• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.122-131
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• 2021

Purpose: To date, there are no promising treatments for gastric carcinoma with peritoneal metastasis. Some researchers have suggested a survival benefit of gastrectomy in select patients. This study investigated the survival of gastric carcinoma patients with stand-alone peritoneal metastasis according to the type of treatment modality. Materials and Methods: We reviewed the data of 132 patients with gastric carcinoma and stand-alone peritoneal metastasis. We performed gastrectomy when the primary tumor was deemed resectable and systemic chemotherapy was administered. We analyzed patient survival according to the type of treatment, and the prognostic value of gastrectomy was evaluated in univariate and multivariate models. Results: Among all patients, 70 underwent gastrectomy plus chemotherapy, 20 underwent gastrectomy alone, 36 underwent chemotherapy alone, and 6 received supportive care. The median patient survival was 13 months. Patients who underwent gastrectomy had significantly longer survival than those who did not undergo gastrectomy (14 vs. 8 months, P<0.001). Patients who received chemotherapy showed significantly longer survival than those who did not (13 vs. 7 months, P=0.032). Patients who underwent gastrectomy plus chemotherapy showed better survival than those who underwent other treatments. In multivariate analysis, gastrectomy was found to be an independent prognostic factor (hazard ratio, 0.52; 95% confidence interval, 0.33-0.82) in addition to chemotherapy. Conclusions: Our study showed that patients who underwent gastrectomy plus chemotherapy had the best survival. Although the survival benefit of gastrectomy remains uncertain, it is a favorable prognostic indicator in patients with stand-alone peritoneal metastasis.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.283-289
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• 1998

Purpose : This study was performed to analyze the efficacy of induction chemotherapy fellowed by radiation therapy in locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer Materials and Methods : Eighty patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated from 1989 to 1995 at Pusan Paik hospital were analyzed retrospectively. Twenty-one patients were treated with induction chemotherapy followed by radiation therapy and Fifty-nine Patients were treated with radiation therapy alone. Chemotherapy regimen consisted of cisplatin-based combination (2 or 3 drugs). All patients were treated by Co-60 or 6 MV linear accelerators. Radiation dose ranged from 50 Gy to 80 Gy (median 64.8 Gy). We evaluated response rate, survival rate, and pattern of failure in both treatment groups. Results : Overall response rate in induction chemotherapy group and radiotherapy alone group were 48% and 45%, respectively. Of the 80 patients, 46 patients were evaluable for pattern of failure. Initial failure pattern in induction chemotherapy group was as follows: 8 (67%) at locoregional, 4 (33) in distant metastasis. Radiation alone group was 21 (71%) and 5 (29%), respectively. Results showed no difference of distant failure between induction chemotherapy group and radiation alone group. The 1 and 2 year survival rate in induction chemotherapy group were 43% and 14%, respectively and in radiotherapy alone group, 31% and 7%, respectively (p=0.135). Conclusion : In stage III non-small cell lung cancer, induction chemotherapy and radiation therapy showed increased tendency in survival with no statistical significance Induction chemotherapy seems to have no effect of decreasing distant failure and no survival advantage compared with radiotherapy alone.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.129-142
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• 1995

Purpose: Traditionally the patients with early stage non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the head and neck was treated with radiotherapy. But the results were not satisfactory due to distant relapse. Although combined treatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy was tried with some improved results and chemotherapy alone was also tried in recent years, the choice of treatment for the patients with early stage non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the head and neck has not been defined Therefore, in order to determine the optimum treatment method, we analysed retrospectively the outcomes of the patients with Ann Arbor stage I and II non-Hodgkin's lymphoma localized to the head and neck who were treated at Severance Hospital. Materials and Methods: 159 patients with stage I and II non-Hodgkin's lymphoma localized to the head and neck were treated at our hospital from January, 1979 to December, 1992. Of these patients, 114 patients whose primary sites were Waldeyer's ring or nodal region, and received prescribed radiation dose and/or more than 2 cycles of chemotherapy. were selected to analyze the outcomes according to the treatment methods ( radiotherapy alone, chemotherapy alone. and combined treatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy ). Results: Five year overall actuarial survival of the patients whose Primary site was Waldeyer's ring was $62.5\%.$ and that of the Patients whose primary site was nodal region was $53.8\%$ There was no statistically significant difference between survivals of both groups. Initial response rate to radiotherapy. chemotherapy, and combined treatment was $92\%,\;83\%,\;94\%$ respectively, and 5 year relapse free survival was $49.9\%,\;52.4\%,\;58.5\%$ respectively ( statistically not significant ). In the patients with stage I. 3 year relapse free survival of chemotherapy alone group was $75\%$ and superior to other treatment groups. In the Patients with stage II, combined treatment group revealed the best result with $60.1\%$ of 3 year relapse free survival. The effect of sequential schedule of each treatment method in the Patients who were treated by combined modality was analyzed and the sequence of primary chemotherapy + radiotherapy + maintenance chemotherapy showed the best result ( 3 year relapse free survival was $79.1\%).$ There was no significant survival difference between BACOP regimen and CHOP regimen. Response to treatment was only one significant (p(0.005) prognostic factor on univariate analysis and age and mass size was marginally significant ( p(0.1). On multivariate analysis, age (p=0.026) and mass size (p=0.013) were significant prognostic factor for the relapse free survival. Conclusion: In summary, the patients who have non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the head and neck with stage I and mass size smaller than 10 cm, can be treated by chemotherapy alone, but remainder should be treated by combined treatment method and the best combination schedule was the sequence of initial chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy and maintenance chemotherapy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.5747-5752
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• 2012

Purpose: The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy compared with concurrent chemoradiotherapy alone in the treatment of locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Methods: The search strategy included Pubmed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Internet Web, Chinese Biomedical Database and Wanfang Database. We also searched reference lists of articles and the volumes of abstracts of scientific meetings. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy with concurrent chemoradiotherapy alone in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma were included. Meta-analysis was performed with RevMan 5.1.0. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation system (GRADE) was used to rate the level of evidence. Results: Five studies were included. Risk ratios of 1.02 (95%CI 0.89-1.15), 0.93 (95%CI 0.72-1.21), 1.07 (95%CI 0.87-1.32), 0.95 (95%CI 0.80-1.13) were observed for 3 years overall survival, 5 years failure-free survival, 5 years locoregional failure-free survival and 5 years distant metastasis failure-free survival. There were no treatment-related deaths in both groups of five studies. Hematologic and gastrointestinal toxicity were the most significant for patients during adjuvant chemotherapy. The level of evidence was low. Conclusion: Compared with concurrent chemoradiotherapy alone, concurrent chemotherapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy did not improve prognosis. More toxicity was found during adjuvant chemotherapy.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 1995

Purpose : To assess the efficacy and toxicity of the preoperative radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer Methods : Forty three patients (clinically diagnosed stages above or equal to Astler-Coiler stage B2 without distant metastasis) were assigned to preoperative radiotherapy alone arm (n=16) or combined preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy arm (n=27). Preoperative radiotherapy of 4500 cGy to whole pel-vis +/-540 cGy boost to primary site and concurrent chemotherapy of 2 cycles of 5-FU (500 mg/$m^2$) and leucovorin (20 mg/$m^2$) were used. Fifteen patients of preoperative radiotherapy alone arm and 19 of combined arm received surgical resection after preoperative treatment. Results : During the preoperative treatment, no significant complication was developed in both groups. Pathologic results were as follows; complete remission 1, Bl 1, B2 6, C1 2, C2, 5 in preoperative radiotherapy alone arm and complete remission 2, Bl 8, B2 4, C2 3, D 2 in combined arm. Postoperative complications were delayed perineal wound healing in three patients, intestinal obstruction in three patients (one managed by conservative medical treatment, two by surgical treatment). Conclusion : The combined preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy arm was more effective in pathological response and lymph node negativity rate than the preoperative radiotherapy alone arm. Both the preoperative radiotherapy alone arm and the combined arm were generally well tolerated and did not result in an increased postoperative morbidity.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.64-70
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• 2009

Purpose: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) is the standard treatment for locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer. However, the introduction of gemcitabine and the recognition of a benefit in patients with advanced disease stimulated the design of trials that compare chemotherapy alone to concurrent chemoradiation. Therefore, we evaluated role of CCRT for locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer. Materials and Methods: We carried out a retrospective analysis of treatment results for patients with locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer between January 2000 and January 2008. The radiation was delivered to the primary tumor and regional lymph nodes with a 1~2 cm margin at a total dose of 36.0~59.4 Gy (median: 54 Gy). The chemotherapeutic agent delivered with the radiation was 5-FU (500 mg/$m^2$). The patients who underwent chemotherapy alone received gemcitabine (1,000 mg/$m^2$) alone or gemcitabine with 5-FU. The follow-up period ranged from 2 to 38 months. The survival and prognostic factors were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test, respectively. Results: Thirty-four patients received concurrent chemoradiotherapy, whereas 21 patients received chemotherapy alone. The median survival time was 12 months for CCRT patients, compared to 11 months for chemotherapy alone patients (p=0.453). The median progression-free survival was 8 months for CCRT patients, compared to 5 months for chemotherapy alone patients (p=0.242). The overall response included 9 partial responses for CCRT and 1 partial response for chemotherapy alone. In total, 26% of patients from the CCRT group experienced grade 3~4 bowel toxicity. In contract, no grade 3~4 bowel toxicity was observed in the chemotherapy alone group. The significant prognostic factors of overall survival were lymph node status, high CA19-9, and tumor location. Conclusion: The response rate and progression-free survival were more favorable in the CCRT group, when compared with the chemotherapy alone group. Therefore, radiation therapy seems to be an effective tool for local tumor control.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.3253-3258
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• 2012

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) plus chemotherapy versus WBRT alone for treating brain metastases (BM) from lung cancer by performing a meta-analysis based on randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Methods: The PubMed, Embase, CENTRAL, ASCO, ESMO, CBM, CNKI, and VIP databases were searched for relevant RCTs performed between January 2000 and March 2012. After quality assessment and data extraction, the meta-analysis was performed using the RevMan 5.1 software, with funnel plot evaluation of publication bias. Results: 19 RCTs involving 1,343 patients were included. The meta-analyses demonstrated that compared to WBRT alone, WBRT plus chemotherapy was more effective with regard to the objective response rate (OR = 2.30, 95% CI = 1.79 - 2.98; P < 0.001); however, the incidences of gastrointestinal reactions (RR = 3.82, 95% CI = 2.33 - 6.28, P <0.001), bone marrow suppression (RR = 5.49, 95% CI = 3.65 - 8.25, P < 0.001), thrombocytopenia (RR = 5.83, 95% CI = 0.39 - 86.59; P = 0.20), leukopenia (RR = 3.13, 95% CI = 1.77 - 5.51; P < 0.001), and neutropenia (RR = 2.75, 95% CI = 1.61 - 4.68; P < 0.001) in patients treated with WBRT plus chemotherapy were higher than with WBRT alone. There was no obvious publication bias detected. Conclusion: WBRT plus chemotherapy can obviously improve total efficacy rate, butalso increases the incidence of adverse reactions compared to WBRT alone. From the limitations of this study, more large-scale, high-quality RCTs are suggested for further verification.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.103-110
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• 2012

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy for resectable esophageal carcinoma has been a focus of study, but no agreement has been reached on clinical randomized controlled trials and relevant systematic evaluation. The purpose of this study was to perform a meta-analysis on published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgery with surgery alone for resectable esophageal carcinoma. Medline and manual searches was conducted in PubMed, ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) meeting summary, Embase, the Cochrane Library (up to October 2010), Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP Database, Wanfang Database. The selection contents were to identify all published and unpublished RCTs that compared neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgery with surgery alone for resectable esophageal carcinoma. Sixteen RCTs which included 2,594 patients were selected. The risk ratio (RR) (95% confidence interval [CI]; P value), expressed as neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgery versus surgery alone (treatment versus control), was 1.02 (0.95, 1.10; P=0.54) for 1-year survival, 1.29 (1.13, 1.47; P=0.0001) for 3-year survival, 1.31 (1.13, 1.51; P=0.0003) for 5-year survival, 1.00 (0.95, 1.04; P= 0.85) for rate of resection and 0.89 (0.64, 1.23; P=0.48) for operative mortality. The results showed that neoadjuvant chemotherapy for resectable esophageal carcinoma can raise the overall survival rate of patients with esophageal carcinoma, but it does not affect treatment-related mortality.

• THE JOURNAL OF KOREAN ORIENTAL ONCOLOGY
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.117-129
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• 2001

Objectives: We compared the therapeutic response, the treatment-related toxicity, and the improvement of subjective symptoms between the chemotherapy alone group and the western-oriental combined treatment group and evaluated the role of oriental medicine for the improvement of chemotherapy-related toxicity in the advanced gastric cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods: We evaluated 36 gastric cancer or hepatocellular carcinoma patients(chemotherapy alone group 25 patients, combined treatment group 11 patients) who had been treated in Wonju Christian Hospital and Hana Hospital of Oriental Medicine between June 1999 and October 2000. Enrolled patients' general medical records, results of laboratory and imaging studies, treatment-related toxicities, and subjective symptoms were recorded regularly according to the planned protocol. Therapeutic responses were estimated according to the WHO response criteria and the changes of tumor marker value such as CEA, CA 72-4 and AFP. Results: 1. There was no significant difference of therapeutic response by the WHO response criteria between the two groups(p=.459). 2. There was a significant decrease of tumor marker value in the combined treatment group compared to the chemotherapy alone group(p=.023). 3. There was less comprehensive treatment-related toxicity in the combined treatment group compared to the chemotherapy alone group(p=.037), but there was not a significant difference of comprehensive improvement of subjective symptoms between the two groups(p=.091). Conclusions: Based on the above results, we could expect the possibility of improvements in therapeutic response and treatment-related toxicity with the western-oriental combined anticancer treatment.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.143-148
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• 1995

Purpose: We tried to evaluate the role of conventional radiotherapy alone or with neoadjuvant chemotherapy in the hypopharyngeal cancer by retrospective analysis. Materials and Methods: Between Jul.1985 and Sep.1992, 42 patients of hypopharyngeal cancer were treated by conventional radiotherapy alone or combined with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The male to female ratio was 20:1 with a median age of 58 years, Twelve Patients were treated by conventional radiotherapy alone and 30 patients were treated by neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Results: Seven Patients were Stage I,II and the patients with stage III and IV were 10 and 25, respectively at the time of presentation. The overall survival and disease-specific survival rates at 24 months were $12.9\%$ and $15.5\%,$respectively Two-year survival rates of stage I+II and III+IV patients were $50\%$ and $6.3\%,$ respectively(p(0.05). Sixteen Patients$(38\%)$ revealed CR and 26 patients$(62\%)$ revealed less than CR at the end of radiotherapy and their 2-year survival rates were $31.3\%\;and\;0\%,$ respectively(p(0.05). On univariate analysis, stage, T-stage, N-stage and treatment response were the significant prognostic factors, but only stage and treatment response were significant on multivariate analysis Conclusion : This conventional radiotherapy alone or with neoadjuvant chemotherapy does not seem to be sufficient in the treatment of most advanced hypopharyngeal cancer Therefore other treatment modalities such as hyperfractionation or concurrent chemoradiotherapy should be considered.