Extraorbital tumefactive fibroinflammatory lesions, idiopathic pseudotumors of the central skull base and sclerosing cervicitis: distinct or sole lesion?

To explore whether the terms: "Tumefactive Fibroinflammatory Lesion [TFIL]", "Idiopathic Pseudotumors [IPT]"and "Sclerosing Cervicitis [SC]" represent a single or separate clinico-pathologic entities. Literature review for the non malignant infiltrative lesions of the head and neck involving the central skull base. Orbital lesions were excluded. PubMed search using combinations of the following terms: pseudotumor, fibroinflammatory, non infective, non neoplastic, sclerosing, cervicitis, neck and skull base. Comparison of the definitions, incidences, etiologic factors, tissues of origin, routes of growth, clinical pictures, radiologic and histopathologic features, treatment modalities and outcomes of the cases reported under the three terms. Thirty five articles were identified describing: twenty six cases of cervical Idiopathic Pseudotumors [IPT] involving the central skull base and not originating from the orbit, eight cases of Sclerosing Cervicitis and 16 cases of Tumefactive Fibroinflammatory Lesions of the head and neck. The comparison showed that the clinical, radiologic, and pathologic findings of the "Tumefactive Fibroinflammatory Lesions", "Sclerosing cervicitis" and "Idiopathic Pseudotumors" are undistinguishable. All three lesions are steroid responsive with frequent remissions and exacerbations. Surgical treatment is followed by the lowest incidence of recurrence, yet it is not feasible in every case. The terms Tumefactive Fibroinflammatory Lesions, Sclerosing Cervicitis and Idiopathic [or inflammatory] Pseudotumors describe the same clinico-pathologic entity. The role of surgery in treating those lesions reaching the skull base is limited, secondary to their infiltrative growth

Towards a nanobiosensing of oral cancers using targeted plasmonic gold

Nanoparticles [NP] are characterized by unique optical properties. Their enhanced light scattering and absorption added to their size scale make them well suited for molecular imaging of cancers. Noble metals, especially gold nanoparticles, strongly absorb light in the visible and the near infrared and hold the greatest potential in cancer diagnosis. Bioconjugation of gold nanoparticles with monoclonal antibodies against the epidermal growth factor receptor [EGFR] efficiently targets epithelial precancers and cancers. A high level of EGFR expression is known to be associated with aggressiveness and poor prognosis of epithelial cancers. Epithelial tumor constituting the vast majority of oral malignancies, and the oral cavity being accessible for endoscopy and laser light, we pretend that the oral lesions will be between the primary sites amenable for the application of these new diagnostic tools. In this work, we explored whether the previously reported individual cell microspectoroscopic changes [SPR red shift] occurring upon incubation of targeted gold nanoparticles with cancerous cells will occur when the suspensions of cancer cells are treated similarly. Our results were not identical to the previous ones. This may be due to dilution of the targeted nanoparticles in the cell culture media. Further work is needed to define the size, shape, and the concentration of the nanoparticles before these materials are used in efficient nanobiosensing of oral cancers