1,720,961 research outputs found

    Risk of neoplastic transformation in asymptomatic radial scar. Analysis of 117 cases

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    BACKGROUND: Radial scar (RS) is a benign breast lesion but a variable percentage of cases are associated with atypical epithelial proliferations and cancer. Previous studies have shown that patient age and the size of RS are correlated to a potential neoplastic transformation. METHOD: We collected 117 asymptomatic patients with suspected RS following a mammogram, histologically confirmed. The clinical, pathological and immunophenotypical analysis is reported. The cases are subdivided into three different groups: (1) RS "Pure", without epithelial atypia; (2) RS associated with epithelial atypical hyperplasia; (3) RS with cancer. RESULTS: "Pure" RS was detected in 55 patients (47\%); the mean age was 48.1 years and the mean size 0.94 cm. RS associated with atypical epithelial hyperplasia was identified in 25 cases (21\%) with a mean age of 53.1 years and a mean size of 0.98 cm. Carcinoma in RS was observed in 37 cases (32\%); the mean age was 55.5 years and the mean size was 1.16 cm. The mean age was statistically significant (P = 0.004) in separating RS with cancer from the two other RS groups. The size of RS was not sufficiently statistically significant (P = 0.2) to differentiate the risk. Atypical lesions and cancers showed a morphology and marker of low-grade aggressiveness. CONCLUSION: RS seems to represent a natural model of carcinogenesis starting from a proliferative lesion in patients of less than 50 years of age and developing into an atypical and later into a carcinomatous lesion. The fact that most carcinomas arising in RS are low grade also favors this hypothesis. All RS should be excised

    Cancer Size, Histotype, and Cellular Grade May Limit the Success of Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology for Screen-Detected Breast Carcinoma

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    BACKGROUND: Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) was adopted as the first-line method to assess breast lesions in the Verona Breast Cancer Screening Program. The radiological and pathological factors relating to the success of FNAC in breast cancer series were evaluated. METHODS: Between July 1999 and June 2004, 418 breast cancers were submitted to FNAC in the Verona Breast Cancer Screening Program. The results of FNAC diagnoses were compared with final histology. The FNAC sensitivity rate, underestimation of malignancy rate, and inadequacy rate were correlated with histotype, size, grading, and radiologic imaging. RESULTS: Of the 418 cancers, 95 were in situ, and 323 were invasive. The sensitivity rate was higher in invasive cancers (P < .001), and the underestimation of malignancy rate was greater in in situ cancers (P = .002). Lobular type cancers had a lower sensitivity rate in invasive and in situ cancers. The sensitivity rate was 100% in medullary, mucinous, and papi! llary cancers, and no case had inadequate sampling. The underestimation of malignancy rate was higher in tubular carcinoma (18.2%); lobular carcinoma showed a higher inadequacy rate (10.4%). The sensitivity rate was lower and the underestimation of malignancy rate was higher in low-grade carcinomas and in lesions <1 cm (P < .001). The performance of FNAC was not significantly influenced by mammographic imaging of lesions. CONCLUSIONS: Low-grade cancer histotype, cancer size <1 cm, and lobular and tubular histotypes limit the possibility of obtaining positive results by FNAC. Operator experience and multidisciplinary consultation may help in overcoming these limitations. Pathologists must be aware of the limits of FNAC; results must be critically evaluated in light of the triple assessment. Cancer (Cancer Cytopathol) 2009;117:491-9. (C) 2009 American Cancer Society

    Real-time reading in mammography breast screening.

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    PURPOSE: This study was undertaken to assess the role of real-time reading in the mammography screening programme carried out at the Hospital of Marzana, Verona, Italy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: During the 5-year period 1999-2004, 54,472 women attended the screening programme (32,291 first calls: unadjusted uptake 41.4\%, adjusted uptake 50.3\%; 21,551 2- year routine recalls: unadjusted uptake 86.4\%, adjusted uptake 89.9\%). Further diagnostic investigations [(FDI), imaging and cytohistological] were performed immediately after real-time reading of the screening mammograms (FDI rate among first calls 10.9\%; FDI rate among 2-year recalls 5.4\%). Overall, cytohistological FDI were requested in 27\% of imaging FDI, with a clear prevalence of cytological [fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) 87\%] over histological procedures [core needle biopsy (CNB) 11\%; vacuum aspiration biopsy (VAB) 2\%]. RESULTS: Imaging FDI proved to be conclusive in 73\%. Cytohistological FDI led to the use of surgical biopsy (SB) in 39.5\% (ratio between benign and malignant SB: 0.19/first calls, 0.14/2-year recalls). There were a total of 427 screen-detected breast cancers (BC), with a very good breast cancer detection rate (BCDR/first calls 9.7 per thousand; BCDR/2-year recalls 5.1 per thousand). In the 427 screen-detected BC, the incidence of pTis, pT1a,b cancers was 59.6\% (diagnostic anticipation); the incidence of pN0 cancers was 61.2\%; the incidence of conservative surgical procedures was 78.6\%. In interval cancers, the false negative rate was 8.3\% only, whereas the proportional incidence was very low indeed (14\% first year; 38\% second year). CONCLUSIONS: The high sensitivity exhibited by the Marzana mammography screening programme suggests that the value of real-time reading should be validated by other programmes adopting a similar approach

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods
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