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Biomedical subjects

R L Kempson

Publications and source records attributed to R L Kempson.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Conservative management of testicular endodermal sinus tumor in childhood.

Endodermal sinus tumor is the most common testicular neoplasm in childhood. The management of children with this neoplasm remains controversial. We have treated prospectively 5 children with stage I endodermal sinus tumor with limited surgery and no adjuvant therapy. The median patient age at diagnosis was 21 months (range 5 to 24 months). All children underwent an inguinal orchiectomy with high ligation of the spermatic cord. Retroperitoneal node dissection was not performed in any case and no child received adjuvant chemotherapy or radiation therapy. All patients were well without evidence of recurrent disease at a median followup of 46 months (range 19 to 72 months). Because these tumors usually are localized at the time of diagnosis, rarely spread to the retroperitoneal nodes and have a biological marker in most cases, and because good salvage chemotherapy is available for patients with relapse, we believe that nonmetastatic testicular endodermal sinus tumors in children can be managed with radical orchiectomy alone. Retroperitoneal node dissection is not necessary and adjuvant therapy is not indicated if markers return to normal. Further treatment should be reserved for the rare child with relapse.

Castration↗

Conservative treatment of borderline ovarian tumors.

Of 61 patients with stage IA borderline ovarian tumors, 41 were treated with total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and 20 were treated by a variety of more limited operations, including cystectomy with (one patient) and without (three patients) a contralateral ovarian wedge biopsy, and unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy with (six patients) and without (ten patients) a contralateral wedge biopsy. In the group treated conservatively, there were 11 serous, seven mucinous, and two mixed seromucinous borderline tumors, whereas in the total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy treatment group there were 26 serious, 12 mucinous, and three mixed seromucinous borderline tumors. After a mean follow-up of 89 months (range 36 to 244 months), subsequent borderline neoplasms had developed in three patients (15%) with serious borderline tumors initially treated conservatively and in two patients (5%) with serous or mixed seromucinous borderline tumors initially treated with total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. No patient with a mucinous borderline tumor treated either conservatively or with total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy developed a subsequent neoplasm. All 61 patients in the study group are alive and free of disease, including those who developed recurrent neoplasm.

Adult↗

Pathology quality control in the cooperative clinical cancer trial programs.

Pathology quality control is an essential part of clinical cancer research. However, pathology review for every study may not be practical; therefore, review in most cooperative groups will be performed only for selected protocols. The selection process should include those neoplasms with an expected diagnostic error rate which would affect the outcome of the study. Unfortunately, complete information about the diagnostic error rate for various neoplasms is not available at the present time; however, enough information is available from the pathology review experiences of the last decade to draw some general guidelines. All lymphomas should have pathology quality control review as should rare or difficult-to-diagnose neoplasms. Early cancer is likely to cause diagnostic disagreement, so protocols designed to evaluate various treatment options for such neoplasms should include pathology review. The diagnostic error rate for far-advanced carcinoma, most adenocarcinomas of the gastrointestinal tract and squamous cell carcinomas, is so low that routine pathologic quality control review is not cost-effective, in our opinion. However, pathology review may be pathology research, and in this circumstance, pathology review will be carried out to answer research questions. Whether or not pathology quality control review is needed should be determined at the time of development of each protocol.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗

Acute nonlymphocytic leukemia developing during the course of Ewing's sarcoma.

Two children with Ewing's sarcoma developed acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) during the course of their illness. One patient developed ANLL after apparently successful treatment of his primary malignancy with radiation therapy and multiagent chemotherapy. In the second patient, acute leukemia developed before the administration of radiotherapy or systemic chemotherapy. The development of secondary ANLL after Ewing's sarcoma has been reported only twice previously, most likely representing a therapy-induced complication. The occurrence of ANLL in Patient 2 prior to therapy suggests that these two disorders may have a more than treatment-related association. Close follow-up of long-term survivors of Ewing's sarcoma with surveillance for secondary acute leukemia is advised.

Acute Disease↗

Ciliated carcinoma--a variant of endometrial adenocarcinoma: a report of 10 cases.

Ten examples of endometrial adenocarcinoma composed predominantly of ciliated cells were studied. Four of these neoplasms were examined ultrastructurally to confirm the presence of cilia. Hysterectomy was the treatment for all 10 patients; 4 patients received intracavitary radiation prior to surgery. All 10 of the resected uteri contained residual ciliated adenocarcinoma, and in five ciliated carcinoma invaded the myometrium. A microscopic focus of endometrioid carcinoma, thought to be a second simultaneous primary neoplasm, was present in the ovary of one of the patients. Although ciliated cells are almost always limited to benign endometrial proliferations, this study clearly demonstrates that rare carcinomas, some of which invade the myometrium, are composed of ciliated cells. The light microscopic appearance of these rare ciliated carcinomas is sufficiently distinctive to permit their recognition.

Adenocarcinoma↗

Primary mucinous adenocarcinoma of the endometrium. A clinicopathologic and histochemical study.

Of 256 patients with carcinoma confined to the uterine corpus at the time of hysterectomy treated in the period 1959-1975 at Stanford University Hospital, 98 patients (38%) had neoplasms which demonstrated at least focal intracytoplasmic mucin. In 21 carcinomas (9%), intracytoplasmic mucin production was the dominant form of differentiation--a group which we designate primary mucinous carcinoma of the endometrium. Freedom from relapse and frequency of myometrial invasion were not statistically different for patients whose neoplasms contained intracytoplasmic mucin, regardless of the amount of mucin present, when compared with cases of nonmucin-containing carcinoma. Using histochemical methods, it was impossible reliably to distinguish between the intracytoplasmic mucin produced by carcinomas arising in endometrium and that produced by carcinomas primary in the endocervix. Differential biopsy and fractional curettage are stressed as useful tools in making this clinically important distinction. Since both benign mucinous metaplasia and mucinous carcinoma may arise in the endometrium, it is important to establish histopathologic criteria by which the malignant lesions may be recognized. The use of criteria illustrated in this paper (which include architectural complexity of proliferation, epithelial stratification, loss of epithelial polarity, and nuclear atypicality) resulted in the recognition of mucin producing proliferations which as a group manifest a 50% incidence of myometrial invasion.

Adenocarcinoma↗

Optically clear nuclei. An alteration of endometrial epithelium in the presence of trophoblast.

Examples of focal clearing of endometrial epithelial nuclei associated with the presence of trophoblastic tissue have been observed recently in our surgical pathology laboratories. These nuclear alterations were initially observed in endometria from first- and second-trimester spontaneous abortions, term pregnancies, and a uterus harboring choriocarcinoma. Subsequently, an identical change was seen in small foci of endometriosis removed during postpartum tubal ligation. The prominent vacuolated appearance to the nuclei resembled, in some cases, the inclusions seen in herpesvirus infection, but electron-microscopic study showed that the nuclear clearing was due to replacement of normal chromatin by a network of fine filamentous material rather than herpesvirus DNA. A subsequent review of 200 consecutive first-trimester abortions found less-striking degrees of this change in 7% of cases. The endometrial nuclear clearing was focal; often the endometrium also contained cells which demonstrated the Arias-Stella reaction. The etiology of this type of nuclear clearing is not known, but the fibrils may represent a thread-like substructure of normal chromatin which forms as a result of hormonal stimulation of endometrial epithelial cells.

Abortion, Spontaneous↗

Surreptitious diuretic ingestion and pseudo-Bartter's syndrome.

A patient with profound hypokalemia satisfied the criteria for Bartter's syndrome, including hyperreninemia, aldosteronism, normal blood pressure, and hyperplasia of the juxtaglomerular apparatus. Two screening tests of urine and one of plasma for diuretic agents gave negative results. A third urinary sample gave negative results for thiazide but positive for furosemide; the fourth and fifth samples gave negative results for furosemide but positive for thiazide. Urinary prostaglandin excretion was normal. We conclude that this apparent case of Bartter's syndrome was caused by long term surreptitious diuretic ingestion and suggest this may occur more frequently than is generally appreciated.

Adult↗

The differential diagnosis of endometrial adenocarcinoma. Some viewpoints concerning a common diagnostic problem.

Histological criteria which we have found useful for diagnosing endometrial adenocarcinoma are presented and guidelines are developed for separating adenocarcinoma from benign proliferations which can mimic carcinoma, including endometrial hyperplasia with atypia, endometrial epithelial metaplasias, secretory endometria and disintegrating endometrium. The problem of distinguishing endometrial adenocarcinoma from other malignancies is also discussed.

Adenocarcinoma↗

Endometrial epithelial metaplasias: proliferations frequently misdiagnosed as adenocarcinoma. Report of 89 cases and proposed classification.

Endometrial epithelial metaplasia refers to the replacement of the normal endometrial glandular epithelium by cells that are either not encountered in the normal endometrium or, if present, are usually inconspicuous elements. Because these cells appear unusual or "atypical" and because they may line architecturally complex glands, this benign process is frequently confused with adenocarcinoma. This report concerns the clinical and light-microscopic findings in 89 patients whose endometria demonstrated some form of metaplasia. Most of these metaplastic changes could be placed in one of the following seven categories: 1) morules and squamous metaplasia; 2) syncytial papillary metaplasia; 3) ciliated cell metaplasia ("tubal" metaplasia); 4) eosinophilic metaplasia; 5) mucinous metaplasia; 6) hobnail metaplasia; or 7) clear cell metaplasia. The defining characteristics of each of these groups and their differential diagnoses are discussed. The majority of women whose endometria demonstrated metaplastic transformation were postmenopausal, and most had received some form of oral estrogen replacement therapy within 3 months of the time of curettage or endometrial biopsy.

Adenocarcinoma↗

The nephrotic syndrome in massive obesity: a study by light, immunofluorescence, and electron microscopy.

The morphologic features observed in the renal biopsy specimens from three patients with massive obesity complicated by the nephrotic syndrome are described. In the two patients with active disease, the majority of the glomeruli showed focal to extensive fibrin deposition both within and adjacent to capillary loops, associated with adhesions to Bowman's capsule, with a variable endocapillary proliferative response. In the patient with inactive disease, the majority of the glomeruli appeared normal. However, fibrin-like material, similar to that seen in the active phase, was infrequently found ultrastructurally in the subendothelial portion of the capillary loops. Subendothelial vacuolated material was also observed. Although intravascular coagulation was suggested in this disorder, only minor coagulation abnormalities were discovered. In two of the patients, the massive proteinuria has resolved with weight reduction.

Adult↗