Background It was observed that new presentations of anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid had become infrequent in the last two decades. Methods All cases of thyroid cancer seen at our centre between 1969–1993 (n = 2921) were classified as papillary 49%, follicular 34%, medullary 7.5%, anaplastic 4.7%, and other 4.8%. The total number of thyroid cancers show a 3.5‐fold rise. Results The differentiated thyroid cancers show a significant rising trend as against the relative proportion of anaplastic carcinoma, which shows a significant decline (P = 0.002). Clinicopathologic data on 124 patients of anaplastic carcinoma revealed 50% patients had either long‐standing goitres, previous thyroid abnormalities, or associated differentiated thyroid carcinoma on histology. Conclusions The decline in the relative proportion of anaplastic carcinoma may in part be explained by the clinicopathologic findings or it may be attributed to histological reclassification. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

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Prognostic significance of blood vessel invasion in carcinoma of the female breast has been evaluated by study of 242 cases of radical mastectomy done at the Tata Memorial Hospital. The significance of axillary node involvement with the disease has been simultaneously evaluated. In the absence of blood vessel invasion and lymph node metastasis the 5 year survival rate was 98%. Compared with this, 5 year survival rate was reduced to 59% when the blood vessel invasion was present but no lymph node metastasis. Only 12% survived for 5 years when both blood vessels and lymph nodes were involved with the disease. The study indicated that blood vessel invasion in the primary breast carcinoma is more significant than lymph node metastasis.

Hodgkin's disease (HD) had a low overall incidence rate in Bombay when compared to western countries. However, the incidence rate in childhood was quite high. Review of 1082 cases of Hodgkin's disease recorded at the Tata Memorial Hospital, Bombay, India during a period of 35 years showed that mixed cellularity, with 54% of the total, was the most frequent histologic subtype and this, together with lymphocyte depleted type formed 68% of all HD. The nodular sclerosis type formed only 9%. A bimodal character of the age pattern with a young age peak in the second decade of life, a male preponderance, a high incidence in childhood, and the predominance of low survival types, are the major features of the disease in India. The current data, which are the largest series reported from Bombay and other parts of India, indicate that the type‐I pattern as described by Correa and O'Conor4 may be the characteristic feature of the Hodgkin's disease in India.

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The expression of inhibin, a 10.7 kD follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)-suppressing prostatic peptide of 94 amino acids, was investigated in normal human endometrium, endometrial hyperplasia, and adenocarcinoma, employing the avidin-biotin immunoperoxidase technique. The antiserum used was raised in rabbits against prostatic inhibin isolated from human seminal plasma. The study included 15 well differentiated, 32 moderately differentiated, and 21 poorly differentiated endometrial adenocarcinomas; 26 simple, five complex, and two complex atypical endometrial hyperplasias; and, for comparison, 25 normal proliferative and 30 normal secretory endometria. In malignant and hyperplastic endometrial tissues, inhibin was localized in the epithelial cytoplasm of endometrial glands while the stroma showed weak reactivity. On the other hand, inhibin was undetectable in the early proliferative phase, but was present on the luminal border of the glandular epithelium in the mid- and late proliferative phases. Secretory endometrium displayed strong inhibin reactivity in the cytoplasm of glandular epithelium and in the stroma. The increased inhibin reactivity in secretory endometrium as compared with the proliferative phase is indicative of a functional role for inhibin in the uterus. In addition, its localization in proliferative, hyperplastic, and malignant endometria suggests a possible regulatory role for inhibin in endometrial proliferation and growth.

Based on the Barr body frequency, a total of 285 unselected breast cancer tissues were categorised as negative and positive tumours; incidence of these two groups in our series was 2:1, respectively. When 2-years' disease-free interval and 10-years' survival were considered, it was seen that patients harbouring negative tumours had significantly early recurrence and shorter duration of survival as compared to those having positive tumours. As vascular spread is the prerequisite of early recurrence, the shorter survival in the patients having negative tumours could be explained on the basis of blood vessel invasion, in that 73% of the negative tumours had blood vessel invasion, in contrast to only 24% in the positive tumours.

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