• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 1987

Cancer of the head and neck is an uncommon disease accounting for 5 % of all cancers. In an anatomic area so readily visible and palpable for examination without special and expensive diagnositic tools, it is unfortunate that many patients still present with advanced diseases. Since the prognosis is so intimately related to stage of disease, it is very important to detect the earliest stage of cancer with a complete head and neck examination. In the evaluation of cancer at any anatomic site, the description of the extent of the lesion is important. Not only does proper staging of the tumor lead to make decision of the most appropriate treatment, it also serves as a guide for the results of treatment. Proper staging demands a careful clinical assesment of the extent of the cancer. The current staging system for head and neck cancer uses the TNM system devised by American Joint Committee for Cancer Staging and End Result Reporting. T represent the primary tumor, N, regional nodal metastases, and M, distant metastases. The detection, diagnosis, and appropriate treatment of eary cancer will result in improved survival.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.14
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• pp.5729-5732
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• 2014

Background: Cervical cancer is the third most common gynecological cancer and a widespread malignancy in women, accounting for a large proportion of the cancer burden in developing countries. We compared accuracy of MRI staging with clinical staging and also concordance between the two methods for newly diagnosed patients with cervical cancer, using clinical staging as the reference. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 27 newly diagnosed patients with cervical cancer from Imam Khomeini hospital from June 2012 to Feb 2014. New cases of cervical cancer with positive PAP test were staged separately with a clinical exam based on the FIGO system by a gynecologist, oncologist and also with MRI by an expert radiologist. Then we compared the predicted stage for each patient with the two methods. Results: Based on clinical staging 9 patients (33%) were observed at stage 1. MRI staging was in coordination with clinical staging in eight of them and for one patient MRI accorded stage 2B (88% concordance). Conclusions: MRI is a reliable noninvasive method with high accuracy for cervical cancer staging. Also presently it is easily obtainable, so we recommend using this technique along with clinical examination for staging cervical cancer patients. We also recommend to radiologists and residents of radiology to get experience with this method of staging.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.84-92
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• 2021

Purpose: To date, no studies have been performed on staging based on the lymph node ratio (LNR) in elderly patients with gastric cancer who may require limited lymph node (LN) dissection due to morbidity and tissue fragility. We aimed to develop a new N staging system using the LNR in elderly patients with gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: The present study included patients aged over 75 years who underwent curative gastrectomy between January 1989 and December 2018. Clinicopathological data including the number of retrieved and metastatic LNs were collected and the LNR values were obtained (LNR = the number of metastatic LNs/the number of retrieved LNs). Eleven LNR groups with intervals of 0.1 were divided into four stages based on the inflection points at which the hazard ratio (HR) increased. Survival analysis was performed to evaluate the prognostic value of the LNR. Results: The four LNR stages included LNR0 (n=364), LNR1 (n=128), LNR2 (n=103), and LNR3 (n=10). In the multivariate analysis, both N staging and LNR staging exhibited significant prognostic values for predicting survival outcomes. However, the incremental change in the hazard ratio (HR) between consecutive stages was greater for the LNR staging than for the N staging (HRs: 1.607, 2.758, and 3.675 for N staging; 1.583, 3.514, and 10.261 for LNR staging). Conclusions: LNR staging is more useful than N staging in predicting the prognosis in elderly patients with gastric cancer and may be used as a complement or alternative to N staging.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.236-245
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• 2021

Purpose: The numeric N stage has replaced the topographic N stage in the current tumor node metastasis (TNM) staging in gastric carcinoma. However, the usefulness of the topographic N stage in the current TNM staging system is uncertain. We aimed to investigate the prognostic value of the topographic N stage in the current TNM staging system. Materials and Methods: We reviewed the data of 3350 patients with gastric cancer who underwent curative gastrectomy. The anatomic regions of the metastatic lymph nodes (MLNs) were classified into 2 groups: perigastric and extra-perigastric. The prognostic value of the anatomic region was analyzed using a multivariate prognostic model with adjustments for the TNM stage. Results: In patients with lymph node metastasis, extra-perigastric metastasis demonstrated significantly worse survival than perigastric metastasis alone (5-year survival rate, 39.6% vs. 73.1%, respectively, P<0.001). Extra-perigastric metastasis demonstrated significantly worse survival within the same pN stage; the multivariate analysis indicated that extra-perigastric metastasis was an independent poor prognostic factor (hazard ratio=1.33; 95% confidence interval=1.01-1.75). The anatomic region of the MLNs improved the goodness-of-fit (likelihood ratio statistics, 4.57; P=0.033) of the prognostic model using the TNM stage. Conclusions: The anatomic region of MLNs has an independent prognostic value in the numeric N stage in the current TNM staging of gastric carcinoma.

• Journal of Breast Disease
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.35-38
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• 2018

Purpose: The eighth American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system for breast cancer was recently published to more accurately predict the prognosis by adding biomarkers such as estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2. However, this system is very complicated and difficult to use by clinicians. The authors developed a program to aid in setting up the staging system and confirmed its usefulness by applying it to theoretical combinations and actual clinical data. Methods: The program was developed using the Microsoft Excel Macro. It was used for the anatomic, clinical and pathological prognostic staging of 588 theoretical combinations. The stages were also calculated the stages using 840 patients with breast cancer without carcinoma in situ or distant metastasis who did not undergo preoperative chemotherapy. Results: The anatomic, clinical and pathological prognostic stages were identical in 240 out of 588 theoretical combinations. In the actual patients' data, stages IB and IIIB were more frequent in clinical and pathological prognostic stages than in the anatomic stage. The anatomic stage was similar to the clinical prognostic stage in 58.2% and to the pathological prognostic stage in 61.9% of patients. Oncotype DX changed the pathological prognostic stage in 2.1% of patients. Conclusion: We developed a program for the new American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system that will be useful for clinical prognostic prediction and large survival data analysis.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.10 no.4 s.31
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• pp.24-31
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• 2005

A dynamic simulation on the missile staging system is conducted with numerical techniques. Both Euler equations and Navier-Stokes equations are numerically solved respectively. The dynamic simulation of two moving bodies is fully integrated into the computational fluid dynamics solution procedure. The Chimera grid scheme is applied in this simulation for unsteady supersonic flow analysis with dynamic modeling. The objective of the study is to investigate the problem pertaining to possible unstability in missile staging. In addition, the computational comparison between in viscid and viscid flow solvers is also performed in this study.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.283-290
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• 2010

The main goal of this study is to examine the use of a hybrid -fuel lean reburning system with air staging for $NO_X$ reduction. The experimental variables include the reburn fuel fraction, sizes of reburn- fuel-injection nozzles, oxygen enrichment ratio, and location of reburn- fuel- injection. The effect of the flow field induced by air- staging combustion on $NO_X$ reduction is considered, and then, the $NO_X$ reduction rate is compared with only fuel lean reburning system. On the basis of the effectiveness of each De-$NO_X$ process, the advantage of using the hybrid reburning system with air staging is determined and discussed.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.207-214
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• 2016

Purpose: The utility of N classification has been questioned after the 7th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)/Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) was published. We evaluated the correlation between ratio-based N (rN) classification with the overall survival of pathological T4 gastric cancer patients who underwent D2 lymphadenectomy. Materials and Methods: We reviewed 222 cases of advanced gastric cancer patients who underwent curative gastrectomy between January 2006 and December 2015. The T4 gastric cancer patents were classified into four groups according to the lymph node ratio (the number of metastatic lymph nodes divided by the retrieved lymph nodes): rN0, 0%; rN1, ${\leq}13.3%$; rN2, ${\leq}40.0%$; and rN3, >40.0%. Results: The rN stage showed a large down stage migration compared with pathological T4N3 (AJCC/UICC). There was a significant difference in overall survival between rN2 and rN3 groups in patients with pT4N3 (P=0.013). In contrast, the difference in metastatic lymph nodes was not significant in these patients (${\geq}16$ vs. <15; P=0.177). In addition, the rN staging system showed a more distinct difference in overall survival than the pN staging system for pathological T4 gastric cancer patients. Conclusions: Our results confirm that rN staging could be a good alternative for pathological T4 gastric cancer patients who undergo D2 lymphadenectomy. However, before applying this system to gastric cancer patients who undergo D2 lymphadenectomy, a larger sample size is required to further evaluate the usefulness of the rN staging system for all stages, including less advanced stages.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.82 no.5
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• pp.1083-1102
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• 2021

Uterine cervical cancer is a common gynecological cancer prevalent in Korea. Early detection, precise diagnosis, and appropriate treatment can affect its prognosis. Imaging approaches play an important role in staging, treatment planning, and follow-up. MRI specifically provides the advantage of assessing tumor size and disease severity with high soft tissue contrast. The revised version of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) staging system has been introduced in 2018, which incorporates subdivided primary tumor size and lymph node metastasis. In this review, the staging of uterine cervical cancer based on previous studies, the recently revised FIGO staging, and various post-treatment images are primarily described using MRI.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.212-219
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• 2017

Purpose: The aims of this study were to compare the 7th and 8th editions of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging manuals on tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM) staging systems and to evaluate whether the 8th edition represents a better refinement of the 7th staging system, when applied for the classification of gastric cancers. Materials and Methods: A total of 5,507 gastric cancer patients, who underwent treatment from January 1989 to December 2013 at a single institute, were included. We compared patient survival rates across the disease groups classified according to the 7th and 8th editions of the AJCC TNM staging systems. Results: Stage migration was observed in 6.4% (n=355) of the patients. Of these, 3.5% (n=192) and 2.9% (n=158) of patients showed a higher stage and lower stage, respectively. According to the 8th edition of the AJCC TNM staging criteria, the 5-year overall survival rates of the patients with stage IIIB and IIIC showed a significant difference (40.8% vs. 20.2%, P<0.001) whereas no significant differences in the 5-year overall survival rates were observed according to the 7th edition criteria (37.6% vs. 33.2%, P=0.381). Conclusions: Restaging stage III cancers according to the 8th edition of the AJCC TNM classification criteria improved survival rate discrimination, particularly, in institutes where the stage III patients were not distinctly categorized.