Gracilis Muscle Flap After Superficial Inguinal Lymphadenectomy in an Irradiated Inguinal Field.

The sartorius muscle transposition flap is the traditional method of femoral vessel coverage after superficial inguinal lymphadenectomy for regionally-metastatic cancers to the inguinal lymph nodes. However, if the groin has undergone radiotherapy, the sartorius muscle is contained within the irradiated field, and may be problematic for wound healing, in addition to being thin at its insertion and intimately related to several nerves. The gracilis muscle has been used for soft tissue defects and vascular graft infections, but its utility as an alternative to the sartorius muscle flap in the setting of radiation has never been reported.

Monitoring and Developing a Volunteer Patient Navigation Intervention to Improve Mammography Compliance in a Safety Net Hospital.

Purpose: Although mammography screening is crucial for cancer detection, screening rates have been declining, particularly in patients of low socioeconomic status and minorities. We sought to evaluate and improve the compliance rates at our safety net hospital through a prospective randomized controlled trial of a volunteer-run patient navigation intervention.

Methods: Baseline 90-day institutional mammography compliance rates were evaluated for patients who received a physician order for screening mammograms over a 1-month period.

Carcinoma of the colon in an adult with intestinal malrotation.

Colon cancer is the third most common cancer in the USA. Intestinal malrotation diagnosed in adulthood was, until recently, a very rare phenomenon. While patients may present with intestinal obstruction or abdominal pain, the diagnosis is now often made as an incidental finding by computed tomography (CT).

Subungual melanoma of the great toe in a Hispanic male with Down syndrome: a case report and review of the literature.

Solid mass tumors are not as common as leukemia in individuals with Down syndrome. In this report, we describe the rare case of an adult Hispanic male with Down syndrome who developed advanced subungual melanoma in the hallux. We also describe the course of treatment, which involved hallux amputation along with metastatic work-up and sentinel lymph node biopsy with eventual resection.

Chopart's amputation for resection of clear cell sarcoma of the foot: a case report and review of the literature.

Unlabelled: Clear cell sarcoma (CCS) is a subset of soft tissue sarcoma that occurs mainly in young Caucasians. Although on initial presentation these growths might not appear to be malignant, CCS has a tendency to disseminate to regional lymph nodes and ultimately develop distant metastasis. We report a case of CCS from our institution, discussing the radiological and pathological findings, surgical treatments, and survival prognoses.

Subungual squamous cell carcinoma of the toe: working toward a standardized therapeutic approach.

Subungual squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a rare malignancy with very few reported cases that occur on the toe. The etiology of these lesions is not known, and although this location is generally considered low risk for metastasis, cases of inguinal lymph node metastasis after toe amputation have been reported. Patients with subungual disease may meet criteria other than location that increase their risk for metastasis.

Expression of melanoma-associated antigens in human dendritic cells pulsed with an interleukin-2 gene encoded vaccinia melanoma oncolysate (rIL-2VMO).

Dendritic cells (DCs) possess the unique abilities to initiate a primary immune response and to present antigens to naïve T lymphocytes. Recently, there has been a rapidly growing interest in the use of DCs in active specific immunotherapy (ASI) for the treatment of patients with cancer. In the present study, we determined the ability of DCs to express Melanoma-Associated Antigens (MAAs) from a polyvalent Melanoma Vaccine (DC-MelVac; Patent #11221/5) developed in our facility.

September 11, 2001, revisited: a review of the data.

Hypothesis: The September 11, 2001, World Trade Center (WTC) attack was a disaster of epic proportion in New York City, NY. It was unprecedented in terms of the number of people who were killed in the bombings, as well as in terms of the volume of patients received at local (New York City) hospitals. The strain on local emergency medical services, hospitals, and the citywide trauma system is still felt today as the hospitals, physicians, and agencies involved struggle to train for similar events that may occur in the future, cope with the psychological and social aftermath, and even pay for the response to the bombing.

Multilayer reconstruction of abdominal wall defects with acellular dermal allograft (AlloDerm) and component separation.

Multiple techniques have been employed for the repair of abdominal incisional hernias with varying rates of success. Primary fascial apposition and prosthetic implantation have been associated with high rates of secondary recurrence, infection, and other complications, often due to insufficient alleviation of tension and implant intolerance. This study evaluates the repair of incisional and recurrent abdominal hernias with multilayered acellular dermal allograft (AlloDerm; LifeCell Corporation, Branchburg, NJ) and musculofascial separation.

Experimental melanoma vaccines.

There are several immunological implications for the feasibility of melanoma vaccines. Vaccines such as melanoma cell and cell-lysate preparations, chemically characterized and pure melanoma associated antigens (MAA), anti-idiotypic antibodies mimicking MAA, and vectors encoding the genes of MAA have been tested in early and advanced clinical trials. Some of these experimental vaccines have increased overall survival rate and increased disease-free interval rate in patients with melanoma.

Adjuvant effect of a Flt3 ligand (FL) gene-transduced xenogeneic cell line in a murine colon cancer model.

Background: Flt3 Ligand (FL) has been shown to elicit antitumor responses induced by tumor antigen stimulation. Allogeneic and xenogeneic cell lines transduced with cytokine genes may be used to augment the antitumor efficacy of tumor antigens.

Objectives: The objective was to evaluate the augmentation of tumor lysate-induced immunity by a more clinically applicable FL gene-transduced xenogeneic cell line in combination with interleukin-2 (IL-2) in a CC-36 murine colon cancer model.

The state of general surgery residency in the United States: program director perspectives, 2001.

Hypothesis: Current demographic patterns and lifestyle factors of general surgery residents may contribute to recent changes in recruitment patterns.

Design: Survey addressing the characteristics of general surgery residency, including demographic data, 3-year recruitment and retention trends, and working conditions of general surgery residents.

Participants: A convenience sample of all residency program directors in attendance at the 2001 Surgical Education Week was given the opportunity to voluntarily complete the survey.

Therapeutic effect of colon tumor cells expressing FLT-3 ligand plus systemic IL-2 in mice with syngeneic colon cancer.

Flt-3 ligand (FL) and interleukin-2 (IL-2) have been shown to enhance individually the antitumor response against several cancers. Therefore, treatment with a combination of FL gene-transduced tumor cell plus soluble IL-2 was studied in a murine colon adenocarcinoma model. The human full-length FL cDNA was cloned from FL-expressing cell line AML-193 by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).