Objective To compare the perioperative outcomes and long-term therapeutic response of laparoscopic splenectomy versus open splenectomy for idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.Methods A retrospective analysis of 124 patients who under-went splenectomy(68 LS and 56 OS)for ITP between January 2011 and January 2015 was conducted.Results Patients undergoing LS were found to require a longer operative time(P <0.05 )but had reduced hospital stay,lower intra-operative blood loss(P <0.05),less postoperative pain,earlier drain removal,and decreased incidence of complications(P <0.05).Conversion to OS was re-quired in 4 patients for excessive loss of blood(5.8%).Deep venous thrombosis(DVT)was observed in 1 patients after OS.One pa-tient died from pneumonia after LS.Mean follow-up of (33±11.8)months was performed in LS group and of (32±12.9)months in OS group.50 patients(73.5%)in LS group and 43(76.7%)in OS group reached sustained complete haematological response(P >0.05).Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that there was no significant difference in the relapse-free survival rate between the groups (P =0.679).Conclusion Compared with open splenectomy,laparoscopic splenectomy for patients with ITP has similar long-term therapeutic response,but it has advantages of minimally invasiveness.

Purpose: An underlying factor for the failure of several clinical trials of anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) therapies is the lack of an effective method to identify patients who overexpress EGFR protein. The quantitative dot blot method (QDB) was used to measure EGFR protein levels objectively, absolutely, and quantitatively. Its feasibility was evaluated for the prognosis of overall survival (OS) of patients with gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: Slices of 2×5 μm from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded gastric cancer specimens were used to extract total tissue lysates for QDB measurement. Absolutely quantitated EGFR protein levels were used for the Kaplan-Meier OS analysis. Results: EGFR protein levels ranged from 0 to 772.6 pmol/g (n=246) for all gastric cancer patients. A poor correlation was observed between quantitated EGFR levels and immunohistochemistry scores with ρ=0.024 and P=0.717 in Spearman's correlation analysis. EGFR was identified as an independent negative prognostic biomarker for gastric cancer patients only through absolute quantitation, with a hazard ratio of 1.92 (95% confidence interval, 1.05–3.53; P=0.034) in multivariate Cox regression OS analysis. A cutoff of 208 pmol/g was proposed to stratify patients with a 3-year survival probability of 44% for patients with EGFR levels above the cutoff versus 68% for those below the cutoff based on KaplanMeier OS analysis (log rank test, P=0.002). Conclusions A QDB-based assay was developed for gastric cancer specimens to measure EGFR protein levels absolutely, quantitatively, and objectively. This assay should facilitate clinical trials aimed at evaluation of anti-EGFR therapies retrospectively and prospectively for gastric cancer.