Organ-sparing central pelvic compartment resection for the treatment of vulvo-vaginal melanomas.

Vulvo-vaginal melanomas are one of the rarest gynecological oncology diseases with a poor survival compared with other malignancies. The 5-year survival varies from 13% to 32.3%.

Can natural language processing be effectively applied for audit data analysis in gynaecological oncology at a UK cancer centre?

Background: The British Gynaecological Cancer Society (BGCS) has highlighted the disparity of ovarian cancer outcomes in the UK compared to other European countries. Therefore, cancer quality assurance audits and subspecialty training are important in improving the UK standard of care for these patients. The current workforce crisis afflicting the NHS creates difficulty in dedicating teams of clinicians to these audits.

High-grade serous ovarian carcinoma organoids as models of chromosomal instability.

High-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) is the most genomically complex cancer, characterized by ubiquitous mutation, profound chromosomal instability, and heterogeneity. The mutational processes driving chromosomal instability in HGSOC can be distinguished by specific copy number signatures. To develop clinically relevant models of these mutational processes we derived 15 continuous HGSOC patient-derived organoids (PDOs) and characterized them using bulk transcriptomic, bulk genomic, single-cell genomic, and drug sensitivity assays.

Clonal somatic copy number altered driver events inform drug sensitivity in high-grade serous ovarian cancer.

Chromosomal instability is a major challenge to patient stratification and targeted drug development for high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC). Here we show that somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs) in frequently amplified HGSOC cancer genes significantly correlate with gene expression and methylation status. We identify five prevalent clonal driver SCNAs (chromosomal amplifications encompassing MYC, PIK3CA, CCNE1, KRAS and TERT) from multi-regional HGSOC data and reason that their strong selection should prioritise them as key biomarkers for targeted therapies.

The incidence of cervical cancer in women with postcoital bleeding and abnormal appearance of the cervix referred through the 2-week wait pathway in the United Kingdom: A retrospective cohort study.

Aim: To determine the incidence of cervical cancer in women referred through the 2-week-wait pathway for postcoital bleeding and abnormal appearance of the cervix.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted of women with postcoital bleeding, or abnormal appearance of the cervix referred to colposcopy clinics through the 2-week-wait pathway for suspected cervical cancer at Cambridge University Hospitals in the United Kingdom over 5 years. Women were identified from a departmental database.

Clinical and pathological associations of PTEN expression in ovarian cancer: a multicentre study from the Ovarian Tumour Tissue Analysis Consortium.

Background: PTEN loss is a putative driver in histotypes of ovarian cancer (high-grade serous (HGSOC), endometrioid (ENOC), clear cell (CCOC), mucinous (MOC), low-grade serous (LGSOC)). We aimed to characterise PTEN expression as a biomarker in epithelial ovarian cancer in a large population-based study.

Methods: Tumours from 5400 patients from a multicentre observational, prospective cohort study of the Ovarian Tumour Tissue Analysis Consortium were used to evaluate associations between immunohistochemical PTEN patterns and overall survival time, age, stage, grade, residual tumour, CD8+ tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) counts, expression of oestrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and androgen receptor (AR) by means of Cox proportional hazard models and generalised Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel tests.

Rethinking ovarian cancer II: reducing mortality from high-grade serous ovarian cancer.

High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) accounts for 70-80% of ovarian cancer deaths, and overall survival has not changed significantly for several decades. In this Opinion article, we outline a set of research priorities that we believe will reduce incidence and improve outcomes for women with this disease. This 'roadmap' for HGSOC was determined after extensive discussions at an Ovarian Cancer Action meeting in January 2015.

Microdialysis: improving local chemotherapy in cancer using a mathematical model.

Although intratumoral chemotherapy administration has been evaluated in the past, its results have not been frequently comparable to those from systemic administration. We recently described microdialysis as a method for local chemotherapy administration with increasing effectiveness while reducing systemic toxicity. We present a mathematical model which supports the successful application of this procedure in optimizing the administered drug in different cases, using informatics tools and considering several parameters.

Influence of normal mammary epithelium on breast cancer progression: the protective role of early pregnancy.

Aims And Background: The microenvironment has a well recognized role in breast cancer progression. Despite different theories, the mechanism of early pregnancy protection in mammary carcinogenesis is unknown. Since pregnancy is responsible for mammary gland differentiation, we tested the hypothesis that differentiated mammary epithelial cells may inhibit breast cancer progression.