Demographic characteristics and prognostic factors in pediatric-type sarcomas; A 7 year single institutional experience and comprehensive review of the current literature

Background: due to limited clinical data in pediatric-type sarcomas [rhabdomyosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, PNET, and desmoplastic small round-cell tumor], the aim of this study was to evaluate the demographic characteristics and identifying prognostic factors for survival

Materials and Methods: we retrospectively reviewed 110 patients with pediatric-type sarcomas. Overall and disease free survival was analyzed with the Kaplan-Meier method and log rank test. To identify prognostic factors for overall and disease free survival, multivariate survival analyses using a Cox's proportional-hazard regression model was performed

Results: in this study mean age of patients were 20.30 years [SD=13.61; range, 1-83 years]. The survival data of 54 patients [49.1%] were obtained with median survival of 27 months. 3 and 5-year survival rate of these patients were 41.5% and 28.3% respectively. Recurrence of disease [P=0.006] and Ewing sarcoma subtype [P=0.018] were significantly associated with poor overall survival and location of the lesion in the upper extremities [P=0.007] and trunk [P=0.005] were significantly associated with a lower disease free survival

Conclusion: with multivariate analysis, the authors determined that recurrence of disease and Ewing's sarcoma subtype are poor prognostic factors for overall survival and site of origin for disease free survival among patients with pediatric-type sarcoma. In addition, gender, patient's age, and size of tumor had no significant impact on overall and disease free survival

Topical betamethasone for the prevention of acute radiation dermatitis in breast cancer patients

Acute radiation dermatitis is a very common side effect of radiation therapy in large numbers of cancers including breast cancer. Despite high prevalence rate of acute radiation dermatitis and also wet desquamation, a few trials on prophylaxis of this complication using topical treatment have been conducted. Despite effectiveness of topical corticosteroids in treatment of acute radiation dermatitis which are focused in the literature, yet there are some controversy about their usage in this regard. For this reason we attempted to investigate this subject via conducting a clinical trial. Materials and This trial included 76 patients with pathologic diagnosis of breast cancer for whom radiotherapy has been planned. Patients were 27-70 years old. Patients with radical mastectomy received 5000 cGy within 5 weeks, and those with conservative surgery received 6000 cGy within 6 weeks divided in 200 centigray fractions. Patients were divided randomly into two groups, betamethasone and placebo, 38 patients in each group. In placebo group, 3 patients did not attend for weekly assessment. Additional one patient did not refer during follow-up period. Thus, they were excluded from the study. One group was given betamethasone 0.1% and other group was administered base of ointment as placebo.All patients consumed drug or placebo from the 1st day of treatment until one week after treatment completion as twice daily within tangential field. Patients were monitored for assessing dermatitis severity and its symptoms and also possible drug adverse effects one week after the therapy commenced and afterwards by one-week intervals as well as in an appointed day. Three weeks after termination of therapy, patients were also visited, and each examination provided information about dermatologic complications which were registered in the questionnaire. Mean times development of dermatitis in both betamethasone and placebo groups were 3.2500 and 2.2571 [weeks] respectively [t=-3.898, p

Intramuscular hemangioma of the forearm; Report of a case

A case of intramuscular hemangioma of the right forearm and hand muscle is presented in this study. This tumor may infiltrate the muscle and be misdiagnosed as a malignant neoplasm. The patient, a 14-year-old girl, presented to the clinic with right forearm and hand pain and swelling which began when she was 2 years old and had been gradually increasing in size. Because the mass might have been malignant, in 1990 a biopsy was performed. Histologic analysis revealed a benign intramuscular hemangioma. A second biopsy at 1992 reported intramuscular hemangioma, mixed type again. She had not received any other treatment. She was seen in March 2003 when the size of the mass had increased and was associated with a dull ache and swelling limited hand movements. The patient subsequently received radiotherapy