Gestational trophoblastic disease comprises a spectrum of interrelated conditions originating from the placenta. Other terms often used to refer to these conditions include gestational trophoblastic neoplasia and gestational trophoblastic tumor. Histologically distinct disease entities encompassed by this general terminology include complete and partial hydatidiform moles, invasive moles, gestational choriocarcinomas, and placental site trophoblastic tumors. Before the advent of sensitive assays for human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and efficacious chemotherapy, the morbidity and mortality from gestational trophoblastic disease were substantial. At present, with sensitive quantitative assays for beta-hCG and current approaches to chemotherapy, most women with malignant gestational trophoblastic disease can be cured and their reproductive function preserved. The purpose of this document is to address current evidence regarding the diagnosis, staging, and management of gestational trophoblastic disease.

To develop a clinical practice guideline for the management of men with metastatic, recurrent, or progressive carcinoma of the prostate. The focus of this document is on the use, combinations, and timing of various forms of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for the palliation of men with androgen-sensitive disease.

Further to a thorough analysis of the management of the surgical specimen for gastric carcinomas, guidelines were defined following several recommendations including informative gross and microscopic descriptions associated to a final correct staging of the tumour, according to the TNM classification and must at least include tumour penetration, nodal or distant metastases. The Belgian working party for GI cancer debate on these data and present a check-list that would help pathologists.

To review the literature on techniques used in high-dose radiotherapy of lung cancer in order to develop recommendations for clinical practice and for use in research protocols.

This paper is the result of a meeting of the European Association of Pathologists, Uropathology Division in Florence 2003. The aims of this meeting were to establish: guidelines for specimen handling by urologists and minimum requirements for data accompanying testicular specimens submitted to pathologists; a consensus on techniques for processing specimens by pathologists; the essential information required from pathology reports; areas where our standard practice is traditional rather than evidence based and where further studies are required. The general aims of histopathology are to give or confirm a diagnosis; assess established prognostic markers; identify changes associated with treatment; provide information for audit (i.e. imaging, urology and pathology) and maintain a permanent record (slides/blocks).

Solid-organ transplant recipients have a high incidence of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and often develop multiple and aggressive tumors. There are few published studies or reviews, which provide guidance to the clinician in the treatment of these patients.

The Standards, Options and Recommendations (SOR) project, which started in 1993, is a collaboration between the Federation of French Cancer Centers (FNCLCC), the 20 French Regional Cancer Centers, and specialists from French public universities, general hospitals and private clinics. The main objective is the development of clinical practice guidelines to improve the quality of health care and the outcome of cancer patients.

To define methodology to show clinical benefit for patients in the state of a rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA).

An evidence-based practice guideline was developed to identify the optimal combination chemotherapy regimen, schedule of administration, and duration of therapy for the first-line treatment of adults with limited-stage small-cell lung cancer. The guideline is based on a systematic search and review of literature published between 1985 and December 2002. Three reviewers selected studies for inclusion in the guideline according to pre-defined criteria. Fifty randomized controlled trials, five in abstract form, were included in the review, and feedback on a draft version of the guideline was obtained from medical oncologists in the province of Ontario, Canada. The most commonly used regimens in clinical trials are cyclophosphamide-doxorubicin(Adriamycin)-vincristine, and etoposide-cisplatin. No combination chemotherapeutic regimen has been conclusively shown to be superior to either of these regimens. Most studies comparing chemoradiation regimens used sequential rather than concurrent thoracic radiotherapy. When treating for cure with chemoradiation, there is evidence from one randomized controlled trial to support the use of etoposide-cisplatin over an anthracycline-containing regimen. There is conflicting evidence concerning a survival advantage for a regimen that alternates cyclophosphamide-doxorubicin-vincristine with etoposide-cisplatin compared with either regimen alone. If bolus etoposide-cisplatin is the treatment of choice, evidence from one randomized trial suggests that the optimal sequence of administration is cisplatin followed by etoposide. The use of maintenance chemotherapy is not indicated. There is insufficient evidence to support the routine use of dose-intensive regimens outside a clinical trial, to determine the optimal duration of chemotherapy, or to support the routine substitution of carboplatin for cisplatin in combination chemotherapy regimens in this patient population.

In combined PET/CT imaging, functional data provided by 18F-FDG increase diagnostic accuracy over conventional PET and CT in a variety of malignancies. The question to be raised is: how much is CT needed in PET/CT imaging?

As the literature data give arguments both pro and contra wide use of maximal androgenic block (MAB) in the treatment of prostatic cancer, the authors studied MAB in 200 patients. They came to the conclusion that MAB can be applied in patients with symptoms of disseminated prostatic cancer as neoadjuvant therapy before prostatectomy and as neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy in planning radiotherapy.

The results of treatment of 850 patients with urinary bladder cancer (UBC) are analysed. Precise staging of the tumor should be made in the following order: suprapubic ultrasonic investigation (USI), cystoscopy and microcystoscopy, transrectal, transurethral USI. Indications for different treatments are outlined: typical and atypical papillary fibroepithelioma, papillary cancer in stage T1 should be managed with TUR after previous electrocoagulation; cancer in stage T2-3--with urinary bladder resection and uni- or bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy; total papillomatosis, multiple lesions in stage T3, in cases of recurrent cancer--with cystectomy including one-stage or multistage replacement of the urinary bladder by intestinal transplant. The only physiologically sound method of treating patients after cystectomy with ureterocutaneostomy and ureterocolostomy is creation of intraperitoneal intestinal urinary bladder with reestablishment of transurethral urination. Arguments against creation of artificial urinary bladder made of detubularized segments consist in the absence of advantages.