Latest Research
All publications from the Cancer3.AI database, newest first.
Acute Pancreatitis as the Initial Presentation of Metastatic Breast Cancer Due to Malignant Hypercalcemia: A Case Report.
Abarca Ruiz JW, et al
A case report published in Cureus describes a 63-year-old woman who arrived at the hospital with severe abdominal pain, constipation, and episodes of confusion, ultimately revealing a rare and life-threatening chain of events: metastatic breast cancer causing dangerously high blood calcium levels, which in turn triggered acute pancreatitis. Initial laboratory findings showed elevated pancreatic enzymes and severe hypercalcemia, while bone marrow-related abnormalities such as anemia, low platelets, and lytic bone lesions first pointed toward multiple myeloma, a diagnosis that was subsequently excluded. Advanced imaging uncovered a suspicious mass in the right breast with spread to nearby lymph nodes, and a biopsy confirmed HER2-positive invasive ductal carcinoma with bone metastases as the true underlying cause. Despite aggressive intravenous hydration and treatment with the bone-protecting drug zoledronic acid, the patient's neurological condition worsened, and she was discharged to home palliative care after 25 days. This case serves as an important reminder for clinicians that unexplained acute pancreatitis accompanied by severe hypercalcemia should prompt a thorough search for underlying malignancies, including metastatic breast cancer, even when other diagnoses initially appear more likely.
Cureus
Source →Habitat Radiomics on Ultrasound Predicts Pathological Upgrade of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ.
Xing Z, et al
Researchers developed and validated a novel ultrasound-based 'habitat radiomics' model to predict whether ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) — a non-invasive form of breast cancer detected by needle biopsy — will be found to be a more aggressive cancer upon surgical removal, a phenomenon known as pathologic upgrade. The study analyzed 167 female patients and used K-means clustering to divide tumor regions into three distinct biological subregions, extracting imaging features that a standard radiomics approach would miss. A combined model integrating habitat radiomics with clinical factors — blood-flow grade and Ki-67 protein expression — achieved an impressive area under the curve of 0.925 and accuracy of 86.3% in the test cohort, significantly outperforming conventional radiomics alone. These findings suggest that habitat radiomics captures tumor heterogeneity more effectively than traditional whole-tumor analysis, providing a powerful noninvasive tool before surgery. For clinicians, this model could reduce unnecessary aggressive treatments in patients whose DCIS would not upgrade, while ensuring higher-risk patients receive timely intervention.
Academic radiology
Source →Iatrogenic vesicocolic fistula after gynecologic surgery: a case report.
Radu VD, et al
Researchers report a rare case of a vesicocolic fistula (VCF) — an abnormal connection between the urinary bladder and colon — that developed after surgery for a large ovarian cyst due to a surgical gauze accidentally left inside the patient's body. Five months after the initial operation, the patient returned with recurring urinary tract infections and imaging suggesting a bladder stone, prompting further investigation that revealed the retained gauze had migrated into the bladder and caused the fistula. Diagnosis required a combination of cystoscopy, CT scanning, and colonoscopy, illustrating the diagnostic challenge posed by this rare complication. Surgical treatment involved removing the gauze, repairing the bladder, excising the fistula, and creating a permanent colostomy, after which the patient remained infection-free for at least one year. This case serves as an important reminder for clinicians to consider foreign-body-induced VCF in patients with persistent urinary symptoms following pelvic surgery, especially when standard explanations such as bladder stones do not fully account for the clinical picture.
International journal of surgery case reports
Source →Impact of intra- and interfractional motion on the dose distribution and urinary adverse events for magnetic resonance-guided prostate cancer radiotherapy.
Xing S, et al
Researchers investigated how prostate movement during and between radiotherapy sessions affects radiation dose delivery and side effects in patients treated with MR-guided stereotactic radiotherapy. Seventy-six prostate cancer patients received five-fraction treatment on a 1.5 Tesla MR-linac, with continuous MR imaging used to track prostate motion in three dimensions throughout each session. The study found that intrafractional prostate motion was generally small on average, but could cause dose deviations of up to 2.5 Gy, and all patients who experienced clinically significant urinary side effects (Grade 2 or higher) had episodes of prolonged motion exceeding 3 mm. Importantly, when combining the effects of motion across all fractions, individual fraction-specific dose variations tended to average out, though substantial differences between patients were observed for bladder, rectum, and urethral doses. These findings suggest that real-time motion monitoring during MR-guided radiotherapy is clinically valuable, as prolonged large prostate motion may predict urinary toxicity and could guide decisions about treatment gating or adaptation.
Physics and imaging in radiation oncology
Source →Case Report: A rare case of primary undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma of the renal pelvis with high PD-L1 expression and a misleading positive urine FISH.
Li J, et al
Researchers report a rare case of primary undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS) arising in the renal pelvis, an extremely aggressive cancer of connective tissue origin that is exceptionally uncommon in this location. The diagnostic process was complicated by a positive urine fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) test, a tool normally used to detect urothelial carcinoma, which produced a misleading result and initially suggested a different, more common type of cancer. Pathological examination ultimately confirmed the diagnosis of UPS, highlighting that positive urine FISH results can occur in non-urothelial malignancies and should be interpreted with caution. Importantly, the tumor showed high expression of PD-L1, a protein that serves as a target for modern immunotherapy drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors. This finding suggests that immunotherapy may represent a potential treatment avenue for patients with this otherwise difficult-to-treat and poorly characterized malignancy. The case underscores the need for comprehensive diagnostic workup in unusual renal tumors and raises hope for new therapeutic strategies in rare sarcomas.
Frontiers in immunology
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