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SummaryWe assessed the therapeutic significance of systematic aortic and pelvic lymphadenectomy followed by adjuvant therapy in nodepositive endometrial carcinoma. Among 173 stage lll patients, 30 (17%) had positive nodes: ten in the pelvic region alone (group P) and 20 in the aortic region alone or in both regions (group A). The adjuvant therapy was administered as follows: subjects in group P received 50 Gy pelvic radiation, including three post-surgical T3 (pT3) patients who received either one or three cycles of cisplatin-based chemotherapy before radiation. Subjects in group A were given three cycles of chemotherapy followed by 50 Gy pelvic and 50 Gy extended field periaortic radiation using a four-field or conformational technique. Five-year survival was 95% for 143 patients with negative nodes and 84% for 30 patients with positive nodes (100% for group P and 75% for group A). In group A, 5-year survival was 38% for eight patients with both pT3 and histology other than endometrioid type Gl, and 91% for the remaining 12 patients. Either way, both group P and group A patients had a better prognosis than previously reported. In summary, aortic and pelvic lymphadenectomy and subsequent chemotherapy and radiation therapy based on node status seem to improve the survival of endometrial cancer patients with positive nodes.

A retrospective analysis was carried out to identify risk factors for survival and relapse in patients with FIGO stage I -IIB cervical adenocarcinoma (AC), who underwent radical hysterectomy, and to compare outcome and spread pattern with those of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). One hundred and twenty-three FIGO stage I -IIB patients with AC and 455 patients with SCC, who all underwent primary radical hysterectomy, were reviewed. Among the patients with AC, Cox model identified tumour size (95% CI: 1.35 -30.71) and node metastasis (95% CI: 5.09 -53.44) as independent prognostic factors for survival, and infiltration to vagina (95% CI: 1.15 -5.76) and node metastasis (95% CI: 6.39 -58.87) as independent prognostic factors for relapse. No significant difference was found in survival or relapse between the AC and SCC groups, after adjusting for other clinicopathological characteristics using Cox model. No significant difference was found in the positive rates of lymph nodes or location of initial failure sites between the two groups, but ovarian metastatic rate was significantly higher in patients with pathologic stage IIB AC (P ¼ 0.02). Positive node is a common independent prognostic factor for survival and relapse of patients with AC. FIGO stage I -IIB patients with AC or SCC, who underwent radical hysterectomy, have similar prognosis and spread pattern, but different ovarian metastasis rates. At present, standard treatment options for patients with invasive carcinoma of the uterine cervix are as follows: radical hysterectomy followed by adjuvant radiotherapy or primary radiotherapy with concurrent cisplatin-containing chemotherapy, for the patients with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IB -IIA disease, with equivalent results; and primary radiotherapy with concurrent chemotherapy for the patients with FIGO stage IIB -IVA disease. These therapeutic strategies have been widely accepted. On the other hand, approximately 85% of the patients with carcinoma of the uterine cervix have squamous lesions, and most of the remaining 10% have adenocarcinoma (AC) lesions (Benedet et al, 2003). To our knowledge, no practice guideline has referred to the treatment option based on the difference of histological types between AC and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) It is not clear whether these histological types influence outcome or spread pattern, and there is still controversy, as conflicting results have appeared in the literature because of potential limitations of small cohorts of patients with AC. The question whether standard treatment for patients with SCC is also suitable for patients with AC remains unanswered. Additionally, over the last decade, the proportion of AC relative to SCC has doubled, and the rate of AC per population at risk has also increased (Smith et al, 2000). To establish a framework for designing therapeutic strategies, the present retrospective study was undertaken firstly to clarify the clinicopathological features of the surgically treated patients with common typ...

The establishment of cancer stem-like cell (CSC) culture systems may be instrumental in devising strategies to fight refractory cancers. Inhibition of the Rho kinase ROCK has been shown to favorably affect CSC spheroid cultures. In this study, we show how ROCK inhibition in human serous ovarian cancer (SOC) cells can help establish a CSC system, which illuminates cancer pathophysiology and its treatment in this setting. In the presence of a ROCK kinase inhibitor, spheroid cultures of SOC cells expressed characteristic CSC markers including ALDH1A1, CD133, and SOX2, along with differentiation and tumorigenic capabilities in mouse xenograft models of human SOC. High expression levels of ALDH, but not CD133, correlated with spheroid formation CSC marker expression and tumor forming capability. In clinical specimens of SOC, high levels of ALDH1A1 correlated with advanced stage and poor prognosis. Pharmacologic or genetic blockade of ALDH blocked cell proliferation and reduced expression of SOX2, the genetic ablation of which abolished spheroid formation, whereas SOX2 overexpression inhibited ALDH1A1 expression and blocked spheroid proliferation. Taken together, our findings illustrated a new method to culture human ovarian CSC, and they defined a reciprocal regulatory relationship between ALDH1A1 and SOX2, which impacts ovarian CSC proliferation and malignant progression. Cancer Res; 76(1); 150-60. Ó2015 AACR.