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Abstract: Objectives: To identify effective treatment options for patients with recurrent uterine leiomyosarcoma (LMS). Methods: Patients with uterine LMS treated between 1976 and 1999 were identified. Charts were retrospectively reviewed and relevant clinical and pathologic data extracted. Survival curves were generated using the methods of Kaplan and Meier. Multivariate analysis was performed using the Cox proportional model. Results: Chart review identified 128 patients with recurrent uterine LMS. The median time to recurrence was 1.3 years. The median disease-specific survival from the time of first recurrence was 1.8 years. Multivariate analysis demonstrated secondary cytoreductive surgery, prolonged time to recurrence and localized recurrence were significantly and independently associated with improved disease-specific survival from time of first recurrence. Neither chemotherapy nor radiation therapy was associated with improvement in outcome in patients with recurrent uterine LMS. Conclusions: These data suggest that secondary cytoreductive surgery is associated with prolonged survival in a select group of patients with recurrent uterine LMS. Patients presenting after a prolonged progression-free interval with an isolated site of recurrence amenable to complete resection are the best candidates for attempted surgical resection. These findings require confirmation from a larger and preferably prospectively gathered database. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Tobacco control policies are effective in promoting quit attempts and increase the likelihood that smokers use evidence-based cessation treatments (e.g., nicotine replacement therapies (NRT), non-NRT medications, behavioral treatment, and/or quitlines). However, what is less clear is how these policies might differentially impact different groups of smokers, perhaps in some cases even widening disparities in the use of evidence-based tobacco dependence treatments. This paper examined how different state-level tobacco control policies impact the use of evidence-based cessation treatments by race/ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status (SES), age, and smoking history. Participants included 9110 adult smokers reporting a past-year quit attempt within the 2010-2011 Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey. Lasso regression modeling was used to identify a subset of interactions between tobacco policies and individual smoker characteristics that predicted use of evidence-based cessation treatment. Significant interactions were fitted via participant-weighted generalized linear models to determine effect sizes and relations to each cessation treatment outcome. Results highlighted that various state level tobacco control policies differentially impacted the reported use of both prescription and non-prescription stop smoking medications by race/ethnicity, age, and SES. The relationship between state level tobacco control policies and the use of behavioral treatments and quitlines did not differ by smoker characteristics. In sum, tobacco control policies differentially impact the use of FDA approved stop smoking medications across different race/ethnicity, age, and SES groups. Understanding such effects can help to target interventions to ensure equal access to evidence-based tobacco dependence treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) is a poor prognostic indicator in uterine cancer, primarily due to its association with lymph node metastases. We sought to determine if LVSI provides any prognostic information for uterine cancer subjects in the absence of nodal disease. Methods A retrospective review was performed using a database of women treated for uterine cancer at MUSC from 2005 to 2012. Subjects with negative nodes after complete staging were identified. Multiple regression modeling was used to adjust for demographic and histopathologic covariates. The C-index was calculated for models of survival that included LVSI and those that did not. Competing risks analysis was conducted to examine factors associated with time to recurrence. Results Two hundred and five subjects were completely staged and had negative nodes, 24 with LVSI and 181 without. Factors significantly associated with survival included age, race, stage, grade, histology, and LVSI. Regression models for recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) had similar C-indices regardless of whether LVSI was included. Competing risks analysis confirmed no significant difference in time to recurrence for subjects with LVSI compared to those without, after adjusting for other prognostic factors ( P = 0.53). Conclusions LVSI is associated with shorter recurrence-free and overall survival in uterine cancer subjects with negative lymph nodes. However, after adjusting for other prognostic factors, LVSI status does not provide additional prognostic information. This finding suggests that recurrence-free and overall survival for uterine cancer patients with negative lymph nodes can be estimated without factoring in LVSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]