Faculty Bibliography

The clinical course of 312 consecutive patients after initial presentation with metastatic melanoma, 165 of whom presented with regional metastases at cutaneous or subcutaneous, or both, nodal sites and 147 with metastases at distant sites, was reviewed. The five year survival rate for regional metastases was 43.4 per cent compared with a five year survival rate for distant metastases of 4.9 per cent (p less than 0.0001). Favorable prognostic variables for survival from first regional metastases included primary melanoma sites on the extremities compared with the head, neck and trunk (p = 0.043) and a disease-free interval of more than one year from primary surgical treatment to regional metastases (p = 0.0058). Favorable prognostic variables for survival from the first distant metastasis included a disease-free interval of more than one year from primary surgical treatment to distant metastases (p = 0.0092), the type of resection of metastatic disease (p = 0.00027) and the addition of systemic immunotherapy (p = 0.0011). Forty-nine patients with totally resectable distant metastases had a five year survival rate from the treatment of the initial metastasis of 13.1 per cent, whereas 33 patients having palliative resections had a five year survival rate of 7.5 per cent. All 165 patients who did not have resection for distant metastases died within five years. The results of our experience support therapeutic efforts to ablate both regional and distant metastases of malignant melanoma when feasible

A total of 203 primary invasive breast cancers were sampled by ex vivo fine-needle aspiration (FNA), directly yielding adequate single cell suspensions for flow cytometric DNA analysis in 194 (96%). Labor-intensive and time-consuming steps of mechanical and enzymatic cellular disaggregation required by the use of fresh, frozen, or paraffin-embedded tissue were avoided, thereby minimizing preparation time. Conservation of tumor tissue allowed for the sampling of very small breast cancers. DNA ploidy and S-phase fraction data were comparable to flow cytometric data reported in other breast cancer studies using various sampling methods. Ex vivo FNA is the easiest and fastest method for sampling breast cancers for flow cytometric DNA analysis

Interval breast cancers are defined as those that arise within 12 months of normal routine screening by physical examination and mammography. The term 'acute breast cancer' has been used to identify a subset of interval breast cancers that not only arise after recent normal screening but also show early metastases or evidence of metastatic potential. Acute breast cancers currently elude attempts at early breast cancer detection and can undermine a patient-physician relationship when the patient discovers such a neoplasm shortly after routine screening

The mammographic findings in 18 patients with invasive papillary carcinoma were studied retrospectively. The mammograms of 10 patients showed a multinodular pattern, and seven patients had solitary nodules. One patient had an irregular, ill-defined mass in the retroareolar region. Two patients were found to have carcinoma in the contralateral breast, and two patients had intraductal carcinoma adjacent to the invasive papillary carcinoma. The varied mammographic features that may occur with this rare breast malignancy are discussed

Mammograms of 152 patients after mammoplasty were studied and 37 patients were noted to have calcifications. The pattern of these calcifications was studied to determine if specific characteristics could be identified. The calcifications were found to occur within the skin of the breast, mainly at a periareolar location. The ability to identify these benign calcifications further aids in reliably monitoring patients by mammography after reduction mammoplasty

The outcome of 29 patients who underwent lung resection for treatment of metastatic malignant melanoma from January 1976 to November 1988 was studied. Twenty-two patients underwent total resection for cure of all apparent metastatic disease, whereas seven patients did not undergo total resection. Of the 22 patients who underwent curative resection, the median survival was 11 months, with a 2-year survival of 13.6% and a 5-year survival of 4.5%. Four patients who underwent curative resection are currently alive and free of disease, with one patient surviving more than 10 years. The patients who underwent palliative resection had a median survival of 5 months, only one patient living longer than 10 months. The difference in survival of the patients who underwent curative resection compared with palliative resection was statistically significant. The thickness of the primary cutaneous malignant melanoma, the presence of regional lymph node metastases, the disease-free interval from primary diagnosis to metastatic pulmonary disease, and whether one or two metastatic nodules were removed during curative lung resection were not statistically significant in altering survival. These results demonstrate that although prolonged survival for metastatic melanoma is rare, lung resection in selected patients may be associated with long-term survival