Relevance of risk factors of breast cancer in women: An Eastern Indian scenario.

Aims And Objective: Incidence of breast cancer is on the rise in developed as well as in developing countries. In India it has superseded cervical cancer as the commonest malignancy in women in urban areas. A lot of risk factors have been proposed from time to time that play a causative role in the natural course of this disease.

Acute complications following intracavitary high-dose-rate brachytherapy in uterine cancer.

Purpose: Almost 30% of malignancies in women of developing countries are gynecological and brachytherapy is an integral part of management of these patients. Reports of complications (both acute and late) of high-dose-rate (HDR) intracavitary brachytherapy are sparse in world literature due to relatively small number of gynecological malignancies, particularly in advanced stage, in developed countries. High-dose-rate brachytherapy is gaining popularity in developing countries due to scientific and economic reasons.

Bone metastasis.

Rectal cancers may rarely metastasize in bone and when it occurs, is usually preceded by lung and/or liver metastasis. However, whether it may ever bypasses other organs, particularly lung and liver and metastasizes directly to bone or not, is debatable. Some authors have described the presence of isolated bone metastasis from colo-rectal cancers, whereas others have questioned its' existence in the absence of lung or liver metastasis.

'Proptosis'--may be the only presenting feature of small cell lung cancer: a case report.

Orbital metastasis from solid tumours is an uncommon entity and lung, breast and nasopharyngeal cancers are the common sites causing such a metastasis. Proptosis as the only presenting feature without any symptom suggesting lung as the primary site is very rare. Here is a report of a patient who presented with proptosis as the only complaint and subsequent investigations proved it to be due to small cell lung cancer metastasis and without metastatic spread to any other site.

Neoodjuvant imatinib mesylate for advanced primary and metastactic/recurrent gastro-intestinal stromal tumour (GIST).

Therapy of gastro-intestinal stromal tumour (GIST) has changed significantly with the use of imatinib mesylate. Disease progression remains a complicated clinical issue, suggesting the need for multimodality management. This is a prospective clinical study evaluating the neoadjuvant use of Imatinib mesylate in primary GIST.

Adenoma malignum of the uterine cervix--an enigma.

Adenoma malignum is a rare variant of cervical adenocarcinoma which presents a great diagnostic and therapeutic challenge to an oncologist. A 31-year-old woman presented with a mass filling up whole of the vagina which showed no evidence of malignancy by scraping cytology or punch biopsy. But histological examination of the resected mass turned up to be adenoma malignum of the cervix.

Primary fallopian tube carcinoma with metastasis in the contralateral ovary.

Primary malignant neoplasm of the fallopian tube is one of the rarest gynaecological malignancies and a pre-operative diagnosis is often missed due to its diagnostic confusion with the tubo-ovarian mass, hydrosalpinx, ectopic pregnancy and ovarian malignancy. Transcoelomic, lymphatic, transluminal and haematogenous spread may occur to the other abdominal and pelvic organs as well as to the distant sites. Though the body of the uterus, ovaries and the contralateral fallopian tube are frequently involved, in the present case the contralateral ovary was the only site of involvement which is very unusual.

Squamous cell carcinoma of lung metastasizinig in breast.

Metastasis in breast from extra-mammary malignancy is rare and lung is the third most common primary site when such a metastasis occurs. Small cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma are two histological varieties of lung carcinoma that may metastasize to breast and squamous cell type is very rare. Here we report a case of squamous cell carcinoma of lung that metastasized in the breast and mimicked primary breast carcinoma.

Diagnostic enigma in retroperitoneal paraganglioma--a case report.

Paragangliomas and pleomorphic undifferentiated sarcoma/malignant fibrous histiocytomas are examples of uncommon tumours in retroperitoneum. Where malignant fibrous histiocytoma is to be treated aggressively to save the life, long-term follow-up after surgery is the basic management for paraganglioma. Hence an inappropriate diagnosis of malignant fibrous histiocytoma in place of a paraganglioma which in most cases behave as benign tumour, can lead to a significant complication related to postoperative therapy.

Colorectal carcinoma in a ten-year-old girl: a case report.

Colorectal carcinoma is very rare in childhood. In this case report, we depict a ten-year-old girl who presented with features of intestinal obstruction which turned out to be due to poorly differentiated mucin secreting adenocarcinoma of descending colon. Only increased awareness of this malignancy in this age-group and a high index of suspicion can help when a child complains of persistent pain of abdomen, altered bowel habits or rectal bleeding, and may provide diagnosis at an earlier stage, thereby improving the prognosis.

Treatment of cervical carcinoma with high-dose rate intracavitary brachytherapy: two years follow-up study.

Aims: This study focused on pelvic recurrence rate and late complications following treatment with high dose rate brachytherapy with a three fractionation scheme.

Setting And Design: This retrospective observational study was conducted from 1st November 2003 to 31st March 2005 at a tertiary care centre.

Methods And Materials: Women were treated with external beam radiotherapy and three fractions of high dose rate brachytherapy, divided into two broad groups IIB+ IIIA and IIIB+IVA.

Plesiotherapy for non-melanoma skin cancer: innovating to overcome!

Background: The non-surgical management of non-melanoma skin cancers is an area requiring clinical investigation. Radiotherapy has a role in treatment for a defined subset of patients.

Aims: The application of radiotherapy is subject to availability of proper equipment, non-availability of which precludes appropriate radiotherapy in most centers in third world countries.

Iatrogenc hypothyroidism: a consequence of external beam radiotherapy to the head & neck malignancies.

Background: Hypothyroidism is a known consequence of external beam radiotherapy to the neck encompassing part or whole of the thyroid gland for over 40 years. Still thyroid function tests are not a part of routine follow up of head - neck cancer patients treated with radiotherapy with or without surgery and / or chemotherapy.

Aim: Aim of this study was to find out the incidence of hypothyroidism in head - neck cancer patients treated with radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy where radiation portals included most or whole of the thyroid gland.

Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy with cisplatin and short infusional 5-FU in advanced head and neck malignancies.

Background: Combination of radical surgery and radiotherapy is the standard management of head and neck malignancies. But due to considerable morbidity of surgery and associated cosmetic and functional deficiencies, often aggravated by adjuvant radiotherapy, many patients prefer only radiotherapy with its' decreased chance of survival. Proper surgical facilities are also not accessible to most of our patients.