Population-based analysis of the prevalence of BRAF mutation in patients diagnosed with cutaneous melanoma and its significance as a prognostic factor.

The prevalence of BRAF mutation has been reported in between 38% and 48% of melanoma patients, based on mainly Stage III or metastatic melanoma, however, information based on population-based studies is scarce. We performed a population-based retrospective cohort study to determine the prevalence of the BRAF mutation in patients diagnosed with in situ and infiltrating cutaneous malignant melanoma in the province of Girona between 2009 and 2011. Using the database of the Girona Cancer Registry, we performed BRAF mutation analysis based on paraffin-embedded tissue. This data was then correlated with other known clinical and histological prognostic factors for survival. We found 286 incident cases of cutaneous melanoma in the Girona Cancer Registry database. Excluding missing cases, BRAF-mutated patients constituted 38.9% of "in situ" melanoma cases and 53.8% of invasive melanoma cases. Five-year relative survival was not statistically different between BRAF-mutated patients (93.6%; 95% CI: 87.1-100.5) and non-mutated patients (84.3%, 95% CI: 75.3-94.8). Only stage was significant as a prognostic factor for survival based on multivariate analysis. From our population-based study, we conclude that BRAF mutation is not an independent prognostic factor for melanoma survival.

Actinomicosis pélvica en una paciente sin relaciones sexuales previas / Pelvic actinomycosis in a patient with no previous sexual relationships

La presencia de una masa abdominal puede ser motivo de consulta de una paciente o un hallazgo casual durante la exploración física de la misma. Ante dicho diagnóstico se deben practicar pruebas complementarias que nos permitan realizar el diagnóstico diferencial de la masa estableciendo si el origen es o no ginecológico y si es una patología aguda o crónica, benigna o maligna.La actinomicosis pélvica es una rara causa de este cuadro y habitualmente se asocia al uso de dispositivo intrauterino (DIU).Presentamos un caso de dolor abdominal crónico con lesiones quísticas en ovario en una paciente de 20 años sin relaciones sexuales previas (AU)

The presence of an abdominal mass may be symptomatic or it could be found in a routine physical examination. Before this is diagnosed some further tests should be done for the differential diagnosis of the mass, whether it is of gynaecological origin and if the pathology is benign or malignant. The mass may be accompanied by acute or chronic pain. Pelvic actinomycosis is a rare cause of such signs and it is usually associated with the use of an intrauterine device. Here we present a case of chronic abdominal pain with cyst of ovary in a 20-year-old patient without previous sexual activity (AU)