BackgroundTumor-induced osteomalacia (TIO) is a rare paraneoplastic syndrome characterized by severe hypophosphatemia and osteomalacia. Nonspecific symptoms make the diagnosis elusive. In addition, locating the responsible tumor(s) is challenging. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical management and outcomes of TIO.MethodsThe clinical features, diagnostic procedures, treatment, and outcomes of 12 patients were reviewed retrospectively.ResultsThe cohort comprised six men and six women (mean age 45.5 ± 9.9 years, range 23–61 years). The mean duration of disease was 3.7 ± 2.6 years. All patients manifested progressive bone pain, muscle weakness, and/or difficulty walking. Serum phosphorus concentrations were low in all patients (mean 0.42 ± 0.12 mmol/L). Technetium-99m octreotide scintigraphy was performed in 11 patients and showed lesions in the right distal femur, left femoral head, and right tibial plateau, respectively, in three patients. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was negative for lesions in one patient. Two patients underwent biopsies that showed negative histopathology. Two patients, at 2 years and 8 months, respectively, after having negative technetium-99m octreotide studies, underwent 18F–fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (CT), which revealed lesions in the sacrum and soft tissue of the left palm, respectively. One tumor was detected by CT and MRI. Overall, lesion sites were the head (two patients, 16.7%), thoracic and lumbar region (two, 16.7%), pelvis (three, 25%), lower limbs (four, 33.3%), and upper limbs (one, 8.3%). All patients underwent surgery, and histopathology showed phosphaturic mesenchymal tumors in each. Postoperatively, serum phosphorus concentrations normalized within 2–7 days in 11 patients. With follow-ups of 1–41 months, surgery was effective in 10 patients. One patient developed local recurrence and another had metastases.ConclusionsLocating tumors responsible for tumor-induced osteomalacia is often challenging. Although complete tumor resection confers a good prognosis in most patients, surveillance for recurrence and metastasis is necessary. Before surgery or when surgery is not indicated, oral phosphate can alleviate symptoms and metabolic imbalance.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12891-017-1756-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Combination therapy with decitabine, a DNMTi and carboplatin resensitized chemoresistant ovarian cancer (OC) to platinum inducing promising clinical activity. We investigated gene-expression profiles in tumor biopsies to identify decitabine-reactivated pathways associated with clinical response. Gene-expression profiling was performed using RNA from paired tumor biopsies before and 8 days after decitabine from 17 patients with platinum resistant OC. Bioinformatic analysis included unsupervised hierarchical-clustering, pathway and GSEA distinguishing profiles of “responders” (progression-free survival, PFS>6months) and “non-responders” (PFS<6months). Functional validation of selected results was performed in OC cells/tumors. Pre-treatment tumors from responders expressed genes associated with enhanced glycosphingolipid biosynthesis, translational misregulation, decreased ABC transporter expression, TGF-β signaling, and numerous metabolic pathways. Analysis of post-treatment biopsies from responders revealed overexpression of genes associated with reduced Hedgehog pathway signaling, reduced DNA repair/replication, and cancer-associated metabolism. GO and GSEA analyses revealed upregulation of genes associated with glycosaminoglycan binding, cell-matrix adhesion, and cell-substrate adhesion. Computational findings were substantiated by experimental validation of expression of key genes involved in two critical pathways affected by decitabine (TGF-β and Hh). Gene-expression profiling identified specific pathways altered by decitabine and associated with platinum-resensitization and clinical benefit in OC. Our data could influence patient stratification for future studies using epigenetic therapies.

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the accuracy of fine-needle aspiration (FNA) and core-needle biopsy (CNB) in diagnosing thyroid cancer. The PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases were retrieved up to May 2019, and the overall accuracy of FNA and CNB in diagnosing thyroid cancer was evaluated by meta-analysis. The sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), and negative likelihood ratio (NLR) were calculated. The summary receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was estimated, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was calculated. Ten eligible studies, involving 10,078 patients with 10,842 thyroid nodules, were included. The overall sensitivity and specificity of FNA and CNB for thyroid cancer were 0.72 [95 % confidence interval (CI): 0.69-0.74], 0.99 (95% CI: 0.98-0.99), and 0.83 (95% CI: 0.81-0.85), 0.99 (95% CI: 0.98-0.99), respectively. Other parameters used to assess efficacy included PLR 41.71 (2.15-808.27) and 51.56 (3.20-841.47), NLR 0.31 (0.22-0.42) and 0.22 (0.15-0.32), for FNA and CNB, respectively. Overall, the pooled summary ROC (AUC) value of FNA and CNB was 0.9025 and 0.7926, respectively. No significant difference was observed between the two AUCs of FNA and CNB (P = 0.164). FNA and CNB are still similar as first-line diagnostic tools. FNA remains a good first-line method for detecting thyroid malignancies.

PurposeCurrently, endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery (ETS) and microscopic transsphenoidal surgery (MTS) are commonly applied treatments for patients with pituitary adenomas. This meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ETS and MTS for these patients.MethodsA computer search of Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane library, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases was conducted for studies investigating ETS and MTS for patients with pituitary adenomas. The deadline is March 01, 2021. RevMan5.1 software was used to complete this meta-analysis after literature screening, data extraction, and literature quality evaluation.ResultsA total of 37 studies including 5,591 patients were included. There was no significant difference in gross tumor removal (GTR) and hormone-excess secretion remission (HES remission) between two groups [RR = 1.10, 95% CI (0.99–1.22), P = 0.07; RR = 1.09, 95% CI (1.00–1.20), P = 0.05]. ETS was associated with lower incidence of diabetes insipidus (DI) [RR = 0.71, 95% CI (0.58–0.87), P = 0.0008], hypothyroidism [RR = 0.64, 95% CI (0.47–0.89), P = 0.007], and septal perforation [RR = 0.32, 95% CI (0.13–0.79), P = 0.01] than those with MTS.ConclusionThis meta-analysis indicated that ETS cannot significantly improve GTR and HES remission. However, ETS could reduce the incidence of DI, hypothyroidism, and septal perforation without increasing the rate of other complications.Systematic Review Registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/#myprospero, identifier: CRD42021241217.