Objective To investigate the effect of tumor length and number of positive lymph nodes and the ratio of positive lymph nodes on survival in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Methods From July 1995 to July 2005, a total of 6,691 resected lymph nodes were obtained from 526patients who underwent curative resection of the primary tumour with systematic lymphadenectomy. The survivals were analysed by life tables and Kaplan-Meier methods. Results Among patients with regional disease, the number of positive lymph nodes (＞3) was related to an increasing risk. The proportion of positive lymph nodes compared with the number of lymph nodes dissected (20 %) conferred an increased risk. The tumor length (≤5 cm, 5 cm ＜ length ＜ 7 cm, ＞7 cm) was related to an increasing risk (84.74 %, 47.79 %,36.90 %, 35.52 %; 73.41%, 46.29 %, 23.87 %, 20.64 %; 64.44 %, 13.92 %, 0, 0). Conclusion Tumor length,the number of positive lymph nodes, and the ratio of positive lymph nodes are important prognostic factors for survival in patients with esophageal carcinoma. The PTNM classification system for patients with esophageal carcinoma might consider adding number of positive lymph nodes as an important prognostic factor.

Purpose To investigate the mutations of ID3,TCF3 and MYC genes in Chinese Burkitt lymphoma and discuss their significance.Methods Total DNA was extracted from tumor tissues of 32 patients with Burkitt lymphoma,then the DNA was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR),and the products of PCR were sequenced directly with Sanger sequencing methods.Results The mutation rates of ID3 and TCF3 genes were 35.5％ (11/31) and 18.8％ (6/32) respectively.The mutation rate of MYC was 50％.The mutation rates of MYC exon 1,MYC exon 2 and MYC exon 3 were 3.3％ (1/30),50％ (15/30) and 7.7％ (2/26) respectively.Conclusion Recurrent mutations of the ID3,TCF3 and MYC genes in Chinese Burkitt lymphoma were identified by Sanger sequencing.For TCF3 gene,a novel mutation c.2202G ＞ C p.L569V was found in three cases.In two cases,a novel mutation of c.1070A ＞G p.G182D was found in MYC gene.

Objective To study the effect of positive lymph node number on the survival of patients with esophageal carcinoma. Methods From July 1995 to July 2005, a total of 11,447 resected lymph nodes were obtained from 1140 patients who underwent curative resection of the primary tumor with systematic lymphadenectomy at Shanxi cancer hospital. The survivals were analysed by life tables and Kaplan-Meier methods, the related factors of lymph node metastasis were assessed by Chi-square test. Results The number of positive lymph nodes was negatively related to survival rates of esophageal carcinoma. According to the number of lymph nodes resected (≥8 nodes versus <8 nodes), there was significant difference in metastatic lymph node ratio. Conclusion The number of positive lymph node can reflect the prognosis of patients better. The authors suggest that the modification of the tumor-lymphnode-metastasis (TNM) staging classification (TNM) to include the number of positive lymph nodes in the N1 category.

BACKGROUNDBronchoplasty plus pulmonary arterioplasty has become one of the standard surgical operation for central-type lung cancer. The aim of this study is to review the surgical experience of bronchoplasty and pulmonary arterioplasty in treatment of central-type lung cancer.

METHODSFrom 1987 to 2005, 56 patients with central-type lung cancer underwent bronchoplasty and pulmonary arterioplasty. There were 45 males and 11 females with a mean age of 56 years. According to pTNM classification, 18 cases were in stage IIB, and 32 in stage IIIA and 6 in stage IIIB. Histologically, there were 35 cases of squamous cell carcinoma, 14 cases of adenocarcinoma, 4 cases of small cell lung cancer and 3 cases of carcinoid. The surgical procedures included sleeve resection of bronchus for 30 cases, wedge resection of bronchus for 26 cases, and sleeve resection of pulmonary artery for 16 cases and wedge resection of pulmonary artery for 40 cases.

RESULTSOne patient died in the perioperative period. The overall 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rate was 79.6% (43/54), 48.1% (25/52) and 34.0% (17/50), respectively.

CONCLUSIONSThe results suggest that bronchoplasty and pulmonary arterioplasty can decrease the proportions of total pneumonectomy and exploratory thoracotomy and expand the indication of operation. Bronchoplasty and pulmonary arterioplasty can be achieved with satisfactory outcome for central-type lung cancer, especially for those patients with advanced lesions or poor pulmonary function.

Objective: To establish a triple-color pseudovirion-based neutralization assay (PBNA) and evaluate its capability of detecting immunogenicity of the sera generated by the immunization of HPV 9-valent vaccine. Methods: HPV pseudovirus (PsVs) 6/11/16/18/31/33/45/52/58 with the encapsidated fluorescence expressing red fluorescent plasmid N31-MCHREEY, green fluorescent N31-EGFP or blue fluorescent N31-mTagBFP were generated. The concentration of HPV PsVs and the infection titers of HPV PsVs were detected by double-antibody sandwich ELISA and TCID₅₀, respectively. The single- and triple color HPV 16/33/45 PsVs were used to detect the neutralization titers of mice sera immunized with HPV 9-valent vaccine and confirmed the accuracy and specificity of the triple-color PBNAs. Then, the single- and triple color HPV 6/11/18/31/33/45/52/58 PsVs were employed to detect the neutralization titers of cynomolgus macaques sera immunized with HPV 9-valent vaccine and determined whether the triple-color PBNAs could be applied to evaluate the immunogenicity of the sera generated by the immunization of HPV9-valent vaccine. Results: The concentration of HPV16 PsVs encapsulating green, red or blue fluorescent plasmid was 5.0 to 6.0 μg/ml and HPV6/11/18/31/33/45/52/59 triple-color HPV PsVs was about 1.0 to 3.0 μg/ml. 9 types HPV PsVs containing EGFP, Mcherry or mTagBFP reporter plasmid were obtained and the concentration can meet the need of neutralization detection. 9 types single-color fluorescent HPV PsVs had similar infectivity against 293FT cells with the infection titer values between 1×10⁴ and 1×10⁵. The results of PBNAs showed that there was no significant difference in the anti-HPV neutralization titers of mice sera induced by HPV 9-valent vaccine between single-color and triple-color HPV16/33/45 PsVs (P>0.05). Similarly, there was also no significant difference in the anti-HPV neutralization titers of cynomolgus macaques sera induced by HPV 9-valent vaccine between single-color and triple-color HPV6/11/18/31/33/45/52/58 PsVs (P>0.05). Conclusion We successfully established the triple-color PBNAs and verified the accuracy and specificity of triple-color PBNAs consistent with single-color PBNAs. The triple-color PBNAs can be applied to evaluate the immunogenicity of HPV 9-valent vaccine's immune serum.