The aim of the study was to investigate the use of elastography for cervical cancer diagnostics. Materials and Methods: The ultrasonic study with use of sonoelastography involved 87 patients with cervical pathology (cervicitis, n = 11; dysplasia, n = 14; cervical cancer, n = 62). Results: At non-malignant pathology elastic types of elastograms prevailed while the tumors were characterized by images of stiff type formations. Present study has demonstrated an effectiveness of sonoelastography for valuation of tumor process invasion levels. At detection of tumor invasion into parametrium, the test sensitivity increased from 77.1 to 91.4%, specificity — from 85.1 to 96.2%, accuracy — from 80.6 to 93.5%; in case of tumor invasion into vagina these parameters correspondently changed: from 75.0 to 83.3%, from 76.9 to 88.4%, from 75.8 to 85.4%, respectively; and in case of uterus: from 82.9 to 85.3%, from 85.7 to 95.2%, from 83.8 to 88.7%, respectively. Conclusions: Inclusion of elastography into ultrasound examination of cervical pathologies could significantly improve diagnostic quality of the method.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in combination with regional inductive moderate hyperthermia for patients with locally advanced breast cancer. Patients and Methods: 200 patients with stage IIB-IIIA breast cancer received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (control group, n = 97) or chemotherapy combined with hyperthermia (experimental group, n = 103). Inductive hyperthermia was set at 27.12 ± 0.16 MHz and the 50 W output power. Results: Thermal and color Doppler ultrasound imaging demonstrated that hyperthermia increased the surface temperature on the breasts to < 4°С while the mean values for systolic blood flow were 3.5 times as high as those prior to treatment. Assessment of tumor size and response found a (31.24 ± 3.85)% reduction in the size of the primary tumor in patients receiving chemotherapy + hyperthermia, while chemotherapy alone showed a (22.95 ± 3.61)% decrease on average (p = 0.034). The rate of objective response increased by 15.9% in the experimental group (р = 0.034) compared with the control group. The patients in the experimental group also had axillary lymph node regression of 14.17% greater than in the control group (p = 0.011). Moreover, the combination treatment allowed to increase the proportion of women eligible for breast-conserving and reconstructive surgery by 13.63% in the experimental group. The viable tumor volume was lower in patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy + hyperthermia (24.4 ± 0.2)% compared with those given chemotherapy alone (30.4 ± 0.25)%. The 10-year overall survival rates were higher (log-rank: p = 0.009) in breast cancer patients who underwent chemotherapy combined with hyperthermia than in patients receiving chemotherapy only. Conclusion: The combination neoadjuvant chemotherapy and the technology of regional inductive moderate hyperthermia improved the efficacy of treatment for patients with locally advanced breast cancer staged IIB-IIIA.

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Background: Intraoperative ultrasound examination (IOUS) is indispensable part of modern surgical interventions in tumors of hepatopancreatobiliary zone. In this study retrospective analysis of IOUS efficiency in surgical treatment of pancreatic tumors was provided. Materials and Methods: In the period from January 2013 till November 2015 in the National Cancer Institute IOUS was applied during 76 surgical interventions: for pancreatic head tumors — in 46 (60.5%) patients, for body/tail pancreatic tumors — in 20 (26.3%) patients, in 10 (13.2%) patients — for periampullary zone neoplasms. In IOUS we performed primary tumor assessment (localization, degree of tumor spreading to superior mesenteric vessels, hepatoduodenal ligament vessels, additional foci occurrence in pancreas), and liver metastases detection. Surgical interventions were performed: pancreatoduodenectomy in 52 (68.4%) patients, radical antegrade modal pancreatosplenectomy — in 14 (18.4%) patients. Results: IOUS allowed determining additional tumor foci in pancreas in 2 (2.6%) patients, in 8 (10.5%) observations tumor invasion into portal or superior mesenteric vein was determined. In 21 (27.6%) patient additional hepatic neoplasms were detected (in half of cases — 11.8%, metastases). These findings resulted in change of surgical intervention extent in 23 (30.3%) patients: expansion to combined resections in 14 (18.4%) patients, reduction to symptomatic operations in 5 (6.6%) cases, organ-preserving operations were performed in 4 (5.3%) patients. Variant anatomy of hepatic arterial blood supply was determined in 41 (53.9%) patients that necessitated performance correction of resection stages for preservation of adequate hepatic blood supply. Conclusions: IOUS is a highly-precise diagnostic method substantively influencing operation course in pancreatic tumors, enabling surgeon to provide adequate staging and permanent correction of operation course.

This study aimed to determine whether texture parameters could be used in differentiation between the tumor and the peritumoral tissues based on hybrid 18 F-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/ computed tomography imaging for patients with rectal cancer.Methods: Seven parameters, including heterogeneity, entropy, energy, skewness, kurtosis, standard deviation, and average brightness, were extracted from positron emission tomography/computed tomography scans of 22 patients (12 male and 10 female; mean age, 61 ± 2 years). Results:The peritumoral tissue had a significantly lower value of the heterogeneity parameter (23%) than the tumor. Tumor size (r = −0.48, P < 0.05) and extramural venous invasion scores (r = 0.64, P < 0.05) correlated with heterogeneity in the peritumoral tissue. There were significant differences (P < 0.05) in the correlation coefficients between men and women.Conclusions: Therefore, we provided additional quantitative information to differentiate the tumor from the peritumoral tissue and indicated possible application for extramural venous invasion evaluation in rectal cancer.