• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2008

Purpose：The incidence of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma(PTMC) has increased due to the widespread use of high resolution ultrasonography and fine-needle aspiration biopsy. However, the clinical and biologic behaviors of PTMC is debatable. The aim of this study was to describe clinicopathologic features of PTMC and to suggest whether tumor size(5mm) might prove the useful parameter for determining the surgical strategy in PTMC. Material and Methods：From Jan. 2000 to Dec. 2005, 1355 of 2678 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma were identified as having PTMC, based on tumor size${\leq}$10mm(50.6%). Among patients with PTMC, we further separated tumors<5mm(minute group：group M) from those 5 to 10mm(tiny group：group T). We compared the clinicopathological characteristics and the TNM stagings between two groups. Results：There were 114(8.4%) men and 1241(91.6%) women with a median age of 47 years(range；13-79). During a mean follow-up of 47.3(range；22-93), 13 patients(1.0%) developed locoregional recurrences and 3 patients(0.2%) showed distant metastases at initial presentation. Statistical analysis revealed that the presence of extracapsular invasion(p<0.0001), invasion to adjacent structure(p<0.0001), multifocality(p<0.0001), central lymph node metastasis(p<0.0001), and lateral lymph node metastasis(p<0.0001) were all significantly higher in tiny group(tumor${\geq}$5mm). Furthermore, minute group demonstrated a significantly lower tumor stage(AJCC TNM classification) compared with tiny group(p<0.0001). Conclusion：Patients with PTMC have a favorable treatment outcomes, although the distinction needs to be made with reference to the clinicopathologic behaviors. It would be reasonable to consider that tumor size(5mm) would be useful parameter for the treatment strategy of PTMC.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.329-343
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• 2019

Purpose: Gastric cancer with lymph node metastasis (LNM) more than 15 (N3b) was defined as stage IV until the 6th AJCC system. However, it has been reclassified as a localized disease (stage IIb or III) since the 7th system. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that the survival of N3b is comparable to cytology-only positive (CY1-only) stage IV and to propose a new TNM system interpreting N3b as an eligibility criterion for receiving more intensive chemotherapy regimens. Materials and Methods: 1,430 patients who underwent gastric cancer surgery at Seoul National University Hospital from 2007 to 2012 were retrospectively analyzed. The 5-year survival rate (5YSR) and 3-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) were evaluated according to the 7th and 8th systems, as well as a new categorization based on N-classification; N0-2 (LNM<7), N3a (LNM 7-15), or N3b (LNM>15). Results: The survival of N3b is comparable to that of CY1-only stage IV (log rank test, P=0.671) and is distinct from that of grossly stage IV (log rank test, P<0.001). The survival of the remaining stage IIIc (T4bN3a) was comparable to those of N3b and CY1-only stage IV. Most N3b patients had significantly shorter 3-year RFS and mean RFS than those with IIb-IIIc, as if N3b itself was a higher TNM stage. Conclusions: In terms of survival, T4bN3a, N3b, and CY1-only stage IV were unified as stage IVa, while grossly stage IV was defined as stage IVb. N3b can be regarded as an eligibility criterion for undergoing more intensive chemotherapy regimens.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.71-77
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• 2009

Purpose: We investigated the outcome and the prognostic factors of patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer who were treated with concurrent chemo-radiotherapy. Materials and Methods: Two hundred forty six patients with esophageal cancer that were treated by radiotherapy between January 1994 and July 2007. Of these, 78 patients who received radiotherapy of $\geq$45 Gy with concurrent chemotherapy were retrospectively enrolled in this study. We included patients stages IIA, IIB, III, IVA, and IVB with supraclavicular metastasis in the middle/lower esophageal cancer or celiac node metastasis in cervical or upper/middle thoracic esophageal cancer. The median radiation dose was 54 Gy and the combination chemotherapy with 5-FU and cisplatin (FP chemotherapy) was given concurrently with radiotherapy in most patients (88%). Results: The follow-up period ranged from 2 to 117 months (median 14 months). The treatment response of the 54 patients could be evaluated by computerized tomography or endoscopy. A complete response (CR) was observed in 17 patients, whereas a partial response was observed in 18 patients. In patients with a CR, the median recurrence time was 20 months and the first relapse sites constituted a locoregional failure in 3 patients and a distant failure in 7 patients. The 1-, 2-, and 5-year overall survival (OS) rates were 58.9%, 21.7%, and 12.2%, respectively. The median survival period was 14 months. A univariate analysis indicated that the treatment response and cycles of FP chemotherapy were significant prognostic factors for OS. Daily or weekly administration of cisplatin as a radiosensitizer showed a better treatment response than FP chemotherapy. Conclusion: This study has shown that results of concurrent chemo-radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer is comparable to those of other studies. Daily or weekly cisplatin administration may be considered as an alternative treatment in patients that are medically unfit for FP chemotherapy.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.43-53
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• 2007

[ $\underline{Purpose}$ ]: To evaluate the relationship between the expression of EGFR, p53, Cox-2, Bcl-2 and the clinical parameters of NPC (nasopharyngeal carcinoma) patients treated with radiotherapy with/without chemotherapy, and to determine if these could be used as a biologic marker. $\underline{Materials\;and\;Methods}$: This study retrospectively examined 75 NPC patients who were pathologically diagnosed at St. Mary's Hospital and Kangnam St Mary's Hospital from March 1988 to August 2002 and treated with radiotherapy with/without chemotherapy. The levels of EGFR, p53, Cox-2, and Bcl-2 expression were determined immunohistochemically. The relationship between the levels of EGFR, p53, Cox-2 and Bcl-2 expression and the H- E staining findings including the WHO classification, TNM stage, tumor response to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, disease free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) was analyzed. $\underline{Results}$: At a median follow up of 50.8 months (range: $5.5{\sim}201$ months), the 3 years OS rate and PFS rate were 68.7% and 68.2%, respectively. The five year OS rate and PFS rate were 53.5% and 51.1%, respectively. The median OS duration and PFS duration were 85.5 months and 61.1 months, respectively. The WHO classification correlated with the complete response rate, lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis. The expression of p53 was associated with increased mitosis and poor overall survival. The expression of Bcl-2 correlated with the DFS and WHO classification. The expression of Cox-2 correlated with a poor overall survival and response rate in the lymph node. However, EGFR was not correlated with any factors. $\underline{Conclusion}$: These results suggest that the expression of p53, Cox-2, Bcl-2 plays role in predicting prognostic factors for NPC treated with radiotherapy with/without chemotherapy. However, further study on a larger number of patients will be needed to identify more useful biomarkers of NPC.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.219-223
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• 1990

This is a retrospective review of 33 patients with large cell lung carcinoma treated at Yonsei University Cancer Center between Jan.1985 and Dec.1989. Of the thirty-three patients, twenty eight were men and five women. Median age was 59 years. Large cell undifferentiated carcinoma was the most common pathologic type, $78.8\%$. Twenty one of thirty three patients had far advanced diseases, stage IIIB-IV at the time of initial diagnosis. Pleural effusion was initially presented in 12 patients, and SVC syndrome appeared in 5 patients. As to location of the primary tumor,19($57.6\%$) appeared in the right lung and 14 ($42.4\%$) in the left. Patients with a centrally located primary tumor mass were nearly the same as those peripherally located (17 vs.16). Fifteen of thirty three patients developed metastasis involving not only bone, brain, the opposite lung, adrenal gland but also soft tissue, skin, pancreas and appendix. Treatment was individualized with 19 treated radically and 14 palliatively. After treatment, only two patients showed a complete response. Long term survival was observed in 4 patients: 1 (24 mo.),2 (41 mo.) and 1 (54 mo.). The overall 2 year survival rate was $14.3\%$ while the median survival time was 6.0 months. Through the analysis of the various factors affecting survival, we observed that pleural effusion-absent group and complete response group had a statistical significant better survival rate (p<0.01).

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.182-186
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• 2000

Purpose : To determine treatment or이ecol for inoperable esophageal cancer patients, 껜e evaluated survival rate and prognostic factors. Materials and Methods : We evaluated esophageal cancer treated by curative or palliative am in KCCH from 1992 to 1996, retrospectively. Recurrent or underdose case below 40 Gy were excluded. The number of male and female were 35 and 5, respectively. Thirty-eight patients were squamous carcinoma and 2 patients were not biopsy proven. Ten patients were treated with radiation therapy and chemotherapy Median dose of radiation therapy was 59.4 Gy and the range was $40\~60$ Gy. Results : The median survival is 6.5 months and 1-year survival rate was $28.3\%$. Age, location, radiation dose and chemotherapy were not significant prognostic factors. Median survivals of patients with below stage III and over stage IVA were 7.6 and 6.2 months respectively, but it is not significant. Conclusions : The survival for esophageal cancer is very poor. For patients with curative aim, chemotherapy must be considered. For patients with palliative aim, short-term external beam radiation therapy and/or brachytherapy must be considered.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2003

Purpose : Maxillary sinus cancers are usually locally advanced, and involve the structures around sinus, but the regional lymphatic spread is uncommon. Therefore, the local control of these cancers is important for their cure. We reviewed our experience of 55 patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the maxillary sinus, treated with radiation therapy, and looked for the role of radiation therapy in maxillary sinus cancers. Materials and Methods : Between November 1982 and October 1999, 55 patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the maxillary sinus underwent either radiation therapy only, or combined with surgery or with concurrent chemoradlation therapy. All patients were restaged according to the 1997 AJCC staging systems. The T classifications of the tumors of the patients were as follows 1.8$\%$ (1/55) for 72, 81.8$\%$ (45/55) for 73 and 16.4$\%$ (9/55) for 74. Thirteen patients were diagnosed with lymph node involvement. With the surgical procedures, 12 patients were managed by biopsy only, 21 were resected by FESS (funclienal endoscopic sinus surgery) and 22 by partial/medical/total rnaxillectomies. The details of the treatments were as follows 8 patients were treated with radiation therapy only, 17 with a combination of FESS and radiation therapy, 22 with a combination of a maxillectomy and radiation therapy, 4 with a combination of preoperative radiation therapy and surgery, and 4 with concurrent chemoradiation therapy. The mean follow-up for all patients was 25 months, ranging from 2.8 to 125 months. Results : The 4-year local control and survival rates for all Patients were 45.5 and 33.3$\%$, respectively. The 4-year local control and suHival rates, due to the extent of surgery, were as follows 32.1, and 21.4$\%$ for biopsy; 41.9, and 31.7$\%$ for FESS; and 56.8, and 52.7$\%$ for maxillectomy, respectively. Twenty-nine (52.7$\%$) patients were not cured, and of these 29 patients, 23 (79.3$\%$) patients had a iocal recurrence following treatment. Conclusions :This study has shown that the major failure sites following treatment to be the local regions, and that the completeness of surgery was important for improving the local control and survival of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the maxillary sinus.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.145-152
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• 2009

Purpose: We retrospectively studied the outcomes and prognostic factors of patients with locally advanced, unresectable pancreatic cancer who were treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) or radiotherapy only. Materials and Methods: Fifty-one patients with locally advanced, unresectable pancreatic cancer (stage IIA~III) who recevied radiotherapy ($\geq$30 Gy) between January 1994 and August 2008 were reviewed retrospectively. The median radiation dose was 39 Gy. Chemotherapy consisted of gemcitabine, cisplatin, or 5-FU alone or in various combinations, and was administered concurrently with radiotherapy in 38 patients. Results: The follow-up period ranged from 2~40 months (median, 8 months). The median survival, and the 1-and 2-year overall survival (OS) rates were 7 months, 15.7%, and 5.9%, respectively. Based on univariate analysis, the baseline CA19-9, performance status, and chemotherapy regimen were significant prognostic factors. The median survival was 8 months for CCRT, and 6 months for radiotherapy alone. The patients treated with gemcitabine-containing regimens had longer survival (median, 10 months) than the patients treated with radiotherapy alone (p=0.027). Twenty-three patients were available to evaluate the patterns of failure. Distant metastases (DM) occured in 18 patients and regional recurrences were demonstrated in 4 patients. Local progression developed in 14 patients. We analyzed the association between the time-to-DM and the baseline CA19-9 levels for 18 evaluable patients. The median time-to-DM was 20 months for patients with normal baseline CA19-9 levels and 2 months for patients with baseline CA19-9 levels $\geq$200 U/ml. Conclusion: CCRT with gemcitabine-based regimens was effective in improving OS in patients with locally advanced, unresectable pancreatic cancer. We suggest that the baseline CA19-9 level is valuable in determining the treatment strategy for patients with locally advanced, unresectable pancreatic cancer.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.193-200
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• 2007

Purpose: This study evaluated the pretreatment expression patterns of MDM2, p53, and pRb proteins to determine if the expression patterns could predict the outcome of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and aid in the decisions for the selection of treatment modalities. Materials and Methods: Fifty-one patients that were treated with definitive chemoradiotherapy for stage $I{\sim}IVa$ esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were selected for this study. Radiotherapy was administered with daily $1.8{\sim}2\;Gy$ fractions up to a median dose of 54 Gy for primary tumors, and with four cycles of cisplatin/5-fluorouracil chemotherapy that was administered every 4 weeks, the first two cycles of which were administered concurrently with radiotherapy. Expression of MDM2, p53, and pRb was investigated by immunohistochemical analysis using pretreatment biopsy specimens. Results: MDM2, p53, and pRb were detected with high immunoreactivity in 19.6%, 27.5%, and 66.7% of the patients, respectively. However, there was no significant correlation between expression of these factors and clinical outcome. By the use of multivariate analysis with nine covariates-age, tumor location, tumor length, stage, pathological response, clinical response, MDM2 expression, p53 expression, and pRb expression, only pathological response and stage were significant factors for cause-specific survival. Conclusion: Expression of MDM2, p53, and pRb was not found to be clinically significant for predicting outcomes after CCRT in this study. Further studies with a larger patient population and longer follow-up periods are needed to re-evaluate the expression pattern and to identify new predictors for CCRT response.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.213-218
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• 2007

Purpose: To analyze retrospectively the outcome of postoperative radiation therapy with or without concurrent chemotherapy for curatively resected stage II pancreatic cancer with T3 or N1 disease. Materials and Methods: Between January 1996 and December 2005, twenty-eight patients completed adjuvant radiation therapy at Ajou University Hospital. The patients had either pathologic T3 stage or N1 stage. The radiation target volume encompassed the initial tumor bed identified preoperatively, resection margin area and celiac nodal area. In the case of N1 patients, the radiation field extended to the lower margin of the L3 vertebra for covering both para-aortic lymph nodes bearing area. The median total radiation dose was 50 Gy. Ten patients received concurrent chemotherapy. Results: Thirteen patients (46%) showed loco-regional recurrences. The celiac axis nodal area was the most frequent site (4 patients). Five patients showed both loco-regional recurrence and a distant metastasis. Patients with positive lymph nodes had a relatively high probability of a distant metastasis (57.1%). Patients that had a positive resection margin showed a relatively high local failure rate (57.1%). The median disease-free survival period of all patients was 6 months and the 1-and 2-year disease free survival rates were 27.4% and 8.2%, respectively. The median overall survival period was 9 months. The 2-and 3-year overall survival rates were 31.6% and 15.8%, respectively. Conclusion: The pancreatic cancer patients with stage II had a high risk of local failure and a high risk of a distant metastasis. We suggest the concurrent use of an effective radiation-sensitizing chemotherapeutic drug and adjuvant chemotherapy after postoperative radiation therapy for the treatment of patients with stage II pancreatic cancer.