Cervical mucus proteome in endometriosis.

Background: Endometriosis is a chronic gynecological inflammatory disease characterized by the presence of functional endometrial glands and stroma outside of the uterine cavity. It affects 7-10% of women of reproductive age and up to 50% of women with infertility. The current gold standard for the diagnosis combines laparoscopic evaluation and biopsy of the visualized lesions.

The role of sonographic examination in the follow-up of gynecological neoplasms.

Objective: The role and type of procedures of follow-up in patients with gynecological tumors are still a debatable issue. We prospectively analyzed the role of routine transabdominal and transvaginal ultrasound examination (US) in the detection of recurrent disease in gynecologic cancer patients.

Methods: Among 552 patients who underwent surgery for gynecological cancer, 385 were available for the analysis.

The use of contrasted transvaginal sonography in the diagnosis of gynecologic diseases: a preliminary study.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a new contrast-dedicated ultrasound technology, contrast-tuned imaging (CnTI), implemented on an endovaginal probe and using the second-generation contrast agent SonoVue (Bracco International BV, Amsterdam, the Netherlands), compared with the standard ultrasound examination in different gynecologic diseases.

Methods: Eighty-nine patients were enrolled in the study in 4 different clinical centers. The study included 40 patients with uncertain pelvic adnexal masses, 10 patients with pelvic masses indicative of recurrences of gynecologic tumors, 26 patients with uterine pathologic features, and 13 patients with cervical lesions.

Angiographic power 3-dimensional quantitative analysis in gynecologic solid tumors: feasibility and reproducibility.

Objective: To determine the reproducibility of a simplified method of power Doppler 3-dimensional (3D) sonographic examination.

Methods: Twenty-nine patients with solid pelvic masses underwent transvaginal 3D power Doppler evaluation. The volume of interest was obtained by drawing the margins of the largest section of the mass in the 3 orthogonal planes.

Gemcitabine: current role and future options in the treatment of ovarian cancer.

Epithelial ovarian cancer is the gynecological malignancy with the highest mortality. The standard therapeutic approach for patients with advanced-stage epithelial ovarian cancer has been cytoreductive surgery followed by combination chemotherapy. Despite improvements in outcome via carboplatin/paclitaxel based chemotherapy, 30% of patients with ovarian cancer fail to respond to primary therapy; moreover, 55-75% of responders relapse within 1 or 2 years from the end of primary treatment and die of the disease within 5 years from their initial diagnosis.

Dietary soy modulation of biochemical parameters in DMBA-induced mammary tumors.

The aim of this study was to extend our previous observations on the soy modulation of biochemical parameters in 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA)-induced rat mammary tumors, by simultaneously investigating the expression of estrogen receptor-alpha (ERalpha), estrogen receptor-beta (ERbeta), progesterone receptor (PR), apoptosis, neu, and markers of cell proliferation, such as proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) by immunohistochemistry. The percentage of ERalpha positive tumors was 65.8% in masses from control animals, and significantly dropped to 36.