OBJECTIVE: We have assessed the accuracy of frozen section diagnosis and the outcomes of misdiagnosis in borderline tumors of the ovary (BTO) according to frozen section. METHODS: All pathology reports with BTO in both frozen and permanent section analyses between 1994 and 2008 at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital were reviewed. Frozen section diagnosis and permanent section histology reports were compared. Logistic regression models were conducted to evaluate the correlation of patient and tumor characteristics with diagnostic accuracy. The clinical outcomes of misdiagnosis were evaluated. RESULTS: Agreement between frozen section diagnosis and permanent histology was observed in 63 of 101 patients (62.4%). Among the 76 patients with frozen section proven BTO, under-diagnosis and over-diagnosis occurred in 8 of 76 (10.5%) and 5 of 76 patients (6.6%), respectively. Mean diameter of under-diagnosed tumor was larger than matched BTO (21.0+/-11.4 vs. 13.7+/-7.1; p=0.021). Tumor size 20 cm was determined as the optimal cut-off for under-diagnosis (50% sensitivity, 87.3% specificity). Among 8 under-diagnosed patients, no patient relapsed. Among 5 over-diagnosed patients, 2 patients < 35 years of age had fertility-preserving surgery. CONCLUSION: Although frozen section diagnosis is an important and reliable tool in the clinical management of patients with ovarian tumors, over-diagnosis and under-diagnosis are relatively frequent in frozen proven BTO. Surgical decision-making for BTO based on frozen section diagnosis should be done carefully, especially in large tumors.
Diagnostic Errors ; Female ; Frozen Sections ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Ovary

OBJECTIVE: We assessed the prognostic factors and the efficacy of adjuvant therapy and reviewed randomized studies carried out on patients receiving adjuvant therapy with early endometrial carcinoma. METHODS: One hundred and five patients that received primary surgical treatment for stage IB, IC and II endometrial cancer were enrolled in this study. The clinical outcomes were compared among the patients with variable prognostic factors and adjuvant treatments. RESULTS: One hundred and five patients fulfilled the eligibility criteria and 46 patients (43.8%) underwent adjuvant therapy. Disease recurrence occurred in nine patients within a median time of 24 months. Cervical involvement was an independent prognostic factor for the disease-free survival rates. Eight of 16 patients with FIGO stage II disease received adjuvant chemotherapy consisting of cisplatin and etoposide (or cyclophosphamide) or combined chemoradiation. The 5-year disease-free survival rate for these patients was 87.5%, a value significantly higher than for patients that received radiation therapy alone (30%). CONCLUSION: Adjuvant chemotherapy or combination chemo-radiotherapy might be superior to radiation therapy alone in high-risk early endometrial cancer patients.
Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Cisplatin ; Disease-Free Survival ; Endometrial Neoplasms ; Etoposide ; Female ; Humans ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVE: We assessed the prognostic factors and the efficacy of adjuvant therapy and reviewed randomized studies carried out on patients receiving adjuvant therapy with early endometrial carcinoma. METHODS: One hundred and five patients that received primary surgical treatment for stage IB, IC and II endometrial cancer were enrolled in this study. The clinical outcomes were compared among the patients with variable prognostic factors and adjuvant treatments. RESULTS: One hundred and five patients fulfilled the eligibility criteria and 46 patients (43.8%) underwent adjuvant therapy. Disease recurrence occurred in nine patients within a median time of 24 months. Cervical involvement was an independent prognostic factor for the disease-free survival rates. Eight of 16 patients with FIGO stage II disease received adjuvant chemotherapy consisting of cisplatin and etoposide (or cyclophosphamide) or combined chemoradiation. The 5-year disease-free survival rate for these patients was 87.5%, a value significantly higher than for patients that received radiation therapy alone (30%). CONCLUSION: Adjuvant chemotherapy or combination chemo-radiotherapy might be superior to radiation therapy alone in high-risk early endometrial cancer patients.
Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Cisplatin ; Disease-Free Survival ; Endometrial Neoplasms ; Etoposide ; Female ; Humans ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVE: Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most common cause of death due to gynecologic malignancies in adults, but is rare in children and adolescents. This is a report of series of such patients under 20 years of age documenting their presentation, histologic type, stage of disease, treatment, and outcome. METHODS: We collected data on 21 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer under 20 years of age between January 1990 and December 2005. Patient records and pathology were reviewed. RESULTS: Epithelial ovarian cancer under 20 years of age was 2.2% in overall ovarian cancer. Epithelial ovarian cancer was 42.0% among 50 patients under 20 years of age and the most common histologic type was germ cell tumors (54%). The median age at the time of diagnosis was 17.6 years (range, 13-20 years), and the median follow-up was 87 months (range, 4-175 months). There were seventeen (81.0%) mucinous tumors, four (19.0%) serous tumors. About thirty-eight percent were low malignant potential or borderline tumors. About Eighty-five percent (18 patients) of tumors were stage I disease and about fourteen percent (3 patients) were stage III disease at the time of diagnosis. Surgical treatment included conservative surgery in 18 patients (85.7%), total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo- oophorectomy in 3 patients (14.3%). CONCLUSION: Epithelial ovarian cancers are rare in patients in children and adolescents. The majority of ovarian cancers in this age group are mucinous tumors, stage I at diagnosis and borderline ovarian tumor. Conservative management is feasible to achieve preservation of fertility.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Cause of Death ; Child ; Female ; Fertility ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hysterectomy ; Mucins ; Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal ; Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Ovariectomy

Intrauterine devices (IUDs) are highly effective, long-term methods of contraception. Although evidences of direct association between IUD use and pelvic inflammatory disease are rare, the frequency of inflammatory complications associated with the use of IUDs ranges from 2% to 8%. Gynecological surgeries on the account of purulent, inflammatory disease associated with IUD are 4-7%. We report one case with spontaneous perforation of uterus due to acute gangrenous myometritis in an old woman with IUD for 40 yrs in pelvic cavity, followed by a review of the literature.
Contraception ; Female ; Gynecologic Surgical Procedures ; Humans ; Intrauterine Devices ; Pelvic Inflammatory Disease ; Uterine Perforation* ; Uterus

Cervical carcinoma is the second leading cause of death from cancer in women worldwide. It is well known that human papillomaviruses (HPVs) is the etiologic agent of cervical neoplasia and cervical cancer. Zinc has been shown to inhibit the growth of malignant cell lines by inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. Recently it was reported that zinc-citrate compound (CIZAR(R)) has a cytotoxic effect on choriocarcinoma cell line and ovarian adenocarcinoma cell line and suppresses its proliferation inducing apoptosis. CIZAR(R) prevents the proliferation by inactivation of m-aconitase activity and induces apoptosis by increasing Bax expression and reducing Bcl-2 expression and inactivation of telomerase. We report one patient of cervical adenocarcinoma with HPV infection, who desires to continue pregnancy, treated by daily topical application of SeLava(R) which contains zinc-citrate compound (CIZAR(R)). We followed up the cytologic, pathologic and coloposcopic changes of healing process.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Apoptosis ; Cause of Death ; Cell Cycle Checkpoints ; Cell Line ; Choriocarcinoma ; Female ; Humans ; Pregnancy* ; Telomerase ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms ; Zinc

OBJECTIVE: The "sentinel node" is defined as the first lymph node encountered by lymphatic vessels draining a tumor. We tried to examine whether pathologic status of sentinel nodes of cervical cancer patients represent metastatic status of pelvic and paraaortic lymph nodes and to investigate the correlation between sentinel node HPV status and lymph node metastasis and recurrence of cervical cancer patients. METHODS: From August 2001 to December 2003, 57 patients affected by stage IB-IIA cervical cancer had sentinel node biopsies performed during radical hysterectomy and pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy. We performed sentinel lymph node pathologic examination by frozen section and HPV typing by oligonucleotide microarray. After two years of follow up, we analyzed the prognosis of patients. RESULTS: Sentinel nodes were identified in all of our patients. A total of 79 nodes were detected as sentinel nodes. Metastasis in the sentinel nodes were found in 10 patients by frozen section and 11 patients by permanent pathologic examination. The results of sentinel lymph node frozen biopsy were statistically significant for predicting the metastatic status of the pelvic lymph nodes (p<0.05), but showed one false negative case. HPV DNA was detected in the cervices of 55 patients (96.5%), 44 (80.0%) of whom were found to have HPV DNA in the sentinel nodes. HPV DNA was detected in sentinel nodes of 10 patients among 11 patients with lymph node metastases. After mean follow up of 31.7 months (range; 1-48), disease recurred in five patients and all of these patients showed HPV in sentinel nodes. Combination of sentinel node frozen biopsy and HPV typing showed negative predictive value of 100% in predicting lymph node metastasis and recurrence. CONCLUSION: Our result suggests the possibility that sentinel node HPV typing would play a supportive role to reduce false negative rate of sentinel node biopsy. Additional study will be needed to confirm the clinical application of sentinel lymph procedure and to reveal correlation between HPV status of sentinel nodes and lymph node metastasis and recurrence of cervical cancer patients.
Biopsy ; DNA ; Follow-Up Studies ; Frozen Sections ; Humans ; Hysterectomy ; Lymph Node Excision ; Lymph Nodes ; Lymphatic Vessels ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Prognosis ; Recurrence* ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

OBJECTIVE: Human seminal plasma has diverse biological activities including cytotoxic effect. It contains high concentrations of zinc and citric acid. Zinc inhibits several carcinoma cell growths through induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. We tried to investigate the effects of zinc-citrate compound (CIZAR(R)) on normal human ovarian epithelial (NOSE) cells and human epithelial ovarian cancer cells, OVCAR-3. METHODS: To investigate the potential effect of CIZAR(R) on cell growth and survival, cells were treated with different dose and exposed to different time. Mitochondrial(m)-aconitase activity was determined in cell extracts using aconitase assay. The flow cytometric assay, DNA laddering, telomerase activity and morphological analysis were done to investigate apoptosis of OVCAR-3 cells. Molecular mechanism of apoptosis was investigated by p53, Bcl-XL, Bcl-2, Bax protein, and caspase activity. RESULTS: Treatment of OVCAR-3 cells with CIZAR(R) resulted in a time- and dose-dependent decrease in cell number in comparison with NOSE cells. M-aconitase activity was significantly decreased in OVCAR-3 cells but relatively constant in NOSE cells. The flow cytometric assay, DNA laddering and morphological analysis indicated apoptosis of OVCAR-3 cells. CIZAR(R) did not affect p53 but increased the expression of p21waf1 upon the indicated times and induced reduction of telomerase activity. CIZAR(R) reduced expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL proteins but induced expression of Bax protein. CIZAR(R) induced apoptosis of OVCAR-3 cells by activation of caspase-3 pathway. CONCLUSION: These results show that CIZAR(R) prevent the proliferation of OVCAR-3 cells by inactivation of m-aconitase activity and induce apoptosis by induction of apoptotic genes and repression of antiapoptotic genes without adverse effect on normal ovarian epithelial cells. These results will offer new window in prevention and treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer.
Aconitate Hydratase ; Apoptosis ; bcl-2-Associated X Protein ; bcl-X Protein ; Caspase 3 ; Cell Count ; Cell Cycle Checkpoints ; Cell Extracts ; Citric Acid ; DNA ; Epithelial Cells ; Humans* ; Nose ; Ovarian Neoplasms* ; Repression, Psychology ; Semen ; Telomerase ; Zinc

Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome is an extrapelvic manifestation of PID. It is associated with right upper quadrant pain that likely results from the inflammation of liver capsule and diaphragm. The liver capsule becomes involved with inflammatory exudates that later forms violin string adhesion between two liver capsule and adjacent diaphragm or peritoneum. Previously, Neisseria gonorrhea was thought to be the only etiological agent, but recent studies have reported cases of Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome due to Chlamydia trachomatis infection. 15 to 30 percents of women with PID develop symptom of Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome. It is often mistakenly diagnosed as either pneumonia or acute cholecystitis. Laparoscopy may be the definitive method in diagnosis of Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome. However, we have experienced one cases of Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome, which was diagnosed preoperative by pelvic CT imaging and report with the brief review of the literatures.
Chlamydia trachomatis ; Cholecystitis, Acute ; Diagnosis ; Diaphragm ; Exudates and Transudates ; Female ; Gonorrhea ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Laparoscopy* ; Liver ; Neisseria ; Peritoneum ; Pneumonia

OBJECTIVE: Conization is used for diagnosis and treatment of cervical neoplasia. Our purpose of this investigation is to determine the efficacy of loop conization for the treatment of cervical dysplasia and the significance of the clinical and histological factors used to predict residual dysplasia after loop conization. METHODS: We reviewed the charts of patients who were received conization and subsequently total hysterectomy at Kangnam St Mary Hospital during 1989 and 2000. Logistic regression and Chi-square test were used for analysis. RESULTS: Total 257 patients were included. The mean age of the patients was 44.7 years. Of these patients, 87 (33.8%) had residual disease in the hysterectomy specimens. Age, the involvement of cut surface of endocervix and exocervix, severity and extent of the lesion, and scattering lesion were associated with the residual disease. But preoperative HPV infection, which is known as the cause of cervical neoplasia was not associated with the residual disease. CONCLUSION: When the high risk factors are present, the validity of conservative treatment should be considered and more careful follow up with pap smear, HPV test and colposcopy is necessary. Because about one thirds of patient has residual disease after conization, LEEP conization should be used for diagnosis of cervical neoplasia rather than treatment.
Colposcopy ; Conization* ; Diagnosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hysterectomy ; Logistic Models ; Risk Factors*