I tried the endoscopic laser therapy for the malignant and benign disease of the alimentary tract to evaluate efficacy in rejection of surgical treatment or inoperable state. I have experienced 16 cases of the laser therapy in my hospital from July 1990 to June 1991. The apparatus I used is the SLT contact Nd-YAG laser with the ceramic endoprobe of rounded or chisel or hollow type in each case. The irradiation was made at an output of 15-20 Watts within 1.5 seconds. Between the 2-4 weeks laser therapy, the treatment response was observed by rebiopsy, I treated 7 cases of early gastric cancer and post-laser follow-up study showed 70% negative for cancer cells by endoscopic biopsy. Failure of laser treatment was found in case of IIc type, Two cases of advanced gastric and I case of rectal cancer with severe obstruction were relieved by laser therapy. I also experienced 3 cases of esophageal or gastric polyp which were completely. resolved after irradiation. Besides, I could get hemostasis in 1 case of gastric ulcer bleeding with exposed vessels and 1 case of Mallory-Weiss syndrome. And a case of gastric bezoar was completely fragmentated after irradiation. As mentioned above, I achieved satisfactory results of 13 cases in 16 cases. Contact Nd - YAG laser treatment ean be applicated with excellent efficacy in any age, sex and severity of disease with or without complications and any site of lesions which can be reached within the endoscope. I suggest it is maybe highly promising medical technique in the future.
Bezoars ; Biopsy ; Ceramics ; Endoscopes ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hemorrhage ; Hemostasis ; Laser Therapy* ; Lasers, Solid-State ; Mallory-Weiss Syndrome ; Polyps ; Rectal Neoplasms ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Stomach Ulcer

No abstract available.

Double primary cancer is defined as the case of primary malignant tumors in one person, which must be arisen in different sites and have a different histologic appearances in each other. The number of reported cases of multiple primary malignant tumors has increased in recent years, because of more developed diagnostic procedure and long survival of cancer patients, We have experienced 4 cases of double primary malignant tumors which were stomach cancer with colon, bronchus and esophagus cancer, and report these cases with review of literatures.
Bronchi ; Colon ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; Humans ; Stomach Neoplasms

Double primary cancer is defined as the case of primary malignant tumors in one person, which must be arisen in different sites and have a different histologic appearances in each other. The number of reported cases of multiple primary malignant tumors has increased in recent years, because of more developed diagnostic procedure and long survival of cancer patients, We have experienced 4 cases of double primary malignant tumors which were stomach cancer with colon, bronchus and esophagus cancer, and report these cases with review of literatures.
Bronchi ; Colon ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; Humans ; Stomach Neoplasms

A 69-year-old-male patient was admitted because of left upper quadrant (LUQ) abdominal pain He had hard palpable mass (abaut 15x l0cm) in LUQ abdomen and mild elevated serum alkaline phosphatase (349 IU/L) and amylase (216 U/L) levels at the admission time. Abdominal CT scan revealed huge, well-marginated cystic mass in enlarged spleen with increased densities in dependent portion of cystic mass, about 8x13cm in size. Another small well-capsulated. cystic mass in anterior aspect of spleen was also seen. After ERCP, urgent surgical intervention was done. Final diagnosis was chronic pancreatitis with large intrasplenic (l2x9.5 cm) and retroperitoneal pseudocysts. So we are reporting above case with pertinent review of literatures.
Abdomen ; Abdominal Pain ; Alkaline Phosphatase ; Amylases ; Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Pancreatitis, Chronic* ; Spleen ; Splenomegaly ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

No abstract availble.
Gastritis, Atrophic/*genetics/metabolism ; *Gene Expression Profiling ; Humans ; Intestines/metabolism/*pathology ; Metaplasia/genetics/metabolism ; *Microarray Analysis ; Tumor Markers, Biological/metabolism

The majority of the cysts developed in pancreas are inflammatory pseudocyst but neoplastic cysts are rarely encountered Especially, mucinous cystadenoma which was begun and originated from epithelial cell of pancreatic duct is difficult to differentiate from pseudocysts by preoperative clinical, laboratory and radiologic findings. Mucinous cystadenoma has a malignant potentiality, so complete excision of cystadenoma is the treatment of choice. Recently, we experienced one case of mucionus cystadenoma in 37 year-old female, we report it with a review of the literature.
Adult ; Cystadenoma ; Cystadenoma, Mucinous* ; Epithelial Cells ; Female ; Humans ; Mucins* ; Pancreas* ; Pancreatic Ducts

PURPOSE: For the first time, a nationwide survey of the Patterns of Care Study (PCS) for the various radiotherapy treatments of esophageal cancer was carried out in South Korea. In order to observe the different parameters, as well as offer a solid cooperative system, we compared the Korean results with those observed in the United States (US) and Japan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundreds forty-six esophageal cancer patients from 21 institutions were enrolled in the South Korean study. The patients received radiation theraphy (RT) from 1998 to 1999. In order to compare these results with those from the United States, a published study by Suntharalingam, which included 414 patients [treated by Radiotherapy (RT)] from 59 institutions between 1996 and 1999 was chosen. In order to compare the South Korean with the Japanese data, we choose two different studies. The results published by Gomi were selected as the surgery group, in which 220 esophageal cancer patients were analyzed from 76 facilities. The patients underwent surgery and received RT with or without chemotherapy between 1998 and 2001. The non-surgery group originated from a study by Murakami, in which 385 patients were treated either by RT alone or RT with chemotherapy, but no surgery, between 1999 and 2001. RESULTS: The median age of enrolled patients was highest in the Japanese non-surgery group (71 years old). The gender ratio was approximately 9:1 (male:female) in both the Korean and Japanese studies, whereas females made up 23.1% of the study population in the US study. Adenocarcinoma outnumbered squamous cell carcinoma in the US study, whereas squamous cell carcinoma was more prevalent both the Korean and Japanese studies (Korea 96.3%, Japan 98%). An esophagogram, endoscopy, and chest CT scan were the main modalities of diagnostic evaluation used in all three countries. The US and Japan used the abdominal CT scan more frequently than the abdominal ultrasonography. Radiotherapy alone treatment was most rarely used in the US study (9.5%), compared to the Korean (23.2%) and Japanese (39%) studies. The combination of the three modalities (Surgery+RT+Chemotherapy) was performed least often in Korea (11.8%) compared to the Japanese (49.5%) and US (32.8%) studies. Chemotherapy (89%) and chemotherapy with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (97%) was most frequently used in the US study. Fluorouracil (5-FU) and Cisplatin were the most preferred drug treatments used in all three countries. The median radiation dose was 50.4 Gy in the US study, as compared to 55.8 Gy in the Korean study regardless of whether an operation was performed. However, in Japan, different median doses were delivered for the surgery (48 Gy) and non-surgery groups (60 Gy). CONCLUSION: Although some aspects of the evaluation of esophageal cancer and its various treatment modalities were heterogeneous among the three countries surveyed, we found no remarkable differences in the RT dose or technique, which includes the number of portals and energy beams.
Adenocarcinoma ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Chemoradiotherapy ; Cisplatin ; Endoscopy ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; Female ; Fluorouracil ; Humans ; Japan ; Korea ; Republic of Korea ; Thorax ; United States

PURPOSE: Preoperative staging of gastric cancer is crucial because the treatment modality and the prognosis depend upon the stage of gastric cancer. Current treatment modalities for early gastric cancer have focused on the quality of life. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and abdominal computed tomography (CT) are commonly used diagnostic tools to evaluate the invasiveness (T stage) of the primary tumor. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the sensitivity and the specificity of preoperative EUS and CT in comparison with postoperative pathology. MATENRIALS AND METHODS: From October 2001 to October 2002, EUS and abdominal CT were performed simultaneously on 75 patients who underwent radical gastric surgery for the treatment of gastric cancer. Through analyzing the clinical T stage and the pathologic T stage, We evaluated the diagnostic sensitivities and specificities of endoscopic ultrasonography and abdominal computed tomography. RESULTS: The male-to-female sex ratio was 1:0.6 (males:47, females:28). The mean age was 55.4 years in males (range:28~81) and 54.4 years in females (range:23~77). The clinical T stage based on EUS included 22 T1mm, 7 T1sm, 22 T2, and 24 T3. The clinical T stage based on CT included 20 Tx, 23 T2, and 32 T3. The permanent pathologic report confirmed 23 T1mm, 10 T1sm, 17 T2, 24 T3, and 1 T4. The sensitivity and specificity of EUS were 84.2% and 94.7%, respectively. However, the sensitivity and specificity of abdominal CT were 53.3% and 77.0%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that EUS is a very useful diagnostic tool for evaluating the T stage of gastric cancer because EUS has higher specificity than abdominal CT. Therefore, EUS may have a significant role as a preoperative diagnostic modality in patients undergoing minimally invasive surgery.
Endosonography ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Pathology ; Prognosis ; Quality of Life ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sex Ratio ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Surgical Procedures, Minimally Invasive ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The diagnostic value of PET-CT, in gastric cancer is well known, but the prognostic value of pretreatment PET-CT has not been adequately evaluated. This study aimed to investigate the preoperative prognostic value of PET-CT in gastric cancer patients. METHODS: A total of 107 patients underwent surgical treatment for gastric cancer from April 2007 to December 2010 at Dong-A University Medical Center after confirming the presence of F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake on preoperative PET-CT. Among these patients, the following subjects were excluded: follow-up loss (13), palliative resection (5), neoadjuvant chemotherapy (1), and unrelated death (1). The remaining 87 patients were included in this study and data were collected by retrospectively reviewing the medical records. The median follow-up duration, defined as the period from operation to last imaging study date, was 34.2+/-14.8 months. FDG uptake values were represented by maximal standardized uptake value (SUVmax). In order to assess the correlation between SUVmax and recurrence, Kaplan-Meier's survival analysis with log-rank test and cox proportional hazard model were performed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was employed to determine the optimal cutoff value of SUVmax. RESULTS: The result of Kaplan-Meier's survival analysis with log-rank test were significantly different between high SUVmax group and low SUVmax group (p=0.035), the cutoff value of which was 5.6. However, in multivariate analysis with cox proportional hazard model, T-staging, N-staging and SUVmax did not show statistical significance (p=0.190, p=0.307, and p=0.436, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: High SUVmax on PET-CT in gastric cancer can be a useful prognostic factor.
Adult ; Aged ; Area Under Curve ; Female ; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Grading ; Neoplasm Staging ; Positron-Emission Tomography ; Prognosis ; Proportional Hazards Models ; ROC Curve ; Radiopharmaceuticals ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Stomach Neoplasms/*diagnosis/mortality/surgery ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed