A review of the pathology and management of uterine papillary serous carcinoma and correlation with outcome.

Uterine papillary serous carcinoma (UPSC) accounts for 10% of endometrial carcinomas but a higher proportion of deaths due to its aggressive nature and poor response to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In order to add to the knowledge of UPSC in the literature and to review our local practices, we examined the pathology, medical records, and management of all cases of UPSC (67 patients) treated in South East Scotland over a 10-year period and also evaluated the prognostic significance of the percentage of UPSC in endometrial pipelle and hysterectomy specimens. Although only 63% of initial diagnostic biopsies were reported to contain UPSC, rereview of the cases revealed UPSC in 98.

Screening for familial ovarian cancer: failure of current protocols to detect ovarian cancer at an early stage according to the international Federation of gynecology and obstetrics system.

Purpose: To assess the effectiveness of annual ovarian cancer screening (transvaginal ultrasound and serum CA-125 estimation) in detecting presymptomatic ovarian cancer in women at increased genetic risk.

Patients And Methods: A cohort of 1,110 women at increased risk of ovarian cancer were screened between January 1991 and March 2004; 553 were moderate-risk individuals (4% to 10% lifetime risk) and 557 were high-risk individuals (> 10% lifetime risk). Outcome measurements include the number and stage of screen-detected cancers, the number and stage of cancers not detected at screening, the number of equivocal screening results requiring recall/repetition, and the number of women undergoing surgery for benign disease.

Loss of heterozygosity in cervical carcinoma: subchromosomal localization of a putative tumor-suppressor gene to chromosome 11q22-q24.

Infection of cervical epithelial cells with so-called "aggressive" subtypes of human papilloma virus (HPV) appears to be an important factor in the etiology of cervical carcinoma. However, mounting evidence suggests that additional genetic changes are required for progression to an invasive carcinoma. Functional studies have shown that human chromosome 11 contains a gene or genes capable of suppressing tumorigenicity in cell lines derived from different histopathological types of cervical carcinoma, suggesting that aberration of this gene(s) may represent at least one of the additional changes required for tumorigenic progression.

p53 mutations in cervical carcinogenesis--low frequency and lack of correlation with human papillomavirus status.

p53 gene aberrations are common in human malignancies, and recent studies suggest that in cervical carcinoma p53 function is inactivated either by complex formation with human papillomavirus (HPV) E6 product or by gene mutation. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), we examined the mutational status of the four 'hotspot' regions of the p53 gene in 47 primary cervical carcinomas. HPV status was determined, also by PCR.

Cervical carcinoma: low frequency of allele loss at loci implicated in other common malignancies.

Twenty cervical carcinomas were examined for loss of heterozygosity (LOH) using 22 RFLP markers, which mapped to regions of putative oncosuppressor gene loci, identified as candidates in other common solid tumours. Allele losses were identified in six of the eight chromosomal arms examined, but at a significantly lower frequency than that reported in other common solid tumours. No association was observed between allele losses at any chromosomal location and the presence or integration of 'high risk' types of HPV determined by a sensitive, specific PCR method.

Pepsinogens in gastric carcinomas.

Polyclonal rabbit antisera raised against the two major groups of human pepsinogens (PG I and PG II) were used in an immunohistochemical study of human gastric carcinomas. Thirty-two carcinomas, classified histologically according to the Lauren classification as diffuse or intestinal, were studied; and the staining patterns of the tumor and adjacent gastric mucosa were assessed. In some of the tumors of both types, PG I and/or PG II staining of the neoplastic cells was seen, with PG I being found significantly more frequently than PG II.