• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1111-1116
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• 2015

Background: To investigate the relationship between pathologic tumor response to concurrent chemoradiotherapy and variation of serum VEGF in patients with esophageal cancer. Materials and Methods: Forty six patients with esophageal cancer who were treated with concurrent chemo-radiotherapy were enrolled. Endoscopic and pathologic examination was conducted before and four weeks afterwards. Serum level of VEGF was documented before, four weeks later and after chemo-radiotherapy. The relationship between pathologic response and the variation of serum level of VEGF and its influence on the prognosis were investigated. Results: Serum level of VEGF decreased remarkably during and after chemo-radiotherapy in patients whose pathologic response was severe (F=5.393, 4.587, P(0.05). There were no statistical differences of serum VEGF level before, during and after chemo-radiotherapy for patients whose pathologic response was moderate or mild. There were 18 (85.7%), 7 (53.8%) and 6 patients (50.0%) whose serum VEGF level dropped in the severe, moderate and mild group, respectively, with significant differences among these groups (p=0.046). Two year survival rates of patients with severe, moderate and mild pathologic response were 61.9%, 53.8% and 33.3% respectively, and no statistically difference between severe and mild group regarding OS (p=0.245) was tested. Conclusions: Tumor pathologic response during chemo-radiotherapy and the changes of serum VEGF lever could predict curative effects of chemo-radiotherapy in patients with esophageal cancer.

• Korean Journal of Bronchoesophagology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.36-43
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• 2003

Background and objectives; Esophageal cancer is one of the most malignant tumors and has a poor prognosis. Many clinical studies have been tried for improving prognosis of esophageal cancer. Some clinical studies used molecular markers as the predictor of prognosis & the indicator for the choice of multimodality treatments. We investigated the relationship between some molecular markers, including p53 mutation, expression of bc12, Ki67 index, expression of E-Cadherin and the prognosis of esophageal cancer, Materials and Method; The materials used in this study were the tumor specimens from 72 esophageal cancer patients who underwent esophagectomy from 1987 to 2002 in our institute. The mutation of p53, expression of bc12, Ki67 index, and expression of E-cadherin were examined by using the tissue array and immunohistochemical staining method. The patients were subgrouped into higher Ki67 index group if the index was higher than 30. The patients were also subgrouped into grade 1(>90%), grade 2(50∼90%), grade 3 (10∼50%), and grade 4(<10%) according to the rate of E-Cadherin expression. We studied the relationship between the rates of immunohistochemical staining and the survival rate. Results: Seventy two tumor specimens from 72 patients were studied. (mean age ; 59.6 years, male female = 69 : 3) The histologic type of the specimens was all squamous cell carcinoma. The patient's number of stage IIA, IIB, and Ⅳ was 30, 37, and 7 respectively, Thirty patients were alive and overall 5 year-survival rate was 28%. The mutation of p53 was shown in 54.2% of the patients. Five year survival rates of negative and positive groups were 29% and 28% respectively.(p=0.4) Expression of bc12 gene was found in 13.9% of the specimens. Five year survival rates of negative and positive groups were 30% and 21%.(p=0.3) Higher Ki67 index was correlated to poorer differentiation.(p=0.05) Five year survival rates of higher and lower groups of Ki67 index were 47% and 30%.(p=0.15) Higher expression rate of E-Cadherin showed better differentiation.(p=0.04). However we couldn't find any survival differences between these 4 groups.(p=0.23) Conclusion; We could not find any molecular markers meaningful in the prognosis of esophageal cancer patients. We just found the tumor markers correlated to the differentiation of esophageal cancer. However, we knew that we need further study with some more samples to stratify other important prognostic factors of esophageal cancer.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.819-828
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• 1984

Between September 1973 and December 1983, 61 patients with carcinoma of the esophagus were treated surgically at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital. Among 61 patients, male patients were 51 cases, female 10 cases and the age ranged from 21 years old to 72 years old with the average of 54.6 years old. Min symptoms of esophageal cancer were dysphagia (91.5%), weight loss (40.4%), pain(27.6%), and the average symptom duration was 3.85 months. The anatomical locations of esophageal cancer in preoperative esophagogram revealed 41.7% in middle 1/3, 8.3% in esophagograstic junction or cardia. Among 61 cases, 9 cases were managed by feeding gastrostomy due to inoperability, 8 cases by exploratory thoracotomy or lapatotomy only without curative or palliative resection, and 44 cases by curative or palliative resection with reconstruction. Among 52 cases of exploration, 44 cases were managed with curative or palliative resection of cancer and the resectability revealed 84.6% in operated cases. Among palliative or curative resected group, the esophagogastrostomy was performed in 40 cases (90.9%), esophagojejunostomy in 3 cases(6.8%), esophagectomy only in 1 case(2.3%). Postoperative complications were noticed in 12 cases, such as anastomotic leakage in 7 cases(15.6%), empyema in 2 cases (4.4%), respiratory failure in 2 cases (4.4%), anastomotic stricture in 1 case (2.2%). among 7 postoperative anastomotic leakage, 2 patients died as a result of that complication and the operative mortality revealed 4.3%. During follow-up work, the mean survival period was 19.3 months in patients who discharged hospital alive, and the 2 year survival rate was 34.6%.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1563-1566
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• 2014

Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) accounts for most esophageal cancer in Asia, and is the sixth common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Previous studies indicated HOXB7 is overexpressed in ESCC tissues, but data on prognostic value are limited. Methods: A total of 76 advanced ESCC cases were investigated. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to detect the expression levels of HOXB7 and Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression models to determine prognostic significance. Stratified analysis was also performed according to lymph node (LN) status. Results: Kaplan-Meier curve analysis indicated that HOXB7 positive patients had significantly shorter overall survival (OS) than HOXB7 negative patients. Multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model indicated only TNM stage and HOXB7 expression to be independent predictors of overall survival of advanced ESCC patients. HOXB7 indicated poor OS in both lymph node negative (LN-) and lymph node positive (LN+) patients. Conclusion: HOXB7 predicts poor prognosis of advanced ESCC patients and can be applied as an independent prognostic predictor.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.4177-4180
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• 2013

Background: The aim of this research was to perform an epidemiologic survey of esophageal cancer in Ardabil province. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 661 patients diagnosed with EC were studied from March 2002 to May 2011 e. The necessary data were collected with a checklist from the documents in Ardabil Cancer Registry (ACR) and analyzed by statistical methods with SPSS.18 software. Results: Of the total new cases of EC registered in ARC during study period, 430 (65.1%) of patients were male with the male to female standard ratio was 1.18, with a statistically significant gender bias. The most common morphology of EC was squamous cell carcinoma (SCC, 68.8%) followed by adenocarcinoma (28.5%). It was observed that in most of patients, EC lesions were in the middle third of esophagus. In addition, most patients were rural and about 40% had smoking habits. The age-standardized incidence rate of cancers was 48.4 per 100,000 among females and males. The annual incidence rates in males and females was 7.1 and 6.7 per 100,000; respectively. Conclusions: Results showed that the prevalence and annual incidence rate of cancer in Ardabil province is lower than other areas of the country with a male predominance and a relatively high proprortion of adenocarcinomas.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.536-541
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• 1996

Between June 1988 and June 1994, twenty five patients with locAlly advanced esophageal carcinoma received preoperative chemotherapy (Cisplatln, 5-Fluorouracil with or without Etoposide) and followed by resection. All patients had clinical evidence of airway involvement or distant Iymphnode involve- ment (M 1 Iymphnode) on bronchoscopy or computed tomographic scans. The major response rate to chemotherapy decided by the postoperative stage was 48% (12125). The resection rate was 92% (23/25) with overall complete resection rate of 72% (18125). Two patients had exploratory laparotomy (thorn- cotomy) only. Thirteen patients had esophagogastrostomy with a combined abdominl and Rt. thoracic approach (Ivor Lewis operation), slx pAtients had transhiatal esophagectomy, four patients had esophagogastrostomy with a combined Rt. thoracotonly & abdominal, cervical approach. There were three postoperative deaths (12%). Follow-up duration was between 3.3 months to 65 months. Median survival ime of resected patients except hospital death was 14.8 months. Actuarial survival at 12, 24 months was 72.9%, 26.2%. Signifi- cant better survival was associated with responder group (postoperative stage less than lIB) (P=0.029). These results demonstrate that 1) Preoperative Cisplatin based combined chemotherapy Produce high response rate, 2) High complete resection rate with acceptable mortality rate occur after preoperative chemotherapy, 3) Better surviL dl can be anticipated if complete resection performed after major re- sponse to preoperative chemotherapy.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.70-72
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• 2017

A 41-year old woman with dysphagia visited, which was aggravated after eating. On physical examination, there was a palpable mass on the left supraclavicular area. Endoscopic examination revealed a mass on the distal esophagus with irregular mucosa, erythema and a whitish plaque with luminal narrowing. The patient was diagnosed with unresectable esophageal cancer (squamous cell carcinoma, T3N2M1, Stage IV). The patient received CCRT (total 63 Gy) with cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). After CCRT, the patient took an additionally 2 cycles of chemotherapy for consolidation (cisplatin and 5-FU every 4 weeks). After additional chemotherapy, endoscopic examination showed no residual tumor, a chest CT scan revealed that the mass in the distal esophagus had decreased and there was no enlargement of the lymph nodes around the left supraclavicular area. The patient has been in complete remission for 5 years.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.265-271
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• 1989

Sixteen patients with esophageal diverticulum operated on between July 1979 and September 1988 at the Department of Thoracic Surgery of National University Hospital have been studied. There were 2 cases of the pharyngoesophageal diverticula, 12 cases of the midesophageal diverticula, and 2 cases of the epiphrenic diverticula. Twelve cases of midesophageal diverticula consisted of 9 cases of pulsion type and 3 cases of traction type. There were 13 women and three men, whose ages ranged from 25 to 65 years with an average age of 45.5 years. Diverticulectomy alone in three cases, diverticulopexy with myotomy in two cases, and diverticulectomy with myotomy in 11 cases were performed. There were no deaths or morbidity and all patients have achieved marked improvement of their symptoms except four patients who had a concomitant hypopharyngeal carcinoma, had a postoperative recurrence in epiphrenic diverticulum, and had two cases of postoperative transient regurgitation which subsided spontaneously one and one and half year later.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.294-301
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• 2021

Recent case series and meta-analyses have suggested that robot-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy (RAMIE) could be a useful alternative to video-assisted thoracic surgery esophagectomy. The advantages of RAMIE are a 3-dimensional view, 7 degrees of freedom, and tremor filtering, which enable more meticulous lymph node dissection with a lower incidence of complications. However, in radical esophagectomy, understanding the concepts of the fascia and compartment is crucial for successful and reliable dissection. The first RAMIE in Korea was performed by our team in July 2006, and since then, we have developed related techniques to achieve better short- and long-term outcomes. The key step in RAMIE for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is dissection of the upper mediastinum due to the difficulty of lymph node dissection and the high incidence of nodal metastasis in the area. Herein, we describe the technique of fascial plane dissection with esophageal suspension during RAMIE.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.200-205
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• 2007

Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyze the post operative outcome of reconstruction with using the stomach after performing total pharyngolaryngoesophagectomy in patients with hypopharyngeal cancer or cervical esophageal cancer. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of 23 patients who underwent gastric pull up for esophageal substitution at the Department of Surgery, Yonsei University College of Medicine, between January 1991 and December 2006. All the patients had transhiatal esophagectomy performed without thoracotomy. Results: There were seventeen males and six females with a median age of 58.1 years (range: 40-70 years). 19 cases were hypopharyngeal cancer, 13 cases had cancer in the pyriform sinus, 15 cases had cancer in the postcricoid area and one case had cancer in the glottic area. The rest were cervical esophageal cancers. The pathologic result was squamous cell carcinoma in all cases. The median total follow-up period was 33 months (range: 1-62 months) and there were two (8.6%) postoperative deaths: one was due to carotid rupture and the other was due to hepatic failure with liver metastasis. The complications were leakage in 1 patient (4.4%), pneumothorax in 1 patient (4.4%) and pneumonia in 1 patient (4.4%). Conclusion: The use of stomach for esophageal reconstruction has many benefits for treating hypopharyngeal cancer or cervical esophageal cancer, So, we made sure there was a sufficient length for the anastomosis after pharyngolaryngoesophagectomy and a rich blood supply from the stomach. There was a low incidence of the leakage at the anastomotic site, along with a low incidence of stenosis and bleeding.