No abstract available.
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular*

No abstract available.
Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage*

No abstract available.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast*

This study was conducted to develop an optimal strategy to achieve long-term survival after a liver resection for a hepatocellular carcinoma by analyzing the actual survival of 54 patients who underwent liver resections at least 5 years ago. The mean age was 50.5 years with a male-to-female ratio of 5 : 1. The positive rates for HBsAg and anti-HCV were 60.4% (32/53) and 10% (1/10), respectively. Seventy-eight percent of the patients had co-existing chronic liver disease. Seventy percent of the patients had either TNM stage III or IV cancer. Fifteen patients (27.8%) survived longer than 5 years after the operation. The median survival time of the 54 patients was 27 months. Prognostic factors of statistical significance were the Child class, gross type and size of the tumor, intrahepatic metastasis, portal vein invasion, serosal invasion, tumor grade, TNM stage, radicality of the operation, cancer recurrence, and disease-free interval. Although the prognosis for the patients with tumors larger than 5 cm was poor, two patients whose tumors were larger than 10 cm with satellite nodules survived longer than 5 years after undergoing complete tumor removal. For the 26 cases with no intrahepatic metastasis, there was no survival difference between the lobectomy group and the segmentectomy/subsegmentectomy group (43% vs. 42%). In those cases with satellite nodules in one segment of the liver, 80% of the lobectomy group lived longer than 5 years while none of the patients in the less-than-lobectomy group survived long-term (p=0.0060). Cancer recurred in 77.8% of the patients. It was the main cause of late death after surgery. Eighty-one percent of the recurrences occurred within 2 years after the operation. Nearly all the recurrences developed in the remnant liver. Among 15 long-term survivors, 6 patients experienced recurrence between the periods of 26 and 76 months after resection. A total of 4 patients (9.5%) out of these 42 patients were subjected to repeat resection for the recurrent tumor. One of these four patients underwent a third resection for a recurrence after the repeat resection. Although the extent of hepatic resection turned out to be a prognostic factor of little significance overall, the recurrence rate of the lobectomy group tended to be lower than that of the less-than-lobectomy group among the subset of long-term survivors (p=0.0572). For long-term survival, a systematic segmentectomy/ subsegmentectomy is adequate for those tumors without intrahepatic metastasis, while the presence of satellite nodules in that segment mandates a standard hepatic lobectomy. For long-term recurrence-free survival, a hepatic lobectomy is probably needed, even for tumors with no intrahepatic metastasis.
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Child ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Humans ; Liver Diseases ; Liver* ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Portal Vein ; Prognosis ; Recurrence ; Survivors*

No abstract available.
Gardner Syndrome* ; Rectal Neoplasms*

Due to recent rapid advances in imaging modalities, there has been a marked increase in the early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Also, the emergence of effective local treatment methods has lead to the necessity for a wider selection of therapeutic modalities depending on the individual characteristics of each patient, such as tumor factors and hepatic factors, rather than a single uniform approach. At present, accurate preoperative liver function evaluation is available, and in addition, increased knowledge of the liver anatomy through liver transplantation, and advances in postoperative patient care has subsequently decreased the morbidity and mortality rates significantly after surgery. Such newly developed techniques and acquired knowledge has allowed the surgical option to expand from the classical hepatic lobectomy to systematic subsegmentectomy. Not only for early HCC, but also for intermediate HCC and advanced HCC, hepatectomy has shown the best results in each stage of disease with regard to treatment goals. It is therefore thought that hepatectomy should always be considered as the main treatment method in the multimodality treatment of HCC, as long as the liver function reserve permits, to enhance the quality of life, increase survival, and to cure disease. The authors present here a summary of the role of surgical approaches in HCC with respect to recent increases in the detection of early stage disease, new therapeutic modalities, and a new staging system for HCC.
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/*surgery ; English Abstract ; Hepatectomy/methods ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms/*surgery

No abstract available.
Liver Transplantation* ; Liver*

PURPOSE: Matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and MMP-7 have been implicated in tumor growth and metastasis. This study aimed to investigate the expressions of MMP-2 and -7 in colorectal cancer and to evaluate their values as prognostic markers. METHODS: Immunohistochemical staining for MMP-2 and -7 was done in 144 resected colorectal cancer specimens. Clinicopathological data and survival results were compared with regard to the expression results. RESULTS: The expression rates of MMP-2 in tumor cells in the tumor center and the tumor border were 16.7% and 38.9%, respectively. That of MMP-2 in stromal cells was 27.8%. MMP-7 immunoreactivities of tumor cells in the tumor center and the tumor border were 6.9% and 23.6%. The expressions of MMP-2 and MMP-7 were correlated. MMP-2 expression in stromal cells was more increased in the distal part of the colorectum: 8.8% in right colon cancer, 29.5% in left colon cancer and 36.4% in rectal cancer. MMP-2 expression of tumor cells in the tumor border was correlated with T-stage. MMP-7 expression of tumor cells in the tumor border was increased in case of infiltrative cancer compared with fungating tumor. The expression patterns of MMP-2 and -7 were not correlated with other clinicopathological factors, including tumor markers, node metastasis, distant metastasis, lymphatic invasion, tumor differentiation, and recurrence. No significant associations between the overall and disease-free survival rates and the MMP-2 and -7 expression patterns were noted. CONCLUSION: The high expression rates of MMP-2 and -7 in tumor borders suggest that MMP-2 and -7 have some role in tumor invasion, but in this study, MMP-2 and -7 did not appear to be significant predictors of prognosis in colorectal cancer.
Colonic Neoplasms ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Disease-Free Survival ; Immunohistochemistry ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 2 ; Matrix Metalloproteinases ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Prognosis ; Rectal Neoplasms ; Recurrence ; Stromal Cells ; Biomarkers, Tumor

Soft-tissue sarcomas account for 1% of all solid tumors. Of these, less than 15% will occur in the retroperitoneum. Late diagnosis and large tumor size make retroperitoneal sarcomas difficult to resect. Resection with wide margins in all directions is rarely possible owing to proximity to vital structures. Radiation therapy is limited in dosage and, as with chemotherapy, has only been successful in a limited number of cases. These problems result in a poor prognosis. A series of patients with retroperitoneal sarcoma was reviewed with a focus on issues of surgical management and prognostic factors. A retrospective analysis of 12 patients with retroperitoneal sarcomas who had undergone operations at the Department of Surgery, Inje University Paik Hospital, Seoul, from 1980 through 1996 was performed. The mean age of the 10 adult patients was 51 years; the male-to-female ratio was 2:1. Eighty-three percent of the patients presented with an abdominal mass. The mean diameter of the tumors was 18.3 cm. Leimyosarcomas(33%) and liposarcomas(25%) comprised the majority of the histologic types. The tumor grades were I, II, and III in 3 cases each. Resection of the tumor was possible in 75%(9/12) of the cases, although 17% of the resections were incomplete. Resection of adjacent organs was required in 66% of the cases. The resectability rose from 60% in 80s to 86% in 90s, with no statistical significance, possibly due to the small number of cases in this series. There was no postoperative morbidity or mortality. Actuarial 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates after resection were 75%, 60%, and 30%, respectively. Four of the 7(57%) patients who underwent complete resections had recurrence 3 to 33 months after surgery; this was notable for grade II or III tumors only. Two patients with grade I tumors are alive 65 and 102 months respectively after complete resection and show no evidence of the disease. One patient who underwent an incomplete resection of the tumor died 50 months after the operation. Only the tumor grade was a significant prognostic factor(p=0.0207). In conclusion, a wide en-bloc resection of a retroperitoneal sarcoma with a clear margin in all directions is a prerequisite for long-term survival. Aggressive follow-up for the first 3 years after a complete resection of a high-grade tumor is justified.
Adult ; Delayed Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Mortality ; Prognosis ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Sarcoma* ; Seoul ; Survival Rate

The heat shock proteins (HSPs) are ubiquitous molecules induced in cells exposed to various stress conditions, including carcinogenesis. The HSP70 and HSP27 among HSPs are of special relevance in human cancer inhibiting apoptosis. The aim of this study is to investigate the expressions of HSP70 and HSP27 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in association to tumor cell proliferation and apoptosis. We examined the expressions of HSP70 and HSP27 by immunohistochemical staining in 71 cases of HCC, and then related their expressions to clinicopathologic parameters and expressions of p53, Ki-67 and Apotag. HSP70 and HSP27 were frequently stained in the cytoplasm and nuclei of tumor cells, but not in the non-neoplastic hepatocytes. Immunoreactivities of HSP70 and HSP27 were observed in 56.3% and 61.9% of HCCs, respectively. HSP70 immunoreactivity correlated with high Ki-67 labeling indices (LIs) (p=0.0159), large tumor size (p=0.0129), presence of portal vein invasion (p=0.0231), and high tumor stage (p=0.0392). HSP27 immunoreactivity significantly related with the subgroup of HBV-associated HCCs (p=0.0003), but not with the others. Both HSP70 and HSP27 immunoreactivities showed no relation to Apotag LIs or p53 immunoreactivity. In conclusion, expressions of HSP70 and HSP27 may play an important role in hepatocarcinogenesis, and especially HSP70 showed a close relationship to the pathological parameters associated with tumor progression and high Ki-67 LIs. Our results could be additional evidence that HSP70 expressions can contribute to not only hepatocarcinogenesis but also tumor progression by promoting tumor cell proliferation.
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/*metabolism ; Female ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins/*metabolism ; Heat-Shock Proteins/*metabolism ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms/*metabolism ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Proteins/*metabolism ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Tumor Cells, Cultured ; Tumor Markers, Biological/*metabolism