Totally robotic en bloc left upper lobectomy and chest wall resection after neoadjuvant chemoradiation.

This patient presented with a stage IIIB advanced lung cancer with chest wall invasion. She was treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy and had an excellent treatment response. The management of T3N2 disease is controversial, but given her treatment response and age, she was discussed by the multidisciplinary tumour board and referred for surgical evaluation. She was offered a robotic en bloc lobectomy and chest wall dissection.

Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma: Current Understanding of the Immune Microenvironment and Treatments of a Rare Disease.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare disease with an annual incidence of around 3000 cases a year in the United States. Most cases are caused by asbestos exposure, with a latency period of up to 40 years. Pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive disease process with overall survival of roughly 6-12 months after the time of diagnosis. It is divided into three subtypes: epithelioid, mixed type, and sarcomatoid type, with the epithelioid subtype having the best overall survival. Often, the treatment is multimodality with surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. The survival benefit is improved but remains marginal. New treatment options involving targeted immune therapies appear to offer some promise. The tumor microenvironment is the ecosystem within the tumor that interacts and influences the host immune system. Understanding this complex interaction and how the host immune system is involved in the progression of the disease process is important to define and guide potential treatment options for this devastating and rare disease.

Gestational Gigantomastia Complicating Pregnancy: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Background. Gestational gigantomastia is a rare disorder without clear etiology or well-established risk factors. Several pathogenic mechanisms contributing to the disease process have been proposed, all of which can lead to a similar phenotype of breast hypertrophy. Case. A 28-year-old Guinean woman presented at 37 weeks of gestation with bilateral gigantomastia, mastalgia, peau d'orange, and back pain. Prolactin levels were 103.3 µg/L (with a normal reference value for prolactin in pregnancy being 36-372 µg/L). The patient was treated with bromocriptine (2.5 mg twice daily), scheduled for a repeat cesarean, and referred to surgery for bilateral mammoplasty. Conclusion. Gestational gigantomastia is a rare disorder, characterized by enlargement and hypertrophy of breast tissue. Our patient presented with no endocrine or hematological abnormalities, adding to a review of the literature for differential diagnoses, workup, and management of cases of gestational gigantomastia with normal hormone levels.

Biodistributions of 177Lu- and 111In-labeled 7E11 antibodies to prostate-specific membrane antigen in xenograft model of prostate cancer and potential use of 111In-7E11 as a pre-therapeutic agent for 177Lu-7E11 radioimmunotherapy.

INTRODUCTION: Prostate-specific membrane antigen is a transmembrane glycoprotein highly expressed in many prostate cancers and can be targeted with radiolabeled antibodies for diagnosis and treatment of this disease. To serve as a radioimmunotherapeutic agent, a kinetically inert conjugate is desired to maximize tumor uptake and tumor radiation dose with minimal nonspecific exposure to bone marrow and other major organs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we assessed the pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of the 7E11 monoclonal antibody (MAb) radiolabeled with the lutetium-177 ((177)Lu)-tetraazacyclododecanetetraacetic acid conjugate system ((177)Lu-7E11) versus those of the 7E11 MAb radiolabeled with the indium-111 ((111)In)/glycyl-tyrosyl-(N,-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid)/lysine hydrochloride conjugate system ((111)In-7E11, also known as ProstaScint) to determine the feasibility of using (111)In-7E11 as a pre-therapeutic agent for (177)Lu-7E11 radioimmunotherapy. Pharmacokinetic and biodistribution studies of (177)Lu-7E11 in lymph node cancer of the prostate (LNCaP) xenograft mice were performed at 2, 8, 12, 24, 72, and 168 h after radiopharmaceutical administration. For (111)In-7E11, pharmacokinetic and biodistribution studies were performed at 8, 24, and 72 h. Parallel studies of (177)Lu-7E11 in non-tumor-bearing mice at 8, 24, and 72 h post-injection served as controls. Gamma scintigraphy was performed, followed by autoradiography and tissue counting, to demonstrate and quantify the distributions of radioconjugated MAb in the tumor and normal tissues. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Both (177)Lu- and (111)In-7E11 conjugates demonstrated an early blood pool phase in which uptake was dominated by the blood, lung, spleen and liver, followed by uptake and retention of the radiolabeled antibody in the tumor which was most prominent at 24 h. Total accumulation of radioconjugated MAb in tumor at 24 h was greater in the case of (177)Lu-7E11 in comparison to that of (111)In-7E11. Continued accumulation in tumor was observed for the entire time course studied for both (177)Lu-7E11 and (111)In-7E11. The liver was the only major organ demonstrating a significant difference in accumulation between the two conjugates. In conclusion, pharmacokinetic and biodistribution studies of (177)Lu-7E11 in LNCaP xenograft mouse models support its potential application as a radioimmunotherapeutic agent targeting prostate cancer, and the distribution and tumor uptake of (111)In-7E11 appear to be similar to those of (177)Lu-7E11, supporting its use as a pre-therapeutic tool to assess the potential accumulation of (177)Lu-7E11 radioimmunotherapeutic at sites of prostate cancer. However, the different accumulation patterns of the (111)In and (177)Lu immunoconjugates in liver will likely prevent the use of (111)In-7E11 as a true dosimetry tool for (177)Lu-7E11 radioimmunotherapy.