Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to E Petru.
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OBJECTIVES: Platinum resistance is a significant problem in patients with ovarian cancer. The aim of this phase II study was to define the response rates, the progression-free survival and the toxicity profile of the combination of PEG liposomal doxorubicin (L-DXR) and gemcitabine (GEM). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty one patients with histologically confirmed platinum-refractory or -resistant epithelial ovarian cancer were scheduled to receive 6 cycles of L-DXR 30 mg/m(2) on day 1 as well as GEM 650 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 8 every 28 days. RESULTS: The median number of chemotherapy cycles given was 4. The mean dose intensity for L-DXR and GEM on day 1 was 96% and 97%, respectively. The mean dose intensity for GEM on day 8 was 93%. The overall response rate was 33% (10 of 30 evaluable patients; 20% complete responses). The median progression-free survival was 3.8 months, and the median overall survival was 15.8 months, respectively. Toxicity was acceptable. One quarter of patients developed grade 3 or 4 neutropenia, but none developed febrile neutropenia. Palmoplantar erythrodysesthesia (PPE) grades 2 and 3 occurred in 13% and 3% only, respectively, and no grade 4 PPE was observed. Grades 1 to 3 stomatitis was found in 58% of patients (10% grade 3). CONCLUSION: The combination of L-DXR and GEM is an active and acceptably tolerated option in the treatment of patients with platinum-resistant and -refractory ovarian cancer. Dose reductions seem advisable in the case of > or =grade 2 stomatitis and/or PPE > or =grade 2.
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INTRODUCTION: We describe a patient with wound rupture and burst abdomen after cesarean section with the Misgav-Ladach technique. CASE REPORT: A 33-year-old woman underwent primary cesarean section at 36 + 5 weeks gestation for a fetal indication. The procedure was done according to the Misgav-Ladach technique, i.e. the uterus was closed with a one-layer continuous locking stitch and the visceral and parietal peritoneal layers were left open. The rectus sheath was stitched with a continuous nonlocking stitch, the skin was closed with a continuous intracutaneous suture. On the seventh postoperative day, omentum was seen extruding from the skin incision. Reexploration showed that the suture of the rectus sheath had ruptured. The further postoperative course was uneventful. CONCLUSION: Although no general recommendations can be deduced from a single case, further reports on any complications of this technique will show whether it is as safe as believed until now.
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UNLABELLED: PURPOSE OF THE ARTICLE: In patients recurring after primary therapy for cervical cancer, treatment remains palliative. In the present article we focus on treatment results with single cytostatic drugs or combinations in randomized trials in squamous cell cervical cancer. RESULTS: In one randomized trial, monotherapy with platinum analogues lead to overall remission rates between 11% and 15% only. The median overall survival ranged between 5.6 and 6.5 months. Various combinations lead to overall remission rates between 21% and 31% and the median overall survival ranged between 7.3 and 14.3 months. The most active combinations were cisplatin/bleomycin/mitomycin C/vindesine, cisplatin/paclitaxel, and cisplatin/irinotecan. There are several smaller studies with cystostatic therapy in cervical adenocarcinoma. However, using 5-fluoruracil, ifosfamide, paclitaxel, or cisplatinum, only response rates between 15 and 30% can be achieved. Predictors of a favorable chemotherapy response include a higher performance status, higher age, extrapelvic recurrence sites (especially lung metastases), a recurrence-free interval > 1 year, and no previous radiotherapy and chemotherapy. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, palliative cytostatic therapy with single agents has moderate activity. Combinations are more active but also more toxic. In general, chemotherapy needs to be used earlier in the course of disease when tissue vascularization is preserved.
AIM: The aim of the study was to assess the effect of a birth-chair on obstetric outcome. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We reviewed the hospital records of 220 consecutive pregnant women who gave birth on a birth-chair at our institution. The control group consisted of 440 pregnant women who preceded and followed the index cases and who had spontaneous vaginal deliveries in the conventional dorsal supine position. The controls were matched for parity and for the attending mid-wife. RESULTS: Patients who delivered in the birth-chair had significantly lower rates of episiotomy and manual separation of the placenta. The umbilical blood cord pH was significantly higher in neonates of the birth-chair group. The duration of labour, rate of perineal and vaginal injury, Apgar scores and rate of admission to a neonatal intermediate care unit were not influenced by the mode of delivery. CONCLUSION: Our data support previous studies that a birth-chair delivery may be a safe alternative to conventional delivery in the supine position.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the behavior of endometrial stromal sarcomas (ESS) in relation to their clinical and pathologic features and to identify possible prognostic factors. METHODS: Thirty-one patients with histologically proven ESS were included in the analysis. Endometrial stromal sarcoma is characterized by proliferations composed of cells with endometrial stromal cell differentiation. A breakpoint of 10 mitoses per 10 high-power fields was used in the statistical analysis to distinguish between low-grade and high-grade endometrial stromal sarcoma and to evaluate the prognostic value of mitotic count in patients with ESS. RESULTS: The median follow-up time was 72 months (range 34-110). The median overall survival of the 31 patients was 127 months, resulting in a 5-year overall survival rate of 62%. Adjuvant therapy was administered to 25 patients; among those, 20 patients received postoperative radiotherapy and 5 patients received chemotherapy. Ten of the irradiated patients and 3 patients undergoing chemotherapy developed disease recurrence. Concerning the response rate to adjuvant chemotherapy, 1 patient showed a complete response, 1 patient a partial response, 1 patient stable disease, and 2 patients progressive disease. Altogether, 14 patients developed recurrent disease with a median disease-free survival of 11 months (range 5-60). Twelve patients died of the disease. A univariate model revealed that early tumor stage (P < 0.0007), low myometrial invasion (P < 0.008), and low mitotic count (P < 0.005) were associated with a lengthened overall survival in patients with endometrial stromal sarcoma. Age and adjuvant therapy did not influence overall survival of patients with ESS. CONCLUSION: Early tumor stage, low myometrial invasion, and low mitotic count are associated with a lengthened overall survival in patients with ESS.
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Only five patients found to have brain metastasis preceding the diagnosis of endometrial cancer have been reported in the literature, and none of these survived beyond 38 months. The authors report on two patients with primary endometrial cancer who initially presented with cerebral metastasis. One of these patients died of disease 15 months after diagnosis. The other patient is still alive, with no evidence of disease, 171 months after she underwent radiosurgery for a solitary brain metastasis, aggressive cytoreductive abdominal and pelvic surgery, and doxorubicin-based chemotherapy. To the best of their knowledge, the authors believe that no similar observation has been made for any primary gynecological neoplasm, including endometrial, ovarian, or cervical cancer. This is the first report documenting that survival beyond one decade may be achieved after intensive multimodal therapy in selected patients in whom a solitary brain metastasis has been found before diagnosis of endometrial cancer. Aggressive therapy appears to be warranted in these patients.
OBJECTIVE: To define the normal ranges of umbilical cord blood oxygen saturation (SaO2) and acid-base status at birth and to evaluate the effect of gestational age on cord blood values in vigorous newborn infants following spontaneous vaginal birth from a vertex position. DESIGN: Prospective study. SETTING: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Graz, Austria. SAMPLE: Cord blood samples from 1281 vigorous newborn infants. METHODS: Cord blood sampling was performed following on newborn infants following spontaneous vaginal birth in a vertex position. SaO2 was measured directly by a spectrophotometer and pH, base excess, pCO2 and pO2 by a pH/blood-gas analyser. Infants with a 5-minute Apgar score > or = 7 were considered vigorous. Subgroups were classified according to the gestational age: preterm, term and post-term (< 37, 37-42 and > 42 weeks, respectively). RESULTS: The median umbilical artery SaO2 was 24.3% and the 2.5th centile was as low as 2.7%. The median umbilical artery values were pH = 7.25, base excess = -4.3 mmol/L and pO2 = 16 mmHg. The 2.5th centiles were 7.08, -11.1 mmol/L and 5 mmHg, respectively. The median umbilical artery pCO2 was 50 mmHg and the 97.5th centile was 75 mmHg. The mean umbilical artery and vein SaO2 values were not significantly influenced by gestational age. The umbilical artery SaO2 and base excess values were strongly skewed. The mean umbilical artery pH values in preterm infants were higher than in other subgroups. The mean umbilical artery and vein base excess values were lower in post-term newborn infants than in other subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: The physiological range of oxygen saturation in umbilical cord of vigorous newborn infants at birth is wide and skewed. In contrast to pH and base excess, umbilical cord blood oxygen saturation is not influenced significantly by gestational age at birth.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of additional radiotherapy after chemotherapy on the relapse-free and overall survival rates of patients with advanced ovarian cancer. METHODS: Between 1985 and 1992 64 patients with radically operated ovarian cancers (4 stage IC, 2 stage II, 54 stage III, and 4 stage IV) were enrolled in a randomized study. Radical surgery comprised total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, omentectomy, and pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy. All patients received adjuvant chemotherapy with carboplatin IV 400 mg/m2, epirubicin IV 70 mg/m2 on day 1 and prednimustine orally 100 mg/m2 on days 3 to 7 at 1-month intervals. Thirty-two patients without residual disease were randomized to whole abdominal radiation (30 Gy, administered over 4 weeks). An additional 21.6 Gy were delivered to the pelvis and 12 Gy to the paraaortic region up to the diaphragm for total doses of 51.6 and 42 Gy, respectively. Cancer-related survival was calculated with the Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards methods. RESULTS: The relapse-free and overall survival rates of patients who received adjuvant chemoradiotherapy were significantly higher than those of patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy only (68% vs 56% at 2 years and 49% vs 26% at 5 years, P = 0.013, and 87% vs 61% at 2 years and 59% vs 33% at 5 years, P = 0.029). The differences were most pronounced in patients with stage III disease (77% vs 54% at 2 years and 45% vs 19% at 5 years, P = 0. 0061, and 88% vs 58% at 2 years and 59% vs 26% at 5 years, P = 0. 012). Toxicities were acceptable. CONCLUSION: Sequential combination of platinum-based chemotherapy with open-field abdominal radiotherapy is a promising adjuvant regimen for patients with advanced ovarian cancer.
BACKGROUND: Tracheal metastasis is a rare manifestation of recurrent ovarian cancer. CASE: We describe tracheal metastasis causing increasing respiratory distress in a patient with progressive stage IIIc undifferentiated serous-papillary cancer involving the peritoneum and pleura and the retroperitoneal, diaphragmatic, parahilar, mediastinal, pretracheal, paratracheal, and supraclavicular lymph nodes. The situation necessitated rapid endoscopic laser ablation. CONCLUSION: Malignant tracheal obstruction should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients with advanced ovarian cancer and respiratory distress.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the behavior of uterine leiomyosarcomas in relation to their clinical and pathologic features and to identify possible prognostic factors. METHODS: Seventy-one patients with histologically proven uterine leiomyosarcoma were included in the analysis. Leiomyosarcomas were defined as uterine smooth-muscle tumors with five or more mitoses per 10 high-power fields and cytologic atypia. Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to identify independent prognostic factors. RESULTS: The median follow-up time was 108 months; 5-year overall survival rate was 65%. Evaluating the correlation between several clinicopathologic parameters, tumors with vascular space involvement had a statistically significantly higher stage than tumors without vasular space involvement (P = 0.015). In a univariate Cox model early tumor stage (P < 0.0001), age <50 years (P < 0.0001), low mitotic count (P = 0.05), and the absence of vascular space involvement (P < 0.0005) were associated with good prognosis. In a multivariate analysis age (P = 0.002), tumor stage (P = 0.004), vascular space involvement (P = 0.003), and mitotic count in stage I tumors (P = 0.002) were found to be independent parameters for good prognosis in patients with uterine leiomyosarcoma. CONCLUSION: Early tumor stage, age <50 years, and absence of vascular space involvement were independently associated with good prognosis. Mitotic count was detected to be a strong prognostic parameter in early tumor stage, but failed to act as an independent prognostic parameter in patients with tumor stage II-IV disease.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to retrospectively analyze the prognostic importance of age, histologic type and grade, ascites, lymph node status, size and type of postoperative residual disease, and radiation dose on disease-specific (DSS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in stage III epithelial ovarian cancer patients who had been treated with radical surgery, postoperative chemotherapy, and high-dose radiotherapy. METHODS: Consolidation radiotherapy including whole abdominal radiation, pelvic, and upper abdominal boosts was employed in 46 patients who showed no evidence of residual or progressive disease after completion of multiagent chemotherapy. The median follow-up for all patients was 36 months and 103 months for patients at risk. The prognostic impact of pretreatment and treatment parameters on DSS and PFS was tested in univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: The 5-year DSS and PFS rates for all patients were 38 and 33%, and for patients with 0-< or =2 cm residual tumor 65 and 61%, respectively. In univariate analysis, initial peritoneal seeding (both: P = 0.02), ascites (P = 0.03; 0.01), size of residual (0-< or =2 cm vs >2 cm), and residual miliary subdiaphragmatic (MDS) and localized peritoneal seeding (LPS) in the upper abdomen (P = 0.0002; 0.0003) were significantly correlated with DSS and PFS. Dose of radiation (< or =30 vs >30 Gy) correlated with DSS only (P = 0.02). In multivariate analysis size of residual disease (0-< or =2 cm vs >2 cm and/or MDS or LPS) remained the only independent prognostic factor for DSS and PFS (both; P = 0. 001). CONCLUSION: Patients with localized peritoneal seeding who were rendered free of disease elsewhere had an outcome equally poor as that of patients with gross residuals (>2 cm) in the upper abdomen. If our findings can be confirmed, attempted resection of all localized seeding in patients who are otherwise cytoreducible to no or minimal residual disease may be considered in combination with Taxol-containing regimens as are now being utilized for patients with gross disease.
OBJECTIVE: Inguinal metastasis is a rare manifestation of ovarian cancer. Autopsy studies have reported inguinal metastasis in 0-3% of patients with advanced disease. CASE REPORT: We describe a 43-year-old patient with ovarian cancer limited to the adnexa who had an isolated metastasis in an enlarged inguinal lymph node. The patient underwent total abdominal hysterectomy, omentectomy, pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy, and excision of the enlarged inguinal lymph node. All 78 pelvic and 40 paraaortic lymph nodes were negative. CONCLUSION: This case demonstrates that early isolated distant lymph node metastasis, although rare, can occur in patients with ovarian cancer and may be a presenting symptom.
BACKGROUND: It is unclear whether older primiparas are at increased risk for complications of pregnancy other than an increased cesarean section rate. The aim of this study was to compare the rate of complications of pregnancy and delivery of primiparas aged 40 years or older with those of primiparas aged 20 to 30 years. METHODS: We reviewed the maternal and neonatal hospital records of 59 consecutive primiparas aged 40 years or older who delivered at our institution between 1986 and 1995. A total of 118 primiparas aged 20 to 30 years who preceded and followed the cases served as controls. RESULTS: The mean duration of gestation was significantly shorter in primiparas > or = 40 years of age. Induction of labor was more common and the cesarean delivery rate was higher (47 vs 12%) in older primiparas. The mean birth weight was significantly lower in the offspring of the cases. The perinatal mortality rate was 5% in the primiparas over 40 years and 0% in the control group; fetal malformations were found in 5% (vs 1%) of the children of older primiparas. CONCLUSIONS: In our series, older primiparas were at increased risk for prematurity, preeclampsia, and perinatal mortality. The high rate of cesarean section in older primiparas is due mainly to a higher incidence of obstetric complications. These data suggest that the prenatal care of older primiparas in the third trimester should concentrate on the early detection of premature contractions and signs of preeclampsia.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of simple sequence variation in the BRCA2 gene. To this end, 71 breast and breast-ovarian cancer (HBC/HBOC) families along with 95 control individuals from a wide range of ethnicities were analyzed by means of denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) and direct sequence analysis. In the coding (10 257 bp) and non-coding (2799 bp) sequences of BRCA2, 82 sequence variants were identified. Three different, apparently disease-associated BRCA2 mutations were found in six HBC/HBOC families (8%): two splice site mutations in introns 5 and 21, and one frameshift mutation in exon 11. In the coding region, 53 simple sequence variants were found: 35 missense mutations, one 2 bp deletion (CT) resulting in a stop at codon 3364, one nonsense mutation with a stop at codon 3326, one deletion of a complete codon (AAA) resulting in the loss of leucine, and 15 silent mutations. In the non-coding region, 26 polymorphisms were detected. Of the 79 sequence variants that were not obviously disease-associated, eight were detected only in HBC/HBOC families. The remaining 71 variants were identified in both HBC/HBOC families and control individuals. Sixty three sequence variants (80%) were specific for a continent. Forty two percent (33 out of 79) of the sequence variants were detected exclusively in Africa, though only 13% of the 332 chromosomes screened were of African origin. Our data indicate that, in BRCA2, simple sequence variation is frequent [in the coding region 1 in 194 bp (straight theta = 2.2 x 10(-4)), and in the non-coding region 1 in 108 bp (straight theta = 4.4 x 10(-4)), respectively].