• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3511-3514
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• 2016

Purpose: To evaluate the treatment outcomes of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer treated with preoperative concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) or combined chemotherapy together with radiotherapy (CMT-RT) without surgery. Materials and Methods: A total of 84 patients with locally advanced rectal adenocarcinoma (stage II or III) between January $1^{st}$, 2003 and December $31^{st}$, 2013 were enrolled, 48 treated with preoperative CCRT (Gr.I) and 36 with combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy (CMT-RT) without surgery (Gr.II). The chemotherapeutic agents used concurrent with radiotherapy were either 5-fluorouracil short infusion plus leucovorin and/or capecitabine or 5-fluorouracil infusion alone. All patients received pelvic irradiation. Results: There were 5 patients (10.4%) with a complete pathological response. The 3 year-overall survival rates were 83.2% in Gr.I and 24.8 % in Gr.II (p<0.01). The respective 5 year-overall survival rates were 70.3% and 0% (p<0.01). The 5 year-overall survival rates in Gr.I for patients who received surgery within 56 days after complete CCRT as compared to more than 56 days were 69.5% and 65.1% (p=0.91). Preoperative CCRT used for 12 of 30 patients in Gr.I (40%) with lower rectal cancer demonstrated that in preoperative CCRT a sphincter sparing procedure can be performed. Conclusions: The results of treatment with preoperative CCRT for locally advanced rectal cancer showed comparable rates of overall survival and sphincter sparing procedures as compared to previous studies.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1775-1781
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• 2014

Background: To assess the long term clinical outcome of preoperative radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy followed by limb sparing surgery in patients with non-metastatic soft tissue sarcomas (STS) of the extremities. Materials and Methods: Sixty patients with locally advanced STS were retrospectively analyzed. The median tumor diameter was 12 cm. All patients were treated with preoperative radiotherapy delivered with two different fractionation schedules (35Gy/10fr or 46-50Gy/23-25fr). Neoadjuvant chemotherapy was added to 44 patients with large and/or high grade tumors. Surgery was performed 2-6 weeks after radiotherapy. Chemotherapy was completed up to 6 courses after surgery in patients who had good responses. Results: Median follow-up time was 67 months (8-268 months). All of the patients had limb sparing surgery. The 5-year local control (LC), disease free (DFS) and overall survival (OSS) rates for all of the patients were 81%, 48.1% and 68.3% respectively. 5-year LC, DFS and cause specific survival (CSS) were 81.7%, 47%, 69.8%, and 80%, 60%, 60% in the chemoradiotherapy and radiotherapy groups, respectively. On univariate analysis, patients who were treated with hypofractionation experienced significantly superior LC, DFS and CSS rates with similar rates of late toxicity when compared with patients who were treated with conventional fractionation and statistical significance was retained on multivariate analysis. Conclusions: Treatment results are consistent with the literature. As neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy provides effective LC and CSS with acceptable morbidity, it should be preferred for patients with large and borderline resectable STS.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.395-407
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• 2020

Purpose: A phase II study was conducted to evaluate the safety and efficacy of preoperative, intra-arterial perfusion of epirubicin, etoposide, and oxaliplatin combined with oral chemotherapy S-1 (SEEOX) for the treatment of type 4 gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: A single-center, single-arm phase II trial was conducted on 36 patients with histologically proven type 4 gastric cancer without distant peritoneal or organ metastasis. Patients received 3, 21-day courses of SEEOX preoperative chemotherapy. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS) and the secondary outcomes assessed were chemotherapeutic response, radical resection rate, pathological regression, toxicities, postoperative morbidity, and mortality. Results: All patients were at an advanced stage of cancer (stage III or IV) and completed the entire course of treatment. Based on changes in tumor volume and peritoneal metastasis, the objective response rate was 55.6% (20/36; 95% confidence interval [CI], 38.5%-72.6%) and the disease control rate was 69.4% (25/36; 95% CI, 53.6%-85.3%). The radical resection rate was 75% (27/36; 95% CI, 60.1%-89.9%) and the proportion of R0 resections was 66.7% (21/36; 95% CI, 50.5%-82.8%). The pathological response rate was 33.3%, of which 13.9% showed complete pathological regression. The median survival was 27.1 months (95% CI, 22.24-31.97 months), and the 2-year OS was 48.5% (95% CI, 30.86%-66.1%). Conclusions: Preoperative SEEOX is a safe and effective treatment for type 4 gastric cancer. Based on these preliminary data, a phase III study will be conducted to confirm the superiority of this regimen over standard treatment.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.221-228
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was to verify the importance of apoptosis in genesis of osteosarcoma and whether apoptosis may play an important role as a predictive factor for the response to chemotherapy. Of the patients who were diagnosed osteosarcoma between January 1995 and June 1999, ten patients were selected. All specimens were obtained before and after preoperative chemotherapy and examined for the occurrence of apoptosis. Apoptosis was investigated by in situ end-labeling technique on paraffin-embedded sections and apoptotic indices were calculated before and after chemotherapy. The ages of ten patients ranged from 15 to 59 with equal sex ratio. All patients completed the planned pre-operative chemotherapy. Apoptosis occurs in osteosarcoma and apoptotic indices are increased after chemotherapy. Mean apoptotic index (AI) before and after chemotherapy were 17.2 (range 6-28.9) and 26.3 (9.6-46.2), respectively. Apoptotic cells were usually present around the necrotic area. The AI was increased as the progression of stage and in responder group more than in non-responder. Apoptosis is induced by pre-operative chemotherapy and the response is variable. Changes in AI levels before and after chemotherapy may possibly predict an individual patient's overall response.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.962-967
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• 1992

Eight patients with proven clinical stage Ill lung carcinoma of which six were epidermoid cell carcinoma and two were small cell carcinoma underwent concomitant radiation therapy and chemotherapy before surgical resection from March 1990 to February 1992 at the thoracic surgical department, Yongdong Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College Medicine The therapy consisted of more than one cycle of chemotherapy every 4 weeks and concomitant irradiation. Three to four weeks after chemotherapy and radiation therapy, the patient were reevaluated for thoracotomy and pulmonary resection. Two patients were found to have unresectable lesions and, radiosotopes were implanted to the remaining tumors. Three patients had complete pneumonectomies and two patients had pericardial penumonectomyo. Only one patient had complete pneumonectomy & concomitant resection of ribs attached to tumors with reconstruction of chest wall with Marlex mesh. Complete sterilization of lung tumor and mediastinal nodes proven histologically was achieved in 2 patients, without operative mortality. The median survival of all patients was eight months, but the median survival of survivors which lung tumor were completely resected completely and whose pathologic reports showed stage I or 0, was about 18 months to now. The overall result indicates some benefit from this preoperative chemotherapy and radiation therapeutic regimen in patients with advanced unresectable lung cancer.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.117-128
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• 2003

Thallium-201 scintigraphy is used to discriminate the malignant bone tumor from the benign by qualitatively and quantitatively, and to predict the response of preoperative chemotherapy in osteosarcoma, by comparing the changes of thallium uptake ratio after chemotherapy to the tumor necrosis ratio. Thallium-201 scintigraphy scan should be done prior to surgical biopsy. PICKER Prism 2000 gamma camera with high resolution parallel hole collimator is usually used for scanning. The patient is injected with 2-3mCi of Tl-201 and the early phase is checked in 30 minutes and delayed phase in 3 hours. The scan images are visually evaluated by a blinded nuclear medicine physician. We could evaluate true positive, true negative, false positive and false negative by the comparison of results with those of biopsy, and calculate positive and negative predictive value(%), sensitivity(%), specificity(%) and diagnostic accuracy(%). For the quantitative analysis of thallium uptake, we drew the region of interest on the tumor side and contralateral normal side as mirror image, and calculated the uptake ratio with dividing the amount of gamma count in tumor side by normal side. We could calculate the percent changes of thallium uptake ratio in early and delayed phase, and compare them to the ratio of tumor necrosis. Thallium-201 scintigraphy proved as useful imaging study to discriminate malignant bone tumor from benign, but had exception in giant cell tumor and low grade malignant bone tumors. We can use T1-201 scan to differentiate the benign from the malignant tumor, and to evaluate the response of preoperative chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and to determine the residual tumor or local recurrence. For the better result, we need to have a more detail information about false positive cases and a more objective and quantitative reading technique.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.183-192
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• 2019

Purpose: Due to adverse events, dose reduction or withdrawal of adjuvant chemotherapy is required for some patients. To identify the predictive factors for tolerability to postoperative adjuvant S-1 monotherapy in gastric cancer (GC) patients, we evaluated the predictive values of blood indicators. Materials and Methods: We analyzed 98 patients with pStage II/III GC who underwent postoperative adjuvant S-1 monotherapy. We retrospectively analyzed correlations between 14 parameters obtained from perioperative routine blood tests to assess their influence on the withdrawal of postoperative adjuvant S-1 monotherapy, within 6 months after discontinuation. Results: Postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy was discontinued in 21 patients (21.4%) within 6 months. Univariable analysis revealed that high preoperative albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) scores had the highest odds ratio (OR) for predicting the failure of adjuvant S-1 chemotherapy (OR, 6.47; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.08-20.1; cutoff value, -2.696). The high ALBI group had a significantly shorter time to failure of postoperative adjuvant S-1monotherapy (hazard ratio, 3.48; 95% CI, 1.69-7.25; P=0.001). Multivariable analysis identified high preoperative ALBI score as an independent prognostic factor for tolerability (OR, 10.3; 95% CI, 2.33-45.8; P=0.002). Conclusions: Preoperative ALBI shows promise as an indicator associated with the tolerability of adjuvant S-1 monotherapy in patients with pStage II/III GC.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.5 no.3 s.19
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• pp.139-145
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• 2005

Gastric cancer is the most prevalent cancer in Korea and comprises the second cause of cancer death. Surgery only can provide chance of cure, but most locally advanced cancers recur after a curative resection, even though important advances in the surgical and nonsurgical treatments of gastric cancer have taken place. Preoperative chemotherapy theoretically can provide the advantages of reducing the bulk of tumor, which might improve the R0 resection rate, and of treating micrometastases early. Also, preoperative chemotherapy is expected to render unresectable tumors resectable without increasing postoperative morbidity and mortality. There are many new chemo-therapeutic agents available for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer, but still the most effective agent, the optimal time and number of cycle for administration are still not known. The addition of postoperative chemotherapy through an intraperitoneal route and/or radiotherapy might affect the outcome of surgery favorably, but that hasn't been proved yet. A multicenter prospective randomized phase III trial should be peformed to answer for those questions and to improve the curability of gastric cancer treatment.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.415-423
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• 2018

Objective : To identify the perioperative factors associated with instrument failure in patients undergoing a partial corpectomy with instrumentation (PCI) for spinal metastasis. Methods : We assessed the one hundred twenty-four patients with who underwent PCI for a metastatic spine from 1987 to 2011. Outcome measure was the risk factor related to implantation failure. The preoperative factors analyzed were age, sex, ambulation, American Spinal Injury Association grade, bone mineral density, use of steroid, primary tumor site, number of vertebrae with metastasis, extra-bone metastasis, preoperative adjuvant chemotherapy, and preoperative spinal radiotherapy. The intraoperative factors were the number of fixed vertebrae, fixation in osteolytic vertebrae, bone grafting, and type of surgical approach. The postoperative factors included postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy and spinal radiotherapy. This study was supported by the National Research Foundation grant funded by government. There were no study-specific biases related to conflicts of interest. Results : There were 15 instrumentation failures (15/124, 12.1%). Preoperative ambulatory status and primary tumor site were not significantly related to the development of implant failure. There were no significant associations between insertion of a bone graft into the partial corpectomy site and instrumentation failure. The preoperative and operative factors analyzed were not significantly related to instrumentation failure. In univariable and multivariable analyses, postoperative spinal radiotherapy was the only significant variable related to instrumentation failure (p=0.049 and 0.050, respectively). Conclusion : When performing PCI in patients with spinal metastasis followed by postoperative spinal radiotherapy, the surgeon may consider the possibility of instrumentation failure and find other strategies for augmentation than the use of a bone graft for fusion.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.2377-2381
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• 2013

A total of 285 patients with stage Ib2 and IIa2 cervical cancer were categorized into three groups, and received preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with vaginal intracavitary irradiation, neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone or radiotherapy, respectively. The effective rate of 70.6 % in group 1 was much higher than 41.4% in group 2 (P=0.000) and 46.9 % in group 3 (P=0.000); The percentage of patients receiving postoperative adjuvant therapy was 44.1% in group 1, much lower than 67.8% in group 2 (P=0.001) and 64.6% in group 3 (P=0.004); The percentage of patients with no postoperative risk factor in group 1 was 52.0%, much higher than 32.2% in group 2 (P=0.006) and 35.4% in group 3 (P=0.019); The occurrence rate of surgery-related complications in groups 1, 2 and 3 were 29.4%, 28.7%, and 33.3%, respectively, with no statistical differences among the groups (P=0.981). Regarding preoperative neoadjuvant complications, none were obvious in group 3, while occurrence rates of myelosuppression in groups 1 and 2 were 89.1% and 86.6%, of nausea and vomitting were 78.4% and 78.2%, but without significant differences (all P>0.05). Among 166 patients who received postoperative adjuvant therapy in the three groups, the occurrence rates were: 65.4%, 64.3% and 61.1% respectively for myelosuppression; 42.3%, 38.1%, and 38.9% for nausea and vomiting; 9.6%, 9.5% and 9.7% for urocystitis; and 63.5%, 69.0% and 65.3% enteritis and rectitis. There were no statistically significant differences among them (all P>0.05). The five-year disease-free survival rates (DFS) in groups 1, 2, 3 were 78.3%, 75.1%, 80.9%, respectively; the five-year overall survival rates (OS) were 81.4%, 78.2%, and 81.1%, respectively. The five-year OS of 166 patients receiving postoperative in the three groups were 72.4%, 69.5%, and 71.8%, respectively, with no significant variation (all P>0.05). Although there were no differences among three groups in DFS and OS, preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with intracavitary radiotherapy may increase the effective rate and the percentage of patients with no postoperative risk factors and decrease the percentage of patients receiving postoperative adjuvant therapy, thereby decreasing complications indirectly and increasing quality of life.