Primary Cervical Carcinosarcoma: Report of a Rare Case.

Background Carcinosarcomas are malignant mixed Müllerian tumors (MMMT), containing both epithelial and mesenchymal components. Carcinosarcomas of the uterine cervix comprise an extremely rare histopathological entity, with less than 150 cases reported in the literature to date. Materials and Methods A 79-year-old postmenopausal female patient was referred to our gynecological department due to a pelvic mass and vaginal bleeding. A cervical curettage was performed and the histological report revealed a malignant neoplasm with high cellularity consisting of two components; the first was a chondrosarcoma and the latter a adenocarcinoma. A diagnosis of MMMT was confirmed through immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy were implemented, and a year later the patient underwent a radical hysterectomy and oncological pelvic lymph node dissection. She remains disease-free 12 months postoperatively. Conclusion Primary cervical carcinosarcomas are extremely rare tumors demonstrating a bipartite profile. Preoperative diagnosis with appropriate immunochemistry testing of this rare entity is crucial to decision making.

Sudden death after myocardial infarction in a high-school athlete.

This is an unusual case of ischemic heart disease occurring in a young female athlete, aged 14 years, in whom almost the entire posterior wall of the left ventricle was affected. The patient collapsed and died suddenly after a vigorous physical activity while resting at home. The ischemic lesion was apparently owing to right orifice stenosis in association with a small hypoplastic right coronary artery.

c-erbB-2 and the "triple-state" in early breast carcinomas.

Although c-erbB-2 expression is, in general terms, an ominous prognostic indicator in breast carcinomas, there are suggestions that lack of this oncogene, when combined with analogous lack of estrogen (ER negative) and progesterone receptors (PgR negative)-"triple-negative phenotype", is linked with an equally poor prognosis. We investigated this hypothesis in a series of early ductal breast carcinomas. A total of 116 specimens with early breast cancer, defined as tumors of < or =2 cm in size and clinically negative axilla, were studied immunohistochemically for ER, PgR, and c-erbB-2 expression. The median follow-up was 131 months (range 62-245 months). ER positive tumors had a favorable clinical course, compared to ER negative neoplasms, but only for the first 10 years of follow-up (P = 0.04). Prognosis was poorer for the PgR negative cases, relative to PgR positive tumors (P = 0.005), but this stood true for the entire investigation period. Triple-negative breast carcinomas had a poor prognosis, while triple-positive tumors had a favorable outcome. However, if triple-positive and triple-negative cases were excluded from the original sample, the remaining c-erbB-2 positive cases were connected with poor prognosis, relative to the remaining c-erbB-2 negative tumors. c-erbB-2 oncogene has a complex biological role in early breast carcinomas for its expression characterizes subgroups of patients with both favorable (triple-positive phenotype) and unfavorable prognosis (c-erb-B2 positive cases after excluding triple-positive and triple-negative tumors)-a phenomenon presumably due to activation of different biological pathways. Elucidation of these pathways may determine subgroups of patients with tumors requiring different targeted agents.

Enterobius Vermicularis infection of the appendix as a cause of acute appendicitis in a Greek adolescent: a case report.

Gastrointestinal infection due to Enterobius vermicularis occurs worldwide and is considered to be the most common helminth infection. The simple presence of E. vermicularis in the appendix usually produces symptoms of acute appendicitis. The association of this parasitic infestation with acute appendicitis varies from 0.2%-41.8% worldwide. We present a case of a 15 year old female with enterobiasis of appendix presented with clinical features of acute appendicitis. The appendix was surgically removed and the specimen was pathologically diagnosed to contain of E. vermicularis in non-inflamed and histologically normal appendix. Even if this condition is not uncommon in the Greek population, to the best of our knowledge this is the first report presented in the English literature.