Neuroendocrine tumors originate from neuroendocrine cells and occur in a wide spectrum from carcinoid tumors to small cell carcinomas. Although the World Health Organization determined clinical and histological features to predict prognosis for such tumors, they may not be valid on an individual basis. This study investigates the clinical, pathologic and prognostic characteristics of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors that presented to the Medical Oncology Outpatient Clinic, İstanbul University, Cerrahpaşa School of Medicine from 1995 to 2006 (n=86). The mean age of the patients was 52±14 and the male-to-female ratio was 0.87. The most common site of involvement was the stomach. Midgut intestinal tumors seemed to have significant female predominance compared to hindgut intestinal tumors (P=0.016). Most of the patients had metastatic disease with a prevalence of 34.9%. Poorly differentiated tumors and mixed neuroendocrine carcinomas were significantly larger than 2 cm (P=0.0001). The median survival was 139 months and the highest mortality was for colorectal tumors (36%). While univariate analysis revealed that the number of lymph nodes (P=0.008), multiple foci (P=0.034), metastases (P=0.022) and stage (P=0.034) correlated significantly with survival, there was no independent variable in the multivariate analysis. Hindgut tumors had significantly more Ki-67, mitosis and necrosis compared to others (P≤0.05). In this retrospective study, the clinical, pathologic and prognostic characteristics of gastroenteropancreatic tumors from a single center from Turkey were analyzed and compared with the current medical literature.

No abstract

Thymoma associated with hypogammaglobulinemia and profound susceptibility to recurrent and serious infections was first reported by Good in 1954, after whom it was named as Good's syndrome. Chronic diarrhea associated with thymoma is almost always seen in patients with hypogammaglobulinemia. However, chronic diarrhea in a setting of normal gammaglobulins have been rarely reported. We hereby report two cases of thymoma with normal immune functions, presenting with chronic diarrhea as the only symptom of thymic malignancy. We discussed the etiopathogenic relation between thymic pathology and diarrhea and review the cases of thymoma associated with chronic diarrhea in the English literature.

Background: The synthesis of CDK4/6 inhibitors with endocrine treatment in two series of treatment has been widely accepted as the standard for patients with estrogen receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer. In spite of this, the activity of CDK4/6 inhibitors in patients with metastatic breast cancer who have progressed despite receiving multiple lines of treatment is not well understood. Aims: To report the activity and safety of a CDK4/6 inhibitor (palbociclib) in patients in whom at least three lines of treatment for ER + metastatic breast cancer had failed. Study Design: Multicenter retrospective observational cohort study. Methods: In this retrospective observational cohort study, we included 43 patients who received palbociclib after at least three lines of systemic treatment for ER + /HER2 − metastatic breast cancer. Results: The median progression-free survival in our population was 7 months (25 th-75 th percentile, 4-10), and the median overall survival was 11 months (25 th-75 th percentile, 6-19). Although there were some adverse events, palbociclib was generally well tolerated, so dose reduction was needed for only six patients (14%). Conclusion: The efficacy of palbociclib among heavily treated hormone receptor-positive/HER2 − patients with advanced breast cancer was acceptable in terms of clinical benefit, and it was generally well tolerated among this population.