Management of the Adnexal Mass: Considerations for the Family Medicine Physician.

Ovarian cancer is the most deadly gynecological cancer, so proper assessment of a pelvic mass is necessary in order to determine which are at high risk for malignancy and should be referred to a gynecologic oncologist. However, in a family medicine setting, evaluation and treatment of these masses can be challenging due to a lack of resources. A number of risk assessment tools are available to family medicine physicians, including imaging techniques, imaging systems, and blood-based biomarker assays each with their respective pros and cons, and varying ability to detect malignancy in pelvic masses.

Cervical cancer screening in high- and low-resource countries: implications and new developments.

The implementation of cytology-based screening programs for precancerous lesions of the cervix has decreased the incidence of and mortality from cervical cancer in much of the developed world. Countries without the resources to install such frequent and laboratory-dependent screening programs have more and more options at their disposal. A screening program based on cytology analysis requires too much training, infrastructure, and repeated screening to be feasible.

DNA nanotherapy for pre-neoplastic cervical lesions.

Objective: This study aims to test the hypothesis that targeted nanoparticle delivery of DNA encoding HPV16-regulated diphtheria toxin (DT-A) will result in the death of HPV16-infected cells.

Materials And Methods: Plasmid constructs containing a HPV16 Long Control Region (LCR) DNA sequence upstream of DT-A or luciferase reporter (Luc) DNA sequences were used to formulate poly(β-amino ester) nanoparticles. The effect on tumor growth of HPV/DT-A-nanoparticle injection directly into HPV16(+) CaSki human cervical cancer cell-derived xenografts in mice was determined.

Association between pulmonary mycobacterium avium complex infection and lung cancer.

Introduction: Patients with lung cancer are sometimes found to have respiratory cultures growing Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). This study describes the clinical, pathologic, and radiographic -characteristics of individuals who harbor concomitant lung cancer and MAC.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of patients with positive respiratory cultures for MAC (370 men, 475 women) and with newly diagnosed lung cancer (792 men, 840 women) from 1995 to 2010.

Reducing excessive toxicity in ovarian cancer treatment: a personalized approach.

The management of ovarian cancer is not only multifactorial, but also patient-specific. Different treatment modalities lead to varying levels of toxicity and individual patient responses, necessitating a personalized approach to each treatment plan. Surgical treatment along with first-line and salvage chemotherapies, are standard modalities but recent innovations in chemotherapy delivery and innovative therapy with mechanism of action are reviewed in this article.