Publications by authors named "Monica Dandapani"

Background: When labor ensues in the setting of transabdominal cerclage, uterine rupture is a potential complication associated with significant morbidity and mortality for both mother and fetus.

Case: A woman with a transabdominal cerclage presented at 39 2/7 weeks of gestation with contractions, tachycardia, abdominal pain, and fetal bradycardia. Emergent cesarean delivery revealed a ruptured uterus with fetus and placenta floating in the abdomen.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

. To describe a novel technique for a port-reducing laparoscopic hysterectomy. The 2-port laparoscopic hysterectomy (TPH) is performed through two 5-mm ports without the use of any multiport channels.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ovarian cancer is the deadliest gynecologic malignancy, with a 5-year survival rate of approximately 47%, a number that has remained constant over the past two decades. Early diagnosis improves survival, but unfortunately only 15% of ovarian cancers are diagnosed at an early or localized stage. Most ovarian cancers are epithelial in origin and treatment prioritizes surgery and cytoreduction followed by cytotoxic platinum and taxane chemotherapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: We describe survival disparities among women with uterine, ovarian, or cervical cancer by cancer-specific mean annual hospital volume.

Methods: National Cancer Database 1998-2011 uterine (n = 441,863), ovarian (n = 223,017), and cervical (n = 146,698) cancer data sets were used. Cancer-specific mean annual hospital volumes were calculated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Ovarian cancer is the gynecologic malignancy with the highest case-fatality rate due to the development of chemotherapy resistance. Predictors of chemotherapy response are needed to guide chemotherapy selection and improve survival for patients with ovarian cancer. Wnt signaling may impact chemoresistance in ovarian cancer.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Tumor mRNA expression was used to discover genes associated with worse survival or no survival benefit after intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy. Data for high grade serous ovarian cancer patients treated with IP (n = 90) or IV-only (n =  398) chemotherapy was obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were compared between IP and IV groups using Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A 71-year-old woman with suspected endometrial cancer underwent robotic-assisted hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, pelvic and para-aortic lymph node dissection, and infracolic omentectomy revealing a stage II uterine carcinosarcoma with components of serous adenocarcinoma and undifferentiated spindle cell sarcoma. There was no evidence of distant metastasis at the time of surgery. However pelvic washings were positive for malignant cells.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The objective of this study was to determine if ovarian cancer patients with a TP53 mutation grouped by location of the mutation within the p53 protein structure exhibit differential survival outcomes. Data from patients with high grade serous ovarian cancer (HGS OvCa) (N = 316) or breast cancer (BrCa) (N = 981) sequenced by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) was studied by Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards survival analysis. A TP53 DNA binding domain (BD) missense mutation (MM) occurred in 58.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Uterine sarcomas spread via lymphatic and hematogenous dissemination, direct extension, or transtubal transport. Distant metastasis often involves the lungs. Ovarian metastasis is uncommon.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To test if TP53 hot spot mutations (HSMs) confer differential chemotherapy resistance or survival outcomes, the effects of microtubule stabilizers on human ovarian carcinoma cells (OCCs) expressing TP53 HSMs were studied in vitro. Survival outcomes of patients with high grade serous epithelial ovarian carcinoma (HGS EOC) expressing matched HSMs were compared using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data.

Methods: Growth inhibition of OCCs transfected with a HSM (m175, m248 or m273) was measured during treatment with paclitaxel, epothilone B (epoB), or ixabepilone.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

IMPORTANCE Sebaceous neoplasms (SNs) define the Muir-Torre syndrome variant of Lynch syndrome (LS), which is associated with increased risk for colon and other cancers necessitating earlier and more frequent screening to reduce morbidity and mortality.Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining for mismatch repair (MMR) proteins in SNs can be used to screen for LS, but data on subsequent germline genetic testing to confirm LS diagnosis are limited.OBJECTIVE To characterize the utility of IHC screening of SNs in identification of germline MMR mutations confirming LS.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Due to the increased lifetime risk of endometrial cancer (EC), guidelines recommend that women with Lynch syndrome (LS) age ≥ 35 undergo annual EC surveillance or prophylactic hysterectomy (PH). The aim of this study was to examine the uptake of these risk-reducing strategies.

Methods: The study population included women meeting clinical criteria for genetic evaluation for LS.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hereditary colorectal cancer syndromes can be associated with a lifetime risk of CRC of >70% in the absence of specialized surveillance. Diagnosing a genetic predisposition to cancer allows clinicians to tailor cancer prevention strategies for patients and families at highest risk. Once a genetic syndrome has been identified in a family, communication with family members, timely implementation of screening tests and/or surgeries, and psychosocial support are all instrumental for effective cancer prevention.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF