Diagnosis and management of giant intrasacral schwannoma.

Giant intrasacral schwannoma is a rare cause of a retrorectal mass in an adult patient. Only 21 such tumors have been reported. The diagnosis of this intraosseous nerve sheath tumor is heralded by its minimal symptoms in relation to its often striking radiographic findings and is verified by its unique morphology. Surgical resection is complex because of its anatomic location and propensity for local recurrence. The need for adequate tumor removal must be balanced against the preservation of nerve function. The presentation, diagnosis, and management of intrasacral schwannomas are reviewed, as exemplified in this case presentation and literature review.     

Retroperitoneal Schwannomas: Dilemmas in Diagnostic Approach and Therapeutic Management

Introduction

Schwannomas are rare tumors arising from Schwan cells of the peripheral nerve sheath. The majority of the cases are sporadic and familial clustering is often observed in association with von Rechlinghausen’s disease. Cases of intrasacral (osseous) and spinal tumors have also been described. Histologically, schwannomas are distinguished by the presence of areas of high and low cellularity called Antoni A and B tissue, respectively.

Clinical Presentation

Clinical features are highly non-specific and depend on the location and size of the lesion, with abdominal pain and neurological deficit being the most common abnormalities. Radiological studies are fundamental in the diagnostic evaluation of RSs.

Therapeutic Management

Despite recent research on the therapeutic strategies against RS, surgical resection appears the only potentially curative approach. Unfortunately, a mere minority of patients is eligible to undergo surgical intervention. In addition, surgical removal of RS does not necessarily guarantee patient’s long-term survival. Laparoscopic approach and enucleation of the tumor have been suggested as well. Alternative therapies, such as radio- and chemotherapy often proved insufficient. The aim of this review was to evaluate the results of surgical treatment for RS with special reference to the extent of its histological spread and to analyze the recent literature in order to provide an update on the current concepts of therapeutic management of this entity.     

Solitary pulmonary metastasis: an enigma

Lung metastases, which are an expression of the new phase of the underlying neoplastic disorder, have been treated in the recent years by multiple disciplinary approach. When the metastases to the lungs are multiple, it is indicative of extensive tumor burden, and the organ plays an insignificant role in the distribution of the metastases in the different lobes of the lungs. However, when the pulmonary metastases appear after a prolonged disease-free interval it becomes an enigma; when the metastases are solitary, the majority (over 80% in this series) are located in the upper zone of the lungs. This study of 28 patients with solitary lung metastases explores the possible etiology of this clinical observation and proposes that the pattern of perfusion and anatomopathological features of the upper lobes are the main reasons why these lobes are prevalently the sites for solitary lung metastases.     

Metastatic disease to the pancreas and spleen

Isolated metastases to the pancreas and spleen are a rare occurrence. When they are diagnosed, pancreatic metastases are most often from renal cell carcinoma, lung cancer, and breast cancer. The most common source of splenic metastases is gynecological in origin; the overwhelming majority is ovarian. If extensive staging studies reveal these metastases to be isolated, then curative resection may be warranted. This review will demonstrate that long-term survival may be achieved in patients with isolated metastases and a prolonged disease-free interval.     

Evaluating distant metastases in breast cancer: from biology to outcomes

There is an urgent need to understand distant metastases in breast cancer as they are the most lethal form of recurrence and a major cause of mortality in patients. Some predictors for distant metastases, including nodal status, tumor grade, and hormonal status, are useful in identifying patients at increased risk for distant metastases. Adjuvant endocrine therapy has been the treatment of choice for postmenopausal women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer, and some therapies have shown significant reductions in the risk of distant metastases. Skeletal metastases in breast cancer are treated with bisphosphonates with a certain level of success. With more new agents undergoing clinical trials, a thorough review of the specific and long-term safety of these agents is essential, as is a better understanding of the deterioration in the quality of life and cost concerns of patients who develop distant metastases. Gene-expression profiling is a new entrant in the field of distant metastases diagnosis, which is largely successful in defining gene signatures that predict the development of distant metastases. This review will discuss the biology and the impact of distant metastases on outcomes for patients with breast cancer; it also encompasses the current status, emerging focus, and future perspectives in treatment of skeletal metastases in patients with breast cancer.     

The risk of intradural spinal metastases in patients with brain metastases from bronchogenic carcinomas

Intradural spinal metastases can develop following dissemination via the cerebrospinal fluid from various primary or secondary brain tumors. Since the risk of intradural spinal metastases has never been formally studied in patients with brain metastases, we reviewed patients with brain metastases from bronchogenic carcinomas and looked for the subsequent development of intradural spinal metastases. Of 160 consecutive patients, only 6 presented intradural spinal metastases, however none were among the 105 patients who had exclusively supratentorial metastases and all intradural spinal metastases were in patients who had lesions in the posterior fossa. In this group, the 1-year actuarial risk of having intradural spinal metastases was 21% (p less than .01 compared with patients who had supratentorial metastases). We could not find any other risk factor for intradural spinal metastases. Recommendations for the group of patients with increased risk of intradural spinal metastases are made.     

Role of intra-arterial hepatic chemotherapy in the treatment of colorectal cancer metastases

Hepatic metastases are common with colorectal cancer. The primary blood supply to hepatic metastases is the hepatic artery. Regional chemotherapy utilizing the hepatic artery is one treatment option for liver metastases. The advantage of hepatic arterial chemotherapy is that high concentrations of the therapeutic drug are obtained in the liver with minimal systemic toxicity. Recently, systemic chemotherapy regimens have been added to hepatic arterial infusional chemotherapy to treat hepatic metastases. Due to the high response rates in the liver, resection rates are increasing in patients originally thought to have unresectable liver disease. Hepatic arterial chemotherapy has also been used in the adjuvant setting after resection of all liver metastases in order to minimize hepatic recurrences. The role of hepatic arterial infusional therapy in treating hepatic colorectal metastases includes treating patients with both resectable and unresectable metastases in the adjuvant, neoadjuvant, or palliative settings.     

肺癌脑转移的化疗研究进展

 肺癌脑转移发生率高,生存期短,缺乏有效的治疗手段。以往受“化疗药物难以透过血脑屏障” 这一说法的影响,认为化疗对脑转移瘤治疗作用较小,将放疗作为标准治疗。但近年研究发现脑转移瘤血脑屏障有所破坏,同时许多学者研究将化疗药物转运至脑转移灶的方法,化疗可能成为有效的治疗手段。     

Cutaneous metastases secondary to pancreatic cancer

AIM: To evaluate prognoses after cutaneous metastases, derived from pancreatic cancer. METHODS: We treated two patients with cutaneous metastases from pancreatic cancer. We reviewed 40 reported patients in addition to our cases and analyzed clinical features of cutaneous metastases from pancreatic cancer. RESULTS: The median survival time (MST) was 5 mo after diagnoses of cutaneous metastases. The cumulative 2-year survival rate was 3.5%. The most frequent site of cutaneous metastases was the umbilicus. The MST of patients who were treated with chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy (CRT) was 6.5 mo, which was statistically longer in comparison to patients without treatment. Prognoses of cutaneous metastases are similar to other metastatic sites from pancreatic cancer. Receiving chemotherapy or CRT was the only prognostic factor of cutaneous metastases from pancreatic cancer.CONCLUSION: The prognoses of cutaneous metastases are similar to other metastatic pancreatic cancers. Receiving chemotherapy or CRT was the only prognostic factor of cutaneous metastases from pancreatic cancer.     

乳腺癌术后骨转移回顾性分析

目的 分析乳腺癌术后骨转移的临床特征.方法 对407例原发乳腺癌术后发生骨转移的情况进行回顾性分析.结果 50例患者术后发生骨转移.这50例患者中,术后30个月内发生骨转移的病例占54.0%,5年内骨转移发生率为76.0%,发病年龄≤50岁的占60%.病理类型以浸润性导管癌为主的占82.0%.骨转移部位最多发生在脊柱,以胸椎、腰椎为主.其次是骨盆、肋骨、胸骨、颅骨、下肢骨.乳腺癌术后是否出现骨转移在年龄、腋淋巴结转移、孕激素受体(PR)、癌基因CerbB2表达方面无统计学差异(P＞0.05).但在肿瘤病理类型及雌激素受体(ER)表达方面的差异有统计学意义(P＜0.05).结论 乳腺癌术后30个月内为骨转移高发期,骨转移部位以脊柱及骨盆、肋骨、胸骨多见.乳腺癌术后发生骨转移与年龄、腋淋巴结转移、PR、CerbB2表达方面无关,与肿瘤病理类型、ER有关.     

胃癌术后复发和转移部位及规律对预防性放疗靶区设计的临床探讨

目的 总结胃癌术后复发和转移部位及规律,为术后预防性放疗靶区设计寻找依据.方法 回顾分析近8年来130例胃癌根治术后复发和转移患者,所有患者均经B超、CT或MRI影像学临床诊断.其腹水28例中10例有细胞病理学诊断,所有浅表淋巴结及腹壁转移均经穿刺组织病理学证实,27例残胃和吻合口复发均由活检手术组织病理学证实.结果 130例中多部位复发和转移53例,残胃和(或)吻合口复发27例,腹膜转移28例,肝脏转移22例,胰腺转移9例,腹腔淋巴结转移60例,腹壁切口和引流口转移8例,盆腔种植5例,肺转移6例,脑转移5例,骨(主要为椎体)转移5例,颈部淋巴结转移8例,纵隔淋巴结转移9例,其他少见转移8例.60例腹腔淋巴结转移患者中胃周淋巴结转移35例,胰周淋巴结转移16例,腹主动脉旁淋巴结转移9例.77例原发胃底或贲门胃癌患者腹腔淋巴结转移33例,40例原发胃体部胃癌患者腹腔淋巴结转移20例,13例原发胃窦部胃癌患者腹腔淋巴结转移7例.结论 胃癌患者根治术后局部复发和转移的部位主要发生在残胃或吻合口、腹膜、肝脏及腹腔淋巴结,淋巴结以胃周、胰周和腹主动脉旁淋巴结转移多见.因此胃癌术后预防性放疗应包括贲门胃底、胃体和胃窦部,放射野应包括残胃、吻合口及胃周、胰周和腹主动脉旁淋巴结区域,并且须辅以化疗.     

Brain metastases as the first sign of colon cancer

Cerebral metastases from colorectal cancer occur in 8% of cases. Diagnosis is usually made when primary disease and widespread metastases are already known. However, the detection of brain metastases as the first sign of colorectal carcinoma without any liver and/or lung involvement is extremely rare. Central nervous system metastases are more commonly seen in rectal cancer and often occur concurrently with lung metastasis. We report a case of a patient with brain metastases as the first clinical manifestation of an adenocarcinoma of caecum without any other organ involvement.     

Surgical treatment of metastatic disease to the lung

The presence of distant metastases usually implies disease not amenable to cure through surgical resection. In such cases, chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatment, with surgery or radiation reserved for palliative measures. However, metastases limited to the lung may be resected with resultant prolonged patient survival compared to unresectable, widely disseminated metastases. Isolated pulmonary metastases should therefore not be considered untreatable. In this review, we discuss the pathophysiology of pulmonary metastases. We outline prognostic factors associated with metastases, and propose criteria to help select patients for metastasectomy. Surgical approaches, including various open techniques and video-assisted thoracoscopy, are covered. Surgical issues, including the need for unilateral versus bilateral exploration, the extent of resection to achieve cure, the need for lymph node dissection, and the benefit of repeat operations, are discussed. Finally, we review some of the more common tumors that metastasize to the lungs, and the role of metastasectomy in their treatment. Resection of pulmonary metastases confers a survival benefit to a select group of patients so long as the primary tumor is controlled, metastases are limited to the lungs, the patient can tolerate the operation from a cardiopulmonary standpoint, and the metastases are completely resected.     

微波消融治疗肺转移瘤的研究进展

随着恶性肿瘤发病率的提高，肺转移瘤在临床中也越来越常见。手术切除是肺转移瘤的主要治疗方法，但大多数患者因心肺功能差、转移瘤靠近心脏及血管、转移瘤数目较多等原因无法进行手术切除，放疗、化疗、靶向治疗等治疗方法疗效不佳;微波消融术作为新兴的治疗手段，具有创伤小、并发症少、安全性高、可重复消融等优点，为肺转移瘤的治疗提供了新方法。本文就微波消融术治疗肺转移瘤的研究进展作一综述。     

46例肺转移癌的手术治疗及预后因素分析

目的：探讨肺转移癌的外科手术治疗效果与影响预后的相关因素。方法：46例经手术治疗的肺转移癌患者，常规开胸手术30例，电视辅助胸腔镜下手术16例。对患者随访，用Kaplan-Meier法计算生存率，绘出生存曲线；用Logistic回归分析评定影响预后的相关因素。结果：本组病例三、五年生存率分别为33.8％和15.8％；Logistic多因素回归分析显示纵隔淋巴结转移和多叶转移是肺转移癌重要的预后不利因素。讨论：对有选择的肺转移癌患者采取手术治疗可治愈部分患者；肺多叶转移灶和转移癌伴纵隔淋巴结转移者预后不良，手术治疗应该慎重选择。     

Regional non-nodal metastases of cutaneous melanoma

The authors studied the prognosis of patients with so called local recurrences, satellites and in-transit metastases from cutaneous melanoma on the basis of 291 patients. These are the 19.3% of the 1503 patients with stage I and II melanoma originally submitted to surgical treatment at the National Cancer Institute of Milano (Italy). The majority of patients were males (M/F = 0.7): 102 had local recurrence, 99 in-transit metastases, 24 satellites and 66 both local and in-transit metastases. Regional non-nodal metastases were not related with the site of origin, and inadequate treatment of primary. These metastases were more frequently observed in patients who were submitted to regional node dissection no matter whether in discontinuity or in continuity with primary tumor. The frequency of regional non-nodal metastases was found to increase with increasing thickness of primary melanoma or, in stage II patients, with the number of involved nodes. Local and in-transit metastases were related with prognostic criteria in the same way. The overall survival was very close between in-transit and local metastases. Similar survival rates were observed comparing regional non-nodes and disseminated cutaneous and subcutaneous metastases. The authors conclude that the distinction between local recurrences, satellites and in-transit metastases is artificial and that these metastatic events are not prognostically dissimilar from metastases in distant skin areas.     

Current surgical strategies for the treatment of colorectal cancer liver metastases

Hepatic metastases are a common complication of colorectal cancer and affect around 50% of all patients with this disease. Surgical resection is the gold standard treatment for metastases and significantly prolongs survival. The optimum results from surgery are obtained in the following circumstances: three or fewer metastases, no extra-hepatic disease, smaller metastases, metastases confined to one lobe and clear surgical margin (>1 cm). In patients who relapse following removal of metastases, repeat resections can give the same degree of survival benefit as the original resection. Resection is only an option for a small proportion of patients, and most patients with hepatic metastases will present with unresectable disease. Strategies for treating initially unresectable disease include neoadjuvant chemotherapy aimed at downsizing the metastases and making them suitable for resection, with specific techniques such as cryotherapy and radiofrequency ablation combined with resection, portal embolisation and two-stage hepatectomies.     

贝伐珠单抗治疗非小细胞肺癌脑转移的研究进展

脑部是肺癌最常见的远处器官转移部位之一,肺癌脑转移的发生率高,是脑转移性肿瘤中最常见的类型,同时也是肺癌死亡率居高不下的原因之一。抗肿瘤血管生成治疗已成为肺癌治疗的重要手段之一,抗血管生成药物贝伐珠单抗也成为继全脑放疗、立体定位放疗和化疗之后肺癌脑转移患者新的治疗选择。目前,对脑转移的非小细胞肺癌患者应用贝伐珠单抗治疗的临床研究也越来越多,其安全性和有效性是研究重点。本文就贝伐珠单抗治疗非小细胞肺癌脑转移的研究进展做一综述。     

Nasal metastases from renal cell carcinoma are associated with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center poor-prognosis classification

Unusual sites of metastases are recognized in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). However, the prognostic implications of these sites are not well understood. We used the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) risk classification for metastatic RCC to evaluate 912 consecutive patients with RCC managed at the Singapore General Hospital between 1990 and 2009. Among these patients, 301 had metastases either at diagnosis or during the course of illness. Nasal metastases, all arising from clear cell RCC, were identified histologically in 4 patients (1.3% of those with metastasis). All 4 patients were classified as MSKCC poor prognosis by current risk criteria. Nasal metastases were significantly associated with lung and bone metastases. The frequency of nasal metastases in patients with metastatic RCC is about 1%, occurring predominantly in patients with clear cell RCC. Nasal metastases are associated with poor prognosis as estimated by the MSKCC risk classification, with attendant implications for selection of targeted therapy, and are usually associated with multi-organ dissemination, including concurrent lung and bone involvement.