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© 2018 Prof. PK Surendran Memorial Education Foundation Case: We describe a case of extensive symptomatic bilateral lipoma arborescens of the knee in a 19-year-old man who suffered from recurrent knee effusions for many years. This patient had MRI evidence of progression of disease prior to arthroscopic intervention. He was treated with bilateral complete arthroscopic synovectomies, demonstrating no evidence of cartilage wear. Conclusion: Lipoma arborescens is a progressive disease. Timely diagnosis and treatment may prevent disease evolution and sequela.

Copyright © 2017 by the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Incorporated. Sports hernia is a non-anatomic, non-diagnostic term that has been attributed to many different causes of groin pain.» Sports hernia is better described as pain localized anatomically to the inguinal region of an athlete without an actual hernia.» Nonoperative management including core stability while avoiding extreme hip range of motion should be attempted for at least 2 months prior to any operative intervention.» Associated pathology such as femoroacetabular impingement or adductor tear should be addressed.» If a sports hernia is not responsive to rehabilitation, referral to a general surgeon is appropriate.

Background Juxtafacet cysts (JFCs) are a cause of back and radicular pain that can be treated conservatively and operatively. Such strategies include lumbosacral brace, epidural injection, open surgery, and minimally invasive surgery; although surgical treatment is usually reserved for unsuccessful conservative treatment. The role of minimally invasive surgery in athletic youth with JFCs has yet to be determined. Patients/Material and Methods The patient is a 16-year-old basketball player with a JFC. We performed endoscope-assisted cystectomy. Results Endoscope-assisted JFC excision immediately and completely resolved the patient's lower back and leg pain with no recurrence of symptoms 4 years after surgery. Conclusion We suggest that JFCs of the lumbar spine be a part of the differential diagnosis in young patients with back and radicular pain. Furthermore, we recommend that endoscope-assisted surgery be employed in the treatment of JFCs in young athletes.

Synovial sarcomas (SS) are soft tissue sarcomas with poor prognosis, displaying a lack of response to conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy. Although SS cell lines have moderate chemosensitivity to isofamide and doxorubicin therapy, the clinical prognosis is still poor. In this article, we showed that flavokawain B (FKB), a novel chalcone from kava extract, potently inhibits the growth of SS cell lines SYO-I and HS-SY-II through induction of apoptosis. Treatment with FKB increased caspase 8, 9, and 3/7 activity compared to vehicle-treated controls, indicating that both extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathways were activated. Furthermore, FKB treatment of both cell lines resulted in increased mRNA and protein expression of death receptor-5 and the mitochondrial pro-apoptotic proteins Bim and Puma, while down-regulating the expression of an inhibitor of apoptosis, survivin in a dose-dependent manner. Our results suggest the natural compound FKB has a pro-apoptotic effect on SS cell lines. FKB may be a new chemotherapeutic strategy for patients with SS and deserves further investigation as a potential agent in the treatment of this malignancy.

To extend earlier observations of germline E-cadherin mutations in kindreds with an inherited susceptibility to diffuse gastric cancer, we searched for germline E-cadherin mutations in five further families affected predominantly by diffuse gastric cancer and one family with a history of diffuse gastric cancer and early-onset breast cancer. Heterozygous inactivating mutations were found in the E-cadherin gene in each of these families. No mutation hotspots were identified. These results demonstrate that germline mutation of the E-cadherin gene is a common cause of hereditary diffuse gastric cancer and suggest a role for these mutations in the incidence of breast cancer. Hum Mutat 14:249–255, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The identification of genes predisposing to familial cancer is an essential step towards understanding the molecular events underlying tumorigenesis and is critical for the clinical management of affected families. Despite a declining incidence, gastric cancer remains a major cause of cancer death worldwide, and about 10% of cases show familial clustering. The relative contributions of inherited susceptibility and environmental effects to familial gastric cancer are poorly understood because little is known of the genetic events that predispose to gastric cancer. Here we describe the identification of the gene responsible for early-onset, histologically poorly differentiated, high grade, diffuse gastric cancer in a large kindred from New Zealand (Aotearoa). Genetic linkage analysis demonstrated significant linkage to markers flanking the gene for the calcium-dependent cell-adhesion protein E-cadherin. Sequencing of the E-cadherin gene revealed a G --> T nucleotide substitution in the donor splice consensus sequence of exon 7, leading to a truncated gene product. Diminished E-cadherin expression is associated with aggressive, poorly differentiated carcinomas. Underexpression of E-cadherin is a prognostic marker of poor clinical outcome in many tumour types, and restored expression of E-cadherin in tumour models can suppress the invasiveness of epithelial tumour cells. The role of E-cadherin in gastric cancer susceptibility was confirmed by identifying inactivating mutations in other gastric cancer families. In one family, a frameshift mutation was identified in exon 15, and in a second family a premature stop codon interrupted exon 13. These results describe, to our knowledge for the first time, a molecular basis for familial gastric cancer, and confirm the important role of E-cadherin mutations in cancer.

Synovial sarcoma (SS) is a soft tissue sarcoma with poor prognosis and lack of response to conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy. The regulatory mechanisms for the rapid proliferation of synovial sarcoma poorly understood. Surgical resection with/without adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy are the mainstay of treatment. Although the sarcoma cell lines have moderate chemosensitivity to isofamide and doxorubicin therapy, the overall prognosis is still poor. Therefore, further development of the treatment for SS is required. Kava is an ancient crop of the western Pacific. The root extract of kava has been served as a traditional beverage for Pacific Islanders. Consumption of this traditional beverage has been thought to be correlated with low and uncustomary sex ratios of cancer incidence in 3 kava-drinking countrites: Fiji, Vanuatu and Western Samoa. We have already reported that a kind of fravokawains from kava extracts (FKA: flavokawein A) induced apoptosis against bladder cancer cells, and flavokawein B (FKB) was also significant effective in inhibiting the growth of prostate cancer cells. In this study, we examined the inhibitory proliferation effects of the FKB in synovial sarcoma growth and whether FKB modulates tumor apoptosis cascades in human synovial sarcoma cell lines. We treated 2 cell lines of synovial sarcoma (SYO-I, HS-SY-II) by different concentrations of FKB (0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5 μg/μl) for 24 hours. From the results of real time PCR, depending on the concentrations of FKB in both cell lines, the expression of Survivin was found to be decreased, while those of DR5, Puma, and Bim were increased. These results indicated that FKB effectively induces apoptosis of the two cell lines depending on the concentration. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that FKB is effective for growth inhibition of synovial sarcoma cell lines in vitro and suggest that FKB may be a new therapeutic option for patients with synovial sarcoma. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4241. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-4241