all of the psychosocial factors, such as the antecedents of the patients' emotional states or their concerns. The objective of the present research was to compare cases detected with psychosocial alterations by means of HADS and a Psychological Health Interview (PHI). METHODS: A transversal analytical design was used. One hundred ten participants were included (97.3% females and 2.7% males). The average age was 45 years ±10 years. RESULTS: The PHI identified twice the amount of participants with psychosocial alterations than did HADS, which only detected 43% of these participants. CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study suggest that the PHI should be applied in addition to HADS to identify participants who would require psychological support due to recurrent concerns.
RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: To analyze a series of occurrences of growing teratoma syndrome after ovarian germ cell tumors. METHODS: We analyzed a database containing 103 patients affected by pure or mixed ovarian immature teratoma. RESULTS: We report 12 patients fulfilling growing teratoma syndrome criteria (incidence 12%). The median interval between the diagnosis of ovarian immature teratoma and growing teratoma syndrome was 9 months (range 4-55). Growing teratoma syndrome was revealed by radiological examinations in nine cases (75%). In all cases but one, growing teratoma syndrome occurred in the site involved by the primary tumor. The peritoneum was the first site involved (10 cases, 83%). A complete surgical resection of the growing teratoma syndrome was done in eight cases. The median follow-up was 144 months. Four patients presented a late growing teratoma syndrome recurrence after treatment (second event), more than 5 years after the initial diagnosis, and 14 years later for one patient. All patients but one (lost to follow-up) were still alive at the end of the study. CONCLUSION: The treatment of growing teratoma syndrome consists of the surgical resection of the tumor, as completely as possible. Because of the possibility of very late recurrence of growing teratoma syndrome, a prolonged follow-up of patients treated for ovarian immature teratoma is mandatory.
