Asymmetry of normal mandibular condylar shape.

Morphological studies of the facial skeleton in human beings are usually made from radiographs (frontal and lateral projections and orthopantomographs). The conventional linear and angular measurements provide quantitative information only about size, and fail to define the shape and form of the skeletal features and their variations. Mathematical methods such as the Fourier series allow a correct quantitative analysis of the shape and its variations. The outlines of the mandibular condyles in the orthopantomographs of 20 men and 20 women (mean age 29 years) were traced and digitized. All subjects had a good dentition, no temporomandibular joint problems, and were referred to a dental surgery for periodontal problems. A Fourier analysis of the outlines was performed. Fourier coefficients and reconstructed outlines were compared to analyze the condylar symmetry of shape on an intra- and intersubject basis. A significant condylar asymmetry for shape as distinct from size was found on an intrasubject basis, i.e. the left and right condyles of a single individual had a different shape with a large interindividual variability. Conversely, the mean condyle shape of the male and female groups was symmetric.

Temporomandibular joint dysfunction and flat lateral guidances: a clinical association.

Temporomandibular joint alterations have been associated with abnormal mandibular movements in the open/close cycles and in the laterotrusive border movements. The quantitative analysis of these movements could allow a better or earlier diagnosis for patients and offer some insight into the pathophysiology of the disorder. Maximum opening and mandibular laterotrusive border movements were studied and measured in a group of 165 patients with a considerable lateral deviation (equal to or greater than 5mm) in maximum opening. Movements were directly performed by the patients and recorded with a mandibular kinesiography. The slope of the lateral guidance (frontal plane projection) was measured in the first millimeters of motion and started from the maximum intercuspal position. On average, slopes were significantly flatter on the same side with the opening deviation. These slopes were significantly flatter than previously published physiologic ranges, whereas contralateral slopes were similar to normal references. The results may be explained by a correlation between the insufficient lateral protection and a temporomandibular mandibular joint dysfunction (ipsilateral low mobility).

Calcification of the stylohyoid ligament: incidence and morphoquantitative evaluations.

To study the incidence of calcification of the stylohyoid ligament, 286 orthopantomographs were analyzed. All patients had no symptoms. The total incidence of calcification was noted to be high, at 84.4%. The number and the length of calcifications increased with age, and there was no relationship to sex or mandibular size. The phenomenon is often evident bilaterally. The variety of results reported in the references depends on different criteria in radiographic evaluation and in patient selection.

[Osseointegrated implants. Core-Vent and Screw-Vent]. / Impianti osteointegrati. Core-Vent e Screw-Vent.

51 variously edentolous patients have been treated by placing 143 Core-Vent and Screw-Vent osteointegrated implants. The follow-up ranges from 8 to 20 months. Just one implant was removed. The Authors explain their surgical method and their considerations about the two different kinds of implants. Some clinical cases are reported.

[Computerized dosimetry in curie therapy]. / Dosimetria computerizzata in curieterapia.

Automatic treatment planning for calculation of absorbed dose in curietherapy has been performed at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milano on a routine for some years. The radioactive implant is reconstructed from orthogonal or stereo-roentgenograms, a tabular listing of doses or dose rates can be obtained on the grid of points and the isodose curves are automatically drawn with the projection of sources onto the selected planes of calculation by an interactive plotter.

VBM chemotherapy before curietherapy in the treatment of T2 oral carcinomas.

According to previous personal experience with conventional 226-Ra sources, in T2 oral carcinomas treated with curietherapy alone the incidence of local failures was 23%. Moreover, 50% of the local relapses were marginal with respect to the treated volume. From May 1980 to November 1981, 29 T2 oral carcinomas suitable for correct curietherapy received 3 weekly courses of VBM chemotherapy: i.e., vincristine, 1 mg i.v.; bleomycin, 15 mg i.m. after 6 and 24 h; and methotrexate, 30 mg p.o. after 48 h. A full dose curietherapy was performed 2 weeks after the completion of VBM. Twenty-seven patients have had a minimum follow-up of 12 months. The overall treatment was well tolerated and immediate results were encouraging. However, the local failure rate does not seem to have decreased by the combined treatment in comparison with curietherapy alone in historical series.

Radiotherapy versus surgery in the treatment of cervix stage Ib cancer.

In the years 1971-77 we have treated 250 Stage Ib patients with cancers of the cervix. One hundred twenty-three (49.2%) underwent a radical surgery, 37 had a classical Wertheim-Meigs operation, and 86 had a lymphadenectomy that was extended to the lumbar-aortic region. When feasible, all patients received postoperative radium therapy on the vaginal vault. The remaining 127 patients received a complete course of radiotherapy. This was not a randomized clinical trial. In fact surgery was preferred for patients who were younger (mean age: 49.6 years) and more physically fit, while radiotherapy was the treatment chosen for those who were older (mean age: 57.7) and generally less fit or obese. The 5 year NED survival was 89.3% in the surgical group and 90.9% in the radiotherapy group (P less than .05). Four fatal complications were observed in the surgical group (3.2%). Rate and causes of failures or complications are analyzed in detail.

[Modern technics of intracavitary curietherapy of cervical carcinoma]. / Moderne tecniche di curieterapia endocavitaria del carcinoma cervicale.

The authors set out the technical innovations which are being used to comply with the three classical aims of endocavitary curietherapy for cervical cancer: the personalization of the irradiation device, protection of staff against exposure risks due to ionizing radiations, planning and control of the irradiation conditions. The personalization of the irradiation device is achieved by preparing a specially shaped vaginal applicator for each patient, and staff protection is ensured by the use of remote-loading techniques and closed circuit television control for in-patients. The planning of the treatments answers to the logic of reproducing the usual curie therapy method with conventional radium-226 sources. In order to control the irradiation conditions, at least the essential part of the treatments must be recognized and expressed: equivalent radium milligrams per hour (MRA h), dose rate (Gy h-1), dimensions of the treated volume and space distribution of the dose.

Radiotherapy as initial treatment for carcinomas of tonsillar region.

For this study we have reviewed 186 carcinomas of the tonsillar region, i.e., the lateral wall of the oropharynx, treated from January 1959 to December 1973 at this Institute. In 148 patients (79.6%) the primary tumor and the lymphatic areas were treated with 60Co-teletherapy (TCT). In 15 cases (8.1%) the primary lesion was removed by transoral surgery, followed by irradiation of the tonsillar region and lymphatic areas with TCT. In 23 patients (12.3%) the primary tumor was treated with interstitial curietherapy, after which a radical homolateral neck dissection was performed on 10 of them; the neck was not treated in the remaining 13 cases, initially N0. As far as the case initially treated with TCT alone are concerned, disease-free survival at 5 years was 42.5% for T1 cases and under 30% for T2, T3, whereas it was only 6.5% for T4. The most frequent failure cause of TCT was local relapse, isolated or associated with a nodal relapse. Local failures were nearly always central. On the contrary, if the field extension was adequate, there were very few nodal failures, at least in initially N0 or N1 cases. Our study recommends a revision of the current attitude towards the treatment of carcinomas of the tonsillar region.

Results of 60Co-teletherapy in oral cancer.

Our study reports 282 oral cancer cases treated with 60Co-teletherapy (TCT), taken from 736 oral carcinomas treated with radiotherapy on the primary tumor from January 1959 to December 1970. They were mainly locally advanced cases which often had regional node involvement. In fact, during that period, the more advanced cases were submitted to TCT. There were only 9 (3.2%) patients with T1 lesions, while there were 134 (47.5%) T2 and 139 (49.3%) T3, T4 cases; there were respectively 106 (37.6%) and 44 (15.6%) N1 or N2 and N3 cases. Almost half of the patients were greater than or equal to 66 years old at onset of the treatment (138/282 cases, or 47.2%); the women were a small minority (18/282, or 6.4%). There were 58 (20.6%) carcinomas of the mucosal surface of the cheeks, 60 cases arising from the retromolar areas, the upper-lower alveolar processes and the hard palate (21.3%), 72 carcinomas of the mobile portion of the tongue (25.5%) and 92 arising from the floor of the mouth (32.6%). All the patients considered in the study were treated with conventional techniques by doses, field dimensions and fractionation. The overall results were objectively disappointing, even though they should be evaluated keeping in mind the nature and the gravity of oral carcinomas submitted to TCT. Actuarial survival at 5 and 10 years from the onset of treatment was respectively 11.6% and 6.4%. None of the N1, N3 cases survived beyond the fourth year from onset of the treatment. Long-term survival differs very little in relation to the site of origin in the oral cavity. Nowadays, TCT alone may have only a palliative role in the treatment of oral cancer, reserving it for those cases which, due to their extreme gravity or the various contraindications, do not permit more aggressive treatments. In a combined therapeutic approach the aim of TCT today is to control the minimum disease foci. Its association with surgery appears to be most effective.

[Evolution of the N0 patients with primary carcinoma of the oral tongue treated by interstitial radiumtherapy (author's transl)]. / Evoluzione di N in 175 carcinomi della porzione mobile della lingua inizialmente N0 e trattati con radiumterapia interstiziale su T.

In a retrospective and not randomized clinical study we have selected 175 cases of squamous carcinoma of the anterior 2/3 of the tongue treated by interstitial radium therapy on the primary from January 1959 to December 1970. At the end of the treatment 64 patients (36.6%) were operated by radical neck dissection in homolateral lymphatic areas and 111 underwent no operation on the neck. The incidence of false negative is 25% (16/64 cases operated) and 3 patients showed lymph nodal and perilymph nodal metastasis (4.7% of the whole number of operated cases). In the following evolution the homolateral lymph nodal relapse are 2 among the 64 operated patients (3.1%) (both were N+) and 36 among the 101 non operated ones of whom a sufficient follow-up is available (greater than or equal to 3 years) (35.6%); in this last group 9 patients initially were T1, 24 were T2, 3 were T3. The data about the clinical evolution and the analysis of survival curves, in the two groups that underwent or not the neck dissection, permit to draw useful parameters for therapeutic planning.

[Clinical value of lymphography in cervical cancer (author's transl)]. / Ruolo della linfografia nel cancro della cervice uterina.

From January 1961 to June 1978, 417 patients with cervical cancer were submitted to lymphangiography as part of the initial diagnostic work-up. As regards the distribution by clinical stage of the cases under consideration, there were 187 cases in Stage Ib (44.8%) 99 in Stage II (23.7%) and 131 in Stage III plus IV (31.5%). For the early stages preference was given to a radical surgery plus pre- or postoperative radiotherapy combination (154/417 patients, or 36.9%). On the contrary, the cases which were more developed locally or which presented contra-indications to surgery received radiological treatment alone (263/417 cases, or 63.1%). The overall incidence of positive examinations was 29.9% (10.7% in Stage Ib; 28.3% in Stage II; 58.7% in Stage III and 60.0% in Stage IV). The histologic type on its own did not seem to influence the incidence of lymph node metastases detectable by lymphography. In the 145 patients who had surgical exploration, the overall diagnostic accuracy of lymphography was 82.8% with 3 false positive and 22 false negative reports. The para-aortic chains were involved in 28/417 patients (6.7%). For the negative cases, with all the stages mixed together, a 74.7% 5-year survival rate free of disease was recorded, as compared with the 34.5% found for the positive cases (P less than 0.0001). Similar differences was recorded stage by stage.

[Radiotherapy of inoperable endometrial adenocarcinoma (author's transl)]. / Radioterapia dell'adenocarcinoma inopeabile dell'endometrio.

In this paper we analyze overall patients affected by inoperable adenocarcinoma of the endometrium, observed and treated with radiotherapy alone at the Milan Cancer Institute from January 1959 to December 1973. A total of 82 cases were collected for this study. Only the Stage IV cases have been excluded, as well as those treated for relapse. Inoperability were derived from various medical contra-indications in 70 patients (F85.4%) and from extrauterine spreading of the tumor in 12 (14.6%). The results achieved by the radiotherapy alone are not to be disregarded. The overall 5-years survival was 38.8% for the total number treated and 40.6% for Stage I and II cases. The most useful irradiation technique for the treatment of the primary tumor proved to be the uterine packing with cobalt-60 radioactive pearls and a 5-years survival of 45.7% was observed in 41 Stage I patients treated in this way. The most disappointing results were registered in Stage III cases (28.6% of 5-years survival). This paper confirms the interest of radiotherapy for the treatment of inoperable endometrial adenocarcinoma.