Sentinel Node Biopsy in Melanoma: A Short Update.

Several controversies are still ongoing about sentinel node biopsy in melanoma. It is basically a staging procedure for melanoma > 0.75 mm in thickness or for thinner melanoma in the presence of ulceration, high mitotic rate, and/or lymphovascular invasion.

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma in paraduodenal pancreatitis: a note of caution for conservative treatments.

Paraduodenal pancreatitis in heterotopic pancreas is a rare condition and few cases of malignant transformation are described. A case of cystic dystrophy of the duodenal wall in heterotopic pancreas complicated with pancreatic adenocarcinoma is described. Computed tomography, magnetic resonance and endoscopic ultrasonography failed to show preoperatively, the locally advanced adenocarcinoma raising reasonable doubts on the effectiveness and safety of conservative treatments for paraduodenal pancreatitis.

Endometrial carcinoma: intraoperative evaluation of myometrial invasion. A prospective study.

Aim: The authors investigated the diagnostic value of intraoperative assessment of myometrial invasion in endometrial cancer patients. Following hysterectomy, the uterus was sectioned and macroscopically examined in order to assess the depth of myoinvasion, which was classified as <50% and >50%. In patients with macroscopic depth of invasion>30% and <50%, a frozen section of this area was carried out.

Gastric stump lymphoma five years after distal gastrectomy.

We report the case of a 77-year-old man who developed low grade B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the gastric stump 5 years after undergoing a distal gastrectomy for benign gastric ulcer. Lymphoma occurring in the post-operative stomach would appear to be very rare, with only 14 previously recorded cases. The median period of lymphoma onset after ulcer surgery is about 20 years (range 9-43 years) and gastric remnants of lymphoma are generally diagnosed in low stage, when surgery is possible and makes the prognosis good.

Multicentric inflammation in epicardial coronary arteries of patients dying of acute myocardial infarction.

Objectives: We sought to test the hypothesis of whether inflammatory cell infiltration in patients dying of an acute myocardial infarction (MI) is a multifocal event involving multiple coronary branches.

Background: Coronary instability is thought to reflect local disruption of a single vulnerable plaque. However, previous postmortem studies have not addressed the question of whether activation of inflammatory cells, particularly T lymphocytes, is limited to the culprit lesion only or rather diffuse in the coronary circulation.