• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.1149-1155
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• 2016

Background: Examination of sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsies provides accurate nodal staging for breast cancer and plays a key role in patient management. Procurement of SLNs and the methods used to process specimens are equally important. Increasing the level of detail in histopathological examination of SLNs increases detection of metastatic tumours but will also increase the burden of busy laboratories and thus may not be carried out routinely. Recommendation of a reasonable standard in SLN examination is required to ensure high sensitivity of results while maintaining a manageable practice workload. Materials and Methods: Twenty-four patients with clinically node-negative breast cancer were recruited. Combined radiotracer and blue dye methods were used for identification of SLNs. The nodes were thinly sliced and embedded. Serial sectioning and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining against AE1/AE3 were performed if initial H&E sections of the blocks were negative. Results: SLNs were successfully identified in all patients. Ten cases had nodal metastases with 7 detected in SLNs and 3 detected only in axillary nodes (false negative rate, FNR=30%). Some 5 out of 7 metastatic lesions in the SLNs (71.4%) were detected in initial sections of the thinly sliced tissue. Serial sectioning detected the remaining two cases with either micrometastases or isolated tumour cells (ITC). Conclusions: Thin slicing of tissue to 3-5mm thickness and serial sectioning improved the detection of micro and macro-metastases but the additional burden of serial sectioning gave low yield of micrometastases or ITC and may not be cost effective. IHC validation did not further increase sensitivity of detection. Therefore its use should only be limited to confirmation of suspicious lesions. False negative cases where SLNs were not involved could be due to skipped metastases to non-sentinel nodes or poor technique during procurement, resulting in missed detection of actual SLNs.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.73-79
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• 1991

1980년 1월부터 1988년 9월사이에 연세대학병원, 연세암센터 치료방사선과 및 이비인후과에서 치료받았던 68예의 T3, T4병기의 성문암 환자를 대상으로 후향적분석을 하였다. 이 중 34명은 방사선 치료 단독으로 치료하였고 34명은 성문절제술후 방사선치료를 하였으며 이들 환자의 최소 추적기간은 2년이었고 54명 $(79\%)$에서 5년 추적조사가 가능하였다. 치료후 국소관해율은 방사선치료 단독군에서는 $51\%$, 수술 및 수술후 방사선치료군에서는 $79\%$이었고 임파절 음성군에서는$72\%,\;76\%$였으며 임파절 양성군에서는$31\%,\;81\%$이었다. 이들의 치료실패요인은 대부분 국소 국한적 이었고 30명 $(44\%)$에서 관찰되었다. 치료에 따른 5년 생존율은 방사선치료 단독군에서는 $37\%$, 수술 및 수술후 방사선치료군에서는 $76\%$로서 T3, T5병기의 성문암환자에 있어서 수술시 행후 방사선치료를 병용하는 복합요법 이 더 좋은 치료결과를 얻을 수 있음을 알았다. 그러나 임파절 음성군에서는 방사선치료 단독군과 수술 및 수술 후 방사선치료군을 비교해 본 결과 5년 생존율이 $55\%$와 $73\%$로 통계학적으로 유의한 차이를 보이지는 않았다. 따라서 본 저자들은 T3, T4병기의 성문암치료시 수술 및 방사선치료 병용요법이 더 좋은 치료결과 를 얻을 수 있지만 임파절 음성군에서는 기능적인 보존측면에서 방사선치료가 일차적 차료방법으로서 효과적이리라 사료된다.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• 제35권4호
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• pp.213-220
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• 2009

Purpose: The present study was aimed to examine the usefulness of 18F-FDG PET/CT in the evaluation of cervical lymph node metastasis in patients with oral cancer. Materials and methods: Twenty-two patients who underwent neck dissection to treat oral cancer were subjected for examination. The cervical node metastasis was evaluated by means of clinical examination, CT scan, PET, and histologic examination. By comparing the results of each examination modality with those of histologic examination, it's sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were determined. Results: The oral cancer was more frequent in males with a ratio of 2.14:1. The sixth decade showed the highest incidence in age distribution with mean of $56{\pm}16$. Histologic findings showed that squamous cell carcinoma was the most common (15 patients), and mucoepidermoid carcinoma (3), malignant melanoma (2), and adenoid cystic carcinoma and ghost cell odontogenic carcinoma (1 each), in order. In most cases, wide surgical excision of the primary cancer and neck dissection was performed, followed by reconstruction with free flaps when necessary. When comparing the results of each examination modality with those of the histologic examination, clinical examination showed sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value at 11%, 85%, 33%, and 58%, respectively. CT scans showed at 67%, 77%, 67%, and 77%, while $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT at 78%, 77%, 70%, and 83%, respectively. Conclusions: These results suggest that PET is more useful, compared with clinical examination and CT scans, in the evaluation of cervical lymph node metastasis in patients with oral cancer.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.49-62
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of lymph node ratio (LNR) in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively enrolled gastric cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and curative surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University from 2004 to 2015 as the study cohort. Patients with the same inclusion criteria treated in 2016-2017 were enrolled as the validation cohort. Kaplan-Meier curves were assessed using the log-rank test to analyze the differences in overall survival (OS). Multivariate survival analysis was performed using the Cox proportional hazards model. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of ypN and LNR categories for predicting the actual 3-year OS were compared. Results: A total of 265 patients were included in the proposal cohort. The median number of retrieved lymph nodes (rLNs) was 32. The number of positive lymph nodes (pLNs) increased as rLN increased (P=0.037), but the LNR remained relatively constant (P=0.462). The LNR was categorized into 4 groups according to the prognosis: ypNr0, node-negative with rLN>25; ypNr1, node-negative with rLN≤25 or 00.3. In the validation cohort of 43 enrolled patients, there was a clear distinction in OS that significantly (P<0.001) varied depending on the LNR values and LNR was the only independent prognostic factor in multivariate analysis (P<0.001). Conclusions: LNR was an independent prognostic factor for survival of patients with gastric cancer after preoperative chemotherapy and might be an alternative predictor for ypN stage.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권4호
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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.

• ETRI Journal
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• 제27권1호
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• pp.1-12
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• 2005

We propose a heuristic buffer management scheme that uses both positive and negative acknowledgments to provide scalability and reliability. Under our scheme, most receiver nodes only send negative acknowledgments to their repair nodes to request packet retransmissions while some representative nodes also send positive acknowledgments to indicate which packets can be discarded from the repair node's buffer. Our scheme provides scalability because it significantly reduces the number of feedbacks sent by the receiver nodes. In addition, it provides fast recovery of transmission errors since the packets requested from the receiver nodes are almost always available in their buffers. Our scheme also reduces the number of additional retransmissions from the original sender node or upstream repair nodes. These features satisfy the original goal of treebased protocols since most packet retransmissions are performed within a local group.

• ETRI Journal
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• 제36권4호
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• pp.591-598
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• 2014

This paper proposes a new min-sum algorithm for low-density parity-check decoding. In this paper, we first define the negative and positive effects of the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the min-sum decoding algorithm. To improve the performance of error correction by considering the negative and positive effects of the received SNR, the proposed algorithm applies adaptive scaling factors not only to extrinsic information but also to a received log-likelihood ratio. We also propose a combined variable and check node architecture to realize the proposed algorithm with low complexity. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves up to 0.4 dB coding gain with low complexity compared to existing min-sum-based algorithms.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• 제54권5호
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• pp.342-347
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• 2021

Thoracic surgeons need to be aware of several important points regarding intraoperative lymph node dissection during surgery for non-small cell lung cancer with ground-glass opacities. The first point relates to the need for lymph node dissection during sublobar resection. Since even patients undergoing sublobar resection may benefit from lymph node dissection, it should be selectively performed according to adequate indications, which require further study. Second, there seems to be no difference in postoperative morbidity between systematic sampling and systematic dissection, but the survival benefit from systematic dissection remains unclear. The results of randomized controlled trials on this topic are conflicting, and their evidence is jeopardized by a high risk of bias in terms of the study design. Therefore, further randomized controlled trials with a sound design should investigate this issue. Third, more favorable survival outcomes tend to be positively associated with the number of examined lymph nodes. Minimum requirements for the number of examined lymph nodes in non-small cell lung cancer should be defined in the future. Finally, lobe-specific lymph node dissection does not have a negative prognostic impact. It should not be routinely performed, but it can be recommended in selected patients with smaller, less invasive tumors. Results from an ongoing randomized controlled trial on this topic should be awaited.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권13호
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• pp.5169-5173
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• 2015

To determine the efficacy of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy with paclitaxel plus cisplatin (Taxol + DDP, TP therapy) for stage IIA esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and to investigate the expression of RUNX3 in lymph node metastasis-negative esophageal cancer and its relationship with medical prognosis, a retrospective summary of clinical treatment of 143 cases of stage IIA esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients was made. The patients were divided into two groups, a surgery alone control group (52 patients) and a chemotherapy group that received postoperative TP therapy (91 patients). The disease-free and 5 year survival rates were compared between the groups and a multivariate analysis of prognostic factors was performed. The same analysis was performed for cases classified as RUNX3 positive and negative, with post-operative specimens assessed by immunohistochemistry. Although the disease-free and 5 year survival rates in control and chemotherapy groups did not significantly differ and there was no significance in RUNX3 negative cases, postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy in the chemotherapy group was shown to improve disease-free and 5 year survival rate compared to the control group in RUNX3 positive cases. On Cox regression multivariate analysis, postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy (P<0.01) was an independent prognostic factor for RUNX3 positive cases, suggesting that postoperative TP may be effective as adjuvant chemotherapy for stage IIA esophageal cancer patients with RUNX3 positive lesions.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• 제41권6호
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• pp.546-552
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• 2007

목적: 유방암 환자에게 불필요한 액와림프절 전절제술을 예방하기 위해서는 감시림프절을 절제하여 전이 여부를 평가하는 것이 중요하다. 감시림프절 매핑을 위한 방사성교질중 antimony trisulfide colloid (ASC), tin colloid (TC), human serum albumin (HSA) 이상의 3가지 교질에 $^{99m}Tc$을 표지하여 각각에서 림포신티그라피, 감시림프절 매핑의 성적을 비교하였다. 대상 및 방법: 2001년 10월부터 2006년 12월까지 임상적으로 액와림프절 전이가 없는 조기 유방암 환자 총 397명에게 시행한 림포신티그라피와 수술 중 감시림프절 절제 동결절편 검사, 및 수술 후 병리 소견을 후향적으로 평가하였다. 림포신티그라피 영상 소견을 분석하고, 감시림프절의 발견율(identification rate)과 위음성율(false negative rate), 그리고 음성예측도(negative predictive value)를 구하여 각 군의 자료에 대해 Fisher 직접확률법으로 비교하였다. 결과: 202명에게는 $^{99m}Tc$ ASC를, 120명에게는 $^{99m}Tc$-TC를, 75명에게는 $^{99m}Tc$-HSA를 사용하였으며 평균 연령, 병기, 원발 종양의 크기 등에서는 각 군별 환자들 사이에 유의한 차이가 없었다. ASE는 59명에게는 유륜부 피내 혹은 피하주사법을 사용했으며 136명에게는 종양주위 주사를, 그리고 7명의 환자에게는 두 가지를 병용하였다. TC와 HSA를 사용한 환자들에게는 모두 피내 혹은 피하주사하였다. 액와림프절 전이는 ASE사용 군에서 33.2%, TC 사용군에서 31.7%, HSA 사용 군에서 22.7%였으며 통계적으로 유의한 차이는 없었다. 감시 림프절 발견율(IR) 과 위음성율(FNR) 그리고 음성예측도(NPV) 는 사용한 교질 ASC/TC/HSA 각각에 대해 99.0%, 21.5%, 90.5% / 96.7%, 20.5%, 90.7% / 94.7%, 17.7%, 94.7%로 사용한 교질의 종류에 따라 통계적으로 유의한 차이가 없었다. 감시림프절 매핑 성적은 방사성교질의 주사방법에 따라서 유의한 차이를 보이지 않았다. 림포신티그라피의 영상에서 감시림프절이 명확히 구분된 경우는 ASC에서 79.6%, TC 에서 92.5%, HSA에서 88.6%였다. 림프관이 관찰된 비율은 ASC에서 43.6%, TC에서 0.8%, HSA 에서 96.8%이었다. 림포신티그라피에서 관찰된 감시림프절의 개수는 HSA가 가장 많았지만 통계적으로 유의한 차이는 없었다. 결론: ASC, TC 및 HSA등의 방사성교질을 이용한 감시림프절 매핑 성적은 서로 유의한 차이를 보이지 않았다.