• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.88-91
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• 2016

Pancreatic cancer is the lethal disease and the prognosis of pancreatic cancer has remained largely unchanged over the past years. Borderline advanced pancreatic cancer is a biological different from resectable pancreatic cancer due to higher risk of early recurrence because of artery/vein abutment. Therefore this unique subset of pancreatic cancer has a controversial issue with regard to their treatment policy. Some institutes managed borderline advanced pancreatic cancer by up-front neoadhuvant chemotherapy because neoadjuvant chemotherapy provide the opportunity to treat early micro-metastasis with unfavorable tumor biology. But, some institutes try aggressive up-front surgical procedures to provide a chance of long-term survival in highly selected patients. Therefore this unique subset of pancreatic cancer has a controversial issue with regard to their treatment policy. This review address recent treatment trend for patients with borderline advanced pancreatic cancer.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.227-231
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• 2017

Early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer had been considered one of the important barrier for successful therapy since the five year survival rate after treatment of pancreatic cancer was critically low. Nonetheless, patients often miss the golden time of treatment because they rarely visit the hospital until their symptoms are severe. To overcome these problems, a lot of information about the patient's symptoms should be applied as biomarkers for early diagnosis. For this reason, a biomarker for early detection of pancreatic cancer (CA19-9) has been developed as a diagnostic kit. However, since the diagnosis is not accurate enough, pancreatic symptoms (abdominal pain, jaundice, anorexia, diabetes, etc.) and biomarkers (CA19-9) should be considered together. We develop an intelligent diagnostic system that considers CA19-9 and the incidence of pancreatic cancer for pancreatic symptoms that was determined by studying a large number of patient information. It shows a higher accuracy than one using CA19-9 alone. It may increase the survival rate of pancreatic cancer because it can diagnose pancreatic cancer early.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.4671-4675
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• 2016

Background and aim: Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, with an overall 5-year survival of <5% mainly due to presence of advanced disease at time of diagnosis. Therefore development of valid biomarkers to diagnose pancreatic cancer in early stages is an urgent need. This study concerned the sensitivity and specificity of serum ICAM 1 versus CA 19-9 in differentiation between pancreatic cancer and healthy subjects and acohort of patients with chronic pancreatitis with a focus on assessing validity in diagnosis of early stages of pancreatic cancer. Methods: A cohort of 50 patients with histologically diagnosed pancreatic tumors, 27 patients with chronic pancreatitis, and 35 healthy controls were enrolled. Serum samples for measurement of CA19-9 and I-CAM 1 were obtained from all groups and analyzed for significance regarding diagnosis and disease stage. Results: At a cut off value of (878.5 u/ml) I-CAM 1 had 82% and 82.26% sensitivity and specificity for differentiation between cancer and non-cancer cases, with higher sensitivity and specificity than CA19-9 at different cut offs (CA19-9 sensitivity and specificity ranged from 64-80% and 56.4 - 61.2% respectively). The AUC was 0.851 for I-CAM and 0.754 for CA19-9. Neither of the markers demonstrated significance for distinguishing between early and late cancer stages. Conclusion: ICAM 1 is a useful marker in differentiation between malignant and benign pancreatic conditions, and superior to CA19-9 in this regard. However, neither of the markers can be recommended for use in differentiation between early and late stage pancreatic cancers.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.51-55
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• 2020

Prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer is poor due to difficulty in early diagnosis and low resectability rate at the time of diagnosis. Apart from the progression of cancer, venous thromboembolism - a complication that can increase patient mortality - is known to occur frequently in pancreatic cancer. This review was aimed at identifying whether venous thromboembolism is more common in pancreatic cancer than in other cancer types. In addition, we reviewed several studies to determine whether thromboprophylaxis increases the survival rates of patients with pancreatic cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.1911-1915
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• 2012

Aim: New technologies for the early detection of pancreatic cancer (PC) are urgently needed. The aim of the present study was to screen for the potential protein biomarkers in serum using proteomic fingerprint technology. Methods: Magnetic beads combined with surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization (SELDI) TOF MS were used to profile and compare the protein spectra of serum samples from 85 patients with pancreatic cancer, 50 patients with acute-on-chronic pancreatitis and 98 healthy blood donors. Proteomic patterns associated with pancreatic cancer were identified with Biomarker Patterns Software. Results: A total of 37 differential m/z peaks were identified that were related to PC (P < 0.01). A tree model of biomarkers was constructed with the software based on the three biomarkers (7762 Da, 8560 Da, 11654 Da), this showing excellent separation between pancreatic cancer and non-cancer., with a sensitivity of 93.3% and a specificity of 95.6%. Blind test data showed a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 91.4%. Conclusions: The results suggested that serum biomarkers for pancreatic cancer can be detected using SELDI-TOF-MS combined with magnetic beads. Application of combined biomarkers may provide a powerful and reliable diagnostic method for pancreatic cancer with a high sensitivity and specificity.

• Annals of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.220-228
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• 2022

Backgrounds/Aims: In Korea, pancreatic cancer and "gallbladder and extrahepatic bile duct cancer" were ranked the 8th and 9th most frequent cancers in 2019 and the 4th and 6th most common causes of cancer deaths in 2020, respectively. Methods: This review provides national cancer statistics and secular trends of 207,521 patients with gallbladder (n = 44,178), extrahepatic bile duct (n = 61,856), and pancreatic cancer (n = 101,487) between 1999 and 2019 in Korea. Results: The crude incidence rate in both sexes increased in the gallbladder (2.8 to 5.4 per 100,000), extrahepatic bile duct (3.6 to 9.0), and pancreatic cancer (5.5 to 15.8). The age-standardized incidence rate in both sexes significantly increased in the extrahepatic bile duct (3.7 to 4.1) and pancreatic (5.6 to 7.6) cancers but decreased in gallbladder cancer (2.9 to 2.4). The overall 5-year relative survival rate increased in the gallbladder (21.8% to 30.6%), extrahepatic bile duct (23.1% to 27.5%), and pancreatic (8.5% to 13.3%) cancers. Between 2006 and 2019, the proportion of localized or regional stages remained stable. The proportion of surgical treatment within the first 4 months after diagnosis was relatively higher in the gallbladder (42.2%) and extrahepatic bile duct (45.9%) cancers than in pancreatic cancer (22.2%). Conclusions: The crude incidence and mortality rates of the gallbladder, extrahepatic bile duct, and pancreatic cancer are steadily increasing in Korea, and the prognosis remains poor. Early detection, active application of surgical treatment, and minimization of the proportion of untreated patients are required to improve the survival rates of these cancers.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.457-462
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• 2020

Pancreatic cancer is among the most difficult-to-treat tumors. More than half of patients with this cancer have very few symptoms at the early stages, allowing the development of distant metastases and resistance to cancer treatment. In this study, we found that Juniperus chinensis extract (JCX) decreased the cell viability and migration activity of PANC-1 and SNU-213 pancreatic cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner. JCX increased caspase-3 activation and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). N-acetylcysteine treatment blocked JCX-induced ROS generation and the negative effects on pancreatic cancer cell viability. In addition, JCX down-regulated the levels of phospho-focal adhesion kinase (p-FAK) and phospho-extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK). Together, these results indicate that JCX induces apoptosis in human pancreatic cancer cell lines through ROS production, downregulating FAK/ERK signaling and activating caspase-3. We propose that JCX-derived compounds represent candidates for the development of alternative medicines for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.5619-5624
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• 2015

Pancreatic cancer is a fatal malignancies which is predominantly seen in men and at advanced age (40-85 years) and has an aggressive course. Its frequency is gradually increasing over the past years. It accounts for 2% of all cancers and 5% of cancer-related deaths. Pancreatic cancer takes the first place among asymptomatic cancers. Ninety percent of cases are adenocarcinomas. Ten percent of the patients have a familial disposition. The disease is very difficult to detect as it has no early signs and spreads rapidly to surrounding organs is one of the most deadly types of cancer. Pancreatic cancer may result from hereditary germline or somatic acquired mutations in cancer-related genes and mutations also cause cancer progression and metastasis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7321-7324
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• 2013

Objective: To estimate the incidence and mortality rates for pancreatic cancer in China. Methods: After checking and reviewing the cancer registry data in 2009 from 72 cancer registry centers, we divided cancer registry areas into urban and rural areas. Incidence/mortality rates, age-specific incidence/mortality rates, age-standardized incidence/mortality rates, proportions, and cumulative incidence/mortality rates for pancreatic cancer were calculated. Results: The total number of newly diagnosed pancreatic cancer cases and deaths in 2009 were 6,220 and 5,650, respectively. The crude incidence rate in all cancer registry areas was 7.28/100,000 (males 8.24, females 6.29). The age-standardized incidence rate by Chinese standard population (ASR) was 3.35/100,000, with ranking at 7th among all cancers. Pancreatic cancer incidence rate was 8.19/100,000 in urban areas whereas it was 5.41/100 000 in rural areas. Cancer mortality rate in all cancer registry areas was 6.61/100,000 (males 7.45; females 5.75), with ranking at 6th among all cancers, and 7.42/100 000 in urban but 4.94/100000 in rural areas. Conclusions: Pancreatic cancer incidence and mortality rates have shown a gradual increase in China. Owing to the difficulty of early diagnosis, identification of high-risk population and modification of risk factors are important to reduce the burden of pancreatic cancer.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.77-82
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• 2016

The 26^th World Congress of the International Association of Surgeons, Gastroenterologists and Oncologists (IASGO) was held in Seoul, Korea from September 8 to 10, 2016. In this congress, I gave a State-of-the-Art Lecture II entitled "Mesenteric Approach in Pancreatoduodenectomy." The ideal surgery for pancreatic head cancer is isolated pancreatoduodenectomy, which involves en bloc resection using a non-touch isolation technique. My team has been developing isolated pancreatoduodenectomy for pancreatic cancer since 1981, when we developed an antithrombogenic bypass catheter for the portal vein. In this operation, the first and most important step is the use of a mesenteric approach instead of Kocher's maneuver. The mesenteric approach allows dissection from the non-cancer infiltrating side and determination of cancer-free margins and resectability, followed by systematic lymphadenectomy around the superior mesenteric artery. This approach enables early ligation of the inferior pancreatoduodenal artery and total mesopancreas excision. It is the ideal surgery for pancreatic head cancer from both oncological and surgical viewpoints. The precise surgical techniques of the mesenteric approach are herein described.