Emergency endovascular nanopharmacologic treatment in advanced gynecological cancers.

INTRODUCTION: Advanced cases of uterine carcinomas with parametrial and fornix infiltration often cause massive genital bleeding, with severe anemia, fast deterioration, and a high risk of death for patients; women with advanced uterine cancer (UC) and genital massive bleeding were treated using an endovascular therapy in local anesthesia. METHODS: Ten women with advanced UC and genital massive bleeding were hospitalized for a high risk of immediate death; after blood transfusions and resuscitation therapy, the patients were submitted to an experimental nanopharmacologic endovascular therapy in local anesthesia. RESULTS: On average, the total operative time for the procedure was 38.6 minutes, the intrasurgical blood loss was of 37 mL, the postoperative analgesic request for 48 hours was just for 3 patients (all dismissed in the second day after pelvic artery embolization), the hemoglobin level at dismissal was of 6.5 g/L, and the duration of hospital stay was 1.4 days. All patients well tolerated the procedure, with no linked complications; clinical check was at the 10th and 30th days after dismissal, with no further recurrent genital bleeding in the follow-up course stopped at the visit in the 60th day. CONCLUSIONS: Genital bleeding in advanced UC is a serious complication because it causes deterioration of the patient's general status and has a worse prognosis. The pelvic uterine embolization according to our endovascular nanopharmacologic methods is bloodless, less traumatic, and faster than a surgical procedure. Even if it requires experience in intervention radiology, it enables the continuation of external radiotherapy without delay and can replace laparotomic or laparoscopic treatment.

Incidence and clinical impact of sterilized disease and minimal residual disease after preoperative radiochemotherapy for rectal cancer.

PURPOSE: In advanced rectal cancer, chemoradiation can induce downstaging until complete disappearance of the tumor or its persistence in minimal form. The complete sterilized and the minimal residual disease often are considered similar. We evaluated the specific incidence of these two conditions and analyzed their impact in terms of local recurrence, distant metastasis, and survival. METHODS: We studied 139 uT3/T4 N0/N+ rectal cancers, treated with preoperative chemoradiation and curative surgery after six to eight weeks. We evaluated ypTNM stage and tumoral regression, according to the five degrees proposed by Dworak, with special attention to 4 and 3 (sterilized and minimal residual disease). RESULTS: Tumor downstaging occurred in 65 patients (46.7 percent), including 25 sterilized lesions (17.9 percent) and 24 minimal residual disease (17.2 percent). In median follow-up of 30 months, none of the patients with sterilized disease developed local or distant recurrence. Among patients with minimal residual disease, none developed local recurrence, whereas two (8.3 percent) developed distant metastasis, and one died from disease. In patients with gross residual disease (Grade 2, 1, 0) the percentage of local recurrence was 8.8 percent, distant recurrence 26.6 percent, and 13.3 percent died from disease. The difference between three groups is statistically significant as regards local and distant recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: After preoperative therapy, the sterilized disease shows an excellent prognosis. The minimal residual disease has an important numeric incidence. Its outcome is different, with a not-negligible risk of distant recurrence. The minimal residual disease has a much better prognosis in comparison with the gross residual disease.

Preoperative concomitant radiotherapy and chemotherapy in ultrasound-staged T3 and T4 rectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: To analyze early results of a single institution's experience using neo-adjuvant chemoradiotherapy in locally advanced, ultrasound-staged rectal cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Since 1998, 67 consecutive patients (36 males and 31 females; mean age, 59.5) have received preoperative combined treatment for T3 or T4 rectal cancer. All patients were staged by endorectal ultrasound and computed tomography, and all had a pathology-demonstrated invasive adenocarcinoma of the rectum. Patients were treated preoperatively with concomitant radiochemotherapy: pelvic irradiation (50 Gy in 25 fractions) and protracted-venous-infusion 5-fluorouracil (225 mg/m2/d, 7 days per week). Patients were restaged within 4 weeks, then submitted to surgery within 6-7 weeks after the end of therapy. Adjuvant postoperative chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil plus folinic acid--the "de Gramont" schedule--for 24 weeks was purposed to all patients. RESULTS: Radiotherapy was completed in all cases; only one patient required suspension of the treatment for grade 4 toxicity (diarrhea). Instead, chemotherapy was interrupted in 3 cases (2 for central venous catheter thrombosis and 1 for grade IV diarrhea). Sixty-six patients underwent surgical resection (1 patient died before surgical treatment). Radical surgery was performed in 94%, and 46% of the 26 patients with distal rectal cancer had a conservative sphincter-sparing surgery. A complete pathologic response (defined as no evidence of viable tumor cells) was obtained in 22%. At a median follow-up of 17 months, distant metastases have been observed in 10 patients, and 3 of them developed a local recurrence. The actuarial estimations of 4-year overall survival, disease-free survival, local and distant control are 79%, 61%, 94% and 61%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative chemoradiotherapy seems to be an effective and well-tolerated treatment with a low complication rate. The high percentage of down-staging and sphincter sparing, also in distal rectal cancer, shows the efficacy of the treatment, which could significantly influence the incidence of relapses and quality of life.