Search

Background/aim: In the past, the standard of care for women with abnormal cervical cytology has been the performance of colposcopically guided biopsy, followed by conization or large loop excision of the transition zone (LLETZ) where biopsy revealed pre-cancerous or cancerous areas. More straightforward protocols are emerging which advocate performing LLETZ in all women with highly suspicious cytology, suspicious colposcopic impression, or the presence of high-risk oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) strains in their cervical swabs. This, theoretically, would reduce the rate of false-negative diagnoses, but at the price of overtreating a significant number of healthy women., Patients and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed cervical cancer screening protocols in two large cohorts of women with high-risk HPV. The study compared outcomes between patients undergoing a colposcopically directed biopsy before LLETZ (n=683) and those proceeding directly to LLETZ without a biopsy (n=136). The primary focus was to assess whether intervening biopsies would reduce unnecessary ablative procedures without compromising the detection of high-grade lesions., Results: The biopsy group had a high false-negative rate, with several high-grade lesions (CIN3) and a case of invasive cancer initially underdiagnosed. Conversely, the direct-to-LLETZ approach, while ensuring no high-grade lesions were missed, led to overtreatment of lower grade lesions., Conclusion: These findings raise concern about the reliance on biopsy results for treatment decisions. Neither protocol was entirely satisfactory, although the more aggressive one avoided the potentially life-threatening consequence of false-negative results. Further research is mandatory to accurately diagnose all cases requiring aggressive treatment, without subjecting healthy women to ablative treatments they do not need., Competing Interests: None., (Copyright 2024, International Institute of Anticancer Research.)

Background/aim: In previous studies, we identified estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, Ki67, p53, c-erb-B2, and E-cadherin to be individually associated with the prognosis of endometrial carcinoma. In the present study, we aimed to identify which of the aforementioned are associated with survival after long-term follow-up., Patients and Methods: A total of 106 patients were followed until their demise, or for a median of 120 months in the case of survival (range=84-240 months). At the end of the study, 38 patients had died, and 68 were alive. The association of the studied variables with survival was analyzed by means of a Weibull regression model., Results: A final, restricted model adjusted for age, stage, and histological variety showed both Ki67 and E-cadherin to be independent predictors of a shorter and a longer survival, respectively., Conclusion: Immunohistochemistry for Ki67 and E-cadherin is a cheap and relatively easy-to-interpret laboratory procedure for predicting survival of patients with endometrial carcinoma in clinical practice., (Copyright © 2023 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.)