Saskia Spaich

Universitätsmedizin Mannheim | UMM · Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics

Background/aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate patient preferences regarding cervical dysplasia clinics. Specifically, preferences in terms of diagnostic and therapeutic pathways as well as logistical and structural aspects were addressed to recognize unmet needs and improve existing structures of cervical dysplasia care. Patients and meth...

Purpose To describe and analyze major local complications after intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) with low-energy x‑rays during breast-conserving surgery (BCS) in early breast cancer. Methods Ten women out of 408 who were treated with IORT between 2002 and 2017 and subsequently developed a severe local complication requiring surgical intervention...

Background: Intraoperative radiotherapy can serve as an anticipated boost (IORT boost) in combination with a subsequent external whole breast irradiation in high-risk breast cancer patients and is part of many guidelines. Nevertheless, there are only few prospective data available regarding cosmetic outcome after IORT boost using kV X-rays. The ai...

The acquisition of mesenchymal traits is considered a hallmark of breast cancer progression. However, the functional relevance of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) remains controversial and context dependent. Here, we isolate epithelial and mesenchymal populations from human breast cancer metastatic biopsies and assess their functional pot...

Background/aim: Conization in patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia is associated with longer time required to conceive, a higher risk of preterm delivery, and a myriad of obstetric complications. This study assessed whether operator sex and experience correlate with cone volume, depth, and resection margins in patients wishing to conce...

Background/aim: The objective of this study was to assess the perception of the forensic medical examination (FME) by victims of sexual violence. Based on patient-related outcomes gained in terms of personnel, chronological and spatial parameters, an additional aim was to derive improved examination procedures. Patients and methods: A total of 4...

Purpose According to the recently implemented organized cervical cancer screening program in Germany, women older than 35 years with negative cytology but persistent high-risk human papilloma virus (hrHPV) infection > 12 months should be referred to colposcopy for further evaluation. This study aimed to present and dissect colposcopic and histopath...

Purpose The aim of this study is to evaluate feasibility and potential benefit of a diode laser in major laparoscopic procedures in gynecology. Methods Between 2018 and 2020, a total of 42 cases were enrolled in this study comparing standard electrosurgery with diode laser-supported therapy in laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy (LASH), total...

Purpose The aim of this study was to evaluate the postoperative course after different methods of hysterectomy for benign diseases with special emphasis on time to recovery and patient-centred aspects such as postoperative quality of life and satisfaction. Methods A collective of 242 women who had undergone vaginal hysterectomy (VH), laparoscopic...

Background Sexual health has been identified as an important factor for postpartum quality of life. Although pregnancy-related changes in anatomy and metabolism return to their prepregnancy state, female sexual function may not be at the level it was before birth because of physical and psychological changes. Aim The goal of our study was to explo...

Metastatic colonization relies on interactions between disseminated cancer cells and the microenvironment in secondary organs. Here, we show that disseminated breast cancer cells evoke phenotypic changes in lung fibroblasts, forming a supportive metastatic niche. Colonization of the lungs confers an inflammatory phenotype in metastasis-associated f...

Despite important advances in the treatment of breast cancer, the 5-year survival rate for patients with distant metastasis remains less than 30%. Metastasis is a complex, multi-step process beginning with local invasion and ending with the outgrowth of systemically disseminated cells into actively proliferating metastases that ultimately cause the...

Purpose The purpose of this investigation was to explore changes in patient preference regarding gynecologist’s gender. Methods Using a standardized questionnaire, distributed in 1997 and 2018, a total of 1000 women were interviewed about preferences in terms of their choice of gynecologist and perceptions regarding gender-dependency of gynecologi...

Purpose Patient comfort and preference have steadily gained attention in radio-oncologic treatment of breast cancer. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to further explore patient preferences in choosing between intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) and external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). Methods We prospectively analysed data of 101 wome...

Metastatic colonization relies on interactions between disseminated cancer cells and the microenvironment in secondary organs. Here, we show that disseminated breast cancer cells evoke major phenotypic changes in lung fibroblasts to form a metastatic niche that supports malignant growth. Colonization of the lungs by cancer cells confers an inflamma...

Background: The purpose of this investigation was to explore patient perception regarding the importance of efficacy, toxicity, and logistics in the choice of regimen of taxane-based chemotherapy (CHT) for patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Methods: This dual-center study analyzed data of 100 women diagnosed with MBC, who were asked for...

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Metastatic progression remains a major burden for cancer patients and is associated with eventual resistance to prevailing therapies such as chemotherapy. Here, we reveal how chemotherapy induces an extracellular matrix (ECM), wound healing, and stem cell network in cancer cells via the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway, leading to reduced ther...

Introduction Metastasis remains the primary cause of death for breast cancer patients. The metastatic cascade is largely regulated by interactions between cancer cells and their microenvironment. Using a genetically engineered mouse model (GEMM) for breast cancer, we have previously shown that mammary tumours elicit a systemic inflammatory cascade,...

Dynamic polarisation of tumour cells is essential for metastasis. While the role of polarisation during dedifferentiation and migration is well established, polarisation of metastasising tumour cells during phases of detachment has not been investigated. Here we identify and characterise a type of polarisation maintained by single cells in liquid p...

Cancer drug screening in patient-derived cells holds great promise for personalized oncology and drug discovery but lacks standardization. Whether cells are cultured as conventional monolayer or advanced, matrix-dependent organoid cultures influences drug effects and thereby drug selection and clinical success. To precisely compare drug profiles in...

Kosmetische Ergebnisse nach intraoperativer Radiotherapie (IORT) als Boost

Cancer drug screening in patient-derived cells holds great promise for personalized oncology and drug discovery but lacks standardization. Whether cells are cultured as conventional monolayer or advanced organoid cultures influences drug effects and thereby drug selection and clinical success. To precisely compare drug profiles in differently cultu...

Background: Radiotherapy has shown high efficacy in breast cancer therapy; in recent years, benefits of its intraoperative application were demonstrated. The aim of our study is to report initial experience of intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) during breast conserving surgery (BCS) followed by external beam whole breast radiotherapy (EBRT) in pati...

Chemotherapy resistance resulting in incomplete pathologic response is associated with high risk of metastasis and early relapse in breast cancer. The aim of this study was to identify and evaluate biomarkers of treatment-resistant tumor cells. We performed a cell surface marker screen in triple-negative breast cancer patient-derived xenograft mode...

Einleitung: Besondere Bedeutung fur Ausdehnung und malignes Potential des Ovarialkarzinoms kommt der Subpopulation der Krebs-Stammzellen zu. In etablierten Modellen konnen diese Tumorstammzellen kaum analysiert werden, da die typische Heterogenitat der Tumorzellen aus den ursprunglichen Isolaten in langzeitkultivierten Zelllinien nicht mehr nachwei...

Ziel: Die Zufriedenheit mit der Geburt ist von verschiedenen Faktoren abhangig. Einige sind zwar bekannt, die meisten jedoch ungenugend evaluiert. In diesem Zusammenhang ist der Stellenwert des Geburtsmodus vollig unklar. Ziel dieser Studie war es daher, den Einfluss des Geburtsmodus auf die Zufriedenheit mit der Geburt zu untersuchen. Methodik: In...

Ziel: Das (voraussichtliche) fetale Geburtsgewicht steht oftmals im Mittelpunkt geburtshilflicher Entscheidungen. Auch wenn die sonografische Gewichtsschatzung vor allem bei den sehr schweren Feten eingeschrankt ist, beeinflusst es die weiteren Entscheidungen der betreuenden Geburtshelfer und vor allem die der betroffenen Schwangeren – nicht selten...

Many factors affect women's satisfaction with the experience of childbirth. Some of these are known, but most have not been fully evaluated. The influence of the mode of delivery is unclear. This study investigated the extent to which satisfaction with childbirth depends on the mode of delivery, and evaluated factors determining postpartum satisfac...

Objective: A wide variety of pharmacological and mechanical methods (e.g. balloon devices) are available for inducing labour, but little information is available about the way in which women regard balloon devices. The aim of this study was to investigate women's acceptance of and satisfaction with the induction of labour by administration of oral...

Rationale: The emerging role of the ubiquitin-proteasome system in cardiomyocyte function and homeostasis implies the necessity of tight regulation of protein degradation. However, little is known about cardiac components of this machinery. Objective: We sought to determine whether molecules exist that control turnover of cardiac-specific protei...

Objective Commonly used formulae for fetal weight estimation, including combinations of several biometric parameters, lack accuracy despite efforts to improve them. This study aimed to investigate the limits of fetal weight estimation based on conventional biometric parameters on two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound by developing and evaluating new weig...

Objective. To present a case of maternal myasthenia gravis in pregnancy and give a systematic review of the literature. Case. We report the case of a 38-year-old parturient with a life-threatening complication of immune-mediated myasthenia gravis shortly after an elective cesarean section on patient's request under spinal anesthesia at 35 + 3 weeks...

To evaluate a combination of oral misoprostol (OM) and mechanical dilation of the cervix to improve efficacy in inducing labour. This prospective, randomized study included 122 term pregnancies with an indication for induced labour. Each woman was randomly assigned to one of two groups. In the study group, a combination of OM and mechanical dilatio...

The focal adhesion protein affixin (β-parvin) is highly expressed in the heart and is associated with the sarcomeric z-disc as well as the cell membrane. While affixin is known to be involved in cell adhesion and migration, its functional role in cardiomyocytes remains unclear. To gain insight into the function of affixin, we performed a yeast-two-...