The clinical course of deep vein thrombosis in patients with gynecologic cancer.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the survival of gynecologic cancer patients diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the charts of patients admitted to our institution with gynecologic malignancy who were diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) between 1984 and 1995. Data were collected regarding site, stage, histology, treatment, and proximity of DVT to treatment with surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy.

Surgical management of vulvar cancer.

Vulvar cancer is an uncommon disease, marked by typical long delays in diagnosis due to lack of awareness by doctors and patients. The most common histology is squamous, although melanoma, sarcoma and adenocarcinoma occur less frequently. The predictable spread pattern of vulvar cancer to regional then distant lymphatics has allowed for improvements in survival largely due to radical surgical intervention.

Decrease in expenditures and selected nosocomial infections following implementation of an antimicrobial-prescribing improvement program.

Objective: To evaluate changes in antimicrobial use and expenditures and the rates of selected nosocomial infections due to resistant organisms associated with implementation of an antimicrobial-prescribing improvement program.

Design: Before-after trial comparing 1992 (pre-program), 1993 (a transition year), and 1994 (after full implementation of the program).

Setting And Participants: Academic medical center, all patients and physicians.

Effect of surgical debulking on survival in stage IV ovarian cancer.

In order to determine whether optimal surgical debulking in Stage IV epithelial ovarian cancer impacts survival, a retrospective review of patients treated at the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center (UPCC) from 1984 to 1995 diagnosed with Stage IV epithelial ovarian cancer was performed. Data were collected regarding grade, histology, reason for allocation to Stage IV, extent of surgery performed and residual disease at initial staging procedure, major perioperative complications, first-line chemotherapy regimen, length of inpatient hospital stay, outcome at second-look laparotomy, follow-up, and survival. For the purposes of this study, optimal cytoreduction was defined as a residual disease of 2 cm or less.

Mutations of the BRCA2 gene in ovarian carcinomas.

Inherited mutations in the recently discovered BRCA2 gene are believed to be responsible for a significant fraction of early-onset hereditary breast cancers. Unlike BRCA1, however, which confers a high risk to both breast and ovarian cancer, the incidence of ovarian cancer appears to be much lower In BRCA2-linked families, causing uncertainty as to the relevance of BRCA2 to hereditary ovarian cancer. Numerous allelotype studies indicate that allelic deletions Including the BRCA2 locus on chromosome 13q are common in ovarian cancers in general, suggesting that somatic mutations of this gene may be involved in sporadic ovarian tumorigenesis.