No 1 (2011)

The use of digital techniques in mammography has become a last step for completing the process of digitization in diagnostic imaging. It is assumed that such a spatial decision will be required for digital mammography, as well as for high-resolution intensifying screen-film systems used in conventional mammography and that the digital techniques will be limited by the digitizer pixel size on detecting minor structures, such as microcalcifications. The introduction of digital technologies in mammography involves a tight control over an image and assures its high quality.

The paper considers the current feasibility of endocrine therapy for breast cancer (BC). It presents trials of the efficacy of fulvestrant in the treatment of patients with BC. Practically all clinical trials have demonstrated that the drug is well tolerated, without causing any significant systemic estrogen-like effects, as well as complications associated with the use of aromatase inhibitors.

Objective: to evaluate the efficiency (morphological tumor complete regression (mCR), a clinical effect) and safety of the use of new anthracycline-free neoajuvant chemotherapy regimens (paclitaxel + vinorelbine and docetaxel + carboplatin) in combination with trastuzumab in patients with Stage IIIa-c breast cancer (BC) and Her-2 hyperexpression.
Subjects and methods. The study enrolled 36 Stage IIIa–c BC patients receiving 4–8 cycles of a chemotherapy regimen of paclitaxel (100 mg/m2) + vinorelbine (25 mg/m2) (every 3 weeks) or docetaxel (50 mg/m2) + carboplatin (AUC 5) (every 3 weeks) in combination with trastuzumab.
Results. The docetaxel (75 mg/m2) + carboplatin (AUC 5) + trastuzumab regimen demonstrated a high effectiveness with acceptable toxicity. Seventeen (58.8 %) patients achieved mCP. The clinical effect was 83.3 % (4 complete and 11 partial tumor regressions).
The paclitaxel (135 mg/m2) + vinorelbine (25 mg/m2) (every 3 weeks) + trastuzumab regimen is efficacious and promising when the doses of the drugs are increased and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor used.

Objective: to study the pathomorphological signs of pure and mixed clear-cell ovarian tumors with a clear-cell component.
Subjects and methods. The clinical and morphological characteristics and the course of the disease were analyzed in 96 patients aged 21 to 75 years with clear-cell ovarian carcinoma. All the patients were divided into 2 groups: 1) 71 patients with pure clear-cell ovarian adenocarcinomas (COA) and 2) 25 patients with mixed malignant ovarian epithelial tumors (MMOET) with an obligatory clear-cell component. All pure forms of ovarian clear-cell malignancies were represented by adenocarcinoma in our study. This histologic type of the tumor was also prevalent among mixed ovarian neoplasms.
Results. Clear, optically transparent cells and shoe nail-type (nail) ones were most common in COA. MMOETs showed moderate dif- ferentiation and malignancy and moderate atypia of a cell. Pure clear-cell neoplasms generally displayed 3 to 6 mitoses in 10 fields of vision whereas MMOET exhibited as many as 3 mitoses in 10 fields of vision.

Early response genes are a group of proto-oncogenes that are the first to be activated in cell stimulation with different growth factors and to be involved in the regulation of cell proliferation and differentiation. Large amount of information supporting that altered expression of these genes is one of the central and earliest events of carcinogenesis has been accumulated. In this connection, it is promising to use early response genes as diagnostic and prognostic markers for the detection and combination therapy of cancer of the cervix uteri, one of the most common gynecological malignancies characterized by high mortality rates and difficulties in early diagnosis. The theoretical basis for these promises is the found mechanisms for the interaction of early response genes with human papillomavirus genome, the main cause of cervix uteri cancer.

The paper analyzes the strategy and tactics of beam and intracavitary radiation within the framework of chemoradiotherapy in 112 pa- tients with inoperable FIGO stages IIa–IIIb cancer of the cervix uteri. The parameters that are important to plan general radiotherapy stages are assessed; the bases for optimization decisions and the specific features of maintenance therapy, which ensure a 15–25 % increase in the efficiency of treatment with its satisfactory tolerability, are given.