Serum free light chain (sFLC) assays were shown to improve detection, management, and prognostication in plasma cell disorders. Recently, sFLC assays improved detection of M proteins when combined with standard methods of protein electrophoresis/immunofixation in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma/chronic lymphocytic leukemia (NHL/CLL). Incidence of abnormal sFLC ratio (sFLCr) varied from ...

BACKGROUND: The peritumoral environment has been implicated to be important in the process of metastasis and recurrence in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our aims were to assess the prognostic value of proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (Pyk2) in HCC and investigate related molecular mechanism. METHODS: Expression of Pyk2 was tested by immunohistochemistry ...

Therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia (t-AML) is a clinical syndrome occurring as a complication after cytotoxic and/or radiation therapy. The incidence of t-AML after acute promyelocytic leukemia ATRA and anthracycline-based therapy is rather low. However, because of the high remission rates and long-term overall survival achieved with current APL treatments, late ...

Wegener�s granulomatosis (WG), microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) and Churg Strauss syndrome (CSS) are primary systemic vasculitides which predominantly affect small vessels, showing a high association with a positive C/PR3-ANCA in WG and P/MPO-ANCA in MPA, so called ANCA-associated vasculitides (AAV). The diagnostic work-up relies on an interdisciplinary approach including imaging techniques ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Appendicular osteosarcoma is the most common malignant primary canine bone tumor. When treated by amputation or tumor removal alone, median survival times (MST) do not exceed 5 months, with the majority of dogs suffering from metastatic disease. This period can be extended with adequate local intervention and adjuvant ...

Curative treatment for patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck (SCCHN) is complex and multidisciplinary. Our understanding of the optimal management of this disease has improved over the years, incorporating refined surgical approaches, better radiotherapy delivery methods, and greater use of systemic therapies. Investigation into ...

Controversy remains about management of the neck in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the maxillary sinus and we know of no reports of the use of elective selective neck dissection for management in this site. We retrospectively reviewed 18 consecutive patients with SCC of the maxillary sinus who were managed ...

Urothelial carcinoma remains an important oncologic problem with significant morbidity and mortality. This article provides an overview of the current status of treatment of urothelial carcinoma, with an update on current trials and recent American Society of Clinical Oncology abstracts. As an alternative to focusing on the metastatic setting, we ...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Synovial sarcomas are regarded as chemosensitive tumors compared to other types of soft tissue sarcomas, however, prognosis for advanced refractory disease remains poor. In light of the vascular nature of sarcomas, current molecularly targeted therapies aim at an antiangiogenic approach to management of this disease. RECENT FINDINGS: ...

What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? Metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) was historically considered to be an aggressive disease resistant to conventional anticancer therapy. Within the last decade the outlook has changed beyond recognition; docetaxel chemotherapy is now firmly established as a well-tolerated treatment with ...

We previously reported on a histological classification of cynomolgus monkey testis into six grades (1, immature; 2, prepuberty; 3, onset of puberty; 4, puberty; 5, early adult; 6, adult) based on spermatogenesis development. In this investigation, the accessory reproductive organs from the same animals underwent histomorphometric examination, in addition to ...

OBJECTIVE:Recommendations for the diagnosis of preclinical Alzheimer disease (AD) have been formulated by a workgroup of the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer's Association. Three stages of preclinical AD were described. Stage 1 is characterized by abnormal levels of β-amyloid. Stage 2 represents abnormal levels of β-amyloid and evidence of ...

Diagnosis of secondary malignancies began with the increasing survival in childhood cancer. Children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have an increased risk for developing mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) of the parotid gland. The latent period ranges from 5 to 16 years. A 2 6/12-year-old girl was treated for pro-B ALL. ...

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM; WHO astrocytoma grade IV) is considered incurable owing to its inherently profound resistance towards current standards of therapy. Considerable effort is being devoted to identifying the molecular basis of temozolomide resistance in GBMs and exploring novel therapeutic regimens that may improve overall survival. Several independent DNA repair ...

Hypopituitarism is a disorder caused by impaired hormonal secretions from the hypothalamic-pituitary axis. Radiotherapy is the most common cause of iatrogenic hypopituitarism. The hypothalamic-pituitary axis inadvertently gets irradiated in patients receiving prophylactic cranial radiotherapy for leukemia, total body irradiation and radiotherapy for intracranial, base skull, sinonasal and nasopharyngeal tumors. Radiation-induced ...

Background: The pharmacoeconomics of the myeloid growth factors (MGFs) is an important topic that has received substantial attention in recent years. The use of the MGFs as primary prophylaxis to prevent febrile neutropenia (FN) has grown considerably over the past decade and professional guidelines regarding their use have broadened the ...

BACKGROUND: Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is generally incurable. However, 10-20-year relapse-free survival of MBC is approximately 2%, implying that at least a small subset of MBC patients achieve prolonged survival. We therefore analyzed long-term outcome in a particular subset, i.e., oligometastatic breast cancer (OMBC). METHODS: Data of OMBC subjects (N = 75) ...

Objective The purpose was to determine the rates of postoperative pulmonary complications, and to clarify the impact of COPD on long-term survival in lung cancer patients after surgical resection.Methods A retrospective chart review was performed on 1461 patients who had undergone pulmonary resection for lung cancer from 1990 to 2005. ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Base-of-tongue carcinoma is a relatively rare disease with aggressive behavior and poor prognosis. Up to date no consensus exists regarding the ideal management strategy for each stage of the disease. This study aims to evaluate the experience of a single head and neck oncology center in the ...

OBJECTIVES: The increasing relevance of the cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis and the impact of CSC-associated markers in the carcinogenesis of solid tumours may provide potential prognostic implications in lung cancer. We propose that a collective genetic analysis of established CSC-related markers will generate data to better define the role ...

Lymphomas of the orbit and eye are rare conditions that should be treated as separate entities due to the differences in presumed aetiology, investigations, management and outcomes. Orbital lymphoma is most often of low-grade histology; thyroid eye disease may predispose and chlamydial infection has been suggested as a trigger. Commonly, ...

Therapeutic decisions in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have been mainly based on disease stage, performance status, and co-morbidities, and rarely on histological or molecular classification. Rather than applying broad treatments to unselected patients that may result in survival increase of only weeks to months, research efforts should be, and ...

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is considered a prognostic marker in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients, but previous studies have yielded mixed findings because of the confounding effects of factors including age. We examined the prognostic impact of EBV status on 159 patients with HL. The median age at diagnosis was 32 years (range, ...

Aim:  We determined the pattern of immunohistochemical expression in invasive adenocarcinoma in adenoma endoscopically resected, its relationship with risk of residual or recurrent disease, and the factors related. Method:  We included individuals with malignant polyps resected endoscopically in the period 1999-2009. Clinical and endoscopic data were collected. All histological specimens ...

Important advances have been made in the understanding and management of adult gliomas and primary CNS lymphomas-the two most common primary brain tumours. Progress in imaging has led to a better analysis of the nature and grade of these tumours. Findings from large phase 3 studies have yielded some standard ...

BACKGROUND: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a highly aggressive disease with a generally poor prognosis. Since escape from cell cycle checkpoint control is common in several solid tumors, the present study was performed to evaluate the role of some cell cycle regulatory genes in the development and progression of MPM. ...

A prerequisite to study the molecular genetic pathways of pollen and anther development is an accurate staging system for reproductive development. However in barley, floret formation occurs mainly within the pseudostem, which makes the observation of floret development and access to the floret particularly difficult without dissecting the plant. Thus ...

The most common sites for extra-nodal lymphoma of the head and neck are Waldeyer's ring, most frequently the tonsil, and the salivary glands, usually the parotid. Most are B-cell malignancies and stage IE or IIE at diagnosis. Marginal zone lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue type is particularly associated with inflammatory ...

In the last decades both the relative proportion and absolute incidence of micro invasive cervical cancer (MIC) have ten times increased in developed Countries mainly in young women aged less than 40 years. Despite the controversial views expressed about the selection criteria, there has been an increasing recent trend to ...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer and it is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Once diagnosed with the disease, only 30-40% of patients are deemed eligible for curative intention with treatment modalities including surgical resection, liver transplantation, and chemoembolization. Eventually, most patients will receive ...

The treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) has recently evolved from being predominantly cytokine-based treatment to the use of targeted agents, which include sorafenib, sunitinib, bevacizumab (plus interferon alpha [IFN-α]), temsirolimus, everolimus, pazopanib, and most recently, axitinib. Improved understanding of the molecular pathways implicated in the pathogenesis of RCC ...

Hepatic malignancies are commonly faced clinical problem. Non surgical minimally invasive therapies are current treatment goal. Interventional radiologists are going forwards with such minimally invasive but effective therapies by transarterial chemoembolization, radiofrequency ablation, percutaneous ethanol injection, cryoablation, laser ablation and upcoming promising procedures like focused ultrasound & gene therapy. Response ...

ABSTRACTObjective:Between 2002 and 2008, over 100 patients with glottic carcinoma have undergone transoral laser microsurgical (TLM) resection at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The objective of this study was to assess the oncologic outcomes for all cases staged as T2 in this cohort.Methods:A prospective database was ...

Melanoma has long been considered as an extremely therapy-resistant tumour. Recent developments in the area of immunotherapy as well as targeted therapy showed rapid development and excellent results. The anti-CTLA-4 antibody ipilimumab, which was approved in the USA and Europe in 2011, was the first substance in melanoma therapy to ...

Background: Surgical excision is the gold standard for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), however its application is limited in specific cases. Superficial radiotherapy (RTx) is an alternative treatment option, but long-term follow-up data are limited. Objective: To determine the outcome of superficial RTx of cSCC in correlation to histological differentiation ...

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: Remission is an important goal of therapy in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but data on duration of remission are lacking. Our objective was to describe the duration of remission in RA, assessed by different criteria. METHODS: We evaluated patients from the Brigham and Women's Rheumatoid Arthritis Sequential Study (BRASS) ...

Nitrate and nitrite are precursors in the formation of N-nitroso compounds. We recently found a 40% increased risk of NHL with higher dietary nitrite intake and significant increases in risk for follicular and T-cell lymphoma. It is possible that these compounds also affect NHL prognosis by enhancing cancer progression in ...

AimsThe prognosis of metaplastic breast cancer (MBC) is reportedly worse than that of triple-negative invasive ductal carcinoma (TN-IDC), but the determinants of poor prognosis are not yet known.MethodsPatients from two Korean cancer centres were included in this study (67 MBC and 520 TN-IDC). Characteristics of the two disease groups, including ...

Introduction : Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic protozoan parasite responsible for toxoplasmosis. T. gondii is able to infect a wide range of hosts, particularly humans and warm-blooded animals. Toxoplasmosis can be considered as one of the most prevalent parasitic diseases affecting close to one billion people worldwide, but its current ...

BACKGROUND: The management of the neck remains controversial in the definitive chemoradiation setting of advanced N2-3 head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Most published data favor omission of neck dissection (ND) after complete response for N2-3 or selective ND for residual disease METHODS: We studied the patterns of care in ...

To investigate the patient outcomes associated with the applied modes of therapy in head and neck cancer with lower neck nodal metastases. The medical records of 23 consecutive individuals who were managed by intent to treat for head and neck cancer with metastatic disease in the lower neck nodes over ...

BACKGROUND: Children who are treated for myeloid leukemia associated with Down syndrome (DS) experience superior survival compared with children who have myeloid leukemia without DS. To maintain excellent outcomes while avoiding toxicity, the Children's Oncology Group (COG) conducted the phase 3 trial COG A2971, the first trial solely designed to ...

Treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) has evolved dramatically within the past 10 years with the advent of therapy targeting the angiogenesis and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathways. These therapies rapidly supplanted immunotherapy as a first-line systemic treatment option. Response rates, however, continue to vary, largely due to ...

Purpose The etiology, diagnosis, staging, and management of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) are reviewed, with an emphasis on clinical trials of newer approaches to first-line, second-line, and adjuvant chemotherapy. Summary In the past decade, more effective chemotherapy regimens have been developed for patients with MPM, a rapidly progressing disease linked ...

Cetuximab (C), a chimeric monoclonal antibody that binds epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), is active against androgen-independent prostate cancer cell lines and might enhance the activity of chemotherapy. The efficacy of combining cetuximab with mitoxantrone (M) plus prednisone (MP) was evaluated in progressive metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) after receiving ...

Abstract Recurrence after radical prostatectomy occurs most frequently during the first 5 years after surgery. Later recurrences have, however, been described. This report describes a case with local recurrence 23 years after radical prostatectomy.

The authors report a case of small cell carcinoma of the ovary, hypercalcemic type (SCCOHT), in a mother and daughter and discuss the possibility of a heritable risk. Both mother and daughter were treated at the same institution for SCCOHT. A 23-year-old woman presented with hypercalcemia 4 months after giving birth ...

ABSTRACT: Uveal melanoma is the most common primary intraocular cancer in adults. Nearly half of primary uveal melanoma tumors metastasize, but there are currently no effective therapies for metastatic uveal melanoma. The recent discovery of mutations that underlie uveal melanoma metastasis, growth, and survival provide a key to the molecular ...

The Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2 (HER2) has been established as a key player in the development of certain human tumors. ToGA trial has demonstrated that the addition of the monoclonal antibody blocking HER2 receptor, trastuzumab (Herceptin®), to chemotherapy significantly improves overall survival of patients with HER2-positive advanced or ...

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of six cryoprotectants (dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), glycerol (Gly), methanol (MeOH), ethylene glycol (EG), 1,2-propylene glycol (PG) and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) on the survival of medaka (Oryzias lapites) embryos at low temperatures (0 and -5C). Firstly, the embryos at 8 to 16-cell stages were ...