ABSTRACT
The selection of pre-embryos for transferred is based on morphological appearance. But some poor quality cleaved embryos also can be cultured to the blastocyst stage and implanted. To assess the clinical pregnancy outcomes of blastocyst transfer which developed from poor quality embryos. A total of 109 cleaved embryos with poor quality were cultured to day 5/day 6 and 27 [24.8%] blastocysts were collected from the 15 cycles/patients undergoing conventional IVF. All the blastocysts were cooling with fast-freezing. Then the blastocysts were warmed for transfer. All of 25 vitrified blastocysts [92.6%] survived after warming and were transferred to 15 patients. Five of the women became pregnant. Our results suggest that vitrified human day 5/day 6 blastocyst transfer which develop from poor quality embryo at day 3 can contribute to increasing cumulative pregnancy rates in assisted reproduction
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the efficacy and toxicity of neoadjuvant chemotherapy with paclitaxel and carboplatin or cisplatin for patients with locally advanced cervical cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 70 patients with locally advanced cervical cancer were treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy with paclitaxel and carboplatin or cisplatin in our department from July 2007 to May 2010. The stage distribution among the patients included 45 stage IB2, 21 stage IIa, and 4 stage IIb. Of the 70 patients, 6 were G1, 26 were G2, 32 were G3, and the rest 6 patients were not histologically classified. Sixty-five patients had squamous cell carcinoma, 3 had adenocarcinoma, and 2 patients had adenosquamous cell carcinoma. The clinicopathological parameters were analyzed, and their impact on tumor response were investigated.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of the 70 patients, 14 (20.0%) showed a complete response, 37 (52.9%) had a partial response to chemotherapy, making an overall response rate of 72.9%. Sixty-eight (95.7%) patients underwent surgery, and among them 12 (17.1%) pathological CR were identified. Eleven (16.2%) patients were found to have lymph node metastasis after surgery. Response rates of stage Ib2 and IIa patients were 73.7% and 52.3%, respectively, P<0.05. Patients with SCC exhibited a better response rate than patients with adenocarcinoma and adenosquamous cell carcinoma (73.8% vs. 60.0%). Initial tumor volume, histological classification and cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy were not significantly correlated with the response rate.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Paclitaxel and carboplatin or cisplatin regimen is a promising therapy with definite short-term efficacy, can improve the resection rate with tolerable side effects, and is an applicable option of treatment for patients with locally advanced cervical cancer in the neoadjuvant setting.</p>