Publications by authors named "Mj Halaska"

Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) is a very effective method in the treatment of dehiscent, infected, and non-healing wounds. Difficult wound healing occurs especially in late pregnancy due to the rapid enlargement of the uterus and the constantly increasing tension of the entire abdominal wall. In cases of dehiscence of the surgical wound during pregnancy, proper subsequent treatment is needed, where it is necessary to consider the safety of the mother as well as the fetus.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Endometriosis is a chronic disease characterised by the presence of endometrial tissue outside the uterine cavity, affecting 5-15% of women, especially those of reproductive age. The disease may manifest itself as dysmenorrhoea, dyspareunia, sterility and chronic pelvic pain, among other symptoms. Although it is not malignant, it shares some characteristics with cancer and can lead to epithelial ovarian carcinoma.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Platina and taxanes are frequently used chemotherapeutic agents to treat cancer, also when diagnosed during pregnancy. This report presents an interim analysis of the largest series of children prenatally exposed to platinum and/or taxane agents and aims to determine their physical health and neurocognitive outcomes.

Methods: As part of a multicentre, prospective cohort study (ClinicalTrials.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The incidence of cancer during pregnancy is steadily rising because of the postponement of plans for childbearing. One of the most common cancers diagnosed during pregnancy is cervical cancer. Diagnosis of most cases usually occurs in the early stages, but there are still cases of tumors staged IB2 and higher.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Patients with high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) are virtually insensitive to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) employed as standalone therapeutics, at least in part reflecting microenvironmental immunosuppression. Thus, conventional chemotherapeutics and targeted anticancer agents that not only mediate cytotoxic effects but also promote the recruitment of immune effector cells to the HGSOC microenvironment stand out as promising combinatorial partners for ICIs in this oncological indication.

Experimental Design: We harnessed a variety of transcriptomic, spatial, and functional assays to characterize the differential impact of neoadjuvant paclitaxel-carboplatin on the immunological configuration of paired primary and metastatic HGSOC biopsies as compared to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT)-naïve HGSOC samples from five independent patient cohorts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Chronic endometritis is a significant, often undiagnosed cause of infertility, especially affecting in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcomes due to intrauterine inflammation.
  • The condition is associated with changes in the endometrial microbiome and characterized by mild or absent symptoms, making diagnosis challenging, typically requiring hysteroscopy and histopathological examinations.
  • Empirical antibiotic therapy has been found to increase pregnancy and live birth rates in women with confirmed chronic endometritis, highlighting the need for improved diagnostic criteria and awareness of the condition's reproductive implications.*
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Tubal abortion refers to the expulsion of a fetus into the abdominal cavity from a fallopian tube, which can be either complete or partial, and is a type of ectopic pregnancy that poses challenges in accurately determining its incidence.
  • - Accurate diagnosis of tubal abortions is essential for tailored treatment, typically involving ultrasound imaging, measuring b-hCG levels, and visual confirmation during surgery.
  • - A case study of a 30-year-old woman with suspected ectopic pregnancy revealed a tubal abortion via laparoscopic surgery, allowing for a conservative treatment that preserved her fallopian tubes and potential fertility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A descriptive study aimed to analyze pregnant women with cancer who died during pregnancy, delivery, or within the first year postpartum, using data from the International Network on Cancer, Infertility and Pregnancy (INCIP) registry.
  • Out of 2,359 registered women, 131 (5.6%) experienced maternal mortality, with lung, gastro-oesophageal cancer, and acute leukaemia showing the highest mortality rates.
  • The findings indicated that maternal mortality was linked to fewer live births, more elective caesarean sections, and earlier deliveries, resulting in an increased incidence of preterm births.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: To review the changes in the new version of the FIGO 2023 staging system for endometrial cancer.

Methods And Results: The new FIGO 2023 endometrial cancer staging system provides key updates for the diagnosis and treatment of endometrial cancer. An important step in diagnosis is molecular classification, which allows more accurate risk stratification for recurrence and the identification of targeted therapies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted viral infection worldwide, which may result in the development in benign lesions or malignant tumors. The prevalence of HPV infection is twice as high in pregnancy as in non-pregnant women. Additionally, there is a risk of vertical transmission of HPV from mother to fetus during pregnancy or childbirth.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Patient awareness of postoperative lymphedema in the field of gynecologic oncology has been poorly documented in the international literature. We wished to capture and document the awareness among gynecological cancer survivors about postoperative lymphedema, including aspects such as the adequacy of perioperative counseling, management, and quality of life.

Methods: A web-based survey comprising 25 multiple-choice questions was distributed to gynecological cancer advocacy groups within the European Network of Gynecological Cancer Advocacy Groups (ENGAGe) group.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Intratumoral tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) have been associated with improved outcome in various cohorts of patients with cancer, reflecting their contribution to the development of tumor-targeting immunity. Here, we demonstrate that high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) contains distinct immune aggregates with varying degrees of organization and maturation. Specifically, mature TLSs (mTLS) as forming only in 16% of HGSOCs with relatively elevated tumor mutational burden (TMB) are associated with an increased intratumoral density of CD8 effector T (T) cells and TIM3PD1, hence poorly immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-sensitive, CD8 T cells.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine how often changes the stage of the tumour in definitive histology against preoperative clinical stage in patient cohort with diagnosed endometrial cancer.

Methods: We evaluated prospectively a cohort of 166 patients with endometrial cancer. They all underwent abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, sentinel lymph node biopsy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The profile of the antitumor immune response is an important factor determining patient clinical outcome. However, the influence of the tissue contexture on the composition of the tumor microenvironments of virally induced tumors is not clearly understood. Therefore, we analyzed the immune landscape of two HPV-associated malignancies: oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) and squamous cell carcinoma of uterine cervix (CESC).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: The pudendal nerve is an anatomical structure arising from the ventral branches of the spinal roots S2-S4. Its complex course may be affected by surrounding structures. This may result in irritation or entrapment of the nerve with subsequent clinical symptoms.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Chemotherapy during pregnancy can increase the risk of fetal anemia. Severe fetal anemia can lead to the development of hydrops fetalis and potentially fetal demise. Hence, it is imperative to implement consistent monitoring methods in the context of chemotherapy treatment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: A review of current knowledge on the efficacy of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in preventing recurrent severe cervical lesions after excisional surgical treatment.

Methods And Results: HPV infection is necessary for the development of most cervical precancerous lesions and cervical cancers. Currently, three prophylactic vaccines against HPV infection are available on the market: bivalent Cervarix, quadrivalent Gardasil (formerly Silgard) and nonavalent Gardasil9.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The management of breast cancer during pregnancy (PrBC) is a relatively rare indication and an area where no or little evidence is available since randomized controlled trials cannot be conducted. In general, advances related to breast cancer (BC) treatment outside pregnancy cannot always be translated to PrBC, because both the interests of the mother and of the unborn should be considered. Evidence remains limited and/or conflicting in some specific areas where the optimal approach remains controversial.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The standard procedure in cervical cancer is radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy (PLND). Because of the increasing age of women bearing children, fertility has become a major challenge. We present pregnancy results after less radical fertility-sparing surgery in women with IA1, LVSI positive, IA2 and IB1 (<2 cm, infiltration less than half of the cervical stroma).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

JCO This multicenter cohort study reports on the long-term effects of prenatal exposure to maternal cancer and its treatment on cognitive and behavioral outcomes in 9-year-old children. In total, 151 children (mean age, 9.3 years; range, 7.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The most common cancer in women worldwide is cervical cancer. For early-stage disease the standard treatment is radical hysterectomy. One of the main issues faced by surgeons performing a radical hysterectomy is the wide variation in the terminology used to define the procedure and the nomenclature used to describe the anatomical spaces critical to the success of the surgery.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * Results showed that younger women (under 49) made up 26% of cases, with 12.3% recurrence in cases with positive margins compared to lower rates in those with healthier margins (1-3mm).
  • * The conclusion emphasized that maintaining a minimal healthy margin (1-3mm) reduces recurrence risk while also providing a good cosmetic outcome and preserving women's psychosexual functions, highlighting the need for long-term follow-up.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Surgical treatment for obese women poses challenges, but minimally invasive techniques like laparoscopic hysterectomy have emerged as effective alternatives to reduce invasiveness while maintaining outcomes.
  • A study of 328 women underwent hysterectomy, comparing outcomes between those who had open surgeries and those who had laparoscopic procedures, focusing on complication rates based on obesity levels (BMI).
  • Results showed significantly lower perioperative and early to mid-term complications in the laparoscopic group compared to the open surgery group; however, late complications were similar in both groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Dendritic cells (DCs) have received considerable attention as potential targets for the development of novel cancer immunotherapies. However, the clinical efficacy of DC-based vaccines remains suboptimal, largely reflecting local and systemic immunosuppression at baseline. An autologous DC-based vaccine (DCVAC) has recently been shown to improve progression-free survival and overall survival in randomized clinical trials enrolling patients with lung cancer (SLU01, NCT02470468) or ovarian carcinoma (SOV01, NCT02107937), but not metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (SP005, NCT02111577), despite a good safety profile across all cohorts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF