[Castleman's disease: a case report]. / Malattia di castleman. Contributo clinico.

Castlemans disease (CD) was described from Benjamin Castleman in 1954. The disease today is enumerated among lymphoproliferative disorders and has unknown etiology, but a interleukin-6 (IL-6) dysregulation and a reaction to viral antigens (HHV8) especially in patients with immunodeficiency is suspected. It is observed in adult and young people, in male or female with equal frequency; the appearance in childhood is extremely rare. The disease shows various clinical and histological pictures, with a localized type (involvement of one lymph node group) described more frequently than the multicentric one. Histological examination distinguish a "hyaline-vascular type" that represents approximately the 91%, a plasma cell type" that represents approximately the 9% has an aggressive clinical outcome, and the "mixed types". Initial symptoms are nearly absent, but not for the plasma cell type. We describe the clinical case of a female patient 21 years old. She reached our observation in May 1999, referring us for pelvic pains and amenorrhoea from four years. During 1996 she underwent to a laparoscopy that diagnosed an endometrial cyst on left ovary. A year later a new retroperitoneal mass was discovered and a second laparoscopy was performed with a little partial excision of the tumor. In our Institute the us and the TC showed a retroperitoneal mass of 4.5 cm of diameter, next to the uterus and the iliac left vessels. The patient underwent surgical laparotomic excision and histological examination showed hyaline vascular type of CD. Three years after surgery the patient is still free of any symptoms.

[Breast carcinoma in pregnancy: a clinical case]. / Carcinoma della mammella in gravidanza: caso clinico.

Breast cancer is a rare, but frequently hidden pathology. A woman, 36 years old, during the early months of pregnancy found a little tumor in her right breast. A fine needle biopsy was negative for cancer. Despite this, the tumor rose and two months after delivery (the patient breast-fed her daughter for a month), she had pain in the right axillary region and the tumors involved all superior dials of the right breast. A Madden mastectomy was performed. The histopathological report was: ductal invasive breast cancer 3 of 19 lymph nodes involved, stage IIIA, TNM pT3N2M0, ER -, PgR +--. Chemotherapeutic regimens were: at first ADM 75 mg/m2 for 5 cycles, and after CMF 1-8 for 6 cycles. After six months the woman had a cutaneous recurrence in the scar of mastectomy, treated with surgery and RT. Thirteen months after, she had lung MTS and then brain MTS. The patient died thirty months after the mastectomy. The surgeons have to discover the women high-risk for the breast cancer before and during the pregnancy. Excisional biopsy is the diagnostic procedure of choice for breast lump during pregnancy. When a breast cancer develops during a pregnancy, the surgeon has to operate immediately the tumors. Chemotherapeutic regimens should be delayed until the second o third trimester or after delivery.

[Ileal and axillary metastasis of primary unknown site melanoma. Clinical case]. / Metastasi ileale ed ascellare da melanoma primitivo a sede ignota. Caso clinico.

The incidence of Cutaneous Melanoma is 4-5% of all the tumors of the skin. This incidence increases several folds in the last years. Metastases of Melanoma involve lungs, skin, soft tissue, liver, bone, brain, but in 20-30% of the patients involve gastrointestinal (GI) tract. In 60-70% of the cases GI metastases involve small bowel, in 15-20% stomach, in 10-20% large bowel, in 5% esophagus. In 8% of the patients the primary cutaneous melanoma is not known. The prognosis of the patients with metastatic melanoma is poor with an average survival of 5 months. One patient male, 51 years old, underwent surgery for metastases from melanoma in the lymph nodes of the right axilla and in the gastrointestinal tract (ileum). An ileo-ileo anastomosis and a lymphoadenectomy of the nodes of the right axilla were performed. After a first chemotherapy with DTIC (800 mg/m2) + a-IFN(3MU three times every week) and another with CDDP (30 mg/m2 day 1-3), DTIC (250 mg/m2 day 1-3) and VDS (2.5 mg/m2 day 1) with no response, the patient was treated with chemo-immunotherapy sec. Bernengo, slightly modified: CDDP 75 mg/m2; IL-2 18 MU (9MU b.d.) day 3-6 and 17-21; a-IFN 5MU three times every week. This therapy had a partial response of short-course (three months) and the patient died 15 months after surgery. The authors hope that immunotherapy and genetic therapy improve the survival of the patients with metastatic melanoma in the next years.

[Liposarcoma in the submandibular region. Clinical case]. / Liposarcoma della regione sottomandibolare. Caso clinico.

The authors report a case of liposarcoma in the sub-mandibular region, and they describe the histological species and the way of spreading. They suggest a surgical, non-demolitional therapy, that they carried radical if it is related to a strict follow-up. Anatomical and functional results, after demolishing surgical therapy, are sometimes unacceptable if the real benefits in terms of survival are considered. No supporting therapy has been used because of the presumed insensibility of the neoplasm to the chemo-radiotherapeutic treatments. At 2 years from surgical treatment no local relapses, on distance metastasis have been related.

Photon emission from normal and tumor human tissues.

Photon emission in the visible and near ultraviolet range by samples of human tissue removed during surgery has been measured by means of a low noise photomultiplier coupled to a data acquisition system. The results show that among the 25 analyzed samples the 9 from normal tissues had an emission rate of the order of some tens of photons/cm2 min, while most of the 16 tumor tissue samples had a very much higher rate.