RESUMO
Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is the most Iethal human helminthic infection. The malignancy-like disease is rare, but morbidity and treatment costs are high. Objective of the study was to identify factors at baseline and during specific AE therapy influencing the long-term outcome of the disease. All patients with AE seen at the specialized treatment unit in Ulm between January 1992 and December 2011 were included in the analysis. The data of 312 patients were analyzed; 108 were diagnosed before 2000 (series A), 204 since 2000 (series B); 290 received specific AE treatment. Patients of series B were more often symptom-free at diagnosis (44.1% vs. 21.3%), had lower disease stages (50.0% vs. 34.2%) and more complete resections (57.7% vs. 20.0%), but higher rates of side effects and drug toxicity (54.1% vs. 40.8%). In series B, more patients remained relapse- or progression-free after 5 years (90.5% vs. 82.8%); after 10 years, the ratio of relapses converged (70.3% vs. 66.9%, p=0.0507). Relapses or progression occurred more often after incomplete surgery or long treatment pauses. The 5-year and 10-year survival rates were 96.9% and 90.6%, respectively, and 17% of the patients were cured. We observed a shift towards early diagnosis, earlier initiation of specific therapy and more complete resections after 2000. Although diagnosis and treatment of AE pose a challenge, with an individual interdisciplinary management 88.8% of the patients have a favorable outcome.
RESUMO
Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) has a heterogeneous clinical course and is mainly an aggressive B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma; however, there are some indolent cases The Ki-67 index, defined by the percentage of Ki-67-positive lymphoma cells on histopathological slides, has been shown to be a very powerful prognostic biomarker. The pathology panel of the European MCL Network evaluated methods to assess the Ki-67 index including stringent counting, digital image analysis, and estimation by eyeballing. Counting of 2 × 500 lymphoma cells is the gold standard to assess the Ki-67 index since this value has been shown to predict survival in prospective randomized trials of the European MCL Network. Estimation by eyeballing and digital image analysis showed a poor concordance with the gold standard (concordance correlation coefficients [CCC] between 0.29 and 0.61 for eyeballing and CCC of 0.24 and 0.37 for two methods of digital image analysis, respectively). Counting a reduced number of lymphoma cells (2 × 100 cells) showed high interobserver agreement (CCC = 0.74). Pitfalls of the Ki-67 index are discussed and guidelines and recommendations for assessing the Ki-67 index in MCL are given.
RESUMO
Clinical outcome of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is highly heterogeneous. Tumor cell proliferation as assessed by the Ki-67 index has been shown to yield prognostic information on MCL in many studies using heterogeneously treated patient cohorts. The prognostic value of the Ki-67 index in patients treated with anti-CD20 therapy has not been studied so far. We analyzed the Ki-67 index at primary diagnosis in 249 advanced-stage MCL patients treated within randomized trials. Ki-67 showed high prognostic relevance for overall survival (relative risk 1.27 for 10% higher Ki-67, P < .001), also independently from clinical prognostic factors. The 3 groups with different Ki-67 index of less than 10%, 10% to less than 30%, and 30% or more showed significantly different overall survival in patients treated with CHOP (P = .001) as well as in patients treated with CHOP in combination with anti-CD20 therapy (R-CHOP, P = .013). Thus, the Ki-67 index remains an important prognostic marker in the era of anti-CD20 therapy. The Euro-pean MCL study is registered at www.ClinicalTrials.gov as #NCT00016887.
