Mongkol Benjapibal

Meigs' Syndrome with Elevated Serum CA125: Case Report and Review of the Literature

An elevated serum CA125 level in association with a pelvic mass, pleural effusion, and massive ascites usually signifies a dismal prognosis in a postmenopausal woman. However, surgery and histopathological examination are required for the correct diagnosis and treatment, since an elevated CA125 level can be falsely positive for ovarian malignancy. We present a case of Meigs’ syndrome due to right ovarian fibroma with elevated CA125 level in a postmenopausal woman.

Preoperative Thrombocytosis and Poor Prognostic Factors in Endometrial Cancer

This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of preoperative thrombocytosis and its prognostic significance in Thai patients with endometrial cancer. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 238 cases who had undergone surgical staging procedures between January 2005 and December 2008. Associations between clinicopathological variables and preoperative platelet counts were analyzed using Pearsons chi square or two- tailed Fishers exact tests. Survival analysis was performed with Kaplan-Meier estimates. Univariate and Cox- regression models were used to evaluate the prognostic impact of various factors including platelet count in terms of disease-free survival and overall survival. The mean preoperative platelet count was 315,437/μL (SD 100,167/ μL). Patients who had advanced stage, adnexal involvement, lymph node metastasis, and positive peritoneal cytology had significantly higher mean preoperative platelet counts when compared with those who had not. We found thrombocytosis (platelet count greater than 400,000/μL) in 18.1% of our patients with endometrial cancer. These had significant higher rates of advanced stage, cervical involvement, adnexal involvement, positive peritoneal cytology, and lymph node involvement than patients with a normal pretreatment platelet count. The 5-year disease-free survival and overall survival were significantly lower in patients who had thrombocytosis compared with those who had not (67.4% vs. 85.1%, p=0.001 and 86.0% vs. 94.9%, p=0.034, respectively). Thrombocytosis was shown to be a prognostic factor in the univariate but not the multivariate analysis. In conclusion, presence of thrombocytosis is not uncommon in endometrial cancer and may reflect unfavorable prognostic factors but its prognostic impact on survival needs to be clarified in further studies.

Presence of anemia and poor prognostic factors in patients with endometrial carcinoma.

This study evaluated the relationship between pretreatment hemoglobin (Hb) and prognostic factors in Thai patients with endometrial cancer. Medical records of 228 patients who had undergone surgery between January 2005 and December 2007 were retrospectively reviewed. Associations between clinicopathological variables and pretreatment Hb levels were described using Pearsons chi square test or two-tailed Fishers exact test. Survival analysis was performed with Kaplan-Meier estimates. Univariate and Cox-regression models were used to evaluate the prognostic impact of various factors, including Hb levels, in term of disease-free survival. The median duration of follow-up was 38.2 months. Eighty-nine patients (39%) had a preoperative Hb level of <12 g/dL, these having significantly higher rates of non-endometrioid histology, advanced FIGO stage, lymphovascular space invasion, cervical involvement, adnexal involvement, positive peritoneal cytology, and lymph node involvement than patients with Hb ≥12 g/dL. The 5-year disease-free and overall survival were significantly lower in patients with pretreatment Hb levels <12 g/dL compared with those with Hb ≥12 g/dL (79.3% vs. 89.2%, p=0.044 and 87.6% vs. 99.3%, p<0.001, respectively). In the multivariate analysis only histology, myometrial invasion, and lymphovascular invasion proved to be independent prognostic factors, whereas tumor grading, stage, cervical involvement, adnexal involvement, positive peritoneal cytology, lymph node involvement, and low Hb were not. In conclusion, presence of anemia before treatment may reflect poor prognostic factors in patients with endometrial cancer and low pretreatment hemoglobin level may have a prognostic impact on clinical outcome.

A Pilot Phase II Study of Capecitabine plus Cisplatin in the Treatment of Recurrent Carcinoma of the Uterine Cervix

Background: To assess the efficacy and tolerability of combination therapy with capecitabine and cisplatin in patients with recurrent carcinoma of the uterine cervix. Methods: Sixteen patients were treated with oral capecitabine (1,000 mg/m2 twice daily, days 1–14) and intravenous cisplatin (50 mg/m2 on day 1 every 3 weeks) for a maximum of six cycles. Results: Their median age was 50 years (31–74 years). Ten patients (63%) had recurrent disease outside the radiation field. The overall response rate was 50% (95% confidence interval 26–75%); 4 patients had complete response (25%). The overall response rate was 33% in patients with recurrent disease within the previous irradiated field and 60% in patients with tumor outside the irradiated field. The median time to progression was 9 months, with a median overall survival of 23 months. The majority of adverse events were mild and there were no grade 4 adverse events. Hematological toxicity was the most frequent adverse event with grade 3 neutropenia in 19% of patients. Grade 2 and 3 hand-foot syndrome occurred in 38 and 6% of the patients, respectively. There were no chemotherapy-related deaths. Conclusion: The combination of capecitabine plus cisplatin is a clinically active regimen with acceptable tolerability for patients with recurrent carcinoma of the uterine cervix.

Long-term outcomes of a loop electrosurgical excision procedure for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in a high incidence country.

AIM To evaluate the operative, oncologic and obstetric outcomes of the loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP) in cases with cervical neoplasia. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective cohort study was conducted on patients who were suspected of cervical neoplasia and therefore undergoing LEEP at Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand, during 1995-2000. Outcome measures included operative complications in 407 LEEP patients and long-term outcomes in the 248 patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) who were treated with only LEEP. RESULTS There were 407 patients undergoing LEEP; their mean age was 39.7±10.5 years. The histopathology of LEEP specimens revealed that 89 patients (21.9%) had lesions ≤CIN I, 295 patients (72.5%) had CIN II or III, and 23 patients (5.6%) had invasive lesions. Operative complications were found in 15 patients and included bleeding (n=9), and infection (n=7). After diagnostic LEEP, 133 patients underwent hysterectomy as the definite treatment for cervical neoplasia. Of 248 CIN patients who had LEEP only, seven (2.8%) had suffered recurrence after a median of 16 (range 6-93) months; one had CIN I, one had CIN II, and five had CIN III. All of these recurrent patients achieved remission on surgical treatment with re-LEEP (n=6) or simple hysterectomy (n=1). A significant factor affecting recurrent disease was the LEEP margin involved with the lesion (p=0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed 5-year and 10-year disease-free survival (DFS) estimates of 99.9%. Twelve patients became pregnant a total of 14 times, resulting in 12 term deliveries and two miscarriages - one of which was due to an incompetent cervix. CONCLUSIONS LEEP for patients with cervical neoplasia delivers favorable surgical, oncologic and obstetric outcomes.

Ruptured ovarian endodermal sinus tumor diagnosed during pregnancy: Case report and review of the literature

Pregnancy complicated by endodermal sinus tumor of the ovary is a very rare event. We present a case report of a pregnant woman with a ruptured primary endodermal sinus tumor of the ovary that was diagnosed at 13 weeks of gestation. After right salpingo‐oophorectomy had been performed the patient received four cycles of combination chemotherapy (bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin) starting at the 15th week of pregnancy. The patient did not have any evidence of tumor recurrence for 23 months. Her baby did not have any evidence of malformations and showed normal growth and development at 21 months of follow up.

Incidence and Clinical Outcomes of Non-endometrioid Carcinoma of Endometrium: Siriraj Hospital Experience

BACKGROUND To study the incidence of non-endometrioid carcinoma of endometrium and compare the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes with endometrioid carcinoma patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study included 236 patients with endometrial carcinoma at Siriraj Hospital whom were diagnosed and treated from 2003 through 2006. The clinical characteristics, pathological features, treatment and clinical outcomes were collected from the medical records. The 5-year survival was calculated according to 2009 FIGO staging. RESULTS Non-endometrioid carcinoma of endometrium accounted for 10.2% of all endometrial carcinomas (24/236 patients). The 5 -year survival rate was significantly lower in the non-endometrioid group compared to the endometrioid group (77.3% vs 96%, p<0.001) and clinical data pointed to greater malignancy. CONCLUSIONS Non-endometrioid carcinoma of endometrium is relative rare but is more aggressive, has more distant metastasis at diagnosis with a worse survival rate than endometrioid carcinoma. Only patients in stage IA with no residual disease on a hysterectomy specimen may not need adjuvant treatment.

GEMCITABINE AFTER BONE MARROW TRANSPLANTATION FOR REFRACTORY JUVENILE GRANULOSA CELL TUMOR

A 19-year-old woman with refractory juvenile granulosa cell tumors had persistent disease after PVB (cisplatin, vinblastine and bleomycin) and multiple high doses of ICE (ifosfamide, carboplatin and etoposide) with peripheral stem cell support. She achieved stable disease for 4 months with low dose intensity gemcitabine of 500 mg/m2/week. The planned dose had been 1250 mg/m2/week. The dose intensity was limited by myelosuppression especially thrombocytopenia. The use of thrombopoietic, in addition to erythropoietic and myelopoietic, agents may permit higher dose intensity of gemcitabine after bone marrow ablative therapy with resulting greater anti-tumor activity.

Performance of Siriraj liquid-based cytology: a single center report concerning over 100,000 samples.

BACKGROUND To evaluate the performance of Siriraj liquid-based cytology (LBC) for cervical neoplasia screening after increasing use of this technology. MATERIALS AND METHODS Cytological reports of 103,057 Siriraj-LBC specimens obtained in 2007-2009 were compared with those of 23,676 specimens obtained in 2006. RESULTS Comparing with the year 2006, the 2007-2009 patients were slightly older (43.4 ± 12.yr vs 42.7 ± 12.2 yr, p <0.001), and their specimens had much lower proportion of unsatisfactory slides (OR=0.06, 95%CI 0.04-0.09) with comparable detection rates (3.96% vs 3.70%, p=0.052) but different proportions of various cytological abnormalities (p<0.001). The 2007-2009 Siriraj-LBC had a negative predictive value (NPV) for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2+ (CIN2+) of 97.6% and an overall positive predictive value (PPV) of 43.9%. The PPV for CIN2+ varied with types of abnormal cytology, from 13.7% to 93.8% in atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS), low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), atypical squamous cells cannot exclude HSIL (ASC-H), high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL), atypical glandular cells (AGC), to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), respectively. The PPVs for CIN2+ in ASCUS and LSIL were comparable, but the PPV for CIN1 was higher for LSIL than for ASCUS (41.63% vs 16.32%). CONCLUSIONS Siriraj-LBC has demonstrated a stable detection rate and NPV for CIN2+ of >95% since the first year of use. The comparable PPVs for CIN2+ of ASCUS and LSIL suggests that these two conditions may undergo similar management; other cytological abnormalities need immediate evaluation.

Long Term Outcomes of Laser Conization for High Grade Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia in Thai Women

AIM To report long term outcomes of laser conization for high grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) in Thai women. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective cohort study was conducted in patients undergoing laser conization due to abnormal cervical cytology suggesting neoplasia during 1989 to 1994 and having follow-up data until December 2010. Conization was performed under colposcopy using a 0.5-mm CO2 laser beam with power density of 18,000-20,000 watts/cm2, and the surgical base was vaporized using a low power defocused beam. The follow-up protocol included cervical cytology and colposcopy. Long term outcome measures were failure rate (persistence and recurrence), post-conization status of transformation zone, and obstetric outcomes. RESULTS Of 104 patients undergoing conization, 71 had therapeutic conization for high grade CIN and were followed up for a median time of 115 (range 12-260) months. There was one case of persistent and one of recurrent disease comprising a failure rate of 2.8%. The post treatment transformation zone was well visualized in 68.3% of 63 patients with an intact uterus. Sixteen patients achieved 25 pregnancies; none had second trimester miscarriage. The obstetric outcomes were unremarkable. CONCLUSIONS Laser conization under colposcopic visualization for the treatment of high grade CIN in Thai women has a low failure rate of 2.8%. The post-conization transformation zone could not be evaluated completely in approximately 30% of cases; therefore the follow-up protocol should include both cytology and colposcopy. Obstetric outcomes are not adversely affected by this therapeutic procedure.