Search

Background: Hepatic angiomyolipoma (HAML) is a rare liver tumor, and hepatectomy is the only effective treatment. Due to the difficulty of correct diagnosis of HAML before surgery by image studies, more than 36.6% of reported HAMLs are misdiagnosed as other malignant liver tumors before surgery. As there are only few reported cases in which HAMLs were removed using laparoscopic hepatectomy, the effectiveness of laparoscopic hepatectomy for such HAMLs in which are diagnosed as other malignant liver tumor before surgery has not been reported. Case presentation Case 1: a 58-year-old female with a history of treatment for autoimmune hepatitis was preoperatively diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (size: 20 mm) in segment 7 (S7) of the liver. The tumor was removed by laparoscopic partial resection and was diagnosed as a HAML through a pathological examination. The patient's postoperative course was good, and she was recurrence-free at 37 months after the hepatectomy. Case 2: a 29-year-old female with a history of surgery for a right mature cystic teratoma was referred to our department to receive treatment for a growing 20-mm liver tumor with some calcification, which arose in S3 of the liver. A metastatic liver tumor derived from the mature cystic teratoma was suspected, and laparoscopic left lateral sectionectomy was performed. The liver tumor was diagnosed as a HAML after a pathological examination. The patient's postoperative course was unremarkable, and more than 54 months have passed since the hepatectomy without any recurrence. Conclusions: Two cases in which HAMLs were preoperatively diagnosed as other malignant liver tumor were successfully removed by laparoscopic hepatectomy with a correct postoperative diagnosis. Laparoscopic hepatectomy for the present 2 cases of HAML seemed to be effective for providing a correct diagnosis after the curative removement of liver tumor with a smaller invasion compared to open hepatectomy, and for denying risk of dissemination of the malignant tumor by needle biopsy that had to be considered before ruling out malignant tumor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The incidence of axillary lymph node metastasis (ALNM) of colon cancer is very low, and there have been only a few reports of solitary ALNM. Neither the mechanism involved in solitary colon cancer ALNM nor the proper treatment has been elucidated. We encountered a case of solitary left ALNM after curative resection of carcinoma at the colostomy site. Case presentation: A 53-year-old man underwent a Hartmann's operation for Hirschsprung disease during his adolescence. He complained of a mass of the descending colon and was diagnosed with colon cancer at the colostomy site with pagetoid spread to the adjacent skin. The cancer at the stoma site was resected, and a transverse colostomy was performed. Nine years later, his carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 level was high during a health screening. On physical examination, adenopathy was palpated in the left axilla. Computed tomography (CT) demonstrated a lymph node in the left axillary fossa that was 33 mm in diameter, and F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/CT showed high uptake in the lesion. We performed a curative resection of the left axillary lymph node. The lesion was pathologically diagnosed as left ALNM originating from the adenocarcinoma at the colostomy site. After lymph node resection, his serum CA19-9 level decreased compared to that observed at baseline. He has been receiving adjuvant chemotherapy (capecitabine plus oxaliplatin) without recurrence for 5 months after lymph node resection. Conclusions: The present case report shows that carcinoma at the colostomy site with pagetoid spread can metastasize to the axillary lymph nodes through superficial abdominal lymphatic pathways, and surgical resection followed by adjuvant chemotherapy may be a potent strategy to treat solitary colon cancer ALNM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recent studies have indicated that response to chemotherapy and the prognostic impact of a pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy differ among breast cancer subtypes. Methods: Women with Stage I to III breast cancer treated with anthracycline and taxane-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy (four cycles of docetaxel every 3 weeks followed by four cycles of FEC every 3 weeks) between 2006 and 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. Trastuzumab was concurrently added to docetaxel for HER2-positive breast cancer. Expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PgR), HER2, and Ki67 was examined by immunohistochemistry in pre- and post-treatment specimens. Predictive factors for neoadjuvant chemotherapy and prognosis were analyzed by breast cancer subtype. Results: Of 64 patients, 30 (47 %) were ER-positive (ER+) HER2-negative (HER2−), including eight as luminal A (Ki67 labeling index (LI) <14 %) and 22 as luminal B (Ki67 LI ≥ 14 %) subtypes, 11 (17 %) were ER+ HER2-positive (HER2+), 12 (19 %) were ER-negative (ER−) HER2+, and 11 (17 %) were ER− HER2−. The clinical response rates were significantly higher in luminal B, ER+ HER2+, and ER− HER2+ subtypes compared with luminal A subtype. Patients whose tumors contained high Ki67 expression effectively responded to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Ki67 LI was a predictive marker for pCR, and all patients whose tumors achieved pCR are currently disease-free. Furthermore, high Ki67 expression in post-treatment tumors was strongly correlated with poor disease-free and overall survival regardless of subtype. Conclusions: It is necessary to establish additional strategies to improve survival for patients whose residual tumors show high Ki67 expression after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estrogen receptor (ER) is essential for estrogen-dependent growth, and its level of expression is considered a crucial determinant of response to endocrine therapy and prognosis in ER-positive breast cancer. On the other hand, the clinical role of progesterone receptor (PgR) in ER-positive breast cancer remains controversial, although testing of PgR by immunohistochemistry (IHC) has become routine. Recent studies indicated that plasma estradiol levels were related to the expression levels of estrogen-responsive genes in ER-positive breast cancer tissues in both pre- and postmenopausal women. In this study, we analyzed the expression levels of estrogen-responsive genes (PgR and TFF1), a progesterone-responsive gene (RANKL), ER-related genes (FOXA1 and GATA3), HER2, Ki67 and p53 in ER-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer tissues by IHC. Correlations between the expression levels of these molecular markers and clinicopathological factors, including prognosis, were compared between pre- and postmenopausal women. Serum levels of estrone, estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone were also measured. Expression levels of PgR, TFF1, RANKL, and GATA3 were significantly higher in premenopausal women than in postmenopausal women. Serum estradiol levels were positively correlated with Ki67 labeling index (LI) in premenopausal women, but not in postmenopausal women. High expression of FOXA1 and GATA3 was significantly associated with improved disease-free survival in premenopausal women, but not in postmenopausal women, whereas high expression of PgR and low expression of p53 were significantly correlated with the improved disease-free survival in postmenopausal women, but not in premenopausal women. Moreover, the best cutoff points of Ki67 LI for disease-free survival were 30 % for premenopausal women and 14 % for postmenopausal women. Expression levels of ER, TFF1, and RANKL were not associated with the disease-free survival in either pre- or postmenopausal women. Our results suggest that the mechanisms of development and estrogen-dependent growth of ER-positive breast cancer might differ according to menopausal status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]