Isolation and culture of decidual natural killer cells from term placenta and complete hydatidiform mole.

Decidual natural killer cells (dNK) have been the focus of many studies because of their unique roles in both the anti-tumor immune response and healthy placental formation. Revealing the immunological mechanisms by which they interact with their target cells may lead to a better understanding of immune evasion of certain tumor cells, including abnormal cells of the different forms of gestational trophoblast disease and miscarriages of immunologic origin. Efforts to perform functional immunological studies on dNK cells have been limited by difficulty obtaining sufficent quantities of cells and sustaining the dNK phenotype.

Primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma: a case report.

Background: Primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma (PPC) is an extremely rare clinical entity. In contrast with gestational trophoblastic tumors that show an extreme sensitivity for chemotherapy, extragonadal choriocarcinomas are mostly unresponsive to surgical and chemotherapeutic treatment and are associated with poor prognosis. The reason non-gestational choriocarcinomas behave so differently from gestational tumors is unknown.