• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.4163-4167
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• 2012

Aims: To prospectively assess the efficacy and safety of moderately hypofractionated conformal radiotherapy in patients with thoracic esophageal cancer. Methods and Materials: From Sept. 2002 to Oct, 2005, 150 eligible patients with T2-4N0-1M0 stage thoracic esophageal squamous cell cancers were enrolled to receive either conventional fractionated radiation (CFR) or moderately hypofractionated radiation (MHR) with a three-dimensional conformal radiation technique. Of the total, 74 received moderately hypofractionated radiation with total dose of 54-60Gy/18-20fractions for 3.5-4 weeks in the MHR arm, and 76 received conventional radiation with total dose of 60Gy/30 fractions for 6 weeks in the CFR arm. Concurrent chemotherapy comprised of paclitaxel and cisplatin. Safety was evaluated, and local control and overall survival rates were calculated. Results: Statistically significant differences between the CFR versus MHR arms were observed in local/regional failure rate (47.3% v 27.0%, P=0.034) and the percentage of patients with persistent local disease (26.3% v 10.8%, P=0.012). But 3 and 5-year overall survival rates (43.2%, 38.8% v 38.2%, 28.0%, respectively) were not different between the two arms (P=0.268). There were no significant differences in the incidences of grade 3 or higher acute toxicities (66.3% v 50.0%) and late complications rates (27.0% v 22.4%) between the MHR and CFR arms. Conclusions: Moderately hypofractionated, three-dimensional radiation treatment could improve the local control rate of esophageal cancer and potentially increase patients' survival.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.398-405
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• 1992

Twenty nine adult patients underwent surgical esohpagectomy and one, bypass procedure for documented carcinoma of esophagus and cadiac portion of stomach at Chonnam National University Hospital from Jan 1986 to April 1991. There were several kinds of esophagectomies including through transhiatal, left thoracotomy only, laparotomy and thoracotomy, and laparotomy and right thoracotomy and cervical incision. Twenty five and squamous cell carcinoma and 5, adenocarcinoma. The tumor locations were the upper third in 3, middle third in 12, lower third in 10 and cardiac portion of stomach in 5. After operation, 8[27%] patients were classified in Stage IIa, 6[20%] patients in Stage IIb, 15 patients[50%] in Stage III and one patient in Stage IV. Major postoperative complications included anastomotic narrowing in 3, limited suture line leak in 2, wound infection in 2, hoarseness in 2, pseudomembraneous enterocolitis in 1 and herpes zoster in 1. There was no death within 30 days of operation. Ten months survival was 100% for patients with Stage lIa, 67% for patients with Stage IIb, 50% for patients with Stage III. Furthermore, 20 months survival was 75% in IIIa, 33% in IIb, and 40% in III. But there were no significant differences in survivals among the stage. The actuarial survival is 58% at one year and 41% at two years, The periods of average survival is 589 days after operation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1981-1987
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• 2014

Objective: To establish the prevalence and distribution profile of esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCCs) over a 22-yr period in North China. Methods: Using endoscopy for primary diagnosis and histological analysis for the further confirmation, a total of 74,854 ESCC patients aged 20-89 between January 1985 and December 2006 were investigated to analyze the epidemiological profile including prevalence rates, distribution of age-of-onset, gender and geographical area of ESCC in Luoyang, the highest incidence area of North China. Results: A total of 4092 cases of ESCC were finally diagnosed among 74,854 patients who had their first endoscopies. The prevalence among males was higher than that among females (p<0.01), resulting in an overall male:female OR of 1.2 (95%CI, 1.2-1.3). The prevalence in rural areas was higher than in urban areas (p<0.01), resulting in an overall rural:urban OR of 2.6 (95%CI, 2.4-2.9). The rural:urban ORs and the 95% CI increased continuously from 2.6, 2.3-3.0 to 2.7, 2.2-3.3, respectively, for 4 consecutive periods during the 22-yr study period. Moreover, the median age of onset among females was higher than that among males (p<0.01). For both sexes and in both areas, the prevalence rates declined and the median age of onset rose for 4 consecutive periods in the 22-yrs time frame (p<0.01). Conculsions: These data reveal the epidemiological profile of ESCC in the area of North China, and suggest that urban areas and rural people account for a growing proportion of the ESCC patients although the prevalence of ESCC significantly declined and the median age-of-onset postponed over the 22-yrs period. Moreover, the prevalence status of ESCC in rural areas also underlines the need for public health initiatives aimed at reducing risk factors of this fatal disease.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.253-259
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• 2008

Background: The incidence of cervical esophageal cancer is low compared with that of thoracic esophageal cancer, and the role of surgery for cervical esophageal cancer is limited compared with that of radiotherapy or chemotherapy. This study was carried out to determine the outcome of surgery for cervical esophageal cancer. Material and Method: We analyzed retrospectively medical records of 43 patients who had undergone curative surgical resection for cervical esophageal cancer from January 1989 to December 2002. Follow-up loss was absent and the last follow-up was carried out in February 28, 2004. Result: The mean age was 60 years old and the male to female ratio was 40:3. Histologic types were squamous cell carcinoma 42 patients and malignant melanoma 1 patient. The methods used for esophageal reconstruction were gastric pull-up 32 patients, free jejunal graft 7 patients and colon interposition 4 patients. Postoperative complications occurred in 31 patients (72%), and operative mortality occurred in 7 patients (16%). Pathologic stages were I 3, IIa 14, IIb 1, III 19, and IVa 6 patients. Tumor recurrence occurred in 16 patients (44%), and the 3 and 5-year survival rates were 29.3% and 20.9%. Conclusion: The reported surgical results for cervical esophageal cancer showed somewhat high operative mortality, postoperative complication rates and recurrence rates and a low long-term survival rate. It is suggested that multimodality treatment including surgery is needed for the treatment of cervical esophageal cancer because radiotherapy or chemotherapy without surgery could not relieve dysphagia or resolve the tumor completely.

• Clinical Endoscopy
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.381-389
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• 2022

Background/Aims: The treatment of superficial esophageal neoplasms (SENs) in cirrhotic patients is challenging and rarely investigated. We evaluated the outcomes of endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) to determine the efficacy and safety of treating SENs in patients with liver cirrhosis. Methods: The baseline characteristics and treatment outcomes of patients who underwent ESD for SENs between November 2005 and December 2017 were retrospectively reviewed. Results: ESD was performed in 437 patients with 481 SENs, including 15 cirrhotic patients with 17 SENs. En bloc resection (88.2% vs. 97.0%) and curative resection (64.7% vs. 78.9%) rates were not different between the cirrhosis and non-cirrhosis groups (p=0.105 and p=0.224, respectively). Bleeding was more common in cirrhotic patients (p=0.054), and all cases were successfully controlled endoscopically. The median procedure and hospitalization duration did not differ between the groups. Overall survival was lower in cirrhotic patients (p=0.003), while disease-specific survival did not differ between the groups (p=0.85). Conclusions: ESD could be a safe and effective treatment option for SENs in patients with cirrhosis. Detailed preprocedural assessments are needed, including determination of liver function, esophageal varix status, and remaining life expectancy, to identify patients who will obtain the greatest benefit.

• 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.45 no.1
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• pp.53-55
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• 2012

We report a very rare case of surgery on gastric conduit cancer. A 67-year-old male patient underwent esophagectomy and intrathoracic esophagogastrostomy for squamous cell carcinoma of the lower thoracic esophagus 27 months ago. Upon follow-up, a gastric carcinoma at the intra-abdominal part of the gastric conduit was found on an esophagogastroduodenoscopy. We performed total gastrectomy and esophagocolonojejunostomy in the manner of Roux-en-Y anastomosis. The postoperative course was not eventful and an esophagogram on the 10th postoperative day showed no leakage or stenosis of the passage. The patient was discharged on the 17th day with no complications.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.14
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• pp.5889-5893
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• 2014

Over-expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been identified as a common feature associated with clinical outcome in many types of cancer, including squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus (SCCO). However, the clinical importance of EGFR over-expression in SCCO remains unsettled as conflicting results exist. Therefore we carried out the present meta-analysis of published studies for clarification. A total of 13 studies including 1, 150 patients were enrolled. EGFR over-expression was positive in 722 of these cases. With EGFR over-expression, patients had higher depth of invasion, vascular invasion, and poor prognosis. However, expression had no relation with degree of differentiation, histological grade, lymph node metastasis, clinical stage or lymphatic invasion. EGFR over-expression is probably a valuable predictor for the T stage, vascular invasion and OS, and it could be used as a poor prognosis indicator for the esophageal SCC patients. Targeting therapy to EFGR should be considered to the combined treatment in SCCO.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.84-90
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• 2009

Purpose: The effect of concurrent chemoradiotherapy was analyzed in elderly patients when used in the treatment of locally advanced esophageal cancer. Materials and Methods: The retrospective analysis included 28 elderly patients aged 65 or older, with histopathologically confirmed squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus, underwent concurrent chemoradiotherapy from January 2001 to July 2007. The squamous cell carcinoma disease stages included 8 patients (28.8%) in stage IIa, 10 patients (35.7%) in stage IIb, and 10 patients (35.7%) in stage III. Fractionated radiotherapy was performed with a 6 MV or 10 MV X-ray for 45~63 Gy (median: 59.4 Gy). Chemotherapy was applied concurrently with the initiation of radiotherapy. A 75 mg/$m^2$ dose of Cisplatin was intravenously administered on day 1. Further, 5-FU 1,000 mg/$m^2$ was continuously administered intravenously from days 1 to 4. This regimen was performed twice at 3-week intervals during radiotherapy. Two cycles of consolidation chemotherapy was performed after radiotherapy. Results: The follow-up period was 3~72 months (median: 19 months). The treatment responses after concurrent chemoradiotherapy included a complete response in 11 patients (39.3%), a partial response in 14 patients (50.0%), and no response in 3 patients (10.7%). The overall response rate was 89.3% (25 patients). The overall 1-, 2- and 3-year survival rates were 55.9%, 34.6% and 24.2%, respectively. The median survival time was 15 months. Two-year survival rates of patients with a complete response, partial response, and no response were 46.2%, 33.0%, and 0%, respectively. The stage and tumor response after concurrent chemoradiotherapy were statistically significant prognostic factors related with survival. No treatment-related deaths occurred in this study. Conclusion: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy is a relatively effective treatment without serious complications in elderly patients with locally-advanced esophageal cancer.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2008

Purpose: The best treatment for advanced esophageal cancer is chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery. In spite of the advance of multimodality therapy, most patients with esophageal cancer are treated with radiation therapy alone. This study reports the outcome of the use of conventional external beam radiotherapy alone for the treatment of esophageal cancer. Materials and Methods: Between January 1998 and December 2005, 30 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus were treated with external beam radiotherapy using a total dose exceeding 40 Gy. Radiotherapy was delivered with a total dose of 44-60 Gy(median dose, 57.2 Gy) over $36{\sim}115$ days(median time, 45 days). Thirteen patients(43.3%) had a history of disorders such as diabetes, hypertension, tuberculosis, lye stricture, asthma, cerebral infarct, and cancers. Four patients metachronously had double primary cancers. The most common location of a tumor was the mid-thoracic portion of the esophagus(56.7%). Tumor lengths ranged from 2 cm to 11 cm, with a median length of 6 cm. For AJCC staging, stage III was the most common (63.3%). Five patients had metastases at diagnosis. Results: The median overall survival was 8.3 months. The survival rates at 1-year and 2-years were 33.3% and 18.7%, respectively. The complete response rate $1{\sim}3$ months after radiotherapy was 20%(6/30) and the partial response rate was 70%(21/30). Sixteen patients(53.3%) had an improved symptom of dysphagia. Significant prognostic factors were age, tumor length, stage, degree of dysphagia at the time of diagnosis and tumor response. Cox regression analysis revealed the aim of treatment, clinical tumor response and tumor length as independent prognostic factors for overall survival. Twenty-eight patients had local failure and another four patients had metastases. Three patients were detected with double primary cancers in this analysis. A complication of esophageal stricture was observed in three patients(10%), and radiation pneumonitis occurred in two patients(6.7%). Conclusion: The prognosis of esophageal cancer remains poor, in spite of advances in radiotherapy techniques. Radiotherapy is one of the main treatment modalities for the relief of dysphagia and treatment related complications are minimal. It is expected that the addition of chemotherapy or another systemic modality to radiotherapy will improve tumor control and increase the survival rate in advanced esophageal cancer.