Introduction: Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers diagnosed in women worldwide. Mammalian cells are constantly exposed to a wide variety of genotoxic agents from both endogenous and exogenous sources. The RAD51 protein is required for meiotic and mitotic recombination and plays a central role in homology-dependent recombinational repair of double-strand breaks (DSBs). Given the functional relevance of the DNA repair system on carcinogenesis, potential associations between genetic polymorphisms of DNA repair genes, cancer risk and response to therapy have been intensively evaluated. This is the first study evaluating the role of the RAD51 G172T genetic variants in cancer prognosis and clinical outcome of cervical cancer patients. Material and methods: We analyzed RAD51 G172T polymorphism genotypes in cervical cancer patients who underwent a platinum-based chemotherapy in combination with radiotherapy. Genotyping was performed by Taqman™ Allelic Discrimination methodology. Results and discussion: Concerning the overall survival rates found using Kaplan-Meier method and Log Rank Test, we observed that the mean survival rates were statistically different according to the patients RAD51 genotypes. The group of patients carrying the T allele present a higher mean survival rate than the other patients (102.3 months vs. 86.4 months, P = 0.020). Using the Cox regression analysis, we found an increased overall survival time for T-carrier patients, when compared with GG genotype, with tumor stage, age and presence of lymph nodes as covariates [hazard ratio (HR), 0.373; 95% CI, 0.181-0.770; P = 0.008]. Among patients (n = 193), RAD51 genotype frequency distributions were not under the influence of clinicopathologic characteristics, namely, treatment response (P = 0.508), recurrence (P = 0.150) and tumor stage (P = 0.250). Conclusions: This is the first study evaluating the role of the RAD51 G172T genetic variants in cancer prognosis and clinical outcome of cervical cancer patients. Our results indicate an influence of the RAD51 genetic variants in overall survival of cervical cancer. Thereby, RAD51 G172T genotypes may provide additional prognostic information in cervical cancer patients who underwent cisplatin-based chemotherapy in combination with radiotherapy.

This is the first study evaluating the effect of PARP1 Val762Ala polymorphism in treatment response in cervical cancer patients. PARP1 genotypes may contribute as an independent prognostic factor in cervical cancer, being useful in predicting the clinical outcome.

Aims: Cervical cancer is the third most frequent cancer in women worldwide, mostly treated with cisplatin-based chemoradiotherapy. Since it is known that folate metabolism might interfere with cisplatin effectiveness, we intended to study the influence of the Gamma Glutamyl Hydrolase -401C > T polymorphism in treatment response in cervical cancer. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical data of 167 patients with bulky cervical cancer submitted to cisplatin-based chemoradiotherapy. The genotypes of GGH -401C > T SNP were determined by real-time PCR and statistical analysis was performed by χ 2 test and survival analysis.Results: The genotypes of GGH-401C > T were significantly associated with the response to platinum-based chemoradiotherapy. Treatment response was higher in patients carrying the CC genotype, who presented a significant increased chance of treatment response (survival time in months/genotype: 91 for CC Vs 72 for CT/TT; p = 0.035, log rank test). A Cox regression analysis accordingly showed that the presence of the T allele was significantly linked to a worse treatment response (HR = 3.036; CI 95% 1.032-8.934, p = 0.044). Conclusions:The results of our study suggested the potential interest of GGH -401C > T as a predictive factor of the outcome of cervical carcinoma treated with cisplatin-based chemoradiotherapy.

Gastric duplication cyst (GDC) is a rare congenital abnormality and the development of malignant transformation in these lesions is even rarer, with only few reported cases worldwide to date. We hereby report an additional case of cancer arising from a GDC in a 54-year-old male. The patient's chief complaints were abdominal pain and significant weight loss. Computed tomography and endoscopy ultrasonography (EUS) revealed a nodular formation with a cystic component, localized in the great gastric curvature and invading the spleen and left adrenal gland. The biopsy from EUS was inconclusive. After exploratory laparotomy, the patient was submitted to an en-bloc resection with partial gastrectomy, splenectomy and left adrenalectomy. Histopathologic examination revealed a cystic mass non-communicating with the gastric wall. Immunohistochemistry staining showed a moderately differentiated pancreatobiliary adenocarcinoma within a duplication cyst with lymphovascular and perineural invasion. The patient was proposed to adjuvant systemic treatment, however, after few months he developed metachronous metastasis. To our knowledge, this is the first case of adenocarcinoma with pancreatobiliary differentiation arising from a gastric duplication cyst.

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