Absence of telomerase activity in malignant bone tumors and soft-tissue sarcomas.

Purpose: Telomerase activity appears to play a crucial role in the development of many tumors. More than 80% of all malignant human tumors show an increased telomerase activity. However, conflicting results have been reported about telomerase activity in sarcomas.

Preoperative embolization in spinal and pelvic metastases.

The role of preoperative embolization should be evaluated for the surgical treatment of spinal and pelvic metastases. Selective embolization was performed in 32 patients (19 men, 13 women; mean age 63.4 years) before surgery by anterior resection of spinal metastases (n = 21) or pelvic metastases (n = 11).

Genetic instability in primary leiomyosarcoma of bone.

Primary leiomyosarcoma (LMS) of bone is an exceedingly rare entity on which to date no molecular data have been reported. In a series of 6 tumors (5 grade IIB, 1 grade IIA), we assessed the prevailing genetic stability by microsatellite analysis at 7 loci. The IIB tumors demonstrated a rate of genomic loss as high as 90%, accompanied by an intratumoral heterogeneity in 30% of conspicuous markers.