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Journal Articles on Mesothelioma: Cancer Information for Patients and Families

Journal Articles on Mesothelioma: 'Diagnosis & Differentiation' Category


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July 9th, 2008. Primary and metastatic lung tumors in the pediatric population: a review and 25-year experience at a large children’s hospital

Conclusions: A total of 204 pediatric lung tumors were diagnosed at our institution, including 20 primary benign lesions (9.8%), 14 primary malignant lesions (6.9%), and 170 secondary lung lesions (83.3%). The ratio of primary benign to primary malignant to secondary malignant neoplasms is 1.4:1:11.6. The common types of lung cancer in adults are exceptional occurrences in the pediatric population. The most common primary lung malignancies in children are pleuropulmonary blastoma and carcinoid tumor. Other primary pediatric lung tumors include congenital peribronchial myofibroblastic tumor and other myofibroblastic lesions, sarcomas, carcinoma, and mesothelioma. Children with primary or acquired immunodeficiency are at risk for Epstein-Barr virus–related smooth muscle tumors, lymphoma, and lymphoproliferative disorders. Metastatic lung tumors are relatively common in children and also comprise a spectrum of neoplasia distinct from the adult population.

July 9th, 2008. Pulmonary sarcomatous tumors

Conclusions: This review discusses specific criteria for the diagnosis of primary lung sarcomas and offers a practical approach to excluding other sarcoma-like lesions involving the lung. The pathologist has an essential role in evaluating these tumors and will often be the first to suggest an unusual, alternative diagnosis, which may have significant implications for patient care, therapy, and prognosis.

July 9th, 2008. Primary pleural neoplasia: entities other than diffuse malignant mesothelioma

Conclusions: A nonexhaustive group of uncommon to rare benign and malignant primary pleural neoplasms— other than diffuse malignant mesothelioma—are presented, of which one must be aware in order to maintain an appropriate index of suspicion to include them in the differential diagnosis of a pleural tumor.

July 9th, 2008. Malignant mesothelioma: current status and perspective in Japan and the world

In this context, combination therapy with surgery plus chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy is currently considered the standard treatment for patients with respectable MPM. A national survey of EPP was conducted recently in Japan, and a few multicenter clinical trials will start soon.

July 8th, 2008. Hemorrhagic mesenteric cystic lymphangioma presenting with acute lower abdominal pain: the diagnostic clues on MR Imaging

Cystic lymphangioma should be included in the differential diagnosis of acute abdominal pain. The detection of septal fat may be helpful in the diagnosis of cystic lymphangioma when it shows unusual radiological appearances.

July 1st, 2008. Solitary fibrous pleural tumor

Further testing after excision revealed a solitary fibrous pleural tumor. A brief discussion of the clinical presentation and incidence of these tumors is included.

July 1st, 2008. Malignant mesothelioma with heterologous elements: clinicopathological correlation of 27 cases and literature review

Immunohistochemical labelling for cytokeratins is helpful in the distinction, but lack of labelling for cytokeratins in a spindle cell/sarcomatoid tumour does not exclude the diagnosis of mesothelioma, irrespective of the presence of heterologous elements. We suggest that if the anatomical distribution conforms to that of mesothelioma, a diagnosis of heterologous mesothelioma should be made in preference to a diagnosis of primary pleural osteosarcoma or chondrosarcoma, regardless of cytokeratin positivity, as for conventional non-heterologous sarcomatoid mesothelioma.

June 28th, 2008. Soluble Mesothelin Related Protein (SMRP) in an Asbestos Exposed Population

Conclusions: This is the first large scale prospective study of SMRP for screening for malignancy in asbestos-exposed individuals. A high false positive rate was observed. SMRP seems unlikely to prove useful in screening for MM.

June 27th, 2008. Paget disease of the humerus mimicking metastatic disease in a patient with metastatic malignant mesothelioma on whole body F-18 FDG PET/CT

The corresponding CT scan findings of cortical thickening and a "Swiss cheese" appearance were most consistent with Paget disease. The intense FDG uptake in an osseous lesion on FDG-PET in our case reminds us of the variable nature of FDG uptake in Paget disease, the possibility of false-positive findings on FDG-PET in patients with cancer, and the usefulness of the fusion techniques in the evaluation of skeletal lesions, with the potential for discriminating between benign Paget disease and other pathologic bone findings.

June 26th, 2008. Coalescent pleural malignant mesothelioma and adenocarcinoma of the lung, involving only minor asbestos exposure

The former was positive for adenocarcinoma markers such as CEA, Ber-EP4, PE-10, thyroid transcription factor-1 and Napsin A, and negative for mesothelial markers including calretinin, D2-40, WT-1 and HBME, while the latter was the opposite, resulting in a diagnosis of coalescing malignant mesothelioma and adenocarcinoma. The panel of antibodies used for immunohistochemistry was useful to distinguish the two different components in the one tumor.

June 24th, 2008. Immunophenotyping of serous carcinoma of the female genital tract

D2-40 and cytokeratin 5/6 are expressed in a considerable proportion of serous carcinomas and should be used cautiously in a 'mesothelioma panel' in situations where serous carcinoma is in the differential diagnosis. HER2/neu was exclusively overexpressed in serous carcinomas of endometrial origin.

June 17th, 2008. Benign multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma in a cesarean-section scar presenting as a fungating mass

This unusual presentation may point to a traumatic or inflammatory etiology, although seeding of the wound during the previous surgeries is a more likely postulate. A pertinent review of the literature on benign multicystic mesothelioma is also presented.

June 15th, 2008. Prognostic role of osteopontin expression in malignant pleural mesothelioma

0001), and overall survival analysis showed that low osteopontin expression was associated with longer survival; multivariate analysis confirmed the value of osteopontin expression as an independent prognostic factor (P < . 0001).

June 13th, 2008. Pericardial effusion due to metastatic prostate cancer: a case report

He died suddenly because of ventricular tachycardia. At autopsy, the major finding was poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of the prostate with metastases to the mediastinum.

June 11th, 2008. Pemetrexed plus carboplatin in elderly patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma: combined analysis of two phase II trials

Apart from slightly worse haematological toxicity, there was no significant difference in outcome or toxicity between age groups. The PC regimen is effective and well tolerated in selected elderly patients with MPM.

June 6th, 2008. Uroplakin is not a Reliable Immunohistochemical Marker for Malignant Mesothelioma of the Pleura

Conclusions: At an antibody dilution for which positive and negative control tissues stain appropriately, PMM does not stain for URO. At higher antibody concentrations, PMM exhibits nonspecific cytoplasmic staining. We assert that URO is not a useful immunohistochemical marker for the detection of PMM. Further studies addressing whether URO is overexpressed at the mRNA level in PMM are warranted.

June 6th, 2008. Long-term mortality from pleural and peritoneal cancer after exposure to asbestos: Possible role of asbestos clearance

The risk for pleural cancer, rather than showing an indefinite increase, might reach a plateau when a sufficiently long time has elapsed since exposure. The different trends for pleural and peritoneal cancer might be related to clearance of the asbestos from the workers' lungs.

June 6th, 2008. Diagnostic usefulness and challenges in the diagnosis of mesothelioma by endoscopic ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration

Real time endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) combined with FNA has been shown to be a very sensitive technique to obtain samples from different organ sites, including mediastinal lesions. The use of EUS-FNA for the diagnosis of mesothelioma, reinforces the role of a cytopathologist as a cohesive team player along with a radiologist and a clinician during on-site assessment for the proper triage of additional specimens for ancillary studies leading to a better patient management.

June 6th, 2008. Cytomorphologic features of well-differentiated papillary mesothelioma in peritoneal effusion: A case report

The identification of a collagenous ball within these clusters is a useful cytologic finding for the diagnosis of WDPM. WDPM should be suspected when numerous collagenous balls are present by effusion cytology and isolated cells are not.

June 5th, 2008. Response of a Patient with Pleural and Peritoneal Mesothelioma after Second-Line Chemotherapy with Lipoplatin and Gemcitabine

Treatment with lipoplatin-gemcitabine was decided on in November 2006, and the patient showed important improvement in the clinical status and peritoneal effusion. He survived for 36 weeks, with symptom-free survival of 34 weeks.