Diagnosis of vulvar lesions by non-invasive optical analysis: a pilot study

A procedure that could allow an early in vivo and non-invasive detection of vulvar lesions would be extremely useful. We tested an innovative optical method (Optiprobe), which uses a harmless, visible light source for the in vivo, on-line detection of minimal alterations in the structure of vulvar epithelium. A group of 3 female volunteers without gynecological symptoms were first screened to evaluate optical properties of normal vulvar tissue. Next, a group of 16 patients undergoing gynecological examination for vulvar lesions was evaluated by the Optiprobe at suspected sites before these sites were biopsied for histological analysis. Adjacent, non-involved sites were also measured to provide internal controls. Histological analysis of the biopsies identified one case that did not show obvious alterations, 4 cases of high-grade vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN), 5 cases of vulvitis, and 6 cases of lichen sclerosis (LS)

Moving toward individualized therapy based on NER polymorphisms that predict platinum sensitivity in ovarian cancer patients

Abstract Objective. Platinum-based chemotherapy exerts its cytotoxic effect by forming DNA adducts and subsequently inhibiting DNA replication. Removing platinum DNA adducts requires the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway. The xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) complementation group of genes plays an essential role in the NER pathway. We hypothesized that genetic polymorphisms in XP genes may predict clinical response to platinum chemotherapeutic treatment and survival in women with gynecological cancers. Method. We genotyped 146 cases of advanced epithelial ovarian cancer for XP gene polymorphisms using the PCR-RFLP method. KaplanMeier plots and the log-rank test were used to assess associations between survival and recurrence-free interval and the XP gene polymorphisms. Hazard ratio of response was estimated from an adjusted multivariate Cox proportional hazard model. Results. Women with a heterozygous variant XPA allele had shorter median survival (21.5 months, P = 0.03) and shorter median time to recurrence (11.3 months, P = 0.05) than women with the homozygous wild-type allele (37.9 and 13.9 months, respectively). Women with a homozygous variant XPG allele had significantly shorter median survival (8.3 months, P = 0.006) compared with women with the homozygous XPG wild-type allele (24.6 months). Polymorphisms in XPC, XPD exon10, and XPD exon23 were associated with a decreased risk of recurrence and death, but were not statistically significant. Conclusions. This study suggests that NER gene polymorphisms may correlate with recurrence and patient survival. A larger sample size is needed to assess platinum chemotherapy response with these polymorphisms. These findings may help identify subgroups of cancer patients likely to benefit from individualized treatment strategies. Our next study will examine NER gene polymorphisms in cervical cancer patients

Rare Tumors 2009; volume 1:e8 Diagnosis of vulvar lesions by

non-invasive optical analysis: a pilot stud