Louise C. Strawbridge, MRCOG

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• University College Hospital,
• London, United Kingdom

The LoG filter analyzes the pixels placed on both sides of the edge and selects those pixels that are closest to the zero-crossing points menopause gag gift ideas order danazol cheap online. Hence menopause experts order danazol 200mg, along with the true edges that correspond to a zero crossing menopause vitamin d discount danazol 200 mg online, other zero crossings that correspond to noisy pixels are also marked menopause news buy danazol online pills. To avoid these false edges menopause guidebook 7th edition buy discount danazol 200mg on-line, s2 is compared with a threshold menstrual facts buy genuine danazol on line, then the edge is considered if the threshold is exceeded. It simultaneously performs smoothing and denoising by using a standard convolution operation with a mask [2, 4, 5, 4, 2; 4, 9, 12, 9, 4; 5, 12, 15, 12, 5; 4, 9, 12, 9, 4; 2, 4, 5, 4, 2]. Then, the image gradient is computed and the pixels that do not belong to a local maximum on the gradient direction are removed, in order to find the edge strength. The method includes the weak edges in the output only if they are connected to strong edges. They were automatically established by the algorithm as outcomes of an optimization problem. The final edge map is built after both the nonmaximum suppression and hysteresis based on two thresholds, where refining edge methods are conducted [26,27]. The main disadvantage is owing to the complex determination of T1 and T2, where a low threshold produces false edges and a high threshold misses important edges. Moreover, there are edges that may be located inside or outside of the real edges. It is a Gaussian kernel function modulated by a sinusoidal plane wave oriented at an angle. For different scale of s, both the frequency and orientation are affected due to the noise, so the filter will provide multiple responses for a single-step edge or there are some missing edges. It correctly responds to edges if the edge direction is perpendicular to the wave vector (x cos y + y sin y). The main limitation of Gabor filters is their "ring" effect near the edges because of their high-frequency response. The paired t-test is applied to test the mean difference and to find evidence of a significant difference between edge map-dependent observations. The "count edge pixels" function in Matlab selects the on-edge pixels for each filter and illumination conditions. However, the current work suffered from certain difficulty, namely, the several tunable parameters produced by the edge detectors as follows. LoG filter has three (s, s2, and mask size), three for the case of Canny (s, T1, and T2) and three (frequency o, orientation, and scale s) for the odd Gabor filter. It is noticeable that practical choice of the tunable parameters based on visual assessment and on optimization parameters provided by the Canny algorithm is applied to give reasonable results. Upon this evaluation, the t-test provides statistical evidence that the output from the analyzed operators is an independent sample (P <. In this work, the D-S theory of evidence is conducted to aggregate information from three independent sources (or bodies of evidence) into one new body of evidence, in an edge-detection framework. The D-S combines two bodies of evidence to compute a measure of agreement between both mass functions. Following the data reported in [20], the edge confidence of the LoG filter has been slightly modified. Here, rgLoG(i, j) is the second-order image intensity variations, gmax represents the maximum gradient magnitude, g(i, j) is the gradient magnitude, and Thresh is either T1 and T2 (T1 < T2) according to the desired level of edge sensitivity. Subsequently, the confidence map is built using nLoG, nC, and nG values for every pixel of the input image. The confidence threshold value is the selected to be the lowest threshold value of each pair of edge detectors. For n(E) higher than this confidence threshold, the corresponding image pixel will be classified as an edge point in the fused image. It can satisfactorily compensate the inhomogeneity originating from the mixture of various contrast conditions that resulted from different filters [37,38]. Frequently, the detected edges are not always thin or some edge detectors detect double edges in the case of one-pixel-width edges. A line selection across the structure of interest was drawn and a crosssectional intensity profile of the vessel segment under evaluation is identified in the Matlab algorithm case. The full width at half the maximum intensity profile allows the vessel diameter to be estimated. For the same vessel segment, a line across the vessel will provide values for minimal diameter at the three narrow sites. The vessel diameters along the vessel segment between the three reference sites are determined by linear interpolation. It analyzes the structural similarity of images based on the detected edges between the reference/ground truth images (R) and the fused images (F) images. For each pixel, an edge vector containing its edge amplitude and direction is built. The covariance of edge vectors of reference and fused images is sR,F, and C represents a constant to ensure that the denominator is nonzero. The threshold value for each filter is selected as follows: (i) for LoG operator, the threshold value is selected based on fine-to-coarse study (s values ranged from 0. Any other pixels connected to this marked edge pixel will be selected as edge pixels even if they have a magnitude greater than T2. For the entire dataset, the accuracy rate for vessel diameter measurement is given in Table 1 for every fused pair of edge detectors and illumination level. Table 1 establishes that the Matlab-based C-G fused images have the least average percentage error rate with both 100% and 60 % illumination levels. However, for 80% illumination level, the ImageJ-based C-LoG achieves the least average percentage error rate. The average vessel diameter values and the related errors for the normal and diabetic retinopathy images are listed in Tables 2 and 3 for fused pairs of edge detectors and the illumination level. In the proposed approach, the advantage of the D-S fusion algorithm is considered to generate more accurate edge maps showing almost continuous edges. The performance of the proposed fusion method is evaluated by conducting measurements on the diameter of the retinal vessels. As established by the obtained results, the main advantage of the fusion-edge-based algorithm consists of its ability to generate continuous edges. It overcomes the difficulties of the classical edge detectors in the case of the high and the low levels of illumination of retinal images. Thus, they are able to produce a fast rate of intensity variation at some directions and of the gradient vector at edge pixels as well. The Gabor filter bank scans uniformly the frequency domain and each filter identifies the energy of a localized frequency. The nonuniformity of illumination results from different reflectance of various anatomic part of retina. The explanation lies in the fact that the average intensity of reflectance images changes with the illumination. Moreover, in the retinal saturated red-orange images, the illumination correlates to the high frequencies and reflectance correlates to low frequencies in the Fourier transform and slow spatial variations in illumination and abruptly variation in reflectance components exist mainly because of the color of the blood vessels that it is quite similar to the background. In these particular cases, the edge-detection techniques produce unsatisfactory results. The reason for this strategy consists of major difficulty in separating illumination from the reflectance. The smallest errors are generated by the C-G fusion for the minimum (60%) and the maximum levels of illumination (100%), and by C-LoG fusion for the medium level of 80%. Also, for both algorithms used for diameter measurements, the most consistent results and the smallest errors are generated for images with the highest illumination, and the most inconsistent results for the low level. The results provided by the ImageJ show that the smallest average error is generated by C-G fusion, with an error of 3. The highest edge similarity for every level of illumination is provided by the C-LoG fusion. This is an expected result because the vessel retinopathy map contains new swollen and distorted vessels that are sources of the new edges. It is depicted that even if the neovascularization process is the source of the nonvessel edges such as exudates/bright lesions or reflection artifacts, the fusion technique avoids the false edge detection better than classical edge detectors. Overall, the C-G fusion generated better results for high and low levels of illumination and C-LoG fusion is proper for 80% illumination. It is worthwhile to mention that this C-G fusion covers both spatial and frequency domains, so that the edge-detection capability is far better than any one of them used alone. Also, the selection of the three edge detectors from a wide range of detection methods is due to the D-S method fitness for situations when all observations have almost the same accuracy estimates. Three edge detectors were used in the experiments and the optimal fused pair of edge detectors was investigated. One of the major advantages of the proposed technique is that the edge information was retained in the output images. The accuracy of the proposed technique was validated through the retinal vessel diameter measurement accuracy and by analyzing the edge structural similarity of the output images. Thus, very low average error rate of diameter measurements and very high average structural similarity obtained for Canny-Gabor fusion established its effectiveness as an edge-detection method. Welfer, Automatic detection of microaneurysms and haemorrhages in colour eye fundus images, Int. Manivannan, Diagnosis system for diabetic retinopathy to prevent vision loss, Appl. Biswas, Blood pressure and flow values in small vessels angioarchitectures: application for diabetic retinopathy, Rom. Zadeh, Some reflections on soft computing, granular Computing and their roles in the conception, design and utilization of information/ intelligent systems, Soft Comput. Karray, Retinal vessel extraction by matched filter with first-order derivative of Gaussian, Comput. Parker, Segmentation of blood vessels from red-free and fluorescein retinal images, Med. Assimakis, Automatic model-based tracing algorithm for vessel segmentation and diameter estimation, Comput. Wee, Retinal vessel detection and measurement for Computer-aided Medical Diagnosis, J. Vincent, in: A fusion methodology based on Dempster-Shafer evidence theory for two biometric applications, 18th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, vol. Yang, Dempster-Shafer theory of Evidence: Potential usage for decision making and risk analysis in construction project management, Built Hum. Breckon, Fundaments of Digital Image Processing, A Practical Approach with example in Matlab, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 2011. Sandhu, Performance evaluation of edge detection techniques for images in spatial domain, Int. Lin, Partition belief median filter based on Dempster-Shafer theory for image processing, Pattern Recognit. Nordin, Improving diagnostic viewing of medical images using enhancement algorithms, J. Bhogayta, Structural similarity based image quality assessment using full reference method, Int. The prime objective of segmentation is to simplify and/or change the representation of an image into something that is more meaningful and easier to analyze. Such segmentation of anatomical and pathological structures in ophthalmic images is crucial for the diagnosis and study of ocular diseases. The segmentation part of the retinal structure is a challenging task that faces major problems. This complicates segmentation algorithms, which are commonly based on the basic assumption that intensity variations of homogeneous regions are only due to noise and not intrinsic to the imaging modality. The registration of multimodal retinal images is very significant to integrate information gained from different modalities for reaching a reliable diagnosis of retinal diseases by ophthalmologists. The movement of the tissue under imaging or the progression of disease in the tissue also imposes further implications both on the quality and the proper interpretation of the acquired images. So, having an informative and comprehensive volume image requires hundreds of cross-sections, which makes the imaging modality vulnerable to small movements. Also, with the progress of degeneration in the tissue due to illness, improved image registration can be very useful in tracking the changes over time. The estimation of the depth at which specific backscatter originated is from its time of flight. This feature improves imaging speed dramatically and the signal to noise is improved proportional to the number of detection elements used [2].

This agent is associated with a higher incidence of diarrhea relative to gefitinib and erlotinib womens health of augusta purchase danazol from india. Another irreversible inhibitor pregnancy knee pain buy danazol overnight delivery, dacomitinib menopause exhaustion purchase danazol 50mg without prescription, is being compared to gefitinib in an ongoing phase 3 clinical trial breast cancer 49ers beanie generic danazol 100mg line. Crizotinib was compared to platinumbased chemotherapy in a phase 3 study which demonstrated higher response rate and median progressionfree survival with crizotinib [83] quiz menstrual cycle order danazol 50 mg without a prescription. When compared to chemotherapy in the salvage therapy setting women's health center of lynchburg va discount danazol 100mg with amex, critozinib was associated with a significant improvement in progressionfree survival (7. Interestingly, pemetrexed was associated with a favorable outcome compared to docetaxel in this patient population. A variety of secondary mutations have been described in patients who develop disease progression while on therapy with crizotinib. These observations provide hope that the mutation status of patients can aid personalized treatment of patients with lung cancer. The Cancer Genome Atlas Project recently published results of gene sequencing studies in a cohort of patients with squamous cell lung carcinoma [25]. A number of potentially targetable mutations and other genetic abnormalities have been identified. Routine testing of patient tumor specimens for molecular targets is increasingly seen as a strategy to optimize treatment options for lung cancer. Immune Checkpoint Inhibition Recent progress in targeting the immune pathways that regulate cancer has resulted in major therapeutic gains for a number of malignancies, including lung cancer. Both agents improved overall survival and were associated with lower incidence of grades 3/4 toxicity relative to docetaxel. In addition, combination strategies to improve the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors are also under development. Aging is associated with decline in physiological and vital organ function that impact tolerance of systemic therapy. In addition, it is particularly more important to consider the implications of therapy on physical function and quality of life of older patients. Initially, singleagent chemotherapy was compared to supportive care and demonstrated improved survival [96]. In subsequent studies, for elderly patients with a good performance status, platinumbased combinations were superior to singleagent therapy [47, 97]. The use of threedrug combinations of cytotoxic agents is not recommended for older patients. However, the appropriate use of targeted agents in older patients might be associated with clinical benefit. Poor performance status limits the ability of patients to tolerate combination chemotherapy. Studies conducted exclusively in patients with a poor performance status indicate a favorable role for chemotherapy. In at least one randomized study, platinumbased combination therapy was superior to singleagent therapy [98]. It is important to consider the underlying cause of poor performance status in making treatment plans for this patient population. For those with limiting comorbid conditions, a less aggressive approach with singleagent chemotherapy might be more appropriate. For those with targetable mutations, appropriate targeted therapy can be given regardless of the performance status given the greater potential for benefit. Initially, chemotherapy was used sequentially with radiotherapy and resulted in an improved overall survival over radiotherapy alone. Subsequent studies demonstrated a modest superiority for concomitant administration of chemotherapy over sequential therapy [41, 104]. Both cisplatin and carboplatinbased regimens have been utilized for combined modality therapy and are associated with modest survival results. The relative merits of cisplatin versus carboplatin in this setting have not been studied. The regimen of cisplatin and etoposide allows for administration of full systemic dose of chemotherapy with radiotherapy. The latter approach has a favorable tolerability profile compared to cisplatinbased regimens. The use of induction or consolidation chemotherapy in other settings has not resulted in improved survival. Carboplatin is considered an acceptable alternative in the treatment of extensivestage disease. Four cycles of chemotherapy are considered optimal, though it can be extended for up to six cycles in responding patients. Disease that progresses either during or within 90 days of administration of cisplatinbased chemotherapy is referred to as "refractory" relapse. Disease recurrence outside this window of time represents a "sensitive" subgroup of patients who might benefit from subsequent salvage treatment options. The use of other approaches such as highdose chemotherapy, alternating chemotherapy regimens, dosedense therapy and threedrug combination regimens are not associated with improvement in survival [105]. The use of systemic therapy following surgery was recently proven to be associated with an improvement in 5year survival rate [99]. This corresponds to a relative risk reduction of approximately 30% with adjuvant chemotherapy. Presently there are no effective tools to predict the risk of recurrent disease beyond pathological stage. It is hoped that the use of adjuvant chemotherapy could be tailored to patients at high risk of recurrence, based on genomic or proteomic markers. Lung Cancer 17 of cisplatin and irinotecan has demonstrated superior results over cisplatin and etoposide. In a randomized study, topotecan was associated with favorable symptomatic parameters, but overall survival was not improved [106]. Molecularly targeted agents against known targets appear rational and provide hope for improved outcomes. Earlier initiation of radiotherapy appears to be superior to the delayed approach and has been adopted as the standard approach in fit patients. The role of surgery is limited to those with peripheral lung lesions without mediastinal nodal involvement. FollowUp and Survivorship Survivorship has emerged as an important area of research as outcomes for lung cancer have improved in recent years. Increasing numbers of survivors following surgery or chemoradiotherapy provide the impetus to investigate important topics such as optimal surveillance, followup for second primary disease, managing longterm consequences of chemoradiotherapy, etc. The importance of smoking cessation cannot be overemphasized given the high risk of second primary tumors in lung cancer survivors. Patients should be provided with appropriate opportunities to receive counseling, smoking cessation, and behavioral therapy. There is presently no standard approach for optimal radiographic and clinical followup in patients who undergo surgical resection or chemoradiotherapy. Given the proven role for salvage therapy, patients who are in followup after combination chemotherapy should be closely followed for development of new symptoms or clinical deterioration in addition to periodic radiographic studies. Respiratory therapy should be offered to patients with dyspnea following surgery or chemoradiotherapy. Since a high proportion of these patients also have smokingrelated pulmonary diseases, referral to a pulmonologist should be considered in symptomatic patients. Overall, a team approach that includes supportive care personnel, oncologists, and appropriate additional specialists, should be utilized to ensure the return of lung cancer survivors to normalcy to the fullest extent possible. Acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge Anthea Hammond, PhD, of Emory University, for providing editorial assistance. Patterns of cancer incidence, mortality, and prevalence across five continents: defining priorities to reduce cancer disparities in different geographic regions of the world. International association for the study of lung cancer/american thoracic society/european respiratory society international multidisciplinary classification of lung adenocarcinoma. Cytokeratin 7 and 20 staining for the diagnosis of lung and colorectal adenocarcinoma. Large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the lung: a 10year clinicopathologic retrospective study. Activating mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor underlying responsiveness of nonsmallcell lung cancer to gefitinib. Randomized trial of lobectomy versus limited resection for T1 N0 nonsmall cell lung cancer Lung Cancer Study Group. Physiologic evaluation of the patient with lung cancer being considered for resectional surgery: diagnosis and management of lung cancer, 3rd edn. A randomized trial of systematic nodal dissection in resectable nonsmall cell lung cancer. Postoperative radiotherapy in nonsmallcell lung cancer: systematic review and metaanalysis of individual patient data from nine randomised controlled trials. Chemotherapy versus supportive care in advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer: improved survival without detriment to quality of life. Chemotherapy in nonsmall cell lung cancer: a metaanalysis using updated data on individual patients from 52 randomised clinical trials. Singleagent versus combination chemotherapy in advanced nonsmallcell lung cancer: the cancer and leukemia group B (study 9730). Cisplatin versus carboplatinbased chemotherapy in firstline treatment of advanced nonsmallcell lung cancer: an individual patient data metaanalysis. Maintenance pemetrexed plus best supportive care versus placebo plus best supportive care for nonsmallcell lung cancer: a randomised, doubleblind, phase 3 study. Erlotinib as maintenance treatment in advanced nonsmallcell lung cancer: a multicentre, randomised, placebocontrolled phase 3 study. Outcomes for elderly, advancedstage non smallcell lung cancer patients 20 Thoracic Cancers 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 treated with bevacizumab in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel: analysis of Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Trial 4599. High frequency of epidermal growth factor receptor mutations with complex patterns in nonsmall cell lung cancers related to gefitinib responsiveness in Taiwan. Global survey of phosphotyrosine signaling identifies oncogenic kinases in lung cancer. Lung cancer in elderly patients: an analysis of the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results database. Effects of vinorelbine on quality of life and survival of elderly patients with advanced nonsmallcell lung cancer. Cisplatinbased adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with completely resected nonsmallcell lung cancer. Twicedaily compared with oncedaily thoracic radiotherapy in limited smallcell lung cancer treated concurrently with cisplatin and etoposide. Prophylactic cranial irradiation for patients with smallcell lung cancer in complete remission. Thymomas can spread locally, metastasize, and recur decades after therapy and should not be considered "benign". They typically occur in the fourth to eighth decade with a peak in the seventh decade, and account for 50% of anterior mediastinal masses in patients older than 50 years of age. Thymic carcinomas are more aggressive and more likely to metastasize to lymph nodes and distant sites compared to thymomas. Etiology and Risk Factors No known environmental or lifestyle risk factors are associated with incidence of thymoma or thymic carcinoma. The only consistent associations are age and ethnicity Pathology Thymomas are derived from the epithelial component (cortical and medullary) of the thymus. These neoplastic epithelial cells are mixed in various proportions with nonneoplastic lymphocytes, primarily T cells. Thymic carcinomas can be distinguished from thymomas by their malignant cytologic and architectural features. Several subtypes of thymic carcinoma have been described including squamous cell, sarcomatoid, mucoepidermoid, papillary, basaloid, and undifferentiated carcinomas [6, 7]. Diagnosis and Staging Approximately onethird of patients with thymic malignancies are asymptomatic with another onethird presenting with cough, dyspnea or chest pain [1]. Betahuman chorionic gonadotropin and alpha fetoprotein levels should be determined if germ cell tumors are suspected in young males. Thyroidstimulating hormone, triiodothyronine, or thyroxine levels should be assessed in those suspected to have intrathoracic thyroid goiters. Patients present with a fluctuating degree of ocular (diplopia, ptosis), bulbar (dysarthria, dysphagia), limb, and respiratory muscle weakness.

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The trends in incidence of primary brain tumors in the population of Rochester menstruation 9 dage 50 mg danazol fast delivery, Minnesota women's health magazine uk back issues safe 100mg danazol. The increasing incidence of malignant gliomas and primary central nervous system lymphoma in the elderly menstruation vs miscarriage order danazol 200 mg overnight delivery. Radiationinduced brain tumours after central nervous system irradiation in childhood: a review pregnancy help center buy cheap danazol line. Prognostic but not predictive role of plateletderived growth factor receptors in patients with recurrent glioblastoma menstruation after mirena removal discount danazol line. Molecular predictors of progressionfree and overall survival in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma: a prospective translational study of the German Glioma Network women's health center katoomba order danazol 50 mg without a prescription. Targeting brain cancer: advances in the molecular pathology of malignant glioma and medulloblastoma. Intrinsic gene expression profiles of gliomas are a better predictor of survival than histology. Molecular subclasses of highgrade glioma predict prognosis, delineate a pattern of 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 disease progression, and resemble stages in neurogenesis. Glioblastoma multiforme and anaplastic astrocytoma, pathologic criteria and prognostic implications. Necrosis as a prognostic criterion in malignant supratentorial, astrocytic gliomas. The prognostic importance of tumor size in malignant gliomas: A computed tomographic scan study by the Brain Tumor Cooperative Group. Clinical application of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the diagnosis of intracranial mass lesions. Clinical value of O(2[18 F]fluoroethyl)Ltyrosine positron emission tomography in patients with lowgrade glioma. Preoperative magnetic resonance spectroscopy improves diagnostic accuracy in a series of neurosurgical dilemmas. Application of magnetic resonance tractography in the perioperative planning of patients with eloquent region intraaxial brain lesions. Extent of surgical resection is independently associated with survival in patients with hemispheric infiltrating lowgrade gliomas. Longterm outcome and survival of surgically treated supratentorial lowgrade glioma in adult patients. Role of extent of resection in the longterm outcome of lowgrade hemispheric gliomas. Prospective randomized trial of low versus highdose radiation therapy in adults with supratentorial lowgrade glioma: Initial report of a North Cancer Central Treatment Group/Radiation Therapy Oncology Group/Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group study. Phase 2 study of temozolomidebased chemoradiation therapy for highrisk lowgrade gliomas: Preliminary results of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 0424. Effects of intracarotid administration of nitrogen mustard on normal brain and brain tumors. Promising survival for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme treated with concomitant radiation plus temozolomide followed by adjuvant temozolomide. Cost 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 effectiveness of temozolomide for the treatment of newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme. Emerging clinical principles on the use of bevacizumab for the treatment of malignant gliomas. Placebocontrolled trial of safety and efficacy of intraoperative controlled delivery by biodegradable polymers of chemotherapy for recurrent gliomas. Prognostic factors in adult brainstem gliomas: a multicenter, retrospective analysis of 101 cases. Cerebellar pilocytic astrocytoma: a treatment protocol based upon analysis of 73 cases and a review of the literature. Pilocytic astrocytoma survival in adults: analysis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program of the National Cancer Institute. Pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma: report of six cases with special consideration of diagnostic and therapeutic pitfalls. Early diagnosis of subependymal giant cell astrocytoma in children with tuberous sclerosis. Diagnosis and management of 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 oligodendroglioma. Predictors of survival among pediatric and adult ependymoma cases: a study using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Data from 1973 to 2007. Multidisciplinary management of childhood brain tumors: a review of outcomes, recent advances, and challenges. Choroid plexus papillomas: advances in molecular biology and understanding of tumorigenesis. Value of postoperative stereotactic radiosurgery and conventional radiotherapy for incompletely resected typical neurocytomas. Clinicopathologic features of recurrent dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor and rare malignant transformation: a report of 5 cases and review of the literature. Prediction of central nervous system embryonal tumor outcome based on gene expression. Vestibular schwannoma management in the next century: a radiosurgical perspective. Chordomas of the craniospinal axis: multimodality surgical, radiation and medical management strategies. Stereotactic radiosurgery and hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy for residual or recurrent cranial base and cervical chordomas. Central Nervous System and Peripheral Nerves 603 158 Yamamoto T, Yoneda S, Funatsu N. Spontaneous 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 haemorrhage in craniopharyngioma. Results after treatment of craniopharyngiomas: further experiences with 73 patients since 1997. The role of radiation therapy in the management of craniopharyngioma: a 25year experience and review of the literature. Radiation therapy and CyberKnife radiosurgery in the management of craniopharyngiomas. Stereotactic radiosurgery of residual or recurrent craniopharyngioma, after surgery, with or without radiation therapy. Longterm results of gamma knife surgery for the treatment of craniopharyngioma in 98 consecutive cases. Combined proton and photon irradiation for craniopharyngioma: longterm results of the early cohort of patients treated at Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory and Massachusetts General Hospital. Surveillance of craniopharyngioma cyst growth in children treated with proton radiotherapy. Management of cystic 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 craniopharyngiomas with intracavitary irradiation with 32P. Stereotactic intracavitary irradiation of cystic craniopharyngiomas with yttrium90 isotope. Intracystic bleomycin therapy for craniopharyngioma in children: the Canadian experience. Sudden death due to a colloid cyst of the third ventricle: report of three cases with a special sign at autopsy. Treatment options for third ventricular colloid cysts: comparison of open microsurgical versus endoscopic resection. Hormonal exposures and the risk of intracranial meningioma in women: a populationbased casecontrol study. Somatostatin receptor scintography in postsurgical followup examinations of meningioma. Primarily resected meningiomas: outcome and prognostic factors in 581 Mayo Clinic patients, 1978 through 1988. Stereotactic radiosurgery providing longterm tumor control of cavernous sinus meningiomas. Longterm tumor control and functional outcome in patients with cavernous sinus meningiomas treated by radiotherapy with or without previous surgery: is there an alternative to aggressive tumor removal Treatment of unresectable meningiomas with the antiprogesterone agent mifepristone. Chronic suppressive therapy with calcium channel antagonists for refractory meningiomas. 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Surgical management of spinal cord hemangioblastomas in patients with von HippelLindau disease. Longterm natural history of hemangioblastomas in patients with von HippelLindau disease: implications for treatment. The longterm results of gamma knife radiosurgery for hemangioblastomas of the brain. Role of fractionated 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 external beam radiotherapy in hemangioblastoma of the central nervous system. Spinal neurinomas: retrospective analysis and longterm outcome of 179 consecutively operated cases and review of the literature. Paragangliomas in the cauda equina region: clinicopathoradiologic findings in four cases. Treatment of spinal epidural metastasis improves patient survival and functional state. Frequency of unexpected multifocal metastasis in patients with acute spinal cord compression. Spinal cord compression in patients with advanced metastatic cancer: "all I care about is walking and living my life". Improved posttreatment functional outcome is associated with better survival in patients irradiated for metastatic spinal cord compression. Prognostic factors in metastatic spinal cord compression: a prospective study 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 using multivariate analysis of variables influencing survival and gait function in 153 patients. Surgical management of spinal metastases: analysis of prognostic factors during a 10year experience. Spinal metastases from renal cell carcinoma: effect of preoperative particle embolization on intraoperative blood loss. Survival, complications and outcome in 282 patients operated for neurological deficit due to thoracic or lumbar spinal metastases. Spinal radiation before surgical decompression adversely affects outcomes of surgery for symptomatic metastatic spinal cord compression. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2011:xlvii, 2638. 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Limitations of early rectal cancer nodal staging may explain failure after local excision breast cancer store purchase danazol 100 mg amex. Colorectal cancer surveillance: 2005 update of an American Society of Clinical Oncology practice guideline women's health journal primary care order danazol 100mg amex. Of the 8 womens health texas medicaid discount danazol online visa,200 cases of anal cancer women's health issues- spotting buy 200mg danazol fast delivery, 2 menopause without symptoms discount danazol line,950 will be male and 5 pregnancy 9th week buy danazol with visa,250 will be female [1]. While it is an uncommon cancer accounting for <3% of all gastrointestinal malignancies, incidence increased almost twofold in men and 1. Clinical Presentation Rectal bleeding is the most common presenting sign of anal cancer, occurring in 45% of patients. However, this symptom is often attributed incorrectly to hemorrhoids since it is often associated with pain and/or discomfort, often resulting in prolonged delays in diagnosis. Rectal pain and/or fullness are reported by 30% of patients, and 20% of patients are asymptomatic at diagnosis. Other signs and symptoms include changes in bowel movements such as thin caliber stools and tenesmus. Pruritis is more common in tumors of the perianal skin, as well as anal Bowen disease and Paget disease. Anatomy and Histology the location of anal cancer is important because patients with cancers of the anal canal are treated differently from those with anal margin malignancies. The anal canal is the terminal part of the large intestine, and extends from the anorectal junction of the upper part of the pelvic floor to the anal verge (the hair bearing skin around the anus). This area includes the mucosal dentate line as well as the anorectal ring, a palpable ring that defines the level of the puborectalis muscle of the pelvic floor. Local excision is only indicated for anal margin squamous cell cancer, and not for anal canal squamous cell cancer. Rare histologic subtypes (representing, in aggregate, <3% of anal cancers), include carcinoid tumors, sarcomas, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and lymphomas. Tumor (T) category is determined by size and invasion of adjacent structures like vagina and prostate. Nodal (N) category is based on location of involved nodes including perirectal, pelvic, and inguinal lymph nodes. A complete physical examination with a thorough digital rectal examination to assess for circumferential involvement, sphincter tone, and tumor size (and prostate involvement in men) is essential. In women, a pelvic examination should also be performed to rule out concurrent cervical cancer and to determine any vaginal involvement. Anoscopy, proctoscopy, and/or flexible sigmoidoscopy are required to determine the extent of anorectal involvement. Magnetic resonance imaging of the pelvis will provide better anatomic detail to determine invasion of local structures, especially the sphincterrelated musculature, and to evaluate mesorectal lymph nodes. All suspicious inguinal adenopathy should be biopsied as reactive lymph nodes are not unusual given the proximity of the tumor and would be informative for accuracy of staging and radiation simulation. Tumors arising above the dentate line tend to spread to perirectal (N1) nodes and those at or below the dentate line spread to inguinofemoral (N2) nodes. The likelihood of spread to lymph nodes is directly related to the size and extent of invasion of the primary tumor. Treatment Anal Margin Cancer Patients with T1 anal margin cancer should undergo wide local excision. If reexcision is not feasible, then radiation alone to a dose of 60 Gy is recommended. Patients with T2 or greater lesions should receive chemoradiation regimens similar to those used for anal canal cancers. Locoregional and distant relapse occurred in up to 35% and 10%, respectively, with higher rates of relapse among patients with positive pelvic or inguinal lymph nodes. However, patients with residual cancer after preoperative therapy (15%) had recurrence at distant sites and died of disease [22]. Several randomized trials addressing the role of concurrent chemotherapy, induction chemotherapy, maintenance chemotherapy, and biologic therapy are summarized in Table 10. Further, there was a concern about late toxicities with the radiationpotentiating effects of chemotherapy. Patients with a good response 6 weeks after treatment received a radiotherapy boost, and poor responders underwent salvage surgery. After a median followup of 42 months, the local failure occurred less often in the chemoradiation arm than to the radiation monotherapy arm (36% vs 59%; P <0. Chemoradiation resulted in more early morbidity than radiation monotherapy (48% vs 39%, P = 0. Surgical resection was performed if patients had not 152 Digestive System Cancers Table 10. Anal Cancer 153 responded 6 weeks after 45 Gy or if palpable residual disease persisted after therapy completion. Patients in the chemoradiation arm had a higher complete response rate (80% vs 54%), as well as fewer locoregional recurrences and higher colostomyfree rates (P = 0. Late toxicities were also similar, with the exception of an increased incidence of anal canal ulcers in the combined modality group. There was no statistically significant benefit in 5year colostomyfree survival to either induction chemotherapy (P = 0. None of the secondary endpoints, including 5year local control, 5year diseasespecific survival, and 5year tumorfree survival, showed a statistically significant benefit with the addition of either induction chemotherapy or high dose radiation boost. With regards to the cisplatin arm, there was no difference in complete response at 26 weeks (90. In a French study, patients with T3 or T4 tumors who achieved a >80% response after the initial phase of radiotherapy had 5year colostomyfree survival of 65%, versus 25% of patients who had <80% response (P = 0. In 29% of patients who did not achieve a complete response at 11 weeks, complete response may still be achieved at 26 weeks. Hence, these results suggest it may be appropriate to follow patients with persistent disease conservatively for up to 26 weeks as there is no evidence of disease progression [37]. Dermatologic and small bowel toxicity can necessitate treatment breaks which could potentially negatively affect outcomes. Two to three year locoregional control, colostomy free survival, and overall survival range from 77 to 95%, 81 to 93%, and 87 to 100%, respectively. The primary endpoint was a 15% reduction in combined grade 2+ genitourinary and gastrointestinal toxicity. While the trial failed to meet its primary endpoint, there was a significant reduction in acute grade 2+ hematologic, grade 3+ dermatologic, and gastrointestinal toxicity. All but one study [49] show equivalent outcomes with regard to locoregional control, colostomyfree survival, and overall survival. Prophylactic inguinal irradiation can reduce the inguinal recurrence rate among clinically nodenegative patients from a range of 7. The 5year locoregional control rates for patients treated with and without groin radiation and with radiotherapy alone versus chemoradiotherapy were 80. A trend toward a higher rate of grade 3+ acute toxicity was observed in patients treated with groin radiation (53% vs 31%, P = 0. The study also showed that groin radiation was associated with increased grade toxicity [73]. Most of the published evidence regarding metastatic anal canal cancer consists of small case series. The most common toxicities included mucositis, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, neutropenia, electrolyte imbalances, peripheral neuropathy, and tinnitus. Median survival for patients with negative and positive margins after salvage surgery was 33. Patients with inguinal recurrence who did not receive groin radiation were salvaged with chemoradiation. However, if there is inguinal recurrence after groin radiation, an inguinal lymph node dissection should be performed. In this study, all patients received a maximum of four cycles of therapy, which caused a high incidence of grade 3/4 toxicities including myelosuppression (48%), diarrhea (17%), and mucositis (28%). Additional studies are currently being proposed to evaluate the role of immune checkpoint inhibitors in locally advanced anal cancer. For nodenegative patients, field reduction off the superior border and groins is recommended after 30. Cohort 1 (n = 19) had a planned 2 week break in the radiation after 36 Gy was given and cohort 2 (n = 13) had no planned break. It was suggested that induction chemotherapy may contribute to local failure by increasing total treatment time. However, this may be unavoidable due to treatment related toxicity like skin desquamation and diarrhea [96]. However, no differences in locoregional control, overall, and colostomyfree survival were noted (Tables 10. Patients treated with radiation with or without chemotherapy rated their QoL to be similar to that of the general population with the exception of noting more frequent diarrhea [98]. Although 50% of these patients reported suboptimal anal function, 71% reported that they were satisfied with their current function. Of note, however, the sexual functioning score in this study was very low, with only 35% of patients reporting some sexual activity. Moreover, the extent of this activity varied greatly among patients and never reached the maximum level of functioning in any patient. Because genital organs are in close proximity to the highdose treatment volume, this high degree of sexual dysfunction is consistent with the studies of women with gynecological cancers [99] and men with prostate cancers [100], in whom loss of sexual desire and/ or orgasm, dyspareunia, and loss of potency are frequent. These patients had acceptable overall QoL scores, but poor sexual functioning scores. Of note, younger patients were found to have lower QoL and sexual functioning scores [101]. However, immediate side effects and toxicity may adversely affect the quality of life (QoL). Acute effects of chemoradiation for anal carcinomas include diarrhea, mucositis, skin erythema, and myelosupression. Late complications include anal ulcers, stricture, stenosis, fistulae, and necrosis. Proactive care and prompt responses to onset of side effects can help minimize immediate and longterm effects. For women receiving pelvic radiation, the early and ongoing use of dilators, moisturizers, and lubricants should be encouraged, with clear information given about its importance. Vaginal foreshortening due to fibrosis is a significant subacute and late side effect of pelvic irradiation. Early involvement of support services, including physical therapists, pelvic rehab specialists, dieticians, and psychosocial support can be very helpful. Also, topical estrogen, vaginal moisturizers, lubricants, and vaginal dilators can help improve sexual function in women. Minimizing radiotherapy dose to a portion of the anterior wall of the vaginal vault may also be helpful. Phosphodiesterase inhibitors, such as sildenafil, can help improve sexual function in men after anal cancer treatment. The development of vaginal stenosis was more common in younger patients, with a higher dose of radiation, and associated with years of radiation therapy provided. Anal Cancer 159 Fertility Preservation It is essential that all disciplines discuss fertility preservation and refer patients of childbearing age to a reproductive endocrinologist [103,104]. Although the role of chemotherapy as a radiation sensitization has largely remained unchanged, the multidisciplinary management is now focused on prolonging the duration of surveillance before making a critical decision regarding salvage surgery as well as acute and chronic toxicities. Novel approaches will likely include the role immunotherapy as a potential treatment option for both early and late stage disease. Sacral nerve stimulation may be a possible treatment for fecal and urinary incontinence [108]. 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