[Thyroid carcinoma: from diagnosis to therapy].

From 1999 to 2007 we performed 104 surgical operations for thyroid malignancies. Over the same period, 312 patients underwent surgery for benign lesions of the thyroid gland. The patients were subdivided on the basis of age bracket and gender and the distribution of cancer and benign nodules was evaluated.

Is sentinel lymph node biopsy more accurate than axillary dissection for staging nodal involvement in breast cancer patients?

Today evaluation of axillary involvement can be routinely performed with the technique of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB). One of the greatest advantages of SLNB is the nearly total absence of local postoperative complications. It is important to understand whether SLNB is better than axillary lymph-node dissection (ALND) for staging axillary nodal involvement.

Surgical treatment of early breast cancer in day surgery.

Quadrantectomy and associated sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is currently employed in most breast surgery centres as the gold standard in the treatment of early breast cancer. This approach has a modest morbidity and can usually be performed in a day-surgery regimen, leading to best acceptance by the patients. This reports outlines the experience of our Breast Unit with quadrantectomy and SLNB in day surgery for early breast cancer.

[Thyroidectomy with LigaSure versus traditional thyroidectomy: our experience].

Over the past few decades the surgical strategy for both benign and malignant thyroid diseases has undergone several changes. In particular, total thyroidectomy today has become the routine operation for most thyroid diseases. The complications of this surgical procedure, though of multifactorial aetiopathogenesis, are often related to the efficacy of the haemostasis.

Survival of breast cancer patients. Our experience.

Life expectancy for patients with breast carcinoma has changed in Europe over the last two decades. In Italy, the overall survival rate is about 77% at 5 years. When considering the situation in Sicily, the EUROCARE 2 study examined survival data from the Ragusa Cancer Registry, showing that the curves are worse than in other regions of Italy.

The role of sentinel lymph-node biopsy (SLNB) in the treatment of breast cancer.

Sentinel lymph-node biopsy is an innovative method for axillary staging in breast cancer patients, based on the concept that information about the status of the entire lymphatic drainage from a tumour site could be obtained by identification and sampling of a "sentinel node". The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of sentinel lymph-node biopsy in the management of patients with early invasive breast carcinoma. Three hundred and forty-one patients with primary invasive breast carcinoma measuring less than 2 cm (less than 3 cm from January 2001) and clinically negative axillary nodes were recruited into the study.

Video-thoracoscopic surgical pleurodesis in the management of malignant pleural effusion: the importance of an early intervention.

Thoracentesis plays an important role in cancer patients with symptomatic effusions, although its effect is short-lived and symptoms recur in almost all patients. Early video-thoracoscopic surgical pleurodesis may provide added benefit to a group of patients with advanced cancer presenting with symptomatic malignant pleural effusion. Seventy-six patients with advanced cancer and pleural effusion due to pulmonary-pleural metastases were recruited.

[The role of fine-needle aspiration in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules].

The aim of this study was to prospectively evaluate the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of fine-needle aspiration of thyroid nodules. From January 1978 to December 2003, 497 patients underwent fine-needle aspiration of thyroid nodules and then thyroidectomy. Fine-needle aspiration was performed with a fine 23-25 gauge and the aspirate was fixed and dyed with May-Grounwald-Giemsa method.

Localization of the sentinel lymph node in breast cancer: prospective comparison of vital staining and radioactive tracing methods.

The aim of the study was to evaluate possible differences in accuracy between the radioactive tracing and vital staining method in the search for sentinel nodes in patients with breast cancer. From January 1999 to December 2000, 102 patients with T1 N0 breast carcinoma were recruited into the study for localization of sentinel nodes with vital blue dye staining and radioactive tracing and were then submitted to lumpectomy and axillary dissection. For the two methods, we estimated the percentage of sentinel nodes localized, the false-negative rate, the predictive negative and positive value and the accuracy.

[Surgical treatment of melanoma: role of the sentinel lymph node].

The aim of this study was to evaluate the surgical therapy of melanoma of the head, neck, trunk or extremities, and the reliability of sentinel node biopsy. Forty-nine patients, 23 men and 26 women, mean age 59 (range: 22-89) years, with melanoma of the skin--the sites affected were the head and neck (7), trunk (17), upper extremities (8) and lower extremities (17)--and clinically negative lymph nodes, participated in the study from January 2000 to December 2002. The mean Breslow thickness was 2.