• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.33-37
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• 2003

Purpose: Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is widely accepted as a useful tumor marker for diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinomas. On rare occasions, however, an abnormal elevation of serum AFP also has been reported in an adenocarcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract. We evaluated the influence of preoperative abnormal elevation of serum AFP (AFP positivity) on the prognosis of resectable gastric cancers. Materials and Methods: 812 gastric cancer patients, who were investigated for serum AFP before their operations and who underwent gastric resections with D2 or more extended lymph node dissection, were enrolled in the study. The survival rates were calculated by using the Kaplan-Meier method and were compared by using the log-rank test. A multivariate analysis was performed using the Cox proportional hazards model. Results: Fifty patients ($6.2\%$) were AFP positive (10.1. 4322.6 ng/ml). The survival rate of the AFP positive group was significantly lower than that of the AFP negative group ( $46.6\%\;vs.\;67.0\%$; P=0.0002). The depth of tumor invasion, the degree of regional lymph node metastasis, distant metastases, the TNM stage, the gross type, differentiation, the extent of gastric resection, and the curability of the surgery also significantly influenced survival. Multivariate analysis revealed that the depth of tumor invasion, the degree of regional lymph node metastasis, the curability of the surgery, and AFP positivity were independent prognostic indicators. Conclusion: Preoperative serum AFP can be used as an independent prognostic factor of resectable gastric cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.17
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• pp.7219-7222
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• 2014

Background: Early gastric cancer (EGC) is well accepted as having a favorable prognosis, but some patients experience an ominous outcome after curative resection. This study was aimed at evaluating predictive factors associated with prognosis of D2 gastrectomies in patients with early gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: A total of 518 patients with early gastric cancer who underwent D2 gastrectomies were reviewed in this study. The clinicopathological features and surgical outcomes were analyzed. The survival rate was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by log rank test. Prognostic factors were analyzed using a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model. Results: The 5-year survival rate was 90.3%. Tumor infiltration, lymph node metastasis and lymphovascular invasion were significant prognostic factors for survival. Gender, age, tumor size, tumor location, macroscopic type and histological type were not significant prognostic factors. Multivariate analysis indicated that lymph node metastasis was an independent poor prognosis factor. Conclusions: Early gastric cancers with lymph node metastasis have a relatively poor prognosis after standard surgery. Even after curative resection, patients with EGC with positive lymph nodes should be closely followed and be considered as candidates for comprehensive therapies.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.838-845
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• 1999

To determine the prognostic factors for survival of dogs infected with canine parvovirus, clinical and laboratory data of 35 dogs with clinical signs compatible with canine parvoviral enteritis admitted to the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, Seoul National University during the period 1997-1998 were collected. Dogs were grouped by some major covariates, which can be considered as guides to the relative prognosis of dogs in the different subgroups. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Weibull proportional hazard model were used to estimate overall survival, evaluate the comparability between groups, and identify potential prognostic factors. The overall survival rate for all dogs was 45.7% over the study period, and the Kaplan-Meier estimate of one week survival was 0.4989. Gender was the most favorable prognosis ; male dog (median, 6 days) had significantly higher risk of dying than female dog (median, 17 days ; p = 0.0023). In addition to gender, age was significantly associated with survival, with juvenile dogs less than 6-month-old having higher risk (p = 0.0359). Dogs that vaccinated with complete protocol (p = 0.0374) and those of having higher value of mean corpuscular volume (p = 0.0346) were found to be of prognostic importance. The 7 dogs in which white blood cell count of less than 2000 had shorter median survival time (3 days) than the remaining 28 dogs (8 days), but no statistical significance was found between leukopenic and survival. The distribution of packed cell volume and hemoglobin measurement was such that the overall risk of dying in the two groups was comparable. Further studies are needed to more accurately assess these results.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.385-394
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• 2020

Purpose: Patients with gastric cancer who receive neoadjuvant therapy are staged before treatment (cStage) and after treatment (ypStage). We aimed to compare the prognostic reliability of cStage and ypStage, alone and in combination. Materials and Methods: Data for all patients who received neoadjuvant therapy followed by surgery for gastric adenocarcinoma from 2004 to 2015 were extracted from the National Cancer Database. Kaplan-Meier (KM)curves were used to model overall survival based on cStage alone, ypStage alone, cStage stratified by ypStage, and ypStage stratified by cStage. P-values were generated to summarize the differences in KM curves. The discriminatory power of survival prediction was examined using Harrell's C-statistics. Results: We included 8,977 patients in the analysis. As expected, increasing cStage and ypStage were associated with worse survival. The discriminatory prognostic power provided by cStage was poor (C-statistic 0.548), while that provided by ypStage was moderate (C-statistic 0.634). Within each cStage, the addition of ypStage information significantly altered the prognosis (P<0.0001 within cStages I-IV). However, for each ypStage, the addition of cStage information generally did not alter the prognosis (P=0.2874, 0.027, 0.061, 0.049, and 0.007 within ypStages 0-IV, respectively). The discriminatory prognostic power provided by the combination of cStage and ypStage was similar to that of ypStage alone (C-statistic 0.636 vs. 0.634). Conclusions: The cStage is unreliable for prognosis, and ypStage is moderately reliable. Combining cStage and ypStage does not improve the discriminatory prognostic power provided by ypStage alone. A ypStage-based prognosis is minimally affected by the initial cStage.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.21 no.1
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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.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.284-291
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• 2022

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the clinicopathological prognostic factors affecting the survival of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on patients with OSCC who received treatment at the Oral Oncology Clinic of the National Cancer Center (NCC) from June 2001 to December 2020. The patients' sex, age, primary site, T stage, node metastasis, TNM staging, perineural invasion (PNI), lymphovascular invasion (LVI), differentiation, surgical resection margin, smoking, and drinking habits were investigated to analyze risk factors. For the univariate analysis, a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and log-rank test were used. Additionally, for the multivariable analysis, a Cox proportional hazard model analysis was used. For both analyses, statistical significance was considered when P<0.05. Results: During the investigation period, 407 patients were received surgical treatment at the NCC. Their overall survival rate (OS) for five years was 70.7%, and the disease-free survival rate (DFS) was 60.6%. The multivariable analysis revealed that node metastasis, PNI, and differentiation were significantly associated with poor OS. For DFS, PNI and differentiation were associated with poor survival rates. Conclusion: In patients with OSCC, cervical node metastasis, PNI, and differentiation should be considered important prognostic factors for postoperative survival.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.214-224
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• 2022

Background: Studies of the prognostic role of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are still limited. This study investigated the prognostic power of CTCs from the pulmonary vein (PV), peripheral blood (PB), and bone marrow (BM) for postoperative recurrence in patients who underwent curative resection for NSCLC. Methods: Forty patients who underwent curative resection for NSCLC were enrolled. Before resection, 10-mL samples were obtained of PB from the radial artery, blood from the PV of the lobe containing the tumor, and BM aspirates from the rib. A microfabricated filter was used for CTC enrichment, and immunofluorescence staining was used to identify CTCs. Results: The pathologic stage was stage I in 8 patients (20%), II in 15 (38%), III in 14 (35%), and IV in 3 (8%). The median number of PB-, PV-, and BM-CTCs was 4, 4, and 5, respectively. A time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that PB-CTCs had excellent predictive value for recurrence-free survival (RFS), with the highest area under the curve at each time point (first, second, and third quartiles of RFS). In a multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression model, PB-CTCs were an independent risk factor for recurrence (hazard ratio, 10.580; 95% confidence interval, 1.637-68.388; p<0.013). Conclusion: The presence of ≥4 PB-CTCs was an independent poor prognostic factor for RFS, and PV-CTCs and PB-CTCs had a positive linear correlation in patients with recurrence.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.621-629
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• 2006

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify the clinical variables that predict functional and cognitive recovery at 1- and 6-month in both severe and moderate/mild traumatic brain injury patients. Methods. The subjects of this study were 82 traumatically brain-injured patients who were admitted to a Neurological Intensive Care Unit at a university hospital. Potential prognostic factors included were age, motor and pupillary response, systolic blood pressure, heart rate, and the presence of intracranial hematoma at admission. Results. The significant predictors of functional disability in severe traumatic brain injury subjects were, age, systolic blood pressure, the presence of intracranial hematoma, motor response, and heart rate at admission. In moderate/mild traumatic brain injury patients, motor response, abnormal pupil reflex, and heart rate at admission were identified as significant predictors of functional disability. On the other hand, the significant predictors of cognitive ability for severe traumatic brain injury patients were motor response and the presence of intracranial hematoma at admission, whereas those for moderate/mild patients were motor response, pupil reflex, systolic blood pressure at admission, and age. Conclusions. The results of the present study indicate that the significant predictors of TBI differ according to TBI severity on admission, outcome type, and outcome measurement time. This can be meaningful to critical care nurses for a better understanding on the prediction of brain injury patients. On the other hand, the model used in the present study appeared to produce relatively low explicabilities for functional and cognitive recovery although a direct comparison of our results with those of others is difficult due to differences in outcome definition and validation methods. This implies that other clinical variables should be added to the model used in the present study to increase its predicting power for determining functional and cognitive outcomes.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.495-508
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• 2016

In order to determine the prediction possibility of heavy rainfall, a variety of analyses was conducted by using three-dimensional data obtained from Korea Local Analysis and Prediction System (KLAPS) re-analysis data. Strong moisture convergence occurring around the time of the heavy rainfall is consistent with the results of previous studies on such continuous production. Heavy rainfall occurred in the cloud system with a thick convective clouds. The moisture convergence, temperature and potential temperature advection showed increase into the heavy rainfall occurrence area. The distribution of integrated liquid water content tended to decrease as rainfall increased and was characterized by accelerated convective instability along with increased buoyant energy. In addition, changes were noted in the various characteristics of instability indices such as K-index (KI), Showalter Stability Index (SSI), and lifted index (LI). The meteorological variables used in the analysis showed clear increases or decreases according to the changes in rainfall amount. These rapid changes as well as the meteorological variables changes are attributed to the surrounding and meteorological conditions. Thus, we verified that heavy rainfall can be predicted according to such increase, decrease, or changes. This study focused on quantitative values and change characteristics of diagnostic variables calculated by using numerical models rather than by focusing on synoptic analysis at the time of the heavy rainfall occurrence, thereby utilizing them as prognostic variables in the study of the predictability of heavy rainfall. These results can contribute to the identification of production and development mechanisms of heavy rainfall and can be used in applied research for prediction of such precipitation. In the analysis of various case studies of heavy rainfall in the future, our study result can be utilized to show the development of the prediction of severe weather.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.339-356
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• 2018

Although fuel cell systems have advantages in terms of electric efficiency and environmental impact compared with conventional power systems, fuel cell systems have not been deployed widely due to their low reliability and high price. In order to guarantee the lifetime of 10 years, which is the commercialization goal of Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs), it is necessary to improve durability and reliability through optimized operation and maintenance technologies. Due to the complexity of components and their degradation phenomena, it's not easy to develop and apply the diagnose and prognostic methodologies for PEFCs. The purpose of the paper is to show the current state on PEFC prognostic technology for condition based maintenance. For the prognostic of PEFCs, the model driven method, the data-driven, and the hybrid method can be applied. The methods reviewed in this paper can contribute to the development of technologies to reduce the life cycle cost of fuel cells and increase the reliability through prognostics-based health management system.