The negative effect of triple-negative breast cancer on outcome after breast-conserving therapy.

Purpose: To evaluate disease failure patterns and overall survival (OS) of women with triple-negative (TN) breast cancer who underwent breast-conserving therapy (BCT) and to understand the relationship of TN tumors with other prognostic factors.

Patients And Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry identified 562 women diagnosed and/or treated with unilateral invasive breast cancer during 2003-2004 at three Emory hospitals. After medical record review, 193 eligible women, with all tumor types, received BCT.

Detection of circulating tumor cells in human peripheral blood using surface-enhanced Raman scattering nanoparticles.

The detection and characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTC) holds great promise for personalizing medicine and optimizing systemic therapy. However, low specificity, low sensitivity, and the time consuming nature of current approaches have impeded clinical adoption. Here we report a new method using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to directly measure targeted CTCs in the presence of white blood cells.

ACR Appropriateness Criteria: local-regional therapy for resectable oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas.

The optimal management of resectable oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas is controversial with many treatment options, both surgical and nonsurgical approaches, supported by published experiences with no randomized trials comparing commonly accepted treatments. The treatment decisions are further complicated by the need for local-regional disease control and competing goals to preserve salivary and swallow function. Treatment decisions may also be affected by tumor and patient related factors and a history of environmental exposure to tobacco and evidence of human papilloma virus.

Prognostic accuracy of computed tomography findings for patients with laryngeal cancer undergoing laryngectomy.

Purpose: The indications for upfront laryngectomy in the management of laryngeal cancer are a functionless larynx and extralaryngeal extension. Practically, clinicians rely on imaging to predict which patients will have T4 disease. Our goal was to review the accuracy of preoperative computed tomography (CT) scanning in determining the necessity for initial laryngectomy for advanced laryngeal cancer.

Assessing for primary oropharyngeal or nasopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma from fine needle aspiration of cervical lymph node metastases.

In fine needle aspirates of cervical lymph nodes with metastatic squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), the site of origin may not be clinically evident. The distinction between oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal primary SCC has important management consequences. In the current study, we evaluated metastatic SCC for HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33, 51 (by in situ hybridization[ISH]), p16 and ProExC (surrogate HPV markers), and Epstein Barr Virus reported in nasopharyngeal SCC.

Health literacy and health care in an inner-city, total laryngectomy population.

Background: Literacy in the head and neck cancer patient has been understudied. Health literacy (HL) is "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health care decisions." Limited HL skills reduce access to health care.

Expanding the horizons of histoplasmosis: disseminated histoplasmosis in a renal transplant patient after a trip to Bangladesh.

Histoplasmosis is recognized to occur in the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys of the United States, but less widely appreciated is its worldwide distribution. We report a case of disseminated histoplasmosis with disease involving skin, lungs, and epiglottis in a renal transplant patient 6 months after a trip to Bangladesh, to highlight the potential risk of acquisition of this infection in the Indian subcontinent.

Current trends in initial management of laryngeal cancer: the declining use of open surgery.

The role of open surgery for management of laryngeal cancer has been greatly diminished during the past decade. The development of transoral endoscopic laser microsurgery (TLS), improvements in delivery of radiation therapy (RT) and the advent of multimodality protocols, particularly concomitant chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) have supplanted the previously standard techniques of open partial laryngectomy for early cancer and total laryngectomy followed by adjuvant RT for advanced cancer. A review of the recent literature revealed virtually no new reports of conventional conservation surgery as initial treatment for early stage glottic and supraglottic cancer.

Complex inguinal hernia repairs.

Introduction: Complex inguinal hernia treatment is a challenge for general surgeons. The gold standard for the repair of inguinal hernias is the Lichtenstein repair (anterior approach). However, when multiple recurrent hernias or giant hernias are present, it is necessary to choose different approaches because the incidence of poor results increases.

High-dose-rate brachytherapy plus neck dissection for nodal disease.

Background: Regional control for advanced nodal disease has been only marginally affected by concurrent chemoradiation, hyperfractionation, concomitant boost, or accelerated external radiation.

Methods: Twenty-five necks in 24 patients received brachytherapy treatment (20 Gy in 10 twice-daily fractions) in addition to external radiation, neck dissection +/- chemotherapy. Indications for brachytherapy included initial treatment of bulky disease (n = 12), recurrence of neck disease in a previously treated patient with at least a 3-month disease-free interval (n = 6), persistent disease after a curative efforts (n = 4), inadequate external radiation (ie, <40 Gy) due to either intolerance or noncompliance (n = 3).

Phase II clinical trial of parenteral hydroxyurea and hyper-fractionated, accelerated external beam radiation therapy in patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck: toxicity and efficacy with continuous ribonucleoside reductase inhibition.

Background: Almost all concurrent chemoradiation regimens for head and neck are platinum based; however, cisplatin is associated with severe renal, oto-, and neurotoxicity. Hydroxyurea (HU) has been associated with fewer irreversible toxicities. We obtained HU in parenteral form to be administered continually during the radiation treatment.

Stereotactic body radiation therapy for nonmetastatic lung cancer: an analysis of 75 patients treated over 5 years.

Purpose: Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) may not be medically operable even in patients with surgically resectable disease. For patients who either refuse surgery or are medically inoperable, radiation therapy may be the best therapeutic choice. Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) employs external fixation and hypofractionation to deliver a high dose per fraction of radiation to a small target volume.

The effect of anteroapical aneurysm plication on end-systolic three-dimensional strain in the sheep: a magnetic resonance imaging tagging study.

Objectives: Although repair of left ventricular aneurysm has been extensively studied, its effect on regional ventricular function remains unclear. The primary goal of this study was to quantify the effect of anteroapical aneurysm plication on systolic deformation in noninfarcted adjacent (border zone) and remote left ventricular regions in sheep.

Methods: Eight sheep underwent anteroapical myocardial infarction (25% of left ventricular mass).

Acute effects of subclinical epileptiform EEG discharges on cognitive activation.

In this prospective, open, clinical comparative study we analyzed impairments of cognitive activation occurring during, immediately before and immediately after epochs with epileptiform EEG discharges of 3 seconds or longer, in an attempt to establish whether cognitive slowing occurs in direct association with an epoch with epileptiform EEG discharges and whether cognitive impairments precede or follow such an epoch. All children were assessed with EEG/video (Brainlab) simultaneously with computerized neuropsychological testing (FePsy): a test for cognitive activation (simple visual and auditory reaction time measurement). Thirty-seven epochs with epileptiform EEG discharges without clinical signs of a seizure (subclinical epileptiform EEG discharges) were evaluated.

A customized orofacial brachytherapy carrier: a clinical report.

This report describes a method in which a customized carrier was fabricated for a patient experiencing difficulty during initial brachytherapy treatment, while using a conventional radiation carrier. When designing a customized brachytherapy carrier for a maxillary defect, it is imperative to achieve stability and retention to ensure maximal therapeutic radiation to the desired location. The fabrication and benefits of using a customized, retentive, stable, and comfortable orofacial brachytherapy carrier are described.

Definitive, high-dose-per-fraction, conformal, stereotactic external radiation for renal cell carcinoma.

Introduction: Localized renal cell carcinoma is conventionally treated surgically. Preoperative and adjuvant external radiation have not improved survival. However, renal cell cancer brain metastases, although radioresistant to conventional external radiation, have been responsive to radiosurgery.

Adjuvant high dose rate brachytherapy (Ir-192) in the management of keloids which have recurred after surgical excision and external radiation.

We describe our experience with adjuvant high dose rate brachytherapy (Ir-192) (HDRB) in patients, who failed surgery and post-operative external radiation therapy. The salvage treatment consisted of excision of the keloid and wound closure followed by HDRB (15 Gy in three fractions given on three consecutive business days beginning the day of surgery). At the time of last follow up, 88% (15/17) of the keloids were without any evidence of recurrence.

Decreased short- and long-term swallowing problems with altered radiotherapy dosing used in an organ-sparing protocol for advanced pharyngeal carcinoma.

Objective: To determine the effect of a reduced radiotherapy dose on short- and long-term swallowing problems after organ-sparing treatment.

Design: Prospective case series.

Setting: Tertiary care referral center.

Endobronchial brachytherapy and external-beam radiotherapy in patients with endobronchial obstruction and extrabronchial extension.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of high-dose rate endobronchial brachytherapy (HDR-EB) with concomitant short-course external-beam radiotherapy (EBRT) in patients with both endobronchial and extrabronchial tumor.

Methods And Materials: Patients with endobronchial disease and extrabronchial lesions greater than 2.5cm were treated with three 5Gy HDR-EB and 37.

Loss of cervical spinal curvature during radiotherapy for head-and-neck cancers: the neck moves, too.

Purpose: We became concerned about our observation of the loss of the normal lordotic cervical spinal curvature during the course of radiotherapy (RT) for head-and-neck tumors. Our goal was to evaluate formally the cervical lordotic curve in 50 random patients by comparing the cervical spinal angles (CSAs) measured at the initiation of RT with the CSAs measured during the last week of RT.

Methods And Materials: Fifty patients treated mono-isocentrically for head-and-neck cancer were selected randomly for review.