Nese Guney

There exists strong evidence that tumor growth can be actively controlled by the host immune system and interleukins are known to play a significant role in immune response regulation. Inflammatory cytokines play important roles in the pathogenesis of lymphomas. This study was conducted to investigate the serum levels of IL-6 and IL-10 in patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (A-NHL) and the relationships with prognostic parameters and therapy. These serum factors were measured in 46 A-NHL patients pathologically verified before and after chemotherapy in comparison with 21 healthy controls using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). There were significant differences in the serum IL-10 and IL-6 levels between A-NHL patients and controls (p= 0.038 and p<0.001, respectively). None of the prognostic parameters analyzed was significantly correlated with the serum IL-6 concentrations. This was also true for serum IL-10 values, except for LDH and bone marrow involvement. Serum IL-10 levels were elevated in the group of patients with high level LDH compared with the group of patients with a normal level (p= 0.017). Also, serum IL-10 levels were significantly different in the presence or absence of bone marrow involvement (p= 0.016). In addition, we found a significant relationship between the serum levels of serum levels of IL-6 and IL-10 in patients with A-NHL (r= 0.47, p<0.001). We found that serum IL-10 levels decreased due to chemotherapy effect independent of the chemotherapy response (p= 0.027). However, serum IL-6 levels were not changed. In conclusion, our data suggest that higher serum IL-6 and IL-10 levels can be useful for diagnosis of A-NHL. However, our sample size is small, and larger scale research is needed in this field to provide new knowledge.

To present an extremely rare case of a primary carcinoid tumor arising in a mature cystic teratoma of the ovary. Malignant transformation of mature cystic teratoma is an uncommon complication occuring in approximately 1-3% of patients with mature cystic teratoma. A 54-year-old woman presented with abdominal swelling and abnormal uterine bleeding. Physical examination revealed a smooth, non-painful, 8-9 cm diameter mass in the right anterior pelvis which was diagnosed histologically as carcinoid tumor arising in a mature cystic teratoma. The patient underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and was scheduled for surveillance CT of the abdomen and pelvis at 3-monthly intervals. This case adds to the rare reports in the literature of a carcinoid of low malignant potential occurring in a mature cystic teratoma. The treatment for early-stage ovarian carcinoid tumors confined to one ovary is surgery alone and excellent outcomes can be expected in these cases.

Cell adhesion is a basic count in inter- and intra-cellular communication and plays an important role in tumor progression. This study was conducted to investigate the serum levels of intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM-1) and E-selectin in patients with advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the relationships with known prognostic parameters and therapy. These serum factors were measured of 57 NSCLC patients pathologically verified before and after chemotherapy in comparison with 24 healthy controls by using ELİSA method. Serum levels of ICAM-1 were increased significantly in NSCLC patients compared with the healthy controls (P = 0.006). However, serum E-selectin levels were not significantly different from healthy control groups (0.643). No statistically significant relationships were found between investigated all serum parameters and various characteristics of patients, and the diseases such as stage and tumor burden. Likewise, we also found no correlation between serum ICAM-1 and E-selectin (P = 0.78). We found that serum ICAM-1 levels were decreased owing to the chemotherapy effect, independently from chemotherapy response. However, serum E-selectin levels were not changed by the chemotherapy effect. The median survival of all patients was 11.9 months and 1-year survival rate was 47.6%. We found that patients performance status (P = 0.013), age (P = 0.015), and weight loss (P = 0.007) were prognostic factors for survival. Serum E-selectin levels showed a trend (P = 0.08) related to worse prognosis, however serum ICAM-1 levels were determined as ineffective on survival (P = 0.11). Multivariate analysis revealed that only weight loss (P = 0.005) and E-selectin levels (P = 0.002) remained as an independent prognostic factor for survival in patients with advanced NSCLC. In conclusion, our data suggest that higher serum ICAM-1 can be useful for diagnosis while E-selectin levels have prognostic significance and could be a potential prognostic factor in NSCLC patients.

Most often, mesotheliomas involve the serosal membranes of the pleura and peritoneum. Sometimes, mesothelial proliferations are identified in other locations. A mesothelioma, within the tunica vaginalis of the paratesticular region is rare but often fatal malignancy of the male genitalia. Despite aggressive surgical and systemic therapy the prognosis remains poor with only rare long-term survivors. We report a case of malignant mesothelioma of the tunica vaginalis in 45-years-old and review of the literature is presented.