Expression and Clinical Utility of Transcription Factors Involved in Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition during Thyroid Cancer Progression.

The transcription factors involved in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT-TFs) silence the genes expressed in epithelial cells (e.g., E-cadherin) while inducing those typical of mesenchymal cells (e.g., vimentin). The core set of EMT-TFs comprises Zeb1, Zeb2, Snail1, Snail2, and Twist1. To date, information concerning their expression profile and clinical utility during thyroid cancer (TC) progression is still incomplete. We evaluated the EMT-TF, E-cadherin, and vimentin mRNA levels in 95 papillary TC (PTC) and 12 anaplastic TC (ATC) tissues and correlated them with patients' clinicopathological parameters. Afterwards, we corroborated our findings by analyzing the data provided by a case study of the TGCA network. Compared with normal tissues, the expression of E-cadherin was found reduced in PTC and more strongly in ATC, while the vimentin expression did not vary. Among the EMT-TFs analyzed, Twist1 seems to exert a prominent role in EMT, being significantly associated with a number of PTC high-risk clinicopathological features and upregulated in ATC. Nonetheless, in the multivariate analysis, none of the EMT-TFs displayed a prognostic value. These data suggest that TC progression is characterized by an incomplete EMT and that Twist1 may represent a valuable therapeutic target warranting further investigation for the treatment of more aggressive thyroid cancers.

Appendiceal abscess in a giant left-sided inguinoscrotal hernia: a rare case of Amyand hernia.

The hernia of Amyand is an inguinal hernia containing the appendix in the sac. It is a rare pathology often diagnosed only intra-operatively. We report a case even more rare of a giant left-sided inguinoscrotal Amyand hernia with appendiceal abscess without clinical findings of incarceration/strangulation, occlusion, perforation, or acute scrotum and with the presence in the sac of the caecum and other anatomical structures (last ileal loops, bladder and omentum). The 68-years-old man patient successfully underwent surgical treatment only through the hernia sac (meshless repair according to Postempski technique).

Long-term survival and recurrences after total nerve-sparing surgery for rectal cancer.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: In advanced extraperitoneal rectal cancer Japanese surgeons perform the lateral pelvic nodal dissection with only partial pelvic autonomic nerves preservation; instead most Western surgeons prefer the total mesorectal excision (TME) with complete pelvic nerve sparing except for evident neoplastic nervous involvement. Long-term oncological results of the total nerve-sparing TME are reported. METHODOLOGY: From January 1992 to October 1998 71 [corrected] patients with extraperitoneal rectal carcinoma underwent TME with total nerve sparing except in two cases in which only a partial sparing was possible because of macroscopic neoplastic nervous infiltration: 54 anterior resections and 17 abdominoperineal resections were performed. Sixty-one curatively operated patients (9 stage I, 20 stage II, 29 stage III and 3 stage IV) were included. RESULTS: No postoperative death occurred. Postoperative radiochemotherapy was performed in 31 cases, radiotherapy in 9 cases and chemotherapy in 9 cases. The mean follow-up was 98.7 months. The 5-year overall and disease-free survival rates were 88.8% and 77.7%, 90% and 75.1%, 62.3% and 45% for stage I, II and III respectively. The 8-year actuarial overall and disease-free survival rates were 77.7% and 77.7%, 78.3% and 75.1%, 50.4% and 40% for stage I, II and III respectively. Local failures with or without distant metastases were 6 (9.8%). CONCLUSIONS: Total nerve-sparing surgery is not contraindicated unless grossly neoplastic involvement is present.

Stapled hemorrhoidectomy: surgical notes and results.

Recently the surgical treatment of hemorrhoids using a circular stapler device has gained increasing approval. The Longo's procedure reduces the rectal mucosal and hemorrhoid prolapse using a circular stapler to resect transversally a mucosal-submucosal rectal ring in order to restore the correct anatomical relationships of the anal canal structures. The recent availability of a dedicated instrument kit (PPH01 Ethicon Endo-Surgery) allowed an easy diffusion of this technique. From March 1999 to September 2001, 198 patients with III-IV degree hemorrhoids were treated by a single expert surgeon using the dedicated kit instrumentation (PPH01) according to the Longo's technique, adopting some variations from the original procedure: 1) The anal dilator is not fixed to the perianal skin with forceps or stitches but is kept by the assistant. 2) In performing the purse-string suture particular care must be given to the apposition of the stitches at the same level also in the posterolateral side where there is a natural trend to apply the stitches at a lower level; furthermore the last stitch of the purse-string suture must be overlapped to the first one in order to allow a better hemostasis when the knot is tightened. 3) After having performed the purse-string and having resected the mucosa and submucosa, an accurate hemostasis with U-shaped 3/0 vicryl stitches firmly reduces the postoperative bleeding. We recorded pain scores, short- and long-term complications (included moderate-severe pain, persistent pain), recurrences and postoperative hospital stay. The data of the last 40 consecutive patients who underwent stapled hemorrhoidectomy were compared with the data obtained by 40 consecutive patients who underwent Milligan-Morgan diathermic hemorrhoidectomy for III-IV degree non-circumferential hemorrhoids by the same surgeon. In the 198 stapled hemorrhoidectomy cases the rate of postoperative moderate-severe pain and persistent pain were 6% and 2.5% respectively, the rate of short-term and long-term bleeding were 4.5% and 3.5%, the recurrence rate was 2.5%. The mean postoperative stay was 1.6 days. The stapled group had significantly lower postoperative moderate-severe pain, bleeding and soiling than the Milligan-Morgan group.

Histopathological features and clinical course of the gastrointestinal stromal tumors.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: C-kit expression is a sensitive marker for a specific group of mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, the histogenesis and prognosis of which are uncertain. METHODOLOGY: We have investigated the expression of c-kit by immunohistochemical analysis (APAAP method) in 12 out of 13 cases of mesenchymal gastrointestinal neoplasms operated from January 1991 to December 1998, in which the follow-up data were fully available. Furthermore, the c-kit expression was correlated both with the expression of vimentin, CD34 and the mitotic rate, and with the expression of muscle (muscle-specific actin-HHF35 and desmin) or neural (neuron-specific enolase) differentiation markers. RESULTS: C-kit was expressed in all 12 cases (100%). Two different patterns of expression were observed: cytoplasmic in 7 (58.3%) cases and nuclear in 3 (25%) cases; in 2 (16.7%) cases both cytoplasmic and nuclear immunostaining was detected. Three (60%) out of the five cases showing a nuclear c-kit expression were also neuron-specific enolase positive, whereas none of the cases showing an exclusively cytoplasmic c-kit expression was neuron-specific enolase positive. The correlation between the two patterns of c-kit expression and the follow-up data have shown a trend towards a better prognosis in gastrointestinal stromal tumors with a nuclear c-kit immunostaining and neuron-specific enolase positivity, but the relatively low number of cases does not allow us to draw conclusions. In gastrointestinal stromal tumors the mitotic rate (> 2 x 10 HPF vs. < 2 x 10 HPF) is related with statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) to the 5-year survival (0% vs. 80%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: These findings, together with the already known c-kit nuclear immunostaining in normal adrenal medullary cells, suggest that a nuclear c-kit expression in gastrointestinal stromal tumors is consistent with a neural differentiation. In this study the mitotic rate has demonstrated a significant influence on the prognosis of gastrointestinal stromal tumors.