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Diane Carlson

Publications and source records attributed to Diane Carlson.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Solitary fibrous tumors of the head and neck: a clinicopathologic and radiologic review.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinicopathologic and radiologic features of solitary fibrous tumors of the head and neck. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis. SETTING: Tertiary referral center that performs head and neck surgical oncology. PATIENTS: Twelve patients with solitary fibrous tumors of the head and neck identified from the pathology and soft tissue tumor databases at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, from 1990 to 2004. All cases were reviewed by 3 experienced pathologists, 1 of whom is an experienced soft tissue tumor pathologist. The diagnosis was confirmed by microscopic features on hematoxylin-eosin staining and by positive staining for CD34 and Bcl2 on immunohistochemical analysis. Tumors were scored for mitotic activity, cellularity, nuclear pleomorphism, necrosis, and the presence of a malignant component. Details on patient characteristics, tumor characteristics, previous treatment and surgery, adjuvant treatment, and outcome were recorded from clinical records. RESULTS: Solitary fibrous tumors occurred in patients over a wide age range (27-78 years; median age, 52 years). Seven patients (58%) were women, and 5 (42%) were men. Most tumors presented as a slow-growing painless mass with a duration ranging from 2 months to 5 years. The tumors ranged from 1 x 1 cm to 6 x 5 cm. Patients presented with a subcutaneous mass of the scalp or face in 4 cases, intraoral mass in 4, sinonasal mass in 3, and paraspinal mass in 1. Computed tomographic and/or magnetic resonance imaging scans of 7 of the 12 patients showed well-circumscribed tumors that enhanced strongly with contrast. Treatment for all of the patients was surgical resection. Pathologic findings showed that 9 tumors were benign and 3 were malignant. Three patients had a positive surgical resection margin. All patients were alive at a median follow-up of 8 months (range, 1-76 months). Local recurrence occurred in 1 patient who had positive surgical margins 3 years after the initial surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Solitary fibrous tumors of the head and neck region are rare and most commonly benign. The diagnosis depends on microscopic and immunohistochemical features, although imaging may help. Patients with these tumors can be safely treated with local excision, but tumors with positive margins require close follow-up over several years owing to the potential for late local recurrence.

12E7 Antigen↗

Malignant minor salivary gland tumors of the larynx.

OBJECTIVE: To report our experience in treating patients with malignant minor salivary gland tumors of the larynx. DESIGN: Thirty-three-year retrospective study. SETTING: Tertiary referral center specializing in head and neck surgery. PATIENTS: Twelve patients with malignant minor salivary gland tumors of the larynx were identified from a search of the institutional databases and pathology records at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, between the years 1970 and 2003. All slides were independently reviewed by 2 pathologists (R.G. and D.C.). Details on patient and tumor characteristics, as well as treatment and surgical outcome, were recorded. RESULTS: Ten patients (83%) had adenoid cystic carcinoma and 2 (17%) had myoepithelial carcinoma. Five (42%) were located in the supraglottis and 7 (58%) in the subglottis. Ten (83%) had surgery (6 with adjuvant radiotherapy) and 2 (17%) were treated with radiotherapy alone. Of the 10 patients who had surgery, total laryngectomy was required in 6 (60%), supraglottic horizontal laryngectomy in 2 (20%), and cricotracheal resection in 2 (20%). With a median follow-up of 55 months (range, 1-194 months), 10 patients are alive, 6 of whom have no evidence of disease. Seven patients (58%) developed recurrent disease, 2 of whom had local recurrence alone, 1 had regional recurrence alone, 3 had distant recurrence alone, and 1 had local and distant recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: Up to 60% of patients with malignant minor salivary gland tumors of the larynx will develop recurrent disease locally, regionally, or at distant sites. In adenoid cystic carcinoma, regional recurrence is rare, but distant recurrence is common and may occur up to 10 years after the index therapy. For both adenoid cystic and myoepithelial carcinoma, partial surgery is possible in selected cases, but because of the high propensity for submucosal spread and perineural and lymphovascular invasion, total laryngectomy is usually recommended.

Adult↗

Gene expression profiling allows distinction between primary and metastatic squamous cell carcinomas in the lung.

Lung neoplasms commonly develop in patients previously treated for head and neck carcinomas. The derivation of these tumors, either as new primary lung cancers or as metastatic head and neck cancers, is difficult to establish based on clinical or histopathologic criteria since both are squamous cell carcinomas and have identical features under light microscopy. However, this distinction has significant treatment and prognostic implications. Gene expression profiling was performed on a panel of 52 sequentially collected patients with either primary lung (n = 21) or primary head and neck (n = 31) carcinomas using the Affymetrix HG_U95Av2 high-density oligonucleotide microarray. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering with Ward linkage and the Pearson correlation metric was performed. To assess robustness, bootstrap resampling was performed with 1,000 iterations. A t test of the normalized values for each gene was used to determine the genes responsible for segregating head and neck from lung primary carcinomas, and those with the most differential expression were used for later analyses. In the absence of a large "test" set of tumors, we used a supervised leave-one-out cross-validation to test how well we could predict the tumor origin. Once a gene expression profile was established, 12 lung lesions taken from patients with previously treated head and neck cancers were similarly analyzed by gene expression profiling to determine their sites of origin. Unsupervised clustering analysis separated the study cohort into two distinct groups which reliably remained segregated with bootstrap resampling. Group 1 consisted of 30 tongue carcinomas. Group 2 consisted of 21 lung cancers and 1 tongue carcinoma. The clustering was not changed even when normal lung or tongue profiles were subtracted from the corresponding carcinomatous lesions, and a leave-one-out cross-validation showed a 98% correct prediction (see Supplementary Data 1). A minimum set of 500 genes required to distinguish these groups was established. Given the ability to segregate these lesions using molecular profiling, we analyzed the lung tumors of undetermined origin. All cases clearly clustered with either lung or tongue tumor subsets, strongly supporting our hypothesis that this technique could elucidate the tissue of origin of metastatic lesions. Although histologically similar, squamous cell carcinomas have distinct gene expression profiles based on their anatomic sites of origin. Accordingly, the application of gene expression profiling may be useful in identifying the derivation of lung nodules and consequently enhances treatment planning.

Algorithms↗

Human papillomavirus DNA and p53 polymorphisms in squamous cell carcinomas from Fanconi anemia patients.

Fanconi anemia is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by congenital malformations, bone marrow failure, and the development of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) and other cancers. Recent clinicopathologic evidence has raised the possibility that an environmental factor such as human papillomavirus (HPV) may be involved in the pathogenesis of SCCs in Fanconi anemia patients. Given the high prevalence of p53 mutations in SCCs among the general population and the lack of p53 mutations in HPV-related carcinogenesis, we evaluated the role of HPV and p53 mutations and polymorphisms in SCC from Fanconi anemia patients. We used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening and real-time PCR to detect and quantify HPV DNA in DNA extracted from microdissected SCCs obtained from 24 Fanconi anemia patients (n = 25 SCCs; case subjects) and 50 age-, sex-, and tumor site-matched SCC patients without Fanconi anemia (n = 50 SCCs; control subjects). We PCR-amplified and sequenced exons 4-9 of the p53 gene from SCC DNA. We detected HPV DNA in 84% of the SCC specimens from the case subjects and in 36% of the SCC specimens from the control subjects (P<.001). The prevalence of p53 mutations in SCCs from the case subjects (0%, 0/25) was statistically significantly lower than that of SCCs from the control subjects (36%, 12/33; P<.001). A greater proportion of patients with Fanconi anemia and SCC were homozygous for Arg72, a p53 polymorphism that may be associated with increased risk for HPV-associated human malignancies, than an ethnically-matched cohort of Fanconi anemia patients without SCC (75% versus 51%; P =.05). These data suggest that Fanconi anemia is associated with increased susceptibility to HPV-induced carcinogenesis.

Carcinoma, Squamous Cell↗