The purpose of this study was to review the clinical course of patients diagnosed with vulvar melanoma. Charts of patients diagnosed between 1970 and 1997 were reviewed for demographics, lesion characteristics, disease duration and extent, and treatments. Actuarial survival curves were computed by the Kaplan Meier method and compared by Cox proportional hazards regressions. Fifty-one patients (median age 54) with vulvar melanoma presented with a vulvar mass (39%), pain (30%), bleeding (24%), and itching (20%). Anatomical distribution was mucosa of the vulva (65%), vulvar epidermal site (21%), or unspecified vulva (14%), with 20% having multifocal disease at diagnosis. Histologic types were superficial spreading or nodular (50% each). Median lesion characteristics were diameter 2 cm, Breslow index 4.4 mm, and Clark level IV. Distribution of patients per American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage was 29%, 50%, 16%, and 7% for stages I, II, III and IV, respectively. Inguinal node metastases were unilateral in 16% and bilateral in 7%. Despite complete surgical resection, 32 patients (63%) recurred. Median survival for all patients was 41 months (range, 5-324), with 91% 5-year survival for patients with stage I and 31% for stage >or= IIA (P = 0.0002). As with cutaneous melanoma, the AJCC classification, Breslow's thickness, and Clark's levels are the major predictors of overall survival (P = 0.0001 each) and disease-free survival (P

An elevated serum CA125 level in association with a pelvic mass, pleural effusion, and massive ascites usually signifies a dismal prognosis in a postmenopausal woman. However, surgery and histopathological examination are required for the correct diagnosis and treatment, since an elevated CA125 level can be falsely positive for ovarian malignancy. We present a case of Meigs’ syndrome due to right ovarian fibroma with elevated CA125 level in a postmenopausal woman.

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Metastases to the breast from tumors other than breast carcinomas are extremely rare and represent only 0.2–1.3% of all diagnosed malignant breast tumors. Furthermore, while the most common sites for advanced ovarian cancer metastases are the liver, lung, and pleura, metastasis to the breast from a primary ovarian cancer is uncommon and has only been reported in 0.03–0.6% of all breast cancers. Here we describe a case report of a 50-year-old female patient with a rare case of breast metastases from an advanced ovarian cancer, presenting as inflammatory breast cancer. Our observations emphasize the clinical importance of distinguishing between primary and metastatic breast cancer during diagnosis for the purpose of appropriate prognosis and treatment.

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). The advantages of LBC over conventional cervical cytology include the decrease in rate of unsatisfied smears and the increase in detection rate of cytological abnormalities (Dupree et al., 1998;Papillo et al., 1998;Diaz-Rosario and