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Cervical cancer usually presents in advanced stages and is treated with chemoradiation. About 15-20 % patients present with local recurrence after chemoradiation. Radical surgical resection is the only treatment modality offering long term survival benefit in recurrent cervical cancer. The most common surgical option for these patients is pelvic exenteration. Radical hysterectomy may be done for patients with a small centrally located recurrence in the cervix with no infiltration of adjacent structures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the morbidity and survival outcome following radical hysterectomy and pelvic exenteration for recurrent cancer cervix. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of our patients who underwent surgery for cancer cervix recurrence from January 2010 to December 2014. The postoperative morbidity was considered early if it happened in the initial 30 days of surgery and late if it occurred after 30 days. All patients were followed up till February 2015. Survival analysis was done using Kaplan- Meir method. Between January 2010 and December 2014, 20 patients with recurrent cervical cancer underwent radical surgical resection. The median age of the study group was 43 years (range 28-63 years). Seventeen patients had squamous cell carcinoma and 3 had adenocarcinoma. 13 underwent pelvic exenteration and 7 patients underwent radical type 2 hysterectomy with bilateral pelvic lymphnode dissection. In the exenteration group, 8 patients had anterior exenteration, 4 had total exenteration and one had posterior exenteration. Urinary diversion was done by ileal conduit in 8 patients, double barrel colostomy in two and wet colostomy in two patients. There were no immediate postoperative deaths. Operating time, blood transfusions needed and hospital stay was more in the exenteration group compared to radical hysterectomy patients. After pelvic exenteration post-operative complications were seen in 76.9 % of which the most common was of the urinary tract including 3 patients with pyelonephritis, 5 had renal insufficiency and 2 patients developed urinary fistulae. Post-operative morbidity was lower in radical hysterectomy patients. There were two patients in the hysterectomy group who developed vault recurrence while none in the exenteration group had local recurrence. The median follow up time was 19 months (range 9-53 months).Three year overall survival for the entire cohort was 43 %. Median survival time for the exenteration group was 28 months which was significantly higher than 14 months for the radical hysterectomy group. This study shows that radical surgical resection is feasible with good survival outcome and acceptable morbidity in recurrent cancer cervix patients. Radical hysterectomy can be done in selected patients but pelvic exenteration has better long-term survival but with the potential for both short- & long-term complications.

LEEP was associated with minimal complications and acceptable cure rates in a low-resource setting, although women with larger lesions had lower cure rates.

Objective: To strengthen the role of high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) in the development of cervical cancer, and the association between HPV and the cell cycle inhibitor gene p16^ink4a in cervical carcinogenesis. Methods: In this study, the association between p16^ink4a and the presence of HPV DNA in cervical lesions was investigated in a total of 177 cervical biopsies classified as benign (n = 42), low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL; n = 34), high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL; n = 48) and invasive cancer (n = 53). p16^ink4a expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry while HPV DNA was localized by in situ hybridization. Results: No significant association was found between p16^ink4a expression and HPV presence in benign and LSIL samples. In HSIL and invasive cancer, a significant association was found between p16^ink4a overexpression and the presence of HPV DNA. Conclusion: Immunohistochemical p16^ink4a expression is associated with HPV infection in HSIL and cervical cancer, suggesting a role of p16 as a biomarker of HPV-associated cervical lesions.

Introduction:Colposcopy is a tool to evaluate women with cervical pre-cancer and cancer. To interpret the colposcopic findings, various scoring systems are used but with inter observer variations. To improve the quality of colposcopy, International Federation of Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy (IFCPC) has introduced a colposcopic nomenclature in 2011. Colposcopic scoring helps to select patients who need treatment for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.Aim of the Study:The study aimed to evaluate the agreement between colposcopic diagnosis with the modified IFCPC terminology and cervical pathology in patients with abnormal screening tests and to assess the utility of this colposcopic scoring system in low resource settings.Methodology:Patients with abnormal screening tests who underwent colposcopic assessment in the department of Gynaecological oncology were included in the study. Colposcopic scoring was done by the modified IFCPC nomenclature. The results were compared with cytology and the final histopathology.Results:56 patients were included in the study. The colposcopic scoring when compared to histopathology showed agreement in 65.7% which indicated the agreement was substantial and was statistically significant (P = 0.0001). With cytology the colposcopic score showed agreement in 35.6% indicating a fair agreement and this was also statistically significant (P = 0.001).Conclusion:Colposcopic scoring by modified IFCPC 2011 criteria showed substantial agreement with cervical histopathology. Compared to traditional methods, 2011 international terminology of colposcopy could improve colposcopic accuracy.

Diffuse reflectance (DR) spectroscopy is a non-invasive, real-time, and cost-effective tool for early detection of malignant changes in squamous epithelial tissues. The present study aims to evaluate the diagnostic power of diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for non-invasive discrimination of cervical lesions in vivo. A clinical trial was carried out on 48 sites in 34 patients by recording DR spectra using a point-monitoring device with white light illumination. The acquired data were analyzed and classified using multivariate statistical analysis based on principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Diagnostic accuracies were validated using random number generators. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted for evaluating the discriminating power of the proposed statistical technique. An algorithm was developed and used to classify non-diseased (normal) from diseased sites (abnormal) with a sensitivity of 72 % and specificity of 87 %. While low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL) could be discriminated from normal with a sensitivity of 56 % and specificity of 80 %, and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) from normal with a sensitivity of 89 % and specificity of 97 %, LSIL could be discriminated from HSIL with 100 % sensitivity and specificity. The areas under the ROC curves were 0.993 (95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.0 to 1) and 1 (95 % CI 1) for the discrimination of HSIL from normal and HSIL from LSIL, respectively. The results of the study show that DR spectroscopy could be used along with multivariate analytical techniques as a non-invasive technique to monitor cervical disease status in real time.

Struma ovary is a monodermal ovarian teratoma which contains mature thyroid tissue. We present an unusual case of papillary carcinoma arising in struma ovarii. A 52 year old post menopausal lady presented with a large right adnexal mass preoperatively diagnosed as a dermoid cyst. She underwent staging laparotomy and the histopatholgy report showed follicular variant of papillary carcinoma thyroid arising in a mature teratoma. She subsequently underwent total thyroidectomy to enable follow up with serum thyroglobulin and iodine scan. On follow up there is no evidence of disease recurrence.

Background: Treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) using thermal coagulation has recently attracted interest among the medical community in view of the easily portable and light equipment, less treatment time, faster patient turnover, less discomfort, use of minimal amounts of electricity as consumable, less vaginal discharge following treatment and a similar efficacy in treatment of ectocervical CIN lesions as compared to cryotherapy. However, literature on its performance is scarce particularly from low-and middle-income settings. Here, we report the effectiveness, safety and acceptability of thermal coagulation in women treated for histologically proven ectocervical CIN.