Detection of DNA adducts in human nasal mucosa tissue by 32P-postlabeling analysis.

Nasal epithelium is an easily accessible tissue that is potentially useful for human biomonitoring studies aimed at evaluating exposure to airborne carcinogens. We have devised a simple technique, which causes minimum distress to the informed patient, to obtain very small but sufficient biopsies from the inferior or middle turbinate head. DNA adducts were measured by 32P-postlabeling assay in nasal mucosa of nine cigarette smokers (including two subjects who had given up smoking shortly before sampling), two former smokers and 10 non-smoker healthy donors. None of the subjects reported other recent exposures to mutagens or carcinogens. Using the nuclease P1 technique, a mean adduct level of 4.8/10(8) bases and a specific spot pattern, the diagonal radioactive zone, were found in smokers, whereas non-smokers showed a significantly lower global level of DNA adducts, i.e. 1.4/10(8) bases, and no diagonal zone. Another important result was the presence of a significant association between DNA adduct level and the number of cigarettes smoked daily. These preliminary findings suggest that the level of DNA adducts measured from biopsies of the nasal mucosa is a reliable marker of exposure to cigarette smoking and uphold its use in biomonitoring exposures to other airborne DNA binding compounds.

[Anterior craniofacial resection in the treatment of malignant nasal-paranasal sinus tumors with intracranial extension]. / La resezione cranio-facciale anteriore nel trattamento dei tumori maligni rino-sinusali ad estensione endocranica.

Nasal and paranasal sinus tumors extending through the cribriform plate to the overlying dura of the frontal lobe can be successfully treated by anterior craniofacial resection. During the period from 1986 to 1990, 14 patients (11 males, 3 females, age 18-67) with nasal/paranasal tumors extended to the nasal basis underwent craniofacial resection. From a histological point of view these patients were classified as follows: --8 adenocarcinomas --2 squamous cell carcinomas --2 esthesioneuroblastomas --1 cylindroma --1 haemangiopericytoma. In 6 of the 14 patients post-operative complications were encountered, 3 being resolved. Radical surgery was realised in 12 cases; post-operative radiotherapy was performed in 7. No contraindications were found because of previous chemo- and/or radiotherapy, even if it had been performed as treatment. Four of the patients died because of recurrences between the 6th and 20th month after surgery; 5 patients (all adenocarcinoma subjects) are disease-free respectively 8, 16, 17, 22 and 24 months after surgery.

Topographic classification, clinical characteristics, and diagnostic delay of cancer of the larynx/hypopharynx in Torino, Italy.

The case series of a population-based case-control study of laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers in Torino, Italy, included 281 men with clinical and anamnestic data. Two hundred fifteen, 28, and 38 cancers originated from the endolarynx, epilarynx, and hypopharynx, respectively. Regions invaded by the tumor were divided into 26 subsites. A classification based on the number of invaded subsites was proposed, which agreed well with the T classification of the TNM system. Cancers originating from the hypopharynx invaded more subsites than cancers from the endolarynx, and among the latter, supraglottic were more invasive than glottic lesions. The number of invaded subsites was strongly associated with nodal involvement. Among symptoms at onset of disease and at diagnosis, patients with endolaryngeal lesions reported dysphonia and dyspnea more frequently, and patients with lesions from other regions had a higher prevalence of dysphagia, odynophagia, otalgia, and adenopathia. Clinical and epidemiologic results of this study suggest considering the endolarynx, epilarynx, and hypopharynx as separate anatomic entities. Diagnostic delay was not associated with tumor size and showed a negative trend with involvement of cervical lymph nodes, suggesting that stage at diagnosis is due to intrinsic differences in tumor aggressiveness.

Angioma of the iris.

The clinical and anatomopathological features of angioma of the iris are described and the relevant literature is briefly reviewed. A personal case in a 47-year-old woman is presented. Reference is made to the fact that, unlike many of the cases in the literature, histological confirmation of the diagnosis was obtained. Mention is also made of the importance of fluorescein angiography in the differential diagnosis of other forms, particularly melanoma. Fluorescein angiography, for the first time applied to angioma of the iris in the present case, enabled a satisfactory result (follow-up of 8 months) to be obtained by conservative iridectomy, in line with the recent approach to the management of this form.