Laparoscopic Splenectomy in Colorectal Cancer Patients with Chemotherapy-Associated Thrombocytopenia due to Hypersplenism.

Background: Hypersplenism due to chemotherapy-related liver injury has been associated with severe thrombocytopenia that may preclude continuation of systemic therapy for cancer patients. Patients treated for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) are among the most common patients affected by hypersplenism. Cessation of systemic therapy invariably leads to progression of disease.

Long-term morbidity of sentinel node biopsy versus complete axillary dissection for unilateral breast cancer.

Background: Postoperative changes after axillary lymph node surgery may significantly alter breast cancer survivors' (BCS) quality of life. Although sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has less immediate morbidity than axillary lymph node dissection (ALND), its long-term impact on shoulder abduction, arm swelling, and neurosensory changes has not been evaluated. The purpose of this study was to compare long-term morbidity after SLNB or ALND and breast-conservation surgery.

Hereditary neoplasia syndromes and the role of the surgeon.

The complex and often variable clinical presentations of patients with hereditary neoplasia syndromes mandates a multidisciplinary approach to management. The involvement of surgeons in the assessment and management of these patients is essential, in that the majority of patients affected with hereditary neoplasms will, at some point, require resection of the target organs affected by specific gene mutations, with prophylactic or therapeutic intent, or both. As the pathogenesis of the known hereditary neoplasia syndromes becomes better understood at the molecular level, innovative targeted therapies will, inevitably, supplant or replace surgery as the primary treatment modality for these diseases.

A case of mistaken identity: giant cystic pheochromocytoma.

A 39-year-old Marshall Islands woman was referred for evaluation of an abdominal mass. Medical history was significant only for pulmonary tuberculosis and scrofula. The patient denied a personal or family history of pancreatic or endocrine disease.

Molecular tumor markers in the blood: early prediction of disease outcome in melanoma patients treated with a melanoma vaccine.

Purpose: Patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage III melanoma are at high risk of recurrence and death. We hypothesized that a multiple-marker reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (MM-RT-PCR) blood assay could predict, early in the course of therapy, those patients destined to experience treatment failure with a melanoma vaccine (MV) previously shown to improve survival in a phase II clinical trial.

Patients And Methods: After complete surgical resection, prospectively collected cryopreserved peripheral-blood lymphocyte specimens (n = 90) from the serial bleeds of 30 patients with AJCC stage III melanoma were studied by MM-RT-PCR, using the markers tyrosinase, melanoma antigen recognized by T cells-1 (MART-1), and universal melanoma antigen gene-A (uMAG-A).

Stanniocalcin-1: a novel molecular blood and bone marrow marker for human breast cancer.

Purpose: Very few tumor molecular markers have been identified that are highly specific for breast cancer cells when applied to blood and bone marrow (BM). Stanniocalcin (STC)-1 is a recently discovered human gene that has been implicated in cellular calcium homeostasis and resistance to hypoxia and is located on chromosome 8p in a region associated with amplification in breast cancer. We investigated STC-1 mRNA as a potential molecular marker for detection of breast cancer metastasis in the blood and BM.