Management of Peritoneal Carcinomatosis With Cytoreductive Surgery Combined With Intraperitoneal Chemohyperthermia at a Novel Italian Center.

BACKGROUND: Peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) is a common manifestation of many gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies and is an advanced stage that is often associated with disseminated disease. Considerable progress has been made to achieve safe elimination of macroscopic disease using cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and more recently in combination with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for the treatment of microscopic disease or disease with minimal volume. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of such procedures on the quality of life (QoL), the long-term benefit and the functional status of the treated patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data from patients who underwent CRS-HIPEC for peritoneal metastasis (PM) at our center from November 2016 to November 2018 were analyzed retrospectively. The drugs administered were mitomycin and cisplatin. Quality of life (QoL) was assessed using the Euroquol-5D-5L and National Comprehensive Cancer Network Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast Cancer Symptom Index v2 questionnaires before CRS-HIPEC, and 1, 3 and 6 months after were administered. RESULTS: In our series, the survival efficacy of CRS plus HIPEC was confirmed in the treatment of primary and secondary peritoneal pathologies, particularly in ovarian cancer, although larger studies are needed to investigate its role in the pathology of gastric, colonic and rectal cancer. The QoL data were promising, with essentially stable values between the preoperative and the 1-month follow-up, but with incremental benefits from the second to the third month.

Surveillance procedures for patients for cervical carcinoma: a review of the literature.

Cervical cancer is still one of the most common malignancies in women. Treatment for cervical cancer is very successful, especially in early stage. However, some patients will experience recurrence. Primary purpose of follow-up programs is early detection of recurrence disease that should be more likely to be amenable to treatment, thereby improving the clinical outcome. Although, in the literature, most studies have shown that the surveillance programs did not improve the clinical outcome of patients with diagnosis of recurrence, this clinical practice is regarded as traditional management. The use of Papanicolaou tests to detect recurrent cervical cancer is not sufficiently justified. The assessment of tumor markers such as squamous cell carcinoma antigen could be useful. Imaging techniques are important for the detection and assessment of recurrent disease. The role of chest radiographs to detect asymptomatic recurrence in patients treated for cervical carcinoma remains controversial. Detection of a new abnormal mass or the changes in the size of a known lesion caused by cancer growth and the determination of the extent of recurrence with computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging may provide clinical assistance in selection of optimal therapy. The fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose-positron emission tomography for surveillance only shows 80% of specificity and accuracy with negative predictive value of 100%. Integrated fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography provides precise anatomic localization of suspicious areas and therefore a better diagnostic interpretation with a possible impact on disease-free survival as well. In conclusion, our review confirms the need of prospective studies to compare the effectiveness of different follow-up regimens measuring as outcome overall survival and quality of life parameters.

Hormone replacement therapy in cancer survivors.

OBJECTIVE: Thousands of women are treated each year for cancer; many of these are already in menopause, while other younger patients will go into early menopause due to surgery, or chemotherapy, or the need for radiotherapy to the pelvic region. In most cases the oncologist and the gynaecologist would advise these women against the use of HRT. The purpose of this paper is to review biological and clinical evidences in favour and against HRT use in the different tumours and to propose an algorithm that can help choosing the treatment for the single woman. METHODS: We performed a systematic literature review through April 2002 concerning: (1) biological basis of hormonal modulation of tumour growth; (2) epidemiological data on the impact of HRT on different cancers risk in healthy women; (3) safety of HRT use in cancer survivors; (4) alternatives to HRT. RESULTS: With the exception of meningioma, breast and endometrial cancer, there is no biological evidence that HRT may increase recurrence risk. In women with previous breast and endometrial cancer HRT is potentially hazardous on a biological basis, even if published data do not show any worsening of prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Even if a cautious approach to hormonal-dependent neoplasias is fully comprehensible and the available alternative treatment should be taken into greater consideration, the reticence to prescribe HRT in women previously treated for other non hormone-related tumours has neither a biological nor a clinical basis. An algorithm based on present knowledge is proposed.