1/49. Capecitabine-induced pancreatitis. A 47-year-old woman with metastatic breast cancer developed acute pancreatitis while receiving capecitabine. She had been receiving capecitabine 2000 mg/m2/day; however, when the dosage was increased to 2500 mg/m2/day (the maximum dosage approved by the food and Drug Administration) she experienced abdominal pain and cramping. These symptoms were followed by nausea and vomiting, palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia (hand-foot syndrome), and mucositis, resulting in admission to the hospital. Laboratory tests for liver function showed elevated levels of alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase. The patient's lipase and amylase levels were also elevated, but an abdominal ultrasound was normal. After bowel rest and intravenous hydration, the patient's liver function tests and lipase and amylase levels returned to normal. Many chemotherapeutic agents have been documented to cause pancreatitis; however, we found no previously described reports of capecitabine-induced pancreatitis. Clinicians should be aware of this potential adverse effect, particularly in patients with preexisting risk factors for pancreatitis who are prescribed capecitabine. ( info) |
2/49. Fusion of contrast-enhanced breast MR and mammographic imaging data. Increasing use is being made of Gd-DTPA contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging for breast cancer assessment since it provides 3D functional information via pharmacokinetic interaction between contrast agent and tumour vascularity, and because it is applicable to women of all ages as well as patients with post-operative scarring. Contrast-enhanced MRI (CE-MRI) is complementary to conventional X-ray mammography, since it is a relatively low-resolution functional counterpart of a comparatively high-resolution 2D structural representation. However, despite the additional information provided by MRI, mammography is still an extremely important diagnostic imaging modality, particularly for several common conditions such as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) where it has been shown that there is a strong correlation between microcalcification clusters and malignancy. Pathological indicators such as calcifications and fine spiculations are not visible in CE-MRI and therefore there is clinical and diagnostic value in fusing the high-resolution structural information available from mammography with the functional data acquired from MRI imaging. This paper presents a novel data fusion technique whereby medial-lateral oblique (MLO) and cranial-caudal (CC) mammograms (2D data) are registered to 3D contrast-enhanced MRI volumes. We utilise a combination of pharmacokinetic modelling, projection geometry, wavelet-based landmark detection and thin-plate spline non-rigid 'warping' to transform the coordinates of regions of interest (ROIs) from the 2D mammograms to the spatial reference frame of the contrast-enhanced MRI volume. Of key importance is the use of a flexible wavelet-based feature extraction technique that enables feature correspondences to be robustly determined between the very different image characteristics of X-ray mammography and MRI. An evaluation of the fusion framework is demonstrated with a series of clinical cases and a total of 14 patient examples. ( info) |
3/49. Acute pseudo-obstruction of the small intestine following high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell support. BACKGROUND: Acute intestinal pseudo-obstruction is a potentially life-threatening disease which is characterized by massive dilation of the colon or small intestine without mechanical obstruction and may develop after surgery or severe illness. patients AND methods: We report 2 cases in which acute small intestinal pseudo-obstruction occurred after high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell support. In 1 patient explorative abdominal laparoscopy was performed to rule out mechanical ileus. However, after having initiated treatment with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors a prompt small intestinal decompression was observed in both patients. CONCLUSIONS: acetylcholinesterase inhibitors should be considered as an early conservative intervention in the treatment of acute intestinal pseudo-obstruction to avoid surgery of patients undergoing high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell support. ( info) |
4/49. Salivary duct carcinoma in the submandibular region. A case of salivary duct carcinoma arising in the submandibular region of an 83-year-old man is presented. Histologically, the tumour consisted of solid cell nests with ductal structures. Tumour cell nests showed central comedonecrosis. Immunohistochemically, the tumour cells were positive for keratin and epithelial membrane antigen but negative for S-100 protein and calponin. Clinical features as well as pathological examinations based on haematoxylin-eosin and immunohistochemical stainings were important in the diagnosis of this case. ( info) |
5/49. Osteogenic sarcoma in the breast--case report of a diagnostic dilemma. breast cancer is the leading cancer in females worldwide, the vast majority being carcinomas, and only 0.2-0.3% being sarcomas. Of the mammary sarcomas, extra-osseous osteogenic sarcomas constitute a small heterogeneous group. This communication reports a case of primary extra-osseous osteogenic sarcoma occurring in the breast of a48-year-old female, and presents a literature review of this condition. A pre-requisite for the diagnosis of primary mammary osteogenic sarcoma is the exclusion of an osteogenic sarcoma arising from the underlying ribs or sternum. Like all other osteogenic sarcomas in general, these neoplasms are characterized by the direct formation of osteoid matrix by the tumour cells. Primary osteogenic sarcoma of the breast may arise from metaplastic sarcomatous transformation of neoplastic cells in a primary breast carcinoma, fibroadenoma, malignant phyllodes tumour, or may exceptionally represent a nonphyllodes sarcoma of the breast arising from the soft tissues of an otherwise normal or previously irradiated breast. ( info) |
6/49. Scirrhous colonic metastasis from ductal carcinoma of the breast: report of a case. Metastasis of breast cancer to the colon is rare. We report a case of a 49-year-old female who presented with a stenotic tumor of the descending colon five years after treatment of breast cancer with mastectomy and pedicled transverse rectus abdominis musculocutaneous flap. laparotomy showed a diffusely infiltrated tumor over the descending colon. Anterior resection with loop ileostomy was performed, and the pathology showed that the colonic wall and the mesentery were diffusely infiltrated with poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, which stained strongly for cytokeratin 7. The histologic diagnosis is consistent with colonic metastasis from ductal carcinoma of breast origin. In a patient with a history of breast cancer, colonic metastasis from the breast primary cancer should be considered, especially if the colonic lesion is scirrhous in nature. The incision for laparotomy and the probable stoma site should be planned carefully in females after breast reconstructive surgery. ( info) |
7/49. Dihydropyrimidinase deficiency and severe 5-fluorouracil toxicity. Dihydropyrimidinase (DHP) is the second enzyme in the catabolism of 5-fluorouracil (5FU), and it has been suggested that patients with a deficiency of this enzyme are at risk from developing severe 5FU-associated toxicity. In this study, we demonstrated for the first time that in one patient the severe toxicity, after a treatment with 5FU, was attributable to a partial deficiency of DHP. Analysis of the DHP gene showed that the patient was heterozygous for the missense mutation 833G>A (G278D) in exon 5. Heterologous expression of the mutant enzyme in escherichia coli showed that the G278D mutation leads to a mutant DHP enzyme without residual activity. An analysis for the presence of this mutation in 96 unrelated Dutch Caucasians indicates that the allele frequency in the normal population is <0.5%. Our results show that a partial DHP deficiency is a novel pharmacogenetic disorder associated with severe 5FU toxicity. ( info) |
| Salivary duct carcinoma is a rare and invasive malignant tumour with rapid distant metastasis and dismal prognosis. Clinically, perineural invasion of the salivary duct carcinoma is commonly noted. Here, we present a case of salivary duct carcinoma of submandibular gland origin with perineural invasion of the trigeminal nerve proximal to the intracranium, that was well demonstrated by a magnetic resonance image (MRI) and was consistent with the clinical presentation. This case received radical resection and radiotherapy with inclusion of the skull base within the field. There was no tumour recurrence and distant metastasis 24 months post-operatively. ( info) |
9/49. Ductal carcinoma arising from a syringocystadenoma papilliferum in a nevus sebaceus of Jadassohn. We present an example of ductal carcinoma connected to a syringocystadenoma papilliferum situated in a nevus sebaceus of Jadassohn on the scalp of a 22-year-old woman. The ductal carcinoma involved the entire thickness of the dermis and extended to the subcutaneous fat. Because syringocystadenoma papilliferum is considered a hamartoma with apocrine differentiation, the ductal carcinoma here described was interpreted as an apocrine ductal carcinoma. Syringocystadenocarcinoma papilliferum is an exceedingly rare neoplasm, most examples of which seem to have arisen in its benign counterpart, syringocystadenoma papilliferum. From a histopathologic point of view, syringocystadenocarcinoma papilliferum usually shows a papillary configuration similar to that of syringocystadenoma papilliferum. In contrast, the case here described a ductal carcinoma superficially connected to a syringocystadenoma papilliferum, but mostly composed of small ductal structures embedded in a desmoplastic stroma and involving the full thickness of the dermis. We review the literature about the malignant neoplasms arising in the nevus sebaceus of Jadassohn. ( info) |
10/49. A case of chest wall recurrence of breast cancer treated with paclitaxel weekly, 5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine, arterial embolization and chest wall resection. Chest wall resection and reconstruction has proved to be a safe surgical procedure for local recurrence of breast cancer. Recently, as second- or third-line chemotherapy for the patients with recurrent breast cancer or ovarian cancer, weekly paclitaxel has provided a significant response rate in those patients, and generated much clinical interest. We report here a case of chest wall recurrence of breast cancer successfully treated by a combination of weekly paclitaxel, 5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine, arterial embolization, and chest wall resection. A 56-year-old woman presented with a large mass in the left anterior chest. A recurrent tumor developed and enlarged one-and-half years after undergoing modified radical mastectomy for advanced breast cancer (T4N2M0, stage III B) at another hospital. The mass had enlarged while the patient underwent chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, 5-fluorouracil, and anastozole, followed by low-dose cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil, and goserelin. To reduce the mass and inflammatory changes of the skin, weekly paclitaxel and 5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine was given. Furthermore, to obtain hemostasis and promote the mass reduction, arterial embolization of the supply arteries was performed. Chest wall resection, reconstruction of the bony chest wall with polypropylene mesh folded 8 times, and soft tissue reconstruction with a contralateral myocutaneous flap were carried out successfully. The patient was discharged from the hospital ten weeks after the operation without any major morbidity, and remained well for ten months. A multimodal approach with chemotherapy and arterial embolization was effective in this case in treating chest wall recurrence of breast cancer. Reconstruction of the chest wall bone with polypropylene mesh folded 8 times and soft tissue reconstruction with a contralateral myocutaneous flap was a useful procedure after chest wall resection, even after chemotherapy and arterial embolization. ( info) |