Kunter Yuce

Prognostic factors in adult granulosa cell tumors of the ovary: a retrospective analysis of 80 cases

OBJECTIVE Ovarian granulosa cell tumors are rare malignancies with a relatively favorable prognosis. However, patients still suffer from disease-related mortality. Therefore, the prognostic factors should be clarified. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical and pathologic characteristics related with disease recurrence and mortality in adult type ovarian granulosa cell tumors. METHODS Eighty surgically staged patients with granulosa cell ovarian tumor treated at the Hacettepe University Hospital between 1982 and 2006 were retrospectively reviewed. Clinical and pathological characteristics were analyzed. RESULTS Granulosa cell ovarian tumors accounted for 4.3% of malignant ovarian neoplasms. Mean age was 47.6 years. The most common presenting symptom was abnormal uterine bleeding (53.7%). Endometrial pathology was detected in 51.2% of patients preoperatively. Seventy percent of patients were diagnosed at stage I, and 53.8% of patients received adjuvant treatment. Mean follow-up was 67.5 months. Overall 5-year and 10-year survival was 91% and 86%, respectively. Mean survival was 147.1 months. Recurrence rate was 11.2%. In univariate analysis, advanced stage, advanced age, residual disease after surgery, and need for adjuvant treatment were associated with disease-related mortality and advanced stage disease and absence of initial staging surgery were associated with disease recurrence. However, in multivariate analysis, only initial stage was found to be a significant prognostic factor. CONCLUSION Initial stage seems to be the single most important prognostic factor in ovarian granulosa cell tumors. Therefore, a comprehensive staging surgery should be attempted to document the real extent of disease and to estimate the oncologic outcome more accurately.

Overexpression of the c-Met/HGF receptor and its prognostic significance in uterine cervix carcinomas

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to evaluate the significance of the c-Met/hepatocyte growth factor receptor expression in invasive cervical carcinoma. METHODS Ninety-Four patients with FIGO stage 1B disease, treated primarily with surgery, were studied immunohistochemically. Of the cases, 67 were squamous carcinoma and 27 were nonsquamous (10 were adenocarcinoma, 15 were adenosquamous carcinoma, and 2 were indifferentiated carcinoma). Immunohistochemically stained c-Met slides of primary malignancies were evaluated blindly of clinical outcome and other histopathological factors. RESULTS Overexpression of c-Met was found in 56 of 94 specimens. Primary tumors which show recurrences were found to be c-Met overexpressors. Univariate survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier) showed that c-Met overexpression is significantly correlated with disease-free survival. Moreover the diameter of the primary tumor, deep cervical stromal invasion, presence of metastatic lymph node, number of metastatic lymph nodes and c-Met overexpression were significantly correlated with overall 5-year survival. Furthermore multivariant analysis with Cox regression showed that the presence of metastatic lymph node and immunopositivity for c-Met are significantly correlated with overall survival, while c-Met overexpression was found to be an independent variable for disease-free survival. CONCLUSION These results reveal that c-Met oncogene overexpression is an important parameter for disease progression, recurrence, and survival in early-stage invasive uterine cervix carcinomas.

Correlation between clinical and histopathologic risk factors and lymph node metastases in early endometrial cancer (a multivariate analysis of 183 cases).

This study includes 183 patients with clinical stage I endometrial cancer subjected to peritoneal cytology, total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, bilateral pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy and omental biopsy during a 12-year period in a single institution. The factors analyzed were age, menopausal state, cell type, grade, mitotic activity, myometrial invasion, lymphovascular space invasion, cervical involvement, microscopic vaginal metastases, adnexal metastases, peritoneal cytology, presence of concomitant endometrial hyperplasia and lymph node status. The overall incidences of pelvic and para-aortic lymph node metastases were found to be 15.3% (28/183) and 9.3% (17/183), respectively. In five of 17 patients (29.4%) with para-aortic nodal metastases, pelvic nodes were free of tumor. The most significant prognostic factors for positive pelvic and/or para-aortic nodes were found to be the depth of myometrial invasion, grade of tumor and age.

Ascites and epithelial ovarian cancers: a reappraisal with respect to different aspects

Ascites is a common finding in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Clinico-pathologic correlations with respect to the presence of ascites, positive cytology and prognostic role of ascites, and the impact of ascitic volumes were not previously studied extensively. A total of 372 patients with EOC were retrospectively evaluated with respect to presence and amount of ascites, cytologic findings, and survival. Two groups were compared by using Chi-square, Students t and Mann-Whitney U, binary logistic regression, Kaplan Meier and Cox-regression analysis tests, where appropriate. Omental metastasis (P < 0.001; OR: 3.21, 95% CI = 1.945–5.297) and mean number of metastatic lymph nodes (P= 0.008; OR: 1.063, 95% CI = 1.016–1.112) were significantly related with presence of ascites. Evaluation of ascitic volume at different thresholds revealed lymphatic-omental metastasis, and also the disease stage to be significantly different among patient groups at lower threshold values and the positive cytology and high-grade diseases at higher threshold values. In conclusion, presence of ascites correlates with both the intraperitoneal and also the retroperitoneal tumor spread. Amount of ascites has different correlations with the clinico-pathologic factors depending on the thresholds chosen. At lower volumes, lymphatic and omental metastasis seems to correlate with the development of ascites. Once ascites develops, tumor grade seems to be important for larger ascites volumes. Neither the presence of ascites or its volume nor the cytologic positivity was an independent predictor of survival.

Vaginal high dose rate brachytherapy alone in patients with intermediate- to high-risk stage I endometrial carcinoma after radical surgery.

The objective of this study was to analyze the efficacy and morbidity of vaginal cuff brachytherapy alone in intermediate- to high-risk stage I endometrial cancer patients after complete surgical staging. Between October 1994 and November 2005, 128 patients with intermediate- to high-risk stage I endometrial adenocarcinoma were treated with high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy alone after complete surgical staging. The intermediate- to high-risk group was defined as any stage I with grade 3 histology or stage IB grade 2 or any stage IC disease. The comprehensive surgery was in the form of total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy in addition to infracolic omentectomy, and routine pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy. The median number of the lymph nodes dissected was 33. The median age at the time of diagnosis was 60 years. Forty patients were staged as IB (grade 2: 25 and grade 3: 15), and 88 patients were staged as IC (grade 1: 31, grade 2: 41, and grade 3: 16). A total dose of 27.5 Gy with HDR brachytherapy, prescribed at 0.5 cm, was delivered in five fractions in 5 consecutive days. Median follow-up was 48 months. Six (4.7%) patients developed either local recurrence (n= 2) or distant metastases (n= 4). Five-year overall survival and disease-free survival (DFS) rates are 96% and 93%, respectively. Only age was found to be significant prognostic factor for DFS. Patients younger than 60 years have significantly higher DFS (P= 0.006). None of the patients experienced grade 3/4 complications due to the vaginal HDR brachytherapy. Vaginal cuff brachytherapy alone is an adequate treatment modality in stage I endometrial adenocarcinoma patients with intermediate- to high-risk features after complete surgical staging with low complication rates.

Comparison of WHO and endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia classifications in predicting the presence of coexistent malignancy in endometrial hyperplasia

OBJECTIVE The most commonly used classification system for endometrial hyperplasia is the World Health Organization system which is based on subjective criteria. Another classification system is endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia (EIN) system which uses diagnostic criteria including cytological demarcation, crowded gland architecture, minimum size of 1 mm, and careful exclusion of mimics, and aims to identify a precancer or cancer. The objective of this study was to compare the two classification systems in terms of predicting the presence of a coexistent cancer in surgically treated patients. METHODS Biopsy and hysterectomy specimens of 49 women who were subjected to surgery with a preoperative diagnosis of endometrial hyperplasia (EH) according to the WHO system were re-evaluated retrospectively by using EIN system. RESULTS Among the 49 patients, 69.4% had complex atypical EH and 75.5% had EIN at biopsy specimens. EIN was detected in 94.1% of complex atypical EH, and 41.7% of non-atypical EH. Nine women (18.4%) had endometrial cancer. Among women with cancer, all had complex atypical EH or EIN. The rate of coexistent endometrial cancer was 26.5% in women with complex atypical EH and 24.3% in women with EIN. CONCLUSION Diagnoses of atypical or complex atypical EH and EIN had similar sensitivities and negative predictive values in predicting the coexistent endometrial cancer. Either of these two classification systems may be used safely when an experienced pathologist is available. However, use of the objective EIN system may be preferred whenever possible to prevent diagnostic errors in centers where an experienced pathologist is not available.

Routine appendectomy in epithelial ovarian carcinoma : Is it necessary?

OBJECTIVE: To detect risk factors for the appendiceal metastasis and to define the role of routine appendectomy in patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma. METHODS: A total of 285 patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma who had undergone primary cytoreductive surgery including appendectomy were retrospectively evaluated. Appendiceal involvement was divided into 2 groups: gross and microscopic. Clinicopathologic variables were evaluated for possible significance in terms of appendiceal metastasis. A second analysis was performed using the same variables to detect a possible relation with microscopic metastasis. In a subgroup analysis, we also analyzed the role of routine appendectomy in patients with clinically early stage disease. RESULTS: One-hundred six patients were found to have appendiceal metastasis (37%). Univariate and multivariate analysis revealed stage of disease as the unique factor determining the appendiceal metastasis (P < .001). Five patients with apparently stage I-II disease were upstaged due to isolated appendiceal metastasis (4.9%). In the second analysis excluding the patients with gross involvement, ascites was an independent predictor of microscopic involvement (P < .01). CONCLUSION: Routine appendectomy is indicated in all epithelial ovarian carcinoma patients as part of the initial surgical staging procedure because of a considerable rate of upstaging in early stage disease and optimal cytoreduction in advanced stages. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II-3

Tumor status of lymph nodes in early endometrial cancer in relation to lymph node size

A retrospective analysis of 36 patients with metastatic nodes out of 209 consecutively managed patients with a clinically stage I endometrial cancer was carried out. Of the 1023 lymph nodes removed, 154 nodes were found to be metastatic. The mean number of the involved nodes was 4.27 (range: 1-29). Of the 154 positive nodes, 3 had nodal diameters < or = 3 mm (1.9%), 84 had diameters of 4-10 mm (54.6%), 60 had diameters of 11-20 mm (39.0%) and 7 had diameters more than 20 mm (4.5%). With increasing lymph node size, the frequency of tumoral involvement varies from 1.0% in nodes < or = 3 mm to 63.6% in nodes bigger than 20 mm. In terms of patients, nine of them were found to have a single metastatic node ranging from 6 mm to 10 mm in diameter. In the remaining 27 patients with multiple metastatic nodes, the biggest nodes encountered were 6-10 mm in 4 (14.8%), 11-20 mm in 17 (62.9%) and more than 20 mm in 6 (22.2%) patients. Since mere sampling of the lymphatic tissue directed particularly to the enlarged nodes may not show the true incidence of positive nodes, a complete lymphadenectomy is advocated in order to obviate an understaging problem.

Posthysterectomy intestinal prolapse after coitus and vaginal repair

IntroductionTransvaginal bowel evisceration following either vaginal or abdominal gynecologic operations is a very rare complication. Furthermore, vaginal cuff rupture with the prolapse of the small bowel through the vagina during sexual intercourse after abdominal hysterectomy in a premenopausal woman is even more rare. However, regardless of the etiology, transvaginal evisceration requires prompt recognition and surgical intervention.Case report Here, we report a premenopausal woman who developed transvaginal bowel evisceration during the first postoperative intercourse.

The prognostic value of nuclear grading and the revised FIGO grading of endometrial adenocarcinoma.

The purpose of this study was to determine a convenient method for the modification of architectural grade by nuclear features and to evaluate the prognostic significance of the new International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) grading system by studying 288 patients with endometrioid endometrial carcinoma. All patients were subjected to initial surgical exploration and staging by 1988 FIGO guidelines. Three different grading systems were evaluated for their prognostic value: architectural, nuclear, and FIGO combined systems. All three grading systems significantly predicted poor survival, but only the FIGO grade (p < 0.001), stage (p < 0.001), and cervical involvement (p = 0.04) remained significant in multivariate analysis. In the architectural grade 2 group, the 5-year survival rate for 39 patients with grade 1 or 2 nuclei was 87%, compared with 66% for 35 patients with grade 3 nuclei (p = 0.03). In the architectural grade 1 group, the 5-year survival rate for 84 patients with grade 2 nuclei was 93% without significant difference from the original group (96%). FIGO grade 3 tumor predicted 70% of deaths (29/41), whereas architectural grade 3 tumor detected 41% (17/41) of deaths (p = 0.001). In conclusion, in determining the FIGO grade, upgrading of architectural grade 1 or 2 tumors by grade 3 nuclei was the most reliable method. The new FIGO grading system was prognostically superior to the previously used architectural grading system.