Search

Objective: comparative evaluation of treatment methods for neoadjuvant intra-arterial chemotherapy and chemoembolization by drug-saturated microspheres followed by surgical treatment in II–IVa stages cervical cancer.Materials and methods. This study presents the results of complex treatment in 209 patients (average age – 40.57 ± 8 years) with II– IVa stages cervical cancer and 384 endovascular interventions as the first stage of complex treatment in the period from 2010 to 2016. The scheme neoadjuvant intra-arterial chemotherapy was carboplatin (AUC6 intra-arterial) + irinotecan (200 mg/m2 intravenously on day 1) every 21 days. Radical surgical treatment was performed basically after 2 cycles of chemotherapy. Patients who did not respond sufficiently to neoadjuvant intra-arterial chemotherapy underwent a radical course of chemoradiation therapy according to the standard scheme.Results. The overall response to neoadjuvant intra-arterial chemotherapy was 84.8 % and 79 % of patients in groups of chemoinfusion and trans-arterial chemoembolization, respectively (p >0.05). Operability was higher in group of chemoinfusion (69 % versus 46.4 %) (p Conclusions. Neoadjuvant intra-arterial chemoinfusion and chemoembolization using irinotecan + carboplatin scheme are relatively safe treatment methods with acceptable toxicity and have a high cytotoxic effect. Patients in chemoinfusion group have a better prognosis compared with patients in chemoembolization group. Selective chemoembolization with subsequent surgical treatment or radiation therapy may be the treatment of choice for stage II cervical cancer complicated by bleeding.

An examination of how a doctor should counsel a pregnant woman through the ethical and medical challenges of being diagnosed with stage II cervical cancer. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.

Recently, microRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to be involved in multiple biological pathways that can influence tumor progression and metastasis and they can serve as prognostic biomarkers in many cancers. The present study examined the prognostic significance of miR-215 in cervical cancer. The paraffin-embedded paired cervical scrape samples and tumor tissue samples from 302 patients with stage II cervical cancer were detected for the expression of miR-215 by using qRT-PCR. A miR-215-based classifier was established by using the Cox regression model. The prognostic and predictive accuracy of this classifier was determined in both the internal testing group of 138 patients, and the external independent group of 280 patients. Moreover, cervical cancer HeLa cells overexpressing miR-215 (HeLa-miR-215) were constructed and subcutaneously injected into the nude mice to examine the effect of miR-215 on tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. The results showed that the expression level of miR-215 was significantly higher in cervical cancer tissues than in paired normal tissues (P

Two women, ages 42 and 46, each had a cervical mass that clinically was grossly compatible with invasive carcinoma. Colposcopy supported the clinical impression. Weeks after the women were examined, it was determined that the masses represented syphilitic cervicitis. This entity has received almost no attention in the cytology literature, and is not discussed in major cytopathology texts. Accordingly, the cervicovaginal smears that were obtained in these cases are of interest. The smear pattern, which included lymphocytes, plasma cells, histiocytes, and debris, is described. Although in contrast, the histopathology of syphilitic cervicitis is well-characterized, diagnostic evidence of syphilis was missed in the initial interpretation of several of the biopsies. Syphilis recently has reemerged as a public health problem. Although the cases reported here represent rare events, pathologists should be aware that syphilitic cervicitis may clinically and colposcopically simulate a primary advanced cervical cancer. When interpreting cervical biopsies and cervicovaginal smears, they should be alert to patterns that suggest that syphilis is present.

Twenty-seven patients with operable Stage II cervical cancer with a mean diameter tumor of 8.0 cm were studied in a feasibility study using preoperative 252Cf implants plus whole-pelvis radiation to 45 Gy followed by extrafascial total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy 4 to 6 weeks later. Hysterectomy specimens were studied by a set protocol. With the protocol used, 13/27 (51%) specimens and abdominal stagings were negative for residual tumor. The survival rate for the patients with negative findings was 93% at 5 years. In 14/27 (49%) patients the specimens were positive for residual tumor. In contrast, the 5-year survival rate for this group was 46% (P less than 0.001). In these patients several interrelated factors were determined to be of importance, i.e., (1) tumor size greater than 8 cm in maximum diameter, (2) positive or negative residual tumor status, and (3) total dose of radiation given. Survival was lower for larger tumors and specimens were more likely to show residual tumor. A lower treatment dose led to more positive specimens, as well as to poorer survival. While the patients with Stage II disease fared very well when negative specimens were found, further prospective studies of the appropriate treatment for those with positive tumor specimens are needed.

Objectives Tumor size is a well recognized prognostic factor in early stage cervical carcinoma (CX). However, limited knowledge exists about the value of tumor size in surgically treated CX with extrauterine extension. Methods 245 cases of local advanced CX (FIGO stage IIA and IIB) who received upfront surgery were evaluated regarding tumor size, regarding the prediction of pelvic lymph node involvement and recurrence free and overall survival during a median follow-up time of 54 months (95% CI 45.4–62.6 months). Tumors larger than 4 cm were defined as bulky stage disease. Results Bulky disease was seen in 46.1% (113/245). 60.2% of these patients showed pelvic lymph node involvement, compared to 42.4% (56/132) in non-bulky tumors ( p =0.006; odds ratio: 2.2 [95% CI: 1.3–3.6]). Patients with bulky tumors showed an increase of recurrent disease (40.2% vs. 28.0%; p =0.045). The relative risk for recurrent disease was 1.97 (95% CI: 1.3–3.0). The 5-year overall survival rate was significantly lower (67.7% [95% CI: 58.2–74.8] vs. 49.5% [95% CI: 36.8–59.1]; p =0.0015). In multivariate analysis, tumor stage, pelvic lymph node involvement and maximal tumor size were independent prognostic factors. Conclusions The results suggest that tumor size, defining bulky disease as tumors larger than 4 cm, is of prognostic impact also in FIGO stage II cervical carcinomas. A revised FIGO/TNM classification system similar to the subgrouping of stage IB CX is recommended for stage II using a cut-off value of 4 cm as discriminator: stage IIA1 and stage IIB1 for tumors with ≤4 cm and IIA2 and IIB2 for tumors >4 cm (i.e. bulky disease).

Purpose/objectives To describe patients' and their partners' perceptions of gender roles, gender power relationships, and sexuality before diagnosis of and after treatment for cervical cancer. Design Descriptive. Setting Southern Thailand. Sample 97 women with cervical cancer who received cancer treatment, including radiotherapy, and their partners. Methods Structured interview methods were used to gather information relating to gender roles, gender power relationships, and sexuality. Main research variables Gender roles, gender power relationships, and sexuality. Findings Fifty-two percent of the women (n = 50) were diagnosed with stage II cervical cancer. The percentage of women who undertook various activities specific to gender roles before their diagnoses was higher than the percentage who undertook the same activities after treatment. An increased percentage of partners undertook the women's gender-role-specific activities after the women received cancer treatment compared with the percentage who did so before diagnosis. Little change in gender power relationships was reported. A high percentage of the couples reported changes in various aspects of their sexuality after cancer treatment compared with before diagnosis. Conclusions Gender roles, gender power relationships, and sexuality changed for women with cervical cancer and their partners after the women completed cancer treatment. Implications for nursing Open discussions among women with cervical cancer, their partners, and oncology nurses are necessary to identify culturally sensitive and appropriate solutions.

Background and purpose : Hypoxia, a frequent characteristic of cervical cancer, is associated with reduced sensitivity to irradiation and thus may be a source of radiotherapy failure. This study was planned to test the hypothesis, that inhalation of oxygen during radiotherapy may increase the radiation effect on the tumor and improve loco-regional control and overall survival. Material and methods : From 1963 to 1965, a consecutive series of 208 patients with cervical cancer stage II/III who were to be treated by external irradiation plus radium inserts, were included in this study. They were randomly assigned to either receive oxygen inhalations during the radiotherapy sessions or just breathing air. Due to technical reasons the oxygen group was divided. For the first 10 months, they did receive oxygen during the radium inserts only, the last 13 months during all radiotherapy sessions. Results : After median 33 years follow-up, there are no differences in overall survival, cancer-specific survival or loco-regional control. Subgroup analysis shows significantly improved loco-regional control in the stage IIB patients, with squamous cell carcinoma who received oxygen during all radiotherapy sessions. This improvement was especially pronounced among the patients who also received blood transfusions. Conclusions : There was no influence of normobaric oxygen treatment on the overall outcome to radiotherapy in patients with stage II cervical cancer, but subgroup analyses support the hypothesis that there is tumor areas of hypoxia-based radioresistance that may be counteracted by oxygen administration.

The present study was undertaken to assess the role of tumor associated urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and tumor infiltrating granulocyte-derived elastase as a positive and a negative predictor for lymph node involvement in patients with stage II cervical cancer of the uterus. uPA and uPA binding proteins (uPA receptors) were quantitated enzymologically and/or immunologically in cell membrane preparations obtained from cancer tissues. The cell membrane preparations express pro-uPA/uPA, uPA is bound to a specific type of surface receptors, of which more than 50% are saturated. Most of the receptor-bound uPA is enzymologically inactive pro-uPA. We have investigated the localization of pro-uPA/uPA and granulocyte elastase immunohistochemically and semiquantitated in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue sections in 13 patients with pelvic lymph node involvement and in 16 cases without lymph node involvement. Strong uPA staining was found in areas with invasive growth and degradation of surrounding normal tissue. A significant higher lymph node positive rate was observed in patients who had tumors with strong uPA staining than in those with weak staining (p

The efficacy of immunotherapy using a Streptococcal preparation, OK-432, was evaluated in each clinical stage of uterine cervical cancer. The 382 eligible patients were stratified by clinical stage and presence/absence of surgery. Within each stratum, patient's were randomly allocated to OK-432 treatment or to control treatment. OK-432 significantly inhibited recurrence in patients with stage II cervical cancer; the recurrence-free interval and survival time were remarkably prolonged in patients with stage II disease who underwent surgery. However, OK-432 did not significantly prolong these parameters in patients with stage III disease. Retrospective analyses revealed that in patients with or without lymph node metastases who underwent surgery, the recurrence-free interval and survival time were significantly prolonged by OK-432 treatment. These results indicate that OK-432 is an effective and useful postoperative immunotherapeutic agent for uterine cervical cancer.