Vol 6, No 4 (2016)

In the treatment of many unresolved issues, indicating the need for research aimed at finding more effective treatment approaches. The aim of the study is to analyze the results of combined treatment of patients with widespread forms of cancer of the cervical esophagus and hypopharynx with the application of surgical treatment in the amount of pharyngolaryngitis with single-step plastic of the defect. A retrospective analysis of results of combined treatment of 28 patients with a verified diagnosis of cancer of the cervical esophagus and hypopharynx. Combined treatment of patients with cancer of the cervical esophagus and hypopharynx included the following treatments: induction chemoradiotherapy according to the scheme cisplatin/5-fluorouracil, external beam radiation therapy 65 Gy, brachytherapy (7 Gy 1 time per week, 3 sessions), surgical treatment with one-stage plastic of the esophagus. In 7 patients (25 %) was achieved complete regression on the background of induction chemotherapy, 21 patients (75 %) received the treatment in full. Postoperative mortality rate was of 9.52 %, post-operative complications such as anastomosis dehiscence – 19 %.

Cutaneous melanoma (CM) is a highly aggressive malignant tumor. The incidence of CM is 1–4 % of all cancers and 3–5 % of all malignant neoplasms of the skin. According to different authors, CM is localized in the area of head and neck (H&N) in 22–46 %. Despite revolutionary discoveries in recent years in the treatment of metastatic melanoma, the main treatment option of primary СМ is still surgery. However, the question about the size of surgical margins and tissue sparing excision is still pending, particularly in the area of the head and neck. Despite the possibilities of modern methods of revealing of metastases in lymph nodes (LN),  diagnosis of “latent” metastases in LN and further tactics of treatment remains the matter of argument. The purpose of this publication is to review the literature on the current problem in the surgical treatment of СМ of the H&N.

This article is the result of analysis of publication devoted to surgical treatment and diagnosis of СМ metastases in the LN of the H&N.

The effectiveness of traditional chemotherapy (with temozolomide, fotemustine, lomustine) alone or in combination with whole brain radiotherapy in melanoma patients with cerebral metastases does not exceed 7–10  % with no significant impact on survival, which is around 2–4  months. Targeted therapy helped to improve survival of patients with disseminated melanoma and BRAF V600 mutations. The use of targeted drugs in patients with brain metastases allows to control the tumor process and to succeed in treatment of cerebral metastases. According to currently available research data and our own results, the effectiveness of targeted therapy with vemurafenib in melanoma patients positive for BRAF V600 mutations with brain metastases reaches 18.0–44.5  % with median survival of 5.3–8.0  months. Evidences suggest that the use of vemurafenib in melanoma patients with brain metastases ensure effective disease control in most of the cases and has a significant advantage comparing to conventional chemotherapy and whole brain radiotherapy. According to the results of these studies vemurafenib can be recommended as a 1st line targeted drug for treatment of melanoma patients with BRAF V600 mutations and brain metastases. Despite the existence of blood-brain barrier and efflux systems, new targeted drugs showed promising results in treatment of brain metastases. Over the last few years we have enhanced our understanding of brain metastasis mechanisms, principles of blood-brain barrier functioning, and  ways  of  cancer  drugs penetration into  the  central  nervous system.  Targeted  therapy  is  constantly developing and  will play an increasing role in treatment of melanoma cerebral metastases in the future with finding of new targets.

Data on 3597 newly diagnosed patients with malignant tumors of the eye was entered in the Moscow cancer registry during 2006–2015. The frequency of eyelid cancer was 75.62 %, its incidence was 3.4 per 100 000. People usually develop the disease at the age of 46–85 with the peak at 70–80 years. Incidence in females was 66.65 % higher than in males. The rate of basal cell carcinoma was 91.14 %. In 65.7 % of the cases tumor was diagnosed on Т1–2 stages; out of them only 34 % of the patients were diagnosed at T1 stage, when the disease can be completely cured.

Parathyroid carcinoma (PC) is a rare neoplasm with a prevalence of only 0.005 % of all malignancies, and less than 1 % among patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. The diagnosis can be challenging due to the rarity of the disease, similarity of clinical features to parathyroid adenoma, and lack of reliable morphological signs of the tumor. For metastatic cancer of the parathyroid gland does not exist standard drug therapy due to the rare occurrence of this disease. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy failed to show any significant effect on the course of the disease. We report the case of a 27-year old woman with PC previously misdiagnosed as benign thyroid nodule and multiple lung metastases. After the immunohistochemical study and confirm of diagnosis PC the patient was treatment with multikinase inhibitor sorafenib successfully.