• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 2015

The role of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with stage II colon cancer remains a controversial issue. Adjuvant chemotherapy aims to eliminate any micrometastatic disease that may have been missed, at the time of surgery. Although one prospective study showed a small but statistically significant benefit with respect to the overall survival for those who received adjuvant chemotherapy, multiple pooled data did not demonstrate any benefit of this therapy in patients with stage II colon cancer. Current national and international guidelines for the adjuvant treatment of stage II colon dose not advise routine implementation of adjuvant chemotherapy, but rather recommend selective use of this therapy for patients with high risk of recurrence. High risk features for recurrence include T4 disease, poorly differentiated histology, presence of lymphovascular invasion, presence of perineural invasion, inadequate retrieval of lymph nodes, bowel obstruction, localized perforation, or positive margins. More recently, prediction tools using gene expression cancer profiles are proposed to identify patients who are most likely to have recurrence and therefore may benefit from postoperative chemotherapy in stage II colon cancer. These novel methods together with conventional prognosticators, will allow us to implement more optimized personalizing adjuvant therapy in these patients.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.53-61
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• 2002

Purpose : To determine the optimal scheme of postoperative chemoradiotherapy in rectal cancer by comparing survival, Patterns of failure, toxicities in early and late radiotherapy groups using a Phase III randomized prospective clinical trial. Materials and Methods : From January 1996 to March 1999, 307 patients with curatively resected AJCC stage II and III rectal cancer were assigned randomly to an 'early (151 patients, arm 1)' or a 'late (156 patients, arm II)' and were administered combined chemotherapy (5-FU $375\;mg/m^2/day$, leucovorin $20\;mg/m^2$, IV bolus daily, for 3 days with RT, 5 days without RT, 8 cycles with 4 weeks interval) and radiation therapy (whole pelvis with 45 Gy/25 fractions/5 weeks). Patients of arm I received radiation therapy from day 1 of the first cycle of chemotherapy and those of arm II from day 57 with a third cycle of chemotherapy. The median follow-up period of living patients was 40 months. Results : Of the 307 patients enrolled, fifty patients did not receive scheduled radiation therapy or chemotherapy. The overall survival rate and disease free survival rate at 5 years were $78.3\%\;and\;68.7\%$ in arm I, and $78.4\%\;and\;67.5\%$ in arm II. The local recurrence rate was $6.6\%\;and\;6.4\%$ (p=0.46) in arms I and II, respectively, no significant difference was observed between the distant metastasis rates of the two arms ($23.8\%\;and\;29.5\%$, p=0.16). During radiation therapy, grade 3 diarrhea or more, by the NCI common toxicity criteria, was observed in $63.0\%\;and\;58.2\%$ of the respective arms (p=N.S.), but most were controlled with supportive care. Hematologic toxicity (leukopenia) greater than RTOG grade 2 was found in only $1.3\%\;and\;2.6\%$ of patients in each respective arm. Conclusion : There was no significant difference in survival, patterns of failure or toxicities between the early and late radiation therapy arms. Postoperative adjuvant chemoradiation was found to be a relatively safe treatment but higher compliance is needed.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.257-262
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• 2004

Purpose: We reported our preliminary result in 2001. At that time, the follow-up period was too short to evaluate the survival benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy in gastric cancer without serosal invasion. Therefore, we followed those patients for 66 months to determine the long-term effects of adjuvant chemotherapy. Materials and Methods: We analyzed the recurrence pattern, the survival rate, and the disease-specific survival of 135 patients by reviewing their medical records and calling the patients or their relatives. All enrolled patients were included in the intention-to-treat analysis of efficacy. Results: The follow-up rate was $89.6\%$ (121/135), and the median follow-up duration was 66 months. Among the 135 patients, 4 relapsed in group 1 (5-FU+cisplatin), 7 in group 2 (mitomycin C+oral 5-FU), and 6 in group 3 (oral 5-FU only). The overall survival rate was $89\%$ in group 1, $84\%$ in group 2, and $82\%$ in group 3. There were no differences in the overall survival rates and the disease-specific survival rates among the three groups. Conclusion: Oral chemotherapeutic agents have an acceptable effect for adjuvant chemotherapy compared with intravenous agent. However, a large-scale, prospective, randomized study, including a control group, is needed for an exact evaluation.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.30-36
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• 2006

Purpose: Epitheliod sarcoma is an obscure clinical entity. This study analyzes the correlation between the clinical course and the AJCC stage, presence of residual tumor and ezrin-expression. Materials and Methods: Twenty-three cases of epithelioid sarcoma were eligible. All the cases had operation. Fifteen cases had systemic chemotherapy and 6 cases had adjuvant radiotherapy. Immumohistochemical analysis was done for 15 cases. Analyzed factors were initial stage, adjuvant treatment, local recurrence, residual tumor immumohistochemical results and surgical margin. Results: The event free survival rate of 15 stage II, III cases was 47.4% at 129 months. The actual survival rate of 8 stage IV cases was 37.5% at 80 months. The presence of residual tumor tissue on re-excision specimen showed statistical significance on event free survival rate(P=0.03). Adjuvant therapy showed no impact on outcome. The stage IV and locally recurrent cases had a positive relation with Ezrin-positivity. Conclusion: Residual tumor showed correlation in the outcome of epitheliod sarcoma. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy did not affect the outcome. Further case collection and analysis is needed for the significance between Ezrin expression and clinical behavior.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2000

Purpose : To evaluate the side effects, pattern of failure, and survival rate according to the sequence of postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy, patients with stages II and III rectal cancer who had undergone curative resection were randomized to 'early radiotherapy group (arm I)' or' late radiotherapy group (arm II)', then we intend to determine the most effective sequence of the radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Materials and Methods . From January 1996 to March 1999, 313 patients with curatively resected stages II and III rectal cancer have been randomized to' early' or' late' radiation therapy group and received combined chemotherapy (5-FU 375 mg/m$^{2}$/day, ieucovorin 20 mg/m$^{2}$, IV bolus daily Dl-5, 8 cycles) and radiation therapy (whole pelvis with 45 Gy/25 fractions/s weeks). Arm I received radiation therapy from day 1 with first cycle of chemotherapy and arm II received radiation therapy from day 57 with third cycle of chemotherapy after completion of first two cycles. Preliminary analysis was peformed with 228 patients registered up to Jun 1998. Two out of the 228 patients were excluded because of double primary cancer. Median follow-up period was 23 months. Results :Local recurrence occurred in 11 patients (9.7$\%$) for arm I and 9 patients (8$\%$) for arm 11. There was no significant difference between both groups ( p=0.64). However, distant metastasis was found in 22 patients (19.5$\%$) for arm I and 35 patients (31.0$\%$) for arm II and which showed statistically significant difference between the two groups ( p=0.046). And neither 3-year disease-free survival (70.2$\%$ vs 59.2$\%$, p=0.2) nor overall survival (89.4$\%$ vs 88.0$\%$, p=0.47) showed significant differences. The incidence of leukopenia during radiation therapy and chemotherapy was 78.3$\%$ and 79.9$\%$ respectively but leukopenia more than RTOG grade 3 was only 2.1$\%$ and 6.0$\%$ respectively. The incidence of diarrhea more than 10 times per day was significantly higher in the patients for arm I than for arm II (71.2$\%$ vs 41.6$\%$, p=0.02) but this complication was controlled with supportive cares. Conclusion : Regardless of the sequence of postoperative adjuvant radiation therapy and chemotherapy after curative resection for rectal cancer, local recurrence rate was low with combined chemoradlotherapy. But distant metastasis rate was lower in early radiation therapy group than in late radiation therapy group and the reason is unclear. Most patients completed these treatments without severe complication, so these were thought to be safe treatments but the treatment compliance should be improved.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.9-19
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• 2008

Purpose: Gastric cancer is the most common malignant tumor in Korea. We reviewed the cases at our institution to identify the survival rates and clarify the prognostic factors of patients with gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of 6,918 patients who had received a diagnosis of gastric cancer, and they underwent surgery at Korea Cancer Center Hospital during a 15-year period from 1991 to 2005. Results: The overall 5-year survival rate was 66.8%. The univariate analysis revealed that age, location of tumor, gross type of tumor, the histology according to the WHO classification, the Lauren classification, depth of invasion (T stage), lymph node metastasis (N stage), distant metastasis (M stage), the type of surgery, the UICC TNM stage, postoperative complications, adjuvant chemotherapy, lymphatic invasion, venous invasion and perineural invasion were the significantly different factors of the survival rates. The multivariate analysis revealed that age, Borrmann type 4, the histology according to the WHO classification, depth of invasion (T stage), lymph node metastasis (N stage), distant metastasis (M stage), the type of surgery, UICC TNM stage, postoperative complications, adjuvant chemotherapy and lymphatic invasion were the independent prognostic factors. Conclusion: We have shown a statistically significant association between the survival rates after operation for gastric cancer and the clinicopathologic factors. Early diagnosis of gastric cancer, appropriate surgeryand adjuvant therapy might improve the quality of life and the survival rates of gastric cancer patients.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1994.04a
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• pp.188-188
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• 1994

GM-CSF는 생체내에서 백혈구의 형성을 조절하는 인자이기 때문에 골수이식을 한 환자 및 화학요법이나 방사선 치료를 받은 암환자에게서 발생하는 백혈구의 감소현상을 완화시키는 역활을 한다. 항암 보조 치료제로서 의학적 효능을 나타낼 것으로 간주되는 인체의 GM-CSF를 유전자 재조합 기술로 효모에서 발현, 정제하여 물리화학적 특성을 밝히고 역가를 측정하고자 하였다. 효모로부터 rhGM-CSF의 발현율을 상승시키기 위해 초 분비 돌연변이 균주를 선별하였고 발효 배지 조성의 차이에 따른 발현율도 비교 측정하였다. 정제된 rhGM-CSF(LBD-005)는 여러 물리화학적 특성조사를 통해 구조나 역가면에서 상대치와 거의 일치함을 보여주었다. LBD-005는 당화된 GM-CSF와 당화되지 않은 형태의 혼합물이므로 Con-A column등을 사용하여 분리하고자 하였다. 당화된 GM-CSF와 혼합물의 물리화학적 특성을 각각 조사하였으나 유사하였고 당화에 따른 역가의 차이도 없었음을 알 수 있었다.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.173-181
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• 1996

위암 환자의 수술후 5년 생존율은 조기암의 경우 90%이상으로 매우 좋으나 진행암의 경우 20~30%를 넘지 못한다. 위암의 예후에 영향을 주는 요인 중 조기 발견보다 더 중요한 것은 없으며, 조기암의 진단율에 노력을 기울이는 것이 현실적 타개책이라 하겠다. 현재 우리나라의 조기암 진단율은 16~22%로 일본의 40~45%보다 극히 저조하므로 소화기계 증상이 있는 경우 위내시경 검사를 적극 권고함이 바람직하다. 위암은 외과적 절제술이 유일한 근치치료법임은 주지의 사실이며 근래에는 위내시경 및 복강경을 이용하여 위장관 기능을 보존하는 술식도 시도되고 있어 바람직한 발전이라 사료되나, 림프절 곽청의 원칙을 훼손하지 않는 범위내에서 이루어져야할 것이다. 근치적 절제술의 정의에 합당한 외과적 치료법만이 5년 생존율 향상을 기대할 수 있으며, 보조적 항암화학요법과 면역요법은 대상 환자의 엄선으로 부분적 치료효과를 기대할 수 있다. 절제불능 위암이나 국소진행암에서 절제율을 높이기 위한 술전치료방법들의 적극적 도입이 바람직하다. 그러나 대상 환자의 선정에 있어 객관적 타당성이 있는 병기 결정 방법과 치료효과를 판정하는 방법의 혁신이 있어야 할 것으로 사료되며 현재의 부정확한 검사방법들의 대안으로 복강경의 이용이 바람직하리라 사료된다.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.293-299
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• 2000

Purpose :We conducted a prospective non-randomized clinical study to evaluate the efficacy and toxic of the preoperative concurrent chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced unresectable rectal cancer. Materials and Methods: Between January 1995 and June 1998, 37 conecutive patients with locally unresectable advanced rectal cancer were entered into the study. With 3- or 4- fields technique, a total of 45 Gy radiation was delivered on whole pelvis, followed by 5.4 Gy boost to the primary tumor in some cases. Chemotherapy was done at the first and fifth week of radiation with bolus i.v. 5-Fluorouracil (FU) 370$\~$450 mg/m$^{2}$, days 1$\~$5, plus Leucovorin 20 mg/m$^{2}$, days 1$\~$5. OF 37 patients, 6 patients did not receive all planned treatment course (refusal in 4, disease progression in 1, metastasis to lung in 1). Surgical resection was undergone 4$\~$6 weeks after preoperative concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Results :Complete resection rate with negative margins was 94$\%$ (29/31). Complete response was seen in 7 patients (23$\%$) clinically and 2 patients (6$\%$) pathologically. Down staging of tumor occured in 21 patients (68$\%$). Treatment related toxicity was minimal except grade III & IV leukopenia in 2 patients, respectively. Conclusion : Preoperative concurrent chemoradiotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer was effective in inducing down staging and complete resection rate. Treatment related toxicity was minimal. Further follow up is on-going to determine long term survival following this treatment.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.177-181
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• 2000

Purpose : Rarity of olfactory neuroblastoma makes it difficult for treating Physician to Practice with a consistent protocol. This study is peformed to analyze our experience with various treatment modalities for patients with olfactory neuroblastoma. Discussion includes review of some recently published literatures. Methods and Materials : Between June of 1979 and April of 1997, 20 patients were treated under the diagnosis of olfactory neuroblastoma at Seoul National University Hospital. There were 14 male and 6 female patients. Age at initial treatment ranged from l3 to 77 years with median or 24 years. fifteen or 20 patients had Kadish stage C. They were treated with various combinations of surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy; surgery+postoperative radiation therapy+adjuvant chemotherapy for 2 patients, surgery+postoperative radiation therapy for 6, neoadjuvant chemotherapy+surgery for 1, surgery+adjuvant chemotherapy for 1, surgery only for 2, neoadiuvant chemotherapy+ radiation therapy for 3, radiation therapy+adjuvant chemotherapy for 1, radiation therapy only for 3, and no treatment for 1 patient. Results : Follow-up ranged from 2 month to 204 months with mean of 39.6 months. The overall 5- and 10-year survival rates are 20% and 10%, respectably. Four patients are alive at the time of data analysis. One of four living patients was treated with radical surgery, postoperative radiation therapy and adjuvant chemotherapy, two patients with radical surgery and postoperative radiation therapy, and one with radical surgery only. Conclusion : Multidisciplinary approach, including radical surgery, pre- or post-operative radiation therapy and chemotherapy, should be addressed at the initial time of diagnosis. Although limited by small number of the patients, this study suggests importance of local treatment modality, especially radical surgery in the treatment of lofactory neuroblastoma.