Pattern of cancer recurrence in 320 patients after radical vaginal trachelectomy.

Objective: The oncological outcome regarding disease-free survival and overall survival after radical vaginal trachelectomy (RVT) is the same as the rates after radical hysterectomy. We aim to analyze predictive and risk factors and death in patients with cervical cancer undergoing fertility preservation by laparoscopic lymphadenectomy and RVT.

Methods: Three hundred twenty patients with cervical cancer underwent RVT between March 1995 and February 2013.

Validity of laparoscopic staging to avoid adjuvant chemoradiation following radical surgery in patients with early cervical cancer.

Purpose: To determine the rate of unavoidable adjuvant chemoradiation (RCTX) due to histologic results after radical surgery in patients with early cervical cancer.

Patients And Methods: Between May 2004 and July 2011, 448 consecutive patients diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer stage IA1 L1 to IIA underwent laparoscopic staging at the Department of Gynecology and Gynecologic Oncology at Charité Berlin. Only in patients without lymph node metastases (n = 394) on frozen section, radical operation was continued either by laparoscopic radical hysterectomy (n = 228) or by radical vaginal trachelectomy (n = 166).

Rectum separation in patients with cervical cancer for treatment planning in primary chemo-radiation.

Purpose: To proof feasibility of hydrogel application in patients with advanced cervical cancer undergoing chemo-radiation in order to reduce rectal toxicity from external beam radiation as well as brachytherapy.

Material And Methods: Under transrectal sonographic guidance five patients with proven cervical cancer underwent hydro gel (20 cc) instillation into the tip of rectovaginal septum adherent to posterior part of the visible cervical tumor. Five days after this procedure all patients underwent T2 weighted transversal and sagittal MRI for brachytherapy planning.

Overexpression of nerve growth factor in peritoneal fluid from women with endometriosis may promote neurite outgrowth in endometriotic lesions.

To investigate the role of the nerve growth factor (NGF) in the endometriosis-associated innervation in the development of endometriosis-associated symptoms, 41 peritoneal fluid samples (PF) from patients with surgically and histologically proven endometriosis and 20 PF from patients with other gynecologic conditions were analyzed with Western blot and a novel in vitro model using dorsal root ganglia (DRG) to show neuronal outgrowth; endometrial cells also were analyzed. The results suggest that the PF of endometriosis patients and endometriotic lesions have neurotropic properties, because the Western blot analysis and the cell culture stainings showed NGF expression, and the neurite outgrowth of DRG treated with PF of patients with endometriosis was significantly higher than when treated with PF of patients without endometriosis. Furthermore, blocking NGF with both anti-NGF and K252a leads to a significant decrease in neurite outgrowth.

Repair of prolapse with vaginal sacrocolporectopexy: technique and results.

Objective: Axis and support of the vagina can be restored by sacrocolporectopexy with preservation of coital function. We developed a new technique of transvaginal sacrocolporectopexy for patients with prolapse of uterus and vagina or prolapse of the vaginal vault.

Study Design: During a 4-year period, 20 patients with vaginal vault prolapse and 83 patients with uterine and vaginal prolapse underwent transvaginal sacrocolporectopexy.