Histological grading based on poorly differentiated clusters is predictive of tumour response and clinical outcome in rectal carcinoma treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.

Aims: The clinical outcome of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who undergo neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is influenced by the tumour response to treatment, which is reflected by tumour regression grade and post-treatment (y) TNM stage. Little is known about the prognostic value of pretreatment histopathological features of the tumour that may be useful to discriminate potential non-responders and to design tailored therapeutic strategies. In this study, we aimed to investigate the prognostic role of poorly differentiated clusters (PDCs) of neoplastic cells in pretreatment biopsies of patients with rectal cancer treated with neoadjuvant CRT.

Molecular monitoring of minimal residual disease in patients in long-term complete remission after allogeneic stem cell transplantation for multiple myeloma.

In the present study, we used a polymerase chain reaction-based (PCR-based) strategy to retrospectively analyze the presence of residual myeloma cells in serial posttransplant bone marrow samples obtained from 13 patients in remission after allogeneic hemopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo SCT). For this purpose, patient-specific primers were generated from complementarity determining regions 2 and 3 of the rearranged IgH gene. The level of sensitivity of the PCR-based assay ranged from 1 in 10(5) to 1 in 10(6) normal marrow cells.

Primary intestinal lymphoma: clinical and therapeutic features of 32 patients.

Background And Objective: Lymphomas of the gastrointestinal tract are the most common type of primary extranodal lymphomas, accounting for 5 to 10% of all non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. In particular, primary intestinal lymphomas represent about 15-20% of gastrointestinal lymphomas. New multimodal therapeutic approaches have improved the prognosis of this once deadly disease: we report a retrospective analysis of our experience with 32 cases of primary western intestinal lymphomas, presenting clinical, therapeutical and prognostic data.

[Role of microvascular free flaps in the treatment of amputation stumps].

The authors report the importance of plastic surgery in rehabilitation of the amputated stump. After having referred the tight dependence between amputated stump and prosthesis, they underline the importance of a trophic and painless stump characterized by a satisfactory "useful length". They report two cases in which these priorities have been satisfied by using latissimus dorsi free flap.