Alberto Lopes

Phase III trial of intraperitoneal therapy with yttrium-90-labeled HMFG1 murine monoclonal antibody in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer after a surgically defined complete remission.

PURPOSE This was a multinational, open-label, randomized phase III trial comparing yttrium-90-labeled murine HMFG1 (90Y-muHMFG1) plus standard treatment versus standard treatment alone in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) who had attained a complete clinical remission after cytoreductive surgery and platinum-based chemotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS In total, 844 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage Ic to IV patients were initially screened, of whom 447 patients with a negative second-look laparoscopy (SLL) were randomly assigned to receive either a single dose of 90Y-muHMFG1 plus standard treatment (224 patients) or standard treatment alone (223 patients). Patients in the active treatment arm received a single intraperitoneal dose of 25 mg of 90Y-muHMFG1 (target dose 666 MBq/m2). The primary end point was length of survival; secondary end points included time to relapse and safety. The study had an 80% power to detect a 15% change in survival. RESULTS After a median follow-up of 3.5 years (range, 1 to 6 years), 70 patients had died in the active treatment arm compared with 61 patients in the control arm. Cox proportional hazards analysis of survival demonstrated no difference between treatment arms. In the study drug arm, 104 patients experienced relapse compared with 98 patients in the standard treatment arm. No difference in time to relapse was observed between the two study arms. Active therapy was associated with occasional grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia and neutropenia and grade 1 or 2 GI symptoms, abdominal discomfort, arthralgia, and myalgia. CONCLUSION A single IP administration of 90Y-muHMFG1 to patients with EOC who had a negative SLL after primary therapy did not extend survival or time to relapse.

Association between high-risk HPV types, HLA DRB1* and DQB1* alleles and cervical cancer in British women

Cervical scrapes from 116 British women referred with cervical cancer were tested for the presence of high oncogenic risk human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes (HPVhr). Ninety-four per cent of the scrapes had one or more of these virus types and 66% were HPV16-positive. HPV18 was more frequent in adenocarcinoma. No evidence was found for an increased cancer risk associated with the HPV16 E6 350G variant. The HLA DRB1* and DQB1* alleles in these women and in 155 women with normal cytology and negative for HPVhrDNA were compared. DQB1*0301 alone (2P = 0.02) and in combination with DRB1*0401 (2P = 0.02) was found to be associated with cervical cancer. This was more marked in cancers positive for HPV types other than HPV16. In contrast, DRB1*1501 alone and in combination with DQB1*0602 was not significantly elevated in cancers overall, but did show some excess in HPV16-positive cancers (2P = 0.05), associated with HPV16-positive cervical cancers. Taking all cancers together, a marginally significant protective effect was found for DQB1*0501 (2P = 0.03) but no protective effect could be seen for DRB1*1301.

Prognostic significance of lymph node variables in squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva.

Background. In patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva, lymph nodal, surgicopathologic variables have been studied rarely, although lymph node status is by far the most important prognostic factor. This study was designed to investigate surgicopathologic variables of lymph node metastases to evaluate their prognostic significance.

Sensitivity of transvaginal ultrasound screening for endometrial cancer in postmenopausal women: a case-control study within the UKCTOCS cohort

BACKGROUND The increase in the worldwide incidence of endometrial cancer relates to rising obesity, falling fertility, and the ageing of the population. Transvaginal ultrasound (TVS) is a possible screening test, but there have been no large-scale studies. We report the performance of TVS screening in a large cohort. METHODS We did a nested case-control study of postmenopausal women who underwent TVS in the United Kingdom Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) following recruitment between April 17, 2001, and Sept 29, 2005. Endometrial thickness and endometrial abnormalities were recorded, and follow-up, through national registries and a postal questionnaire, documented the diagnosis of endometrial cancer. Our primary outcome measure was endometrial cancer and atypical endometrial hyperplasia (AEH). Performance characteristics of endometrial thickness and abnormalities for detection of endometrial cancer within 1 year of TVS were calculated. Epidemiological variables were used to develop a logistic regression model and assess a screening strategy for women at higher risk. Our study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00058032, and with the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial register, number ISRCTN22488978. FINDINGS 48,230 women underwent TVS in the UKCTOCS prevalence screen. 9078 women were ineligible because they had undergone a hysterectomy and 2271 because their endometrial thickness had not been recorded; however, 157 of these women had an endometrial abnormality on TVS and were included in the analysis. Median follow-up was 5·11 years (IQR 4·05-5·95). 136 women with endometrial cancer or AEH within 1 year of TVS were included in our primary analysis. The optimum endometrial thickness cutoff for endometrial cancer or AEH was 5·15 mm, with sensitivity of 80·5% (95% CI 72·7-86·8) and specificity of 86·2% (85·8-86·6). Sensitivity and specificity at a 5 mm or greater cutoff were 80·5% (72·7-86·8) and 85·7% (85·4-86·2); for women with a 5 mm or greater cutoff plus endometrial abnormalities, the sensitivity and specificity were 85·3% (78·2-90·8) and 80·4% (80·0-80·8), respectively. For a cutoff of 10 mm or greater, sensitivity and specificity were 54·1% (45·3-62·8) and 97·2% (97·0-97·4). When our analysis was restricted to the 96 women with endometrial cancer or AEH who reported no symptoms of postmenopausal bleeding at the UKCTOCS scan before diagnosis and had an endometrial thickness measurement available, a cutoff of 5 mm achieved a sensitivity of 77·1% (67·8-84·3) and specificity of 85·8% (85·7-85·9). The logistic regression model identified 25% of the population as at high risk and 39·5% of endometrial cancer or AEH cases were identified within this high risk group. In this high-risk population, a cutoff at 6·75 mm achieved sensitivity of 84·3% (71·4-93·0) and specificity of 89·9% (89·3-90·5). INTERPRETATION Our findings show that TVS screening for endometrial cancer has good sensitivity in postmenopausal women. The burden of diagnostic procedures and false-positive results can be reduced by limiting screening to a higher-risk group. The role of population screening for endometrial cancer remains uncertain, but our findings are of immediate value in the management of increased endometrial thickness in postmenopausal women undergoing pelvic scans for reasons other than vaginal bleeding.

Risk Algorithm Using Serial Biomarker Measurements Doubles the Number of Screen-Detected Cancers Compared With a Single-Threshold Rule in the United Kingdom Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening

Purpose Cancer screening strategies have commonly adopted single-biomarker thresholds to identify abnormality. We investigated the impact of serial biomarker change interpreted through a risk algorithm on cancer detection rates. Patients and Methods In the United Kingdom Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening, 46,237 women, age 50 years or older underwent incidence screening by using the multimodal strategy (MMS) in which annual serum cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) was interpreted with the risk of ovarian cancer algorithm (ROCA). Women were triaged by the ROCA: normal risk, returned to annual screening; intermediate risk, repeat CA-125; and elevated risk, repeat CA-125 and transvaginal ultrasound. Women with persistently increased risk were clinically evaluated. All participants were followed through national cancer and/or death registries. Performance characteristics of a single-threshold rule and the ROCA were compared by using receiver operating characteristic curves. Results After 296,911 women-years of annual incidence screening, 640 women underwent surgery. Of those, 133 had primary invasive epithelial ovarian or tubal cancers (iEOCs). In all, 22 interval iEOCs occurred within 1 year of screening, of which one was detected by ROCA but was managed conservatively after clinical assessment. The sensitivity and specificity of MMS for detection of iEOCs were 85.8% (95% CI, 79.3% to 90.9%) and 99.8% (95% CI, 99.8% to 99.8%), respectively, with 4.8 surgeries per iEOC. ROCA alone detected 87.1% (135 of 155) of the iEOCs. Using fixed CA-125 cutoffs at the last annual screen of more than 35, more than 30, and more than 22 U/mL would have identified 41.3% (64 of 155), 48.4% (75 of 155), and 66.5% (103 of 155), respectively. The area under the curve for ROCA (0.915) was significantly (P = .0027) higher than that for a single-threshold rule (0.869). Conclusion Screening by using ROCA doubled the number of screen-detected iEOCs compared with a fixed cutoff. In the context of cancer screening, reliance on predefined single-threshold rules may result in biomarkers of value being discarded.

Recurrent Stage IB cervical carcinoma: evaluation of the effectiveness of routine follow up surveillance

Objective To study the effectiveness of follow up surveillance in detecting recurrent disease following radical hysterectomy for Stage IB cervical carcinoma.

Decreased intraperitoneal disease recurrence in epithelial ovarian cancer patients receiving intraperitoneal consolidation treatment with yttrium-90-labeled murine HMFG1 without improvement in overall survival.

This study analyzes the site of disease recurrence in ovarian cancer patients to assess the influence of a single intraperitoneal (IP) administration of yttrium‐90‐labeled murine monoclonal antibody HMFG1 (90Y‐muHMFG1) on the pattern of disease recurrence. In a large phase III trial ovarian cancer patients in complete clinical remission with FIGO stage Ic‐IV were randomized between standard treatment plus a single IP 90Y‐labeled muHMFG1 versus standard treatment alone after negative second‐look laparoscopy. Case report forms of all patients with disease recurrence were reviewed to determine site and date of recurrent disease. In total 447 patients were included in the study with a median follow‐up of 3.5 years. Relapse was seen in 104/224 in the active and 98/223 in the control arm. Significantly fewer IP (p < 0.05) and more extraperitoneal (p < 0.05) relapses occurred in the active treatment arm. Time to IP recurrence was significantly longer (p = 0.0019) and time to extraperitoneal recurrence was significantly shorter for the active treatment arm (p < 0.001). The impact of IP radioimmunotherapy on IP relapse‐free survival could only be seen in the subgroup of patients with residual disease after primary surgery (HR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.18 to 0.53; p = 0.002). Although, there is no survival benefit for IP radioimmunotherapy as consolidation treatment for epithelial ovarian cancer, we found an improved control of IP disease, that was offset by increased extraperitoneal recurrences.

Laparoscopic assisted radical vaginal hysterectomy versus radical abdominal hysterectomy—a randomised phase II trial: perioperative outcomes and surgicopathological measurements

Please cite this paper as: Naik R, Jackson K, Lopes A, Cross P, Henry J. Laparoscopic assisted radical vaginal hysterectomy versus radical abdominal hysterectomy—a randomised phase II trial: perioperative outcomes and surgicopathological measurements. BJOG 2010; DOI: 10.1111/j.1471‐0528.2010.02479.x.

Role of centralization of surgery in stage IB carcinoma of the cervix: A review of 498 cases

A review was undertaken of 498 patients with stage IB carcinoma of the cervix managed over a 15-year period in the Regional Gynaecological Oncology Centre, Gateshead. All but 4 were treated by radical hysterectomy, with adjuvant radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy for those with involved pelvic nodes. The overall 5-year survival in those with negative nodes was 91.4% compared with 50.5% in those with positive nodes (P less than 0.05). Of those dying from the disease, 7 patients only (1.4%) developed central recurrence, the remainder experiencing pelvic side-wall or distant recurrence. There was no difference in survival related to patient age. There were three deaths related to surgery and a fistula rate of only 1.2%. Bladder hypotonia and lymphocyst affected a minority of patients in the long term. The data support the case for radical surgery in stage IB carcinoma of the cervix, managed on a centralized referral basis.

Thrombocytosis as a prognostic factor in women with cervical cancer

Background. Thrombocytosis (a platelet count >400 × 109/I) is found frequently in association with malignant disease and recently has been suggested to be a poor prognostic indicator in patients with cervical cancer. The authors decided to see if these findings could be verified.