A retrospective analysis of clinicopathological and prognostic characteristics of ovarian tumors in the State of Espírito Santo, Brazil

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ovarian cancer is sixth most common cancer among women and the leading cause of death in women with gynecological malignancies. Despite the great impact ovarian cancer has on women's health and its great impact in public economy, Brazil still lacks valuable information concerning epidemiological aspects of this disease</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We've compiled clinical data of all ovarian tumors registered at the two public hospitals of reference (1997 - 2007), such as: patients' age at diagnosis, tumor histological type, tumor stage, chemotherapy regimens, chemotherapy responsiveness, disease-free survival, and overall survival.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Women's mean age at diagnosis was 54.67 ± 13.84 for ovarian cancer, 46.15 ± 11.15 for borderline tumors, and 42.01 ± 15.06 for adenomas. Among epithelial ovarian cancer cases, 30.1% were of serous, 13.7% were of mucinous, and 13.7% were of endometrioid type; exceptionally serous carcinoma was diagnosed in women younger than 30 years old. Endometrioid cancer had lower disease-free survival than others (p < 0.05). Cases were predominantly diagnosed as poor prognosis disease (FIGO III and IV, 56.2%). Regarding responsiveness to platinum-based therapy, 17.1% of patients were resistant, whereas 24.6%, susceptible. From these, we found equally responsiveness to platinum alone or its association with paclitaxel or cyclophosphamide.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Our data agreed with other studies regarding mean patients' age at diagnosis, histological type frequency, FIGO stages distribution, and chemotherapy regimens. However, the histological type distribution, with equal contribution of mucinous and endometrioid types seems to be a unique characteristic of the studied highly miscegenated population.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We have enlighten the profile of the studied ovarian cancer population, which might enable the development of more efficient political strategies to control this malignancy that is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women.</p

Thiocyanation of 3-substituted and 3,5-disubstituted BODIPYs and its application for the synthesis of new fluorescent sensors

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Interest in BODIPYs (acronym of boron dipyrromethene) has skyrocketed in recent decades, mainly due to their favourable photophysical properties and the wide range of functionalization methods reported for these organic fluorescent dyes. In this context, a simple and straightforward method for the direct thiocyanation of 1,3,5,7-tetramethy-BODIPYs using ammonium thiocyanate and oxone was recently reported as an alternative for the preparation of thiocyanated and thioalkylated BODIPYs. Herein, we performed the thiocyanation of 3-substituted and 3,5-disubstituted BODIPY dyes, which were synthesized from the nucleophilic substitution of halogenated precursors with morpholine, propanethiol and sodium methoxide. There was a direct relation between the electron-donating character of the substituent and the yields of the thiocyanated BODIPYs, which gives support to a mechanism based on the electrophilic substitution by a thiocyanogen species formed in situ. Spectroscopic and photophysical characterization of these new fluorophores was performed and included bidimensional NMR, UV/vis absorption, fluorescence emission and fluorescence quantum yields. The photophysical properties are highly dependable on the structural features of each dye. While 3-morpholino-8-phenyl BODIPYs are virtually non-fluorescent, the fluorescence quantum yields of 3-(4-methoxybenzylamino)-8-methyl BODIPYs were close to 0.9. The thiocyanation of BODIPYs can result in interesting photophysical shifts that can be explored in the fine-tuning of fluorescent sensors. We also report the results of a preliminary qualitative analysis that indicates interesting bathochromic or hypsochromic shifts on the absorption and fluorescence emission spectra when some of the highly emissive dyes were treated with strong acid.status: publishe