Publications by authors named "Michael D Mueller"

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of endometriosis in patients with isthmocele and the outcome of isthmocele repair.

Design: Systematic literature review and meta-analysis of existing retro- and prospective studies.

Data Sources: A systematic search was conducted to identify trials published through May 2024 using Embase, MEDLINE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

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Introduction: Patients operated for endometrial cancer (EMCA) are typically elderly with multiple comorbidities, potentially impacting surgical outcomes and survival. This study evaluated the prognostic value of frailty and frailty-related scores in predicting perioperative morbidity and survival in EMCA patients undergoing minimally invasive surgery.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 289 patients from the Sentinel Database treated for EMCA at Bern University Hospital (2012-2020).

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Background: Cesarean sections are becoming more common worldwide. One of the long-term complications of cesarean section is a cesarean scar defect or isthmocele. The presence of isthmocele is associated with infertility.

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Introduction: A 57-year-old patient was referred to our tertiary referral urogynecology unit due to persistent and profuse vaginal discharge 1 year after undergoing laparoscopic sacrocolpopexy with subtotal hysterectomy for apical prolapse. During clinical examination, abundant yellowish discharge from the cervix was observed. Creatinine testing and Uro-CT excluded vesicovaginal or ureterovaginal fistulas and large abscesses.

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: Intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) is the delivery of a single large dose of radiation to a limited volume of tissue at the time of surgery. The aim of this study is to assess outcomes in patients who underwent IORT for gynecologic malignancies and to identify parameters that can predict a good outcome. : This is a retrospective single-center cohort study including all women treated with surgery and IORT for a primary or recurrent gynecologic cancer between 2014 and 2022 at the Bern University Hospital, Switzerland.

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Objective: At present, no reliable blood-based biomarkers have been established for patients with endometrial cancer. Liquid biopsies, which can detect circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), provide a non-invasive way to assess prognosis, monitor tumor evolution and treatment response. We aimed to examine the feasibility and performance of ctDNA as a prognostic tool in a multi-center cohort of EC patients with matched tumor samples.

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Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the role of pre-sacral sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) in patients with uterine cancer.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study includes patients with endometrial or cervical cancer who underwent minimally invasive indocyanine green SLN mapping at the Bern University Hospital from December 2012 to December 2022. A complete ultra-staging of the SLNs was performed in all cases.

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Objective: Treatment approaches for endometrial cancer became more personalized in the last decade, mainly due to two key advancements - sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping and molecular classification. However, their prognostic interaction remains relatively unexplored.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included patients with endometrial cancer, who underwent surgical treatment including SLN mapping at the Bern University Hospital, Switzerland.

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: Postsurgical lower urinary tract dysfunction (LUTD) is a common problem following deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE) resection. The condition may be caused either by surgically induced damage to the bladder innervation or by pre-existing endometriosis-associated nerve damage. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of preoperative and postoperative multichannel urodynamic testing (UD) in identifying pre-existing or surgically induced LUTD among patients with DIE.

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This study aimed to identify unique characteristics in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of endometriosis patients and develop a non-invasive early diagnostic tool. Using single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), we constructed the first single-cell atlas of PBMCs from endometriosis patients based on 107,964 cells and 25,847 genes. Within CD16 monocytes, we discovered as a dysregulated gene.

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Aims: Mutations affecting exon 3 of the β-catenin () gene result in constitutive activation of WNT signalling and are a diagnostic hallmark of several tumour entities including desmoid-type fibromatosis. They also define clinically relevant tumour subtypes within certain entities, such as endometrioid carcinoma. In diagnostics, β-catenin immunohistochemistry is widely used as a surrogate for mutations.

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Introduction: Centralization of ovarian cancer treatment is associated with higher rates of optimal surgery and longer survival. However, preoperative diagnosis of ovarian cancer is challenging and some diagnoses are made incidentally after surgery. This study investigated the surgical and oncological outcomes of patients with incidental findings of borderline ovarian tumors or ovarian cancer who were centralized postoperatively and treated with a two-stage surgical procedure, and compared these with those of patients with adnexal masses of suspected malignancy who were offered a single-stage surgical procedure with intraoperative frozen section in a tertiary hospital.

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Article Synopsis
  • Adenomyosis is a painful condition affecting women that can lead to symptoms like severe menstrual pain, heavy bleeding, and infertility, and new thermal ablation techniques present minimally invasive treatment options.
  • Techniques like high-intensity focused ultrasound, microwave ablation, and radiofrequency ablation are found to effectively reduce symptoms and uterine size without compromising fertility or requiring lengthy hospital stays.
  • Despite promising results regarding safety and effectiveness, further research is needed to compare these new treatments to traditional therapies to inform future medical decisions.
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Objectives: This study aims to ascertain the prevalence of appendiceal endometriosis (AppE) in patients diagnosed with diaphragmatic endometriosis (DiaE), compare it with the prevalence in patients without DiaE, and delineate the anatomical distribution of endometriotic lesions within these cohorts.

Study Design: Comparison of the characteristics of patients with AppE and DiaE with the characteristics of patients with abdominal endometriosis without diaphragmatic involvement, in a prospective cohort study.

Setting: Tertiary referral center; endometriosis center.

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Objective: To assess 5-year oncologic outcomes of apparent early-stage high-intermediate and high-risk endometrial cancer undergoing sentinel node mapping versus systematic lymphadenectomy.

Methods: This is a multi-institutional retrospective, propensity-matched study evaluating data of high-intermediate and high-risk endometrial cancer (according to ESGO/ESTRO/ESP guidelines) undergoing sentinel node mapping versus systematic pelvic lymphadenectomy (with and without para-aortic lymphadenectomy). Survival outcomes were assessed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard methods.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to create a consensus on the surgical technique for sentinel lymph node dissection in cervical cancer by surveying expert gynecological oncology surgeons.
  • A two-step modified Delphi method was employed, involving initial surveys and follow-up interviews, with a 70% agreement threshold for consensus.
  • Findings indicated that experts reached consensus on 15 recommended practices, including the use of indocyanine green as a tracer and specific injection techniques, while recommending against certain procedures such as injecting directly into tumors.
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Lynch syndrome is an inherited tumor syndrome caused by a pathogenic germline variant in DNA mismatch repair genes. As the leading cause of hereditary endometrial cancer, international guidelines recommend universal screening in women with endometrial cancer. However, testing for Lynch syndrome is not yet well established in clinical practice.

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Objective: The prognostic significance of positive peritoneal cytology in endometrial cancer has long been debated. In 2009, the Fédération Internationale de Gynécologie et d'Obstétrique (FIGO) removed cytology as a staging criterion from the endometrial cancer staging system. However, there is still evidence that positive peritoneal cytology may decrease survival among patients with endometrial cancer.

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Background: SLN mapping has emerged as a standard of care in endometrial cancer due to its high sensitivity and significant reduction in morbidity. Although lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) is a known risk factor for lymph node metastasis and recurrence, evidence on the reliability of SLN mapping in LVSI-positive patients is scarce. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of LVSI on the diagnostic performance of SLN mapping.

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Objective: Lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) is a known prognostic factor for oncological outcome in endometrial cancer patients. However, little is known about the prognostic value of LVSI among the different molecular subgroups. The aim of this study was to determine the prognostic dependence of LVSI from the molecular signature.

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Objective: To evaluate blood-based biomarkers to detect endometriosis and/or adenomyosis across nine European centers (June 2014-April 2018).

Methods: This prospective, non-interventional study assessed the diagnostic accuracy of 54 blood-based biomarker immunoassays in samples from 919 women (aged 18-45 years) with suspicion of endometriosis and/or adenomyosis versus symptomatic controls. Endometriosis was stratified by revised American Society for Reproductive Medicine stage.

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Objective: To investigate whether a change in the Fagotti score (ΔFagotti) following neoadjuvant chemotherapy is predictive of resection to no residual disease (R0) and survival in women diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

Methods: Women treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy for newly diagnosed ovarian cancer between January 2012 and June 2021 at the Bern University Hospital were included in this retrospective cohort study. Fagotti scores before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy treatment were assessed for a potential association with resection status at interval debulking surgery defined as no residual disease (R0), macroscopic residual disease with a diameter of 0.

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Identifying tissue-specific molecular signatures of active regulatory elements is critical to understanding gene regulatory mechanisms. In this study, transcription start sites (TSS) and enhancers were identified using Cap analysis of gene expression (CAGE) across endometrial stromal cell (ESC) samples obtained from women with ( = 4) and without endometriosis ( = 4). ESC TSSs and enhancers were compared to those reported in other tissue and cell types in FANTOM5 and were integrated with RNA-seq and ATAC-seq data from the same samples for regulatory activity and network analyses.

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