Oncology care in rural northern new England.

Purpose: A team from Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont evaluated quality of care for breast and colon cancers in these predominantly rural states.

Methods: Central cancer registry records from diagnosis years 2003 to 2004 in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont were aggregated. Patient residence was classified into three tiers (small rural, large rural, and urban) using Rural-Urban Commuting Area classification.

Hepatic resection in 170 patients using saline-cooled radiofrequency coagulation.

Background: Hepatic resection for malignancies or symptomatic benign liver lesions remains the standard of treatment. Historically, the principal cause of mortality during liver resection was intraoperative bleeding. Advances in surgical and anesthetic techniques, along with application of new technologies, have decreased blood loss and dramatically improved the outcomes for major liver surgery.

Predictors of residual invasive disease after core needle biopsy diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ.

Core needle biopsy (CNB) is used to sample both mammographically and ultrasound detected breast lesions. A diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) by CNB does not ensure the absence of invasive cancer upon surgical excision and as a result an upstaged patient may need to undergo additional surgery for axillary nodal evaluation. This study evaluates the accuracy of CNB in excluding invasive disease and the preoperative features that predict upstaging of DCIS to invasive breast cancer.