Prophylactic Mastectomy: Is It Worth It?

Background  

Breast cancer is the second mortality-related cancer and the leading cause of general mortality in women aged 40–55. Prophylactic mastectomy has proved to be effective in several clinical scenarios but is still a somewhat controversial procedure.     

Surgical Management of Hepatocellular Adenoma: Take It or Leave It?

Background  Hepatocellular adenoma (HA) is a rare benign tumor of the liver. Surgical resection is generally indicated to reduce risks of hemorrhage and malignant transformation. We sought to evaluate clinical presentation, surgical management, and outcomes of patients with HA at our institution. Methods  We performed a retrospective review of 41 patients who underwent surgical resection for HA between 1988 and 2007. Results  Thirty-eight patients were women, and the median age at presentation was 36 years (range, 19–65 years). The most common clinical presentation was abdominal pain (70%) followed by incidental radiological finding (17%). Twenty-two patients had a history of oral contraceptive use. Median number of HA was one (range, 1–3). There were 32 open cases (3 trisectionectomy, 15 hemihepatectomy, 7 sectionectomy, 4 segmentectomy, and 3 wedge resection), and 9 laparoscopic cases (1 hemihepatectomy, 5 sectionectomy, 1 segmentectomy, and 2 wedge resection). The median estimated blood loss was 225 mL (range, 0–3400 mL). The median length of stay was 6 days (range, 1–15 days). Surgical morbidities included pleural effusion requiring percutaneous drainage (n = 2), pneumonia (n = 1), and wound infection (n = 1). There was no perioperative mortality. Twelve patients had hemorrhage from HA. Hepatocellular carcinoma was observed in two patients with HA. Median follow-up was 23 months (range, 1–194 months), at which time all patients were alive. Conclusion  In view of 29% hemorrhagic and 5% malignant complication rates, we recommend surgical resection over observation if patient comorbidities and anatomic location of HA are favorable. A laparoscopic approach can be safely used in selected cases. Presented at Society of Surgical Oncology 61st Annual Cancer Symposium, Chicago, Illinois, March 13–16, 2008.     

Beyond Complete Myocardial Revascularization: Is It Important and Does It Matter?

Constructing more than one graft per coronary system (left anterior descending, circumflex, right) has been widely and enthusiastically practiced for many years because it was thought to confer long-term freedom from major adverse coronary events. In reality the medical and surgical literature do not document the importance of maximizing the number of coronary vessels bypassed beyond one per system. Published series exhibit great variation in patient cohort, length of follow-up and lack the whole gamut of clinical endpoints. None of the published series provide an analysis based on subset stratification according to detailed coronary vessel anatomopathologic inventory in relation to revascularization strategy.     

Evidence: What Is It,Where Do We Find It,and How Do We Use It?

The purpose of this paper is to review the history and rationale for evidence-based medicine (EBM). The development of EBM is briefly described, together with the pros and cons of evidence-based research, review techniques, and resources. The current status of EBM with regard to the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB) is also discussed. In short, EBM can be defined as the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence to make decisions about the care of individual patients. The four main steps are: (1) formulate a clear question from a patient’s problem, (2) search the literature for relevant clinical articles, (3) evaluate and critically appraise existing evidence for its validity and usefulness, and (4) implement useful findings in clinical practice. The power of the evidence-based approach can be enhanced by the development of techniques such as systematic review and meta-analysis. However, although EBM allows us to use current best evidence to make decisions about patient care, the evidence gained from systematic review and meta-analysis only applies to an “average patient” and is not readily adaptable to issues such as etiology, diagnosis and prognosis.     

Dose-dense Temozolomide: Is It Still Promising?

Glioblastoma (GBM) has proven to be incurable despite recent progress on its standard of care using temozolomide (TMZ) as the main trunk of initial therapy for newly diagnosed GBM. One of the main reasons accounting for the dismal prognosis is attributed to lack of active therapeutic regimens at recurrence. Since TMZ is the most active cytotoxic agent against GBM, and the standard dosing of TMZ has shown favorable safety profile in clinical trials, re-challenge with TMZ in increased dose density schedules for recurrent tumors that have evaded from prior standard TMZ therapy appears to be a rational approach and has been intensively exploited. A number of phase II clinical trials using different alternating scheduling of dose-dense TMZ (ddTMZ) have shown superior efficacy over the standard TMZ or historical controls with other alkylating agents including nitrosoureas and procarbazine. One ddTMZ schedule, consisting of a 21-days on/7-days off regimen was applied to newly-diagnosed GBM as the adjuvant monotherapy after completion of combined radiation and TMZ and failed to demonstrate survival benefit in a large phase III trial (RTOG 0525). Thus its role in TMZ-pretreated, recurrent GBM should be carefully pursuit in randomized trials, e.g., planned JCOG 1308 trial comparing a 7-days on/7-days off ddTMZ regimen used upfront at the first relapse followed by bevacizumab on progression versus bevacizumab alone, investigating whether insertion of ddTMZ prior to bevacizumab could bestow better outcome in the recurrent setting. In this article, mode of action, past trials, and future directions of ddTMZ therapy are discussed.     

Choledochoduodenostomy: Is It Really So Bad?

Background  

Choledochoduodenostomy (CDD) has been shunned by some surgeons for the management of the benign distal common bile duct stricture due to the potential complication of “sump syndrome.” The feared sump syndrome is theorized to occur from bile stasis and reflux of duodenal contents into the terminal common bile duct with bacterial overgrowth, resulting in cholangitis or hepatic abscess. The true incidence and resultant morbidity of sump syndrome, however, are not well defined.     

Pathologic Response to Preoperative Therapy: Does It Mean What We Think It Means?

Tumors treated with preoperative chemotherapy or radiation often demonstrate evidence of response in the resection specimen. Pathologic response is often interpreted as a surrogate for recurrence or survival outcomes. With a valid surrogate for long-term outcomes, investigators can explore treatment strategies with immediate endpoints. The financial and time costs of trials measuring recurrence and survival may be lessened by using short-term pathologic outcomes as an endpoint. This review is intended to examine the current status of pathologic response as a surrogate for tumor behavior. We address questions regarding the definitions of pathologic response, as well as the current literature regarding the meaning of pathologic response for some common tumor types. We explore some of the potential confounding effects that may explain the frequent discordance between tumor response and patient outcomes. In addition, we address some alternative strategies to gauge the response of a tumor to preoperative therapy.