Substantially different conclusions have been reached by several studies about relationships between mammary cancer and obesity. We studied retrospectively 106 consecutive patients who underwent mastectomy for breast cancer. We found no association between obesity per se and the frequency or time of recurrence. Our sample did reaffirm that recurrence of breast cancer is related to tumor size and nodal status. Obesity was similarly related to tumor size and nodal status. However, we could not confirm prior findings that obese patients with pathologically similar breast tumors had a poor prognosis.

The dog heartworm Dirofilaria immitis has been diagnosed by thoracotomy as the etiology of neoplastic-appearing nodules in two patients in the Peoria, Illinois area. This brings the total number of reported cases of human pulmonary dirofilariasis to approximately 81 in the United States. The major concern of this benign disease is that in making the diagnosis the patients undergo the risk of surgery because of the presumed preoperative diagnosis of cancer. Greater awareness of this disease is needed as the geographic distribution of human pulmonary dirofilariasis expands in this country.

No abstract

No abstract