Clinical significance of indeterminate pulmonary nodules in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to determine whether indeterminate pulmonary nodules (IPNs) at staging are predictive of lung metastasis, primary lung carcinoma, or survival in patients with advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). METHODS: One hundred ten patients with IPN at staging who had follow-up imaging and 100 patients without IPN were identified from an HNSCC database. The primary endpoints were lung progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Two-year lung PFS for the IPN and No-IPN cohorts were 66% versus 61% (p = .92) and the OS for these cohorts were 71% versus 68% (p = .77). Within the IPN cohort, level IV/V lymph node involvement (odds ratio = 4.34; p = .03), hypopharynx primary (odds ratio = 21.5; p = .005), and race (odds ratio = 9.29; p = .001) were independent predictors of developing lung malignancy. CONCLUSION: IPNs at staging in patients with HNSCC do not affect prognosis and should neither influence initial treatment planning nor the frequency of posttreatment surveillance.

Relationship between collagen autofluorescence of the human cervix and menopausal status.

The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of different menopausal states (pre- and post-) on the endogenous fluorescence of normal cervical tissues. In particular, the average fluorescence as well as the interpatient and intrasample variability in the average fluorescence of the epithelium and stroma were evaluated as a function of pre- and postmenopausal states. High-resolution fluorescence images at excitation-emission wavelengths of 440, 520 nm and 365, 465 nm were obtained from epithelia and stroma of freeze-trapped cervical tissue blocks maintained at -196 degrees C. The fluorescence images were recorded using a low temperature optical scanner. Fluorescence images from a normal sample population (n = 27) were quantitatively analyzed, and the average epithelial and stromal fluorescence intensities were obtained. Data grouped according to menopausal status (pre- vs post-) showed statistically significant differences (P < 0.002) in stromal fluorescence. In particular, the cervical stroma of postmenopausal women showed (1) significantly greater average fluorescence and (2) greater interpatient and intrasample variability in the fluorescence, relative to that of premenopausal women. These results provide evidence for changes in collagen cross-linking with menopause.