Mature retroperitoneal teratoma in adult [Two cases report and litterature review]

Retroperitoneal teratomas are rare tumours in adults. We report two cases of primitif mature retroperitoneal teratoma. The first, a 60-year-old woman was with general fatigue and being treated for acute pyelonephritis. The second patient, 30-year-old woman, presented with 2 years history of right hypochondral pains. The clinical exam found a mass of right hypochondrium. In both cases, the initial diagnosis with sonography and computed tomography suspected a retroperitoneal teratoma. The treatment consisted of a total tumoral excision. The follow-up was simple and no recurrence after 60 and 24 months respectively. The anathomopathologic exam concluded with a teratoma without signs from malignity in both cases. We conclude that teratoma is a rare tumour, which need histological examination to confirm diagnosis and seek an immature composent, sign of malignancy

Malignant paraganglioma of the organ of Zukerkandl

The authors report the case of a patient operated on 1999 because of a paraganglioma of the Zukerkandl's organ. The diagnosis of the paraganglioma has been based on the analysis of the resected piece. Thirty-one months later, she developed medullar compression. The diagnosis of the malignant paraganglioma is confirmed in front of the presence on cromaffin tissue at the level of the affected vertebra. This case illustrates the diagnostic difficulty of this type of tumour before surgery as well as to establish immediate prognosis of this affection. The authors emphasise in this occasion the necessity of a prolonged supervision in order to screen the superview of recurrence or metastases in this localisation known to be malignant in more than the half of the cases

Study of the plasma level of the angiogenic peptide "basic fibroblast growth factor" [bFGF] in breast ductal carcinoma

Angiogenesis is essential for the growing tumor delivering blood born nutrients to the tumor cells that promote their survival, proliferation and then their metastatic potential. In the present study, plasma levels of the angiogenic peptide, basic fibroblast growth factor [bFGF] was measured in twenty-five females, fourteen of them with primary breast ductal carcinoma, and in eleven normal female subjects of comparable age and socioeconomic status as the patients. A significant increase in bFGF was found in cancer group than controls. Basic FGF plasma levels in cancer patients were correlated with age, menopausal state, tumor size, pathological stage, grade, number of lymph nodes involved, estrogen and progesterone receptors and the extent of angiogenesis as measured by counting microvessel density using F VIII immunohistochemical staining. Vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF], which is another angiogenic growth factor, has been evaluated in breast tissue and was found to be increased in malignant tissue than normal breast tissue. VEGF was also measured in the plasma of control subjects and some patients having the highest values of bFGF. There was a relative increase in the plasma VEGF levels in patients than controls. There was a positive correlation between VEGF in the plasma and tissues and between them and the plasma bFGF levels in the studied patients. There was a signifiant increase in the plasma level of bFGF and older patient's age, smaller tumor size and pathologic stage as well as estrogen receptors positivity. These findings confirm that the plasma bFGF could be an important regulator of human breast cancer growth and that patients with high levels of bFGF had better prognosis