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Introduction: Cytoreductive surgery of locally advanced ovarian cancer has evolved in the last few years from surgery to remove macroscopic residual disease (< 1 cm; R2b) to macroscopic complete cytoreductive surgery with no gross residual disease (R1). The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the adoption of a maximalist surgical approach on postoperative complications, disease recurrence and survival. Materials and methods: This was a retrospective study using prospectively collected data on patients who received either conservative approach (CA) or radical approach (RA) surgical treatment for primary ovarian cancer stage IIIc/IVa/IVb between June 2006 and June 2013. Results: Data for 114 patients were included, 33 patients in the CA group and 68 patients in the RA group were consequently analysed. In the RA group, operative time was longer, in relation to more complex surgical procedures; with more blood losses and a higher rate of compete macroscopic resection. Totally, 77% of the patients had postoperative complications, with more grade I/II complications in the RA group but the same rates of grade III/IV complications in the both groups (P = 0.14). For all patient study population, the overall and disease-free survivals were improved in case of no macroscopic residual disease. Overall survival was improved in the RA group (P = 0.05), with no difference in terms of disease-free survival (P = 0.29) Conclusion: A radical approach in advanced ovarian cancer allows a higher rate of complete cytoreductive surgery impacting overall survival. However, a non-significant trend for increased mild complications (grade I/II) rate is observed in this group., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Background The size and focality of the primary tumor in breast cancer (BC) influence therapeutic decision making. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether preoperative breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is helpful for the assessment of tumor size and surgical planning in early BC. Methods We performed a retrospective review of a prospectively collected database of 174 patients treated at a single institution for invasive BC who had complete documentation of the tumor size from mammography (MMG), ultrasonography (US), and MRI. Results A total of 186 breast tumors were analyzed. Mean tumor size varied by imaging method: 14.7 mm by MMG, 13.8 mm by US, and 17.9 mm by MRI. The concordance between breast imaging techniques (BIT) and final pathology with a cutoff ≤ 2 mm was 34.8% for MRI, 32.1% for US, and 27.2% for MMG. US and MMG underestimated while MRI and MMG overestimated the real tumor size. Concordance was the same in premenopausal women for MRI and US at 35%, while concordance was higher in postmenopausal women for MRI. Correlations between size determined by BIT and histopathological size were best with MRI (0.59), compared to US (0.56) or MMG (0.42). Intrinsic subtypes of BC had different concordances according to imaging method, but no significant associations were found. MRI examination revealed additional lesions in 13.8% of patients, 69% of these lesions were malignant. MRI changed the surgical plan in 15 patients (8.6%), and the rate of mastectomy increased by 6.9%. Conclusions MRI estimates BC tumor size more accurately than US or MMG, but a significant overestimation exists. Complementary MRI examination improved the concordance for tumor size between BIT and final pathology in 16.7%. MRI did not alter surgical planning for most patients and allowed more appropriate treatment for 8% of them.

Background and objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence imaging (FI) for the ex vivo detection of metastatic lymph nodes (LNs) in advanced stage ovarian cancer (AOC). Methods: Paraffin-embedded LNs from patients included in a previous ICG-FI study (Protocol NCT01834469) were further assessed for fluorescence. Intravenous injection of ICG was delivered intraoperatively. Tumor-to-background ratios (TBRs) were calculated. Results: A total of 675 LNs from 19 patients were analyzed. The mean LN number per patient was 29.3 (median: 24; range 2-77). Seventy-three LNs were malignant (10.8%), 602 were benign (89.2%). The mean TBR of all LNs was 1.5 (SD 0.8). With a cut-off TBR of 1.3, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive, and negative predictive values of ICG-FI for retroperitoneal LNs were 80%, 41%, 2.8%, and 99%, respectively. On univariate analysis, only the fluorescence ratio (TBR ≥ 1.3) was correlated with malignancy at pathology (P = 0.03). No predictive factors of pathological LN status were found on multivariate analysis. Conclusions: Ex vivo ICG-FI of retroperitoneal LNs in AOC had good sensitivity but poor specificity. However, its high negative predictive value could make it an appropriate complementary tool to focus pathological analysis on fluorescent LNs., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Background Response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT), particularly pathologic complete response (pCR), is an independent predictor of favorable clinical outcome in breast cancer (BC). The accuracy of residual disease measurement and reporting is of critical importance in treatment planning and prognosis for these patients. Currently, gross pathological evaluation of the residual tumor bed is the greatest determinant for accurate reporting of NACT response. Fluorescence imaging (FI) is a new technology that is being evaluated for use in the detection of tumors in different oncological conditions. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate whether indocyanine green fluorescence imaging (ICG-FI) is able to detect residual breast tumor tissue after NACT in breast surgical operative specimens. Methods Patients who underwent NACT for BC and were admitted for breast surgery were selected for participation in this study. Free ICG (0.25 mg/kg) was injected intraoperatively. Tumor-to-background fluorescence ratio (TBFR) was calculated on ex vivo samples from the surgical specimen. Results One hundred and seventy-two samples from nine breast surgical specimens were evaluated for their fluorescence intensity. Among them, 52 were malignant (30.2%) and 120 were.Benign (69.8%). The mean TBFR was 3.3 (SD 1.68) in malignant samples and 1.9 (SD 0.97) in benign samples (p = 0.0002). With a TBFR cut-off value of 1.3, the sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, false negative rate, and false positive rate of ICG-FI to predict residual tumoral disease in breast surgical samples post-NACT were 94.2%, 31.7%, 92.7%, 5.8%, and 68.3%, respectively. If we restricted our analysis to only patients who achieved pCR, the negative predictive value for ICG-FI was 100%. Conclusions These first observations indicate that ex vivo ICG-FI is sensitive but not sufficiently specific to discriminate between benign breast tissue and malignant residual tissue. Nevertheless, its negative predictive value seems sufficiently accurate to exclude the presence of residual breast tumor tissue on the operative specimen of patients treated by NACT, representing a potential tool to assist pathologists in the assessment of breast surgical specimens., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published