The vermiform appendix is the primary site of several distinctive benign and malignant neoplasms. Some can produce the clinical syndrome of pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP). A consensus on their terminology was reached by an international panel of pathologists and clinicians working under the auspices of the Peritoneal Surface Oncology Group International (PSOGI), and this review discusses the application of the PSOGI classification to routine reporting. We discuss diagnosis and differential diagnosis together with implications for patient management, covering low-grade appendiceal mucinous neoplasms, high-grade appendiceal mucinous neoplasms, serrated polyps, adenomas and adenocarcinomas. We do not cover goblet cell tumours or neuroendocrine neoplasms in this paper.

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The frequency of complications after IPCH and cytoreductive surgery was mainly associated with the carcinomatosis stage and the extent of the surgical procedure. The IPCH closed abdominal procedure has shown an acceptable frequency of adverse events.

Both fundamental and clinical studies suggest that class III B-tubulin expression is associated with resistance to taxanes and constitutes a prognostic factor in several solid tumors. In this study, we assessed the prognostic and predictive value of class III B-tubulin in tumors of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non -small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with paclitaxel-based or other regimens that did not include tubulin-binding agents. Expression of class III B-tubulin was examined immunohistochemically in 91 tumor samples obtained before treatment from patients with stage III and IV NSCLC, including 47 who received paclitaxel-based regimens and 44 who received regimens without tubulin-binding agents. Response to chemotherapy, progression-free survival, and overall survival were correlated with the expression of class III B-tubulin protein. The response rate was 37.5% (16 responses among 45 evaluable patients) among patients receiving paclitaxel. Patients whose tumors expressed low levels of class III B-tubulin isotype had a better response rate, longer progression-free survival, and overall survival (P < 0.001, 0.004, and 0.002, respectively), whereas this variable was not found to be predictive in patients receiving regimens without tubulinbinding agents. A multivariate analysis taking into account sex, age, histology, stage, and class III B-tubulin confirmed that low-level class III B-tubulin expression was independently correlated with progression-free survival (P = 0.003) and overall survival (P = 0.003). These findings suggest that the expression levels of class III B-tubulin in tumor cells is predictive of response to therapy and patient outcome in patients with NSCLC receiving paclitaxel-based chemotherapy but is not a general prognostic factor in this patient population.

Rapidly progressive dementia mimicking Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a relatively rare presentation but a rewarding one to become familiar with, as the potential diagnoses range from the universally fatal to the completely reversible. Patients require urgent decisions about assessment and investigation and have quickly evolving needs for treatments and support, through symptom management and end-of-life care in most cases. We have based this pragmatic review on the experiences of a specialist prion referral centre in the UK, which, unsurprisingly, is strongly biased towards seeing patients with CJD.