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Biomedical subjects

F Bertin

Publications and source records attributed to F Bertin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

[Anatomopathological problems of mastopathies at risk].

As breast cancer screening programmes gain momentum, there is a parallel increase in histological problems mainly related to the identification of an increasing number of "borderline" breast lesions. The results of recent studies are often inconsistent, and bear witness to the lack of a consensus regarding the interpretation of both ductal and lobular epithelial hyperplasia. The authors insist on the need for an adequate number of samples and an irreproachable histologic technique which is indispensible if the morphologic subtleties, currently the only valid factors permitting the diagnosis, are to be appraised. The role of the pathologist is therefore crucial in the management of specimens which are entrusted to him and in helping the clinician to tailor treatment to fit each individual patient.

Breast

[Isolated iliac aneurysms. Sixty-seven cases in forty-eight patients].

77 pure iliac aneurysms where detected in a group of 48 patients along a period of 21 years, and represented 12.3% of all patients having aortic, iliac, or aorto-iliac aneurysms. The study group comprised 42 men and 6 women, 48-86 years old (mean 67.8 years). The aneurysm was located on the right side in 51.9%, on left side in 48.1%. The affection of the common iliac arteries (70.1%) was more frequent than it was on the internal iliac arteries (18.2%), or in the external iliac arteries (11.7%). The diameter was from 2 to 10 cms. 44 patients out of 48 (91.6%) where symptomatic, and 15 presented a rupture syndrome (31.3%). 10 patients (20.8%) had a pulsating mass. The etiology was unknown in 8 cases (16.7%); 2 patients had a mycotic aneurysm (4.2%). The remaining 38 patients (79.1%) had an aneurysm of atheromatous origin. 5 arteritic patients (10.4%) did not have any cure for their aneurysm, because it was considered threatening for 4 of them. The fifth patient was not treated because the artery was so calcified that it could not be clamped. A lumbar sympathectomy on the same side of the lesion was realised, in addition to the peripheral surgical act for arteritis. One patient had an endoaneurysmorrhaphy, another had an exclusion by ligature section of the aneurysm. For the remaining 41 patients (83.1%) the aneurysms where flattened, and vascular continuity was re-established by a prosthesis. 7 patients (12%) decreased post-operatively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Aged

Simple sequence repeat polymorphism within the p53 gene.

This report describes a new polymorphism, in intron 3 of the p53 gene, which consists of a single repeat of 16 nucleotides, absent in the published wild-type p53 gene sequence. In the Caucasian population tested (n = 82), 28% of individuals were heterozygotes for this polymorphism. Using PCR-based analysis, we were able to demonstrate p53 allelic losses in three of six breast tumors from heterozygote patients tested.

Base Sequence

[Necrotizing fasciitis: a medical and surgical emergency. Apropos of a case].

We report about a 66-years-old obese and diabetic female patient, treated with anti-inflammatories for osteoarthritis of the hip and operated for varices of the lower limbs by a bilateral stripping of the internal saphenous veins, who presented with a mortal necrotizing fasciitis during the postoperative period. Necrotizing fasciitis is a severe, infrequent disease jeopardizing the vital prognosis, in which an appropriate and early treatment (medical, using antibiotics, and surgical by extensive debridement) can prevent a fatal outcome. The most often involved germs are streptococci (45%). The association of anaerobic and aerobic germs sometimes causes mixed cellulitis. The vital prognosis is always threatened by postoperative fasciitis. The mortality rate ranges from 50 to 75%, the main causes of death being a septic shock or pulmonary embolism. The functional prognosis of the surviving patients depends on the extent and quality of surgery.

Aged

[Isolation and identification of camel poxvirus in Morocco].

The virus isolated from young dromedaries during a poxvirus infection, was cultivated on Vero cells. The infection of egg chorio-allantoic membrane caused pustulous lesions (pocks). When inoculated in newborn mice, adult mice or guinea pigs the virus had no pathogenic effect. The virus presented all the characteristics of a poxvirus when observed under the electronic microscope.

Animals

[What is "mastopathy at risk" for the anatomopathologist?].

For the pathologist, the term "mastopathy at risk" comprises a double aspect. On one hand, a good definition of the boundary between benign lesions and cancer. The latter uses mainly, and still now, morphological signs, and no "markers" enable an infallible differentiation. Certainly certain criteria are useful observations to distinguish between intra-canal and intralobular epithelial hyperplasia of the carcinomas in situ, or to recognize between a tubular carcinoma and certain adenosis foci. But it is often the pathologist's experience which makes the difference. On the other hand, a good knowledge of the epidemiological studies associating, to each of the anatomopathological entities constituting the fibro-cystic mastopathy, a risk factor for breast cancer. Indeed, the pathologist must indicate, in his report, these various entities in order to help the clinician take his therapeutic decision. The results of the study of a population of 3,305 women who have been examined at the Gustave Roussy Institute between 1970 and 1973 for benign mammary lesions, 401 on whom a biopsy was carried out, will illustrate this observation, revealing the importance of multiple fibro-adenosis foci, small cysts and lobe hyperplasias. But the histological details of these benign mastopathies must imperatively be integrated to the epidemiological and clinical data on the patient in order to adapt the therapeutic protocol for the best.

Breast Diseases

[Enzymo-immunoassay of progesterone receptors in human breast lesions and tumors. Comparison with a biochemical method].

The determination of progesterone receptors (RP) was performed on 80 benign and malignant human breast tumors with a single saturating dose method (10 nM) using dextran-coated charcoal (PR-Bio) and an enzymo-immunoassay (PgR-EIA). There was a significant correlation between the 2 methods qualitatively (P less than 0.001) and quantitatively (r = 0.79). However the results were significantly higher using the PgR-EIA method than the PR-Bio method (P = 0.04) with a regression line Y = 0.81 x +0.58.

Adenocarcinoma

[Epidermoid cancer of the esophagus: is the combination of chemotherapy then surgery beneficial?].

Ninety-two patients with carcinoma of the esophagus were treated with pre-operative chemotherapy (2 courses) before undergoing surgery. Chemotherapy and/or radiation were carried out after surgery depending on the tumor response to chemotherapy and extent of the tumor found at surgery. Tumor response before surgery (according to OMS criteria) was determined in 84 patients. Forty-four percent of patients showed a tumor regression of over 50%. Curative surgery was more frequently performed in patients with good tumor regression (greater than 50%) than in patients with less satisfactory tumor regression (less than 50%) (76 versus 57.5% respectively) (P = 0.08). Patients who underwent curative surgery had a lower pathologic staging when tumor regression was over 50%. However, the number of patients is too limited for any definite conclusions to be made. Survival rate at 3 years was similar in both groups of patients with curative surgery. Survival was not influenced by the extent of tumor regression before surgery. This study also suggests that the pre-operative chemotherapy did not increase the survival rate of patients who underwent curative surgery. Therefore it does not seem advisable to undertake a phase III randomized study on pre-operative chemotherapy patients.

Antineoplastic Agents

Medullary breast carcinoma. A reevaluation of 95 cases of breast cancer with inflammatory stroma.

The hallmarks of diagnosis of medullary breast cancer (MedBC) used by the authors since 1977 have been that the tumor is well circumscribed, has syncytial architecture in greater than 75% of its surface, contains diffuse inflammatory infiltrate, has atypical nuclei, and forms no glandular pattern. In order to assess the clinical utility of these criteria, we studied a series of 95 previously untreated, surgically operable patients with breast carcinoma at the Institut Gustave-Roussy (IGR) between 1960 and 1979. A diagnosis of MedBC was initially made for these patients or suspected based on abundant inflammatory stroma observed in a histologic evaluation. Using these criteria, 26 cases were identified as typical medullary carcinoma (TMC), 23 cases as atypical medullary carcinoma (AMC), and 46 cases as nonmedullary carcinoma (NMC). The 26 cases of TMC represent a very small fraction of the total infiltrating operable breast carcinomas diagnosed at IGR during the same time period. The prognosis for these 26 patients was much more favorable than for the other groups. They had a 10-year disease-free survival of 92% compared with 53% for the AMC group and 51% for the NMC group. Neither distant metastasis nor secondary primaries of the same histology were seen. Therefore, it is possible with the use of strict histologic criteria to distinguish a group of patients with a much more favorable prognosis. This histologic diagnosis alone renders a most favorable prognosis for the patient even if other factors such as large tumor size and lymph node involvement are present and, by inference, the only therapy needed is the removal of all tumor. In contrast, atypical forms have a prognosis no different from other atypical types of breast carcinomas without inflammatory stroma, and adjuvant therapy appears to be justified if other factors warrant it.

Breast Neoplasms

Importance of tumor cells in axillary node sinus margins ('clandestine' metastases) discovered by serial sectioning in operable breast carcinoma.

The prognostic implications of small emboli of carcinoma cells in the sinus margins of axillary lymph nodes ('clandestine' metastases) discovered by serial node sectioning at 2 mm intervals was analysed. All patients, previously untreated, were admitted between 1967 and 1978 and underwent mastectomy and axillary node dissection. Our study examined the risk of distant metastases of 1153 patients with from 0 to 3 involved axillary lymph nodes. A Cox multivariate analysis was performed, taking into account the classical prognostic factors (menopausal status, histoprognostic grade, and anatomic tumor size), and for nodal status including the notion of clandestine (CM) or parenchymal metastases (PM). Compared to patients without axillary metastases, patients with one node involved with CM had a relative risk of distant metastases of 1.7, identical to the risk for patients with one node with PM; and patients with one node containing PM and a second CM, had a relative risk of 2.2. Serial node sectioning discovers nodal metastases that would otherwise not be detected. These CM have important clinical implications and should be taken into account when considering adjuvant manipulations.

Axilla

[Epidermoid cancers of the esophagus: combined chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy. Preliminary results in 50 cases].

Fifty operable epidermoid esophageal carcinomas were treated by combined chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy. The post-operative mortality was 5.4% and the severe post-operative morbidity was 29%. The vindesine-5FU-platinum association and the vindesine-endoxan-platinum association gave respectively 55% and 35% objective responses (OR) after two preoperative courses without increasing the operative mortality. The patients who showed an OR had a less important tumoral extension. Thus, an objective response to the pre-operative chemotherapy is in fact a new prognostic factor. Survival without recurrence seems to be increased when chemotherapy is efficient in the curative resection group. These findings incite to promote prospective randomized studies with this kind of combined therapy.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols

[Definition and anatomo-pathologic classification of benign breast diseases].

Most pathological changes in the mammary gland that are not tumours are fibrocystic diseases. Their classifications, at first purely descriptive, can now be used to predict the risks of cancer. All the same, there is no real parallel between these classifications and the difficulties in differential diagnosis that these lesions present for the pathologist. This is so true that the risk has to be defined by more objective markers than one morphological finding.

Breast Diseases

[Fibroadenoma of the breast with atypical clear-cell epithelial hyperplasia. Apropos of 7 cases. Immunohistochemical study].

We report 7 cases of unusual fibroadenomas of the breast. They are characterized by an exuberant cellular proliferation within the ductal lumens. They appear in young women from 20 to 40 years old. These lesions are histologically identical to those described by Azzopardi (1979) under the name of "Argyrophilic cells in fibroadenomas" and by Eusebi and Azzopardi (1980) and by Govoni (1981) and called "Lobular endocrine neoplasia in fibroadenoma of the Breast". An immunohistochemical study reveals a major positivity of these cells, in all cases, with Antikeratin Antibody (anti Kl1) and with Epithelial Membrane Antigen (anti EMA) proving the epithelial origin of these cells. There cells cannot yet be regarded as belonging to the neuro-endocrine group, because of the negativity, in all cases of Grimelius and Bodian stains, and of the very heterogeneous positivity observed with Neuron-Specific Enolase antibody (anti NSE) and with anti Human Natural Killer antibody (anti HNK). These cellular proliferations seem to us, on the microscopical point of view related to the atypical epithelial hyperplasias of the breast, and different from the in situ lobular carcinoma. Thus we propose to call these lesions "variant of the breast fibroadenoma" characterized by an atypical epithelial clear cell hyperplasia. The treatment of these lesions merely consists of a lumpectomy. Only one case is associated with an eleven years free of disease follow-up: a follow-up comprised between on to fifteen months is observed in the others cases. The knowledge of these benign lesions appears to us very important, to avoid improper treatment caused by an erroneous diagnosis of carcinoma developing in a breast fibroadenoma.

Adenofibroma

Evaluation of elastosis in breast cancer.

The possibly prognostic value of elastosis in breast carcinoma has usually been visually evaluated, using subjective gradings whose variability has led to contradictory conclusions. We used a Magiscan 2 automated image analyzer to perform objective measurements on elastosis on a set of 52 slides that were also subjectively evaluated. The wide range of parameters measurable by the automated system seemed likely to successfully deal with the lack of homogeneity of elastosis that causes problems in subjective evaluations. The homogeneity parameters (percentage distributions of elastosis in each slide) were processed by factorial analysis. On the plane defined by the first two factors, the principal components analysis produced a clustering of cases that was, on the whole, in concordance with the subjective evaluation.

Breast Neoplasms

[Alveolar soft part sarcomas. Apropos of 6 cases and review of the literature].

This is a clinicopathologic study of 6 cases of alveolar soft-part sarcoma. The patients age ranges from 8 to 47 years. All patients are women. In 5 cases the localization of the primary tumor is the lower extremities. Histologically the tumors have a distinctive organoid pattern outlined by thin-walled capillaries and are composed of nests of large polyhedral cells with abundant finely granular, acidophilic cytoplasm. Two tumors, among the 4 tested cases, have cytoplasmic PAS positive diastase-resistant crystalline structures. Electron microscopic study of one tumor shows intracytoplasmic glycogen, small membrane-bound electron-dense granules, Golgi lamellae and crystalline structures. Immunoperoxidase study performed in one case reveals a positivity with antikeratin and anti-enolase (NSE) antibodies. The prognosis of this tumor is poor. The main metastasis are in the lung and in the brain. Often the patients develop metastasis before detection of the primary tumor. The histogenesis of alveolar soft part sarcoma and the identity of the characteristic crystalloids remain open for discussion.

Adult

[Aschoff's center of proliferation. Experience of the Gustave Roussy Institute].

"Le Centre de Prolifération d'Aschoff" (CPA) has many synonyms: radial scar, benign sclerosing ductal proliferation, non encapsulated sclerosing lesions, fibroelastic center, fibroadenosis with fibroelastic core etc... In a retrospective study from the files of the Gustave-Roussy Institute, 88 cases were found: 18 cases between 1955 and 1959 and 70 cases more recently, between 1976 and 1981. CPA is an unusual lesion, observed in 2% of benign breast lesions, and in less of 1% of malignant breast lesions. Macroscopically, when CPA is not associated to a carcinoma, it has either a pseudotumoral feature (46% of the cases), or only a microscopic appearance (54% of the cases). In these last cases, it is always found by chance at the time of the examination of specimens of fibrocystic disease. When it is associated to a carcinoma, these two features are less well individualized. Mammographically and macroscopically, they are often problematical. They cause considerable diagnostic problems because of their pseudotumoral features, being similar to small stellate carcinomas. Two cases were misinterpreted at the time of the extemporaneous examination for a carcinoma and in 36 other cases, the diagnosis was uncertain and the definitive report was delayed. For the non-pseudotumoral form, a relationship was found in this series between previous cytological aspirations and CPA. The evolution of this lesion was difficult to evaluate because of the great number of the patients lost to follow up in this series. Although a slight trend was observed for patients to subsequently develop a breast carcinoma, no statistically significant difference was observed. From this study, close follow-up of these patients is considered necessary.

Adult

[Soft tissue clear cell sarcomas. Reevaluation of clear cell sarcomas of the tendons and the aponeuroses in 14 cases].

A retrospective study is realized including 14 cases of clear cell sarcomas of tendons and aponeuroses, found in the files of Institut Gustave-Roussy (1969-1983). The main microscopic features are emphasized. In comparison with other soft tissue sarcomas, clear cell sarcomas are clinically characterized by a great frequency of local lymph node metastases (4 of 14 cases). The prognosis is usually particularly poor. The exact histogenesis remains obscure, but the results of special stains, support origin from migrated neural crest cells: melanin is visualized in 2 out of 12 tumors in which Fontana-Masson is performed. S 100 protein, a neuroectodermal marker, is positive by immunoperoxidase technique (PAP) in 6 of 10 tested cases. A better diagnostic approach is allowed with the help of ultrastructural study performed in 3 cases. These tumors must be separated from synovialosarcomas. Because the histogenesis is not actually sure, it is preferable to call them "soft tissue clear cell sarcomas".

Adolescent