1/2. Concurrent ovarian-type primary peritoneal adenocarcinoma and peritoneal choriocarcinoma. A case report and review of the literature.BACKGROUND: Nongestational choriocarcinomas are aggressive tumours occurring either as a global event or as a focal change in solid tumours. The latter is responsible for coexistence of trophoblastic histology with other malignancies. CASE: A 65-year old female with stage IV primary peritoneal carcinoma, ovarian type, underwent surgical cytoreduction followed by two courses of paclitaxel/carboplatin chemotherapy. A choriocarcinomatous component was later identified in the resection specimens, as chemotherapy resulted in a differential response of the two malignant variants. Commencement of EMA/CO chemotherapy (etoposide, methotrexate, actinomycin D, cyclophosphamide, vincristine) resulted in symptom palliation and tumour regression, further consolidated with platinum-based EP/EMA (etoposide, cisplatin, methotrexate, actinomycin D). Two months later, relentless choriocarcinomatous disease progression followed, leading to the patient's death while the peritoneal adenocarcinomatous variant remained biochemically quiescent. CONCLUSION: Choriocarcinomas may coexist with typical ovarian-type peritoneal cancer, creating diagnostic and therapeutic dilemmas. Aggressive weekly chorio-type chemotherapy appears to be warranted despite the low likelihood of cure, as it provides significant symptom palliation.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = cancer (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/2. Rectal adenocarcinoma with choriocarcinomatous differentiation: clinical and genetic aspects.Nongestational choriocarcinomas are rare tumors. In the gastrointestinal tract, they are characterized by a biphasic tumor growth with separated areas of adenocarcinomatous and choriocarcinomatous differentiation. We here report a case of a combined adenocarcinoma-choriocarcinoma of the rectum. The tumor showed an aggressive clinical behavior with metastasis to the liver and lungs. A transient partial remission was achieved after 4 cycles of cisplatinum, etoposide, and ifosfamide chemotherapy, with normalization of serum beta-human chorionic gonadotropin levels. At this time, viable residual choriocarcinoma cells were found in surgically resected lung metastasis. The patient succumbed 8 months after initial diagnosis to a rapid abdominal relapse. We used comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) and fluorescence in situ hybridization to elucidate the genetic relationship of adenocarcinoma and choriocarcinoma in this neoplasm. We found genetic changes characteristic for colorectal adenocarcinomas, a loss of chromosomal regions 8p21-pter as well as 18q21-pter, and a gain of 5p and 20q, in both tumor parts. This provides evidence for the common origin of both components. A differential pattern of additional genetic changes suggests a clonal evolution from a common ancestor cell. In contrast to findings from a comparative study on a choriocarcinoma of the renal pelvis, we did not find an amplification of the germ cell cancer-associated chromosomal region 12p11.2-p12.1 in the areas of choriocarcinoma but found instead a loss of Xp11.3-pter. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a CGH comparison of the adenocarcinomatous and choriocarcinomatous tumor parts in a nongestational choriocarcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 10.39205795327keywords = neoplasm, cancer (Clic here for more details about this article) |