Publications by authors named "Alan T Blank"

Background: Chondrosarcoma accounts for 20% of all bony sarcomas and may present with extraosseous extension (EOE). The presence of an extraosseous component, along with positive surgical margins, has been separately associated with increased risk of local recurrence and decreased survival. This study compared the outcomes between patients with EOE, EOE and positive margins, and a control chondrosarcoma cohort with neither feature.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Proximal femoral replacement (PFR) is a surgical technique used after tumor removal or failed hip replacements, but the risk of prosthetic instability is higher when there’s significant bone or soft tissue loss.
  • This study analyzed the outcomes of PFR among 106 patients over 15 years, categorizing them by the type of implant used: bipolar, constrained, or dual mobility.
  • Results showed that dual mobility implants had a longer time to dislocation and that smoking history and BMI differed among the groups, but all types had similar rates of early dislocation overall.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Internal hemipelvectomy is a surgery used to remove tumors from the pelvic area without losing a limb, but it can be tricky due to the complex areas involved.
  • The study looked at patients who had this surgery and how well they did afterward, focusing on issues like complications and recovery.
  • Researchers also reviewed other studies to gather more information on patient outcomes after this type of surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Objectives: Undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS) is a frequent subtype within the heterogeneous group of soft tissue sarcomas (STS). The use of radiotherapy (RT) has become an important component of a multimodal approach to treating STS. Key studies have demonstrated that the addition of RT improves rates of local control in STS, though the effect on overall survival (OS) is less clear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: In clinical practice, internal fixation (IF) is a commonly utilized technique for metastatic bone disease (MBD) to the distal femur. Additionally, distal femoral reconstruction (DFR) has shown to be an effective surgical technique for primary tumors and MBD in the distal femur. The existing body of research comparing these methods has not focused on MBD or pathological fractures and thus does not guide surgical approach in the case of distal femoral MBD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Radiation induced changes in bone such as radiation osteitis are commonly identified on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients who receive radiotherapy for soft tissue sarcoma (STS) management. This study proposes a novel MRI scoring system to assess osseous lesions and predict potential for malignancy based on MRI score in STS patients who received radiotherapy.

Methods: The MRI score consisted of 3 parameters: morphology, signal intensity, and progression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Case: A 40-year-old man was evaluated for a painful mass on his right calf, and a 36-year-old woman presented with a painless mass on her right foot. Final pathology revealed marked nuclear atypia and positivity for S100/SOX10 and AE1/AE3 confirming diagnoses of myoepithelial carcinoma. Both patients underwent surgical resection and are without evidence of local recurrence or metastatic disease at 1-year follow-up.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Nodular fasciitis is a rare, benign soft tissue lesion that can prove to be difficult to diagnose, especially when intra-articular.

Case Presentation: A 17-year-old female softball player presents with several year history of right knee pain and swelling initially attributed to patellar maltracking refractory to non-operative and operative management.

Management And Outcomes: Initial pathology suggested tenosynovial giant cell tumor; however, further tissue diagnosis revealed nodular fasciitis, which was eventually resected.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background/objective: The hip is a common location for metastatic bone disease (MBD) and surgical intervention is often indicated to relieve pain and improve function. MBD of the hip is usually treated with hemiarthroplasty or with total hip arthroplasty if there are acetabular lesions. As treatment for metastatic disease evolves and patients may expect to live longer after diagnosis, further evaluation of the complications and functional outcomes associated with hip arthroplasty for MBD are necessary.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Machine learning (ML) models have been used to predict cancer survival in several sarcoma subtypes. However, none have investigated extremity leiomyosarcoma (LMS). ML is a powerful tool that has the potential to better prognosticate extremity LMS.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Limb salvage surgery (LSS) is the preferred surgical treatment for bone sarcomas. Preoperatively, many patients receive chemotherapy and may develop neutropenia. No study has evaluated the effect of a low preoperative absolute neutrophil count (ANC) on postoperative outcomes following LSS.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We present a case of a 58-year-old male who presented following 4 months of progressively worsening right upper extremity pain. Initial pathology demonstrated pleomorphic chondroblasts with increased mitotic activity indicating an intermediate grade (Grade 2) clear cell chondrosarcoma of the proximal humerus. Following surgical resection, the primary lesion demonstrated aggressive behavior and early metastasis to the cervical and thoracic spine.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Metastatic bone disease (MBD) commonly affects the hip and surgical intervention including total hip arthroplasty (THA) is often indicated to treat the joint and improve function. Patients with metastatic cancer often receive radiotherapy, and orthopaedic oncologists must consider surgical risks with operating on irradiated bone and soft tissue. We evaluated surgical outcomes and implant survival (IS) of titanium acetabular components and femoral components in patients treated for MBD in the setting of perioperative radiation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Resection of soft tissue sarcoma (STS) in the lower leg often leads to large wounds, which can complicate recovery and sometimes lead to amputation, but reconstructive surgery can help preserve the limb.
  • A study reviewed 52 patients who underwent STS resection, finding that nearly 40% received plastic and reconstructive surgery, achieving a limb salvage rate of 76.9% and a wound complication rate of 19.2%.
  • The reconstructive approach resulted in a lower complication rate (14.3%) compared to surgeries managed by primary surgeons (22.6%), with high survival rates and zero total flap losses in the PRS group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To investigate post-operative opioid use following a total hip arthroplasty (THA) in metastatic bone disease (MBD) patients and identify factors associated with post-operative opioid use at 6 weeks and 90 days.

Background: MBD commonly affects the hip, and surgical intervention including THA may be indicated for pain relief or to improve function. Following THA, patients are often prescribed short courses of opioids for post-operative pain relief.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Objectives: The optimal timing between preoperative embolization of hypervascular metastatic bone lesions and surgery has yet to be established. Our analysis sought to evaluate embolization timing impacts blood loss, transfusion risk, and operative time in patients with hypervascular primary tumors.

Methods: We identified patients with renal cell (RCC) or thyroid carcinoma undergoing surgery between 1992 and 2023.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Patient-reported outcomes (PRO) are collected directly from the patient and have become increasingly utilized in the clinical setting and in clinical research. In musculoskeletal oncology patients, a number of patient-reported outcomes measures (PROM) have been developed and investigated to evaluate functional outcomes and health-related quality of life in these patients. With the growing evidence for PROM in musculoskeletal oncology patients, PROM should be considered for the clinical care of these patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Radiolucent implants in have demonstrated promising results for both extremity and spine oncologic procedures. However, questions persist about whether the superiority in surveillance imaging justify the increased cost and technical challenges. In this review, we present the current body of literature for the use of radiolucent implants in musculoskeletal oncology, with a focus on implant complications, including screw loosening, breakage, malposition, and loss of reduction.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Case: In this case report, we describe a patient with left foot pain whose magnetic resonance imaging revealed a destructive tumor of the left cuboid bone. A biopsy of the tumor confirmed an osteoblastic osteosarcoma of the cuboid, and the patient was treated with chemotherapy followed by a below-the-knee amputation.

Conclusion: There are only a handful of cases reporting osteosarcoma of the cuboid bone, and challenges remain in properly diagnosing the lesion to recommend the best course of treatment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Local regional recurrence (LRR) remains the primary cause of treatment failure in solid tumors despite advancements in cancer therapies. Canady Helios Cold Plasma (CHCP) is a novel Cold Atmospheric Plasma device that generates an Electromagnetic Field and Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species to induce cancer cell death. In the first FDA-approved Phase I trial (March 2020-April 2021), 20 patients with stage IV or recurrent solid tumors underwent surgical resection combined with intra-operative CHCP treatment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background/aim: Preoperative biopsy of chondroid lesions has demonstrated discordance between biopsy grade and surgical resection grade. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest risk of tumor contamination during biopsy. We evaluated our large chondrosarcoma institutional cohort to compare the rates of local recurrence based on pre-surgical biopsy, as well as other tumor characteristics and disease-related outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Objectives: Cancer-related inflammation has been shown to be a driver of tumor growth and progression, and there has been a recent focus on identifying markers of the inflammatory tumor microenvironment. Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are inflammatory indices that have been identified as prognostic biomarkers in various malignancies. However, there is limited and conflicting data regarding their prognostic value in soft tissue sarcoma (STS) and specifically in undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A 50-year-old man presented for evaluation of a periscapular mass. Biopsy suggested a low-grade chondrosarcoma; however, the resected specimen revealed a grade 2 chondrosarcoma with a low-grade dedifferentiated mesenchymal component. The mass multiply recurred as chondrosarcoma without a dedifferentiated component before the patient developed lung metastases of chondrosarcoma without a dedifferentiated component 11 years after the initial diagnosis and died of disease.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Pathologic fractures of the pelvis/sacrum due to metastatic bone disease (MBD) cause pain and dysfunction due to mechanical instability of the pelvic ring. This study presents our multi-institutional experience with percutaneous stabilization of pathologic fractures and osteolytic lesions from MBD throughout the pelvic ring.

Methods: The records of patients undergoing this procedure from 2018 to 2022 were reviewed retrospectively from two institutions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Radiotherapy is an important component of soft tissue sarcoma management. Radiation osteitis is a common radiographic finding identified in the setting of radiotherapy on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This study aims to identify the incidence of radiation osteitis in patients who received radiotherapy for soft tissue sarcoma and if a further workup, including a biopsy, was performed for concerning MRI findings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_session6rt6jppsdqabhnurichms4d9617a4s4g): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once