Cystic Lesions of the Pancreas

With the increasing use of abdominal imaging, cystic lesions of the pancreas are being more frequently detected. These lesions may carry a significant premalignant potential. Current guidelines recommend that mucinous cystic neoplasms, solid pseudopapillary neoplasms, main duct-intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms and branch duct-intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (DB-IPMN) with "high-risk stigmata" for malignancy should be resected while asymptomatic BD-IPMN without mural nodules, no main duct involvement, and a size less than 30 mm can be followed up. Serous cystadenomas carry a very small malignant risk and are usually resected only if they cause symptoms. This review article highlights the common characteristics and recommended management of these cystic lesions of the pancreas.peer-reviewe

Cancer mortality in Portugal

Following Population News, Trends and Attitudes #6 it was possible to identify that, despite circulatory system diseases represent the leading causes of death (COD) in Portugal, the share of deaths caused by neoplasms is increasing with time. Analysing data from 10th International Classification of Diseases available at Statistics Portugal (INE), one can observe that since 2010 mortality associated to neoplasms is the major COD for males. In 2015, males presented almost twice the number of deaths caused by neoplasms when compared to females: 356.0 against 169.9 per 100.000 individuals

Nevus sebaceus with syringocystadenoma papilliferum, prurigo nodularis, apocrine cystadenoma, basaloid follicular proliferation, and sebaceoma: case report and review of nevus sebaceus-associated conditions

Nevus sebaceus is a benign skin hamartoma of congenital onset that grows during puberty, and in adulthood can develop secondary benign and malignant neoplasms. The most common benign neoplasms occurring in nevus sebaceus are believed to be syringocystadenoma papilliferum, trichilemmoma, and trichoblastoma. A patient with nevus sebaceus developed not only syringocystadenoma papilliferum but also prurigo nodularis within her hamartomatous lesion; multiple biopsies were necessary to establish the diagnoses. Excision of the residual nevus sebaceus also revealed an apocrine cystadenoma, basaloid follicular proliferation, and sebaceoma. Also, it is important to select the appropriate biopsy site and size when evaluating a patient for secondary neoplasms within their nevus sebaceous. Indeed, more than one biopsy may be required if additional diagnoses are suspected

Some considerations on the WHO Histological classification of laryngeal neoplasms

A new edition of the World Health Organization (WHO) Histological classification of tumours of the hypopharynx, larynx, trachea and parapharyngeal space was published in 2017. We have considered this classification regarding laryngeal neoplasms and discuss the grounds for said revision. Many of the laryngeal neoplasms described in the literature and in the previous WHO edition from 2005 have been omitted from this current revision. Many are described elsewhere in the book but it may give the new generation of pathologists/surgeons/oncologists the false impression that these tumour entities do not exist in the larynx.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The substrate of the biopsychosocial influences in the carcinogenesis of the digestive tract

Digestive cancer represents a severe public health problem, being one of the main causes of death. It is considered a multifactorial disease, with hereditary predisposition, environmental factors, and other factors involved in carcinogenesis. Both the evolution and the pathogenesis of digestive neoplasms remain incompletely elucidated. As a multifactorial disease, it can be approached by taking into account the biopsychosocial influences via enteric nervous system. Many peptides and non-peptides having a neurotransmitter role can be found in the enteric nervous system, which can influence the neoplastic process directly or indirectly by affecting some angiogenic, growth, and metastasis factors. However, neurotransmitters can also cause directly, through intercellular signalizing, the angiogenesis, the proliferation, and the digestive neoplasms’ metastasis. This new approach to neoplasms of the digestive tube assumes broader psychosocial factors can play an important role in the understanding the ethiopathogenie, the evolution of the disease, and determination of possible molecular targeted therapies; it also suggests that behavioral strategies may be important for maintaining a healthy state with respect to the digestive tract

Right trisegmentectomy for hepatic neoplasms

Thirty patients had right trisegmentectomy for 19 primary hepatic malignant tumors, 7 localized liver metastases and four benign lesions. A technical refinement that aided resection of bulky posterior and superior tumors was intrahepatic identification and control of the right hepatic vein. The operative mortality was 3.3%. Late hepatic insufficiency was not observed. More than one-half of the patients operated upon a year or more ago for primary hepatic malignant growths had a tumor-free state at the 12 month follow-up period. Beyond this time, there was only one recurrence. The results in children were twice as good as in adults. The results in treating localized liver metastases from distant primary sites were inferior to those in treating primary hepatic tumors. A hypothetical case was made for combining hepatic resection with adjuvant chemotherapy, even though our experience could not be construed as direct support for this practice

Forecasting Leading Death Causes in Australia using Extended CreditRisk++

Recently we developed a new framework in Hirz et al (2015) to model stochastic mortality using extended CreditRisk$^+$ methodology which is very different from traditional time series methods used for mortality modelling previously. In this framework, deaths are driven by common latent stochastic risk factors which may be interpreted as death causes like neoplasms, circulatory diseases or idiosyncratic components. These common factors introduce dependence between policyholders in annuity portfolios or between death events in population. This framework can be used to construct life tables based on mortality rate forecast. Moreover this framework allows stress testing and, therefore, offers insight into how certain health scenarios influence annuity payments of an insurer. Such scenarios may include improvement in health treatments or better medication. In this paper, using publicly available data for Australia, we estimate the model using Markov chain Monte Carlo method to identify leading death causes across all age groups including long term forecast for 2031 and 2051. On top of general reduced mortality, the proportion of deaths for certain certain causes has changed massively over the period 1987 to 2011. Our model forecasts suggest that if these trends persist, then the future gives a whole new picture of mortality for people aged above 40 years. Neoplasms will become the overall number-one death cause. Moreover, deaths due to mental and behavioural disorders are very likely to surge whilst deaths due to circulatory diseases will tend to decrease. This potential increase in deaths due to mental and behavioural disorders for older ages will have a massive impact on social systems as, typically, such patients need long-term geriatric care.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1505.0475

MALIGNANCIES OF THE THYMUS

Abstract: The role of radiotherapy in the treatment of thymoma and thymic carcinoma has been evaluated by many investigators over the past two decades. The low incidence of these neoplasms has limited most published studies to small series spanning long time intervals or population-based studies. The exact indications and protocols for the use of radiotherapy as a part of the multidisciplinary approach to thymoma and thymic carcinoma are still unclear. However, a review of recent literature shows potential benefits for certain patients based on stage and grade of disease as well as the extent of surgical resection

Exploring the interdependencies of research funders in the UK

Investment in medical research is vital to the continuing improvement of the UK's health and wealth. It is through research that we expand our understanding of disease and develop new treatments for patients. Medical research charities currently contribute over £1 billion annually to medical research in the UK, of which over £350 million is provided by Cancer Research UK. Many charities, including Cancer Research UK, receive no government funding for their research activity. Cancer Research UK is engaged in a programme of work in order to better understand the medical research funding environment and demonstrate the importance of sustained investment. A key part of that is the Office of Health Economics‟ (OHE) 2011 report “Exploring the interdependency between public and charitable medical research”. This study found that there are substantial benefits, both financial and qualitative, from the existence of a variety of funders and that reductions in the level of government financial support for medical research are likely to have broader negative effects. This contributed to other evidence which found that the activities and funding of the charity, public and private sectors respectively are complementary, i.e. mutually reinforcing, rather than duplicative or merely substituting for one another. “Exploring the interdependencies of research funders in the UK” by the Office of Health Economics (OHE) and SPRU: Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Sussex, represents a continued effort to build the evidence base around the funding of medical research. This report uncovers the extent to which funders of cancer research are interdependent, nationally and internationally. Key figures show that two thirds of publications acknowledging external support have relied on multiple funders, while just under half benefited from overseas funding, and almost a fifth are also supported by industry. In addition the analysis shows that the general public would not want tax funding of cancer research to be reduced, but would not donate enough to charities to compensate for any such reduction