No abstract available.
Failed Back Surgery Syndrome*

No abstract available.
Humans

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans ; Hydrocephalus*

PURPOSE: Although adjuvant chemotherapy after resection of gastric cancer is a popular practice in Korea, there are still controversies about the effectiveness of the treatment. The fact that the relatively less effective drugs have been used and the rarity of large-scaled controlled studies may be partially responsible for the controversies. FP(5-FU, Cisplatin) combination is one of the most active regimen against advanced gastric cancer, consistently showing a response rate of 50~60%. We tried the FP chemotherapy as an adjuvant treatment for high-risk patients after curative resection of gastric cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between February 1992 and June 1996, 35 patients with completely resected high-risk gastric cancer(postoperative stage III or IV except thase with M1) received six courses of FP chemotherapy. Endpoints were toxicities of treatment, relapse free survival, and overall survival. RESULTS: With a median follow-up time of 17.1 months, Kaplan-Meier estimates of 2-year overall survival was 63.3% and relapse free survival estimates was 49%. There were no differences between stage III and IV patients in terms of overall survival or relapse free survival. Hematologic and non-hematologic toxicities were tolerable for most of the patients. CONCLUSION: Postoperative FP combination chemotherapy was tolerable for patients with high-risk(stage III and IV) gastric cancer. It is too early to determine the long term survival rates for this patients, but 2-year overall and relapse free survival were comparable to that of historical non-cisplatin containing regimens. Randomized phase III studies are warranted.
Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Cisplatin* ; Drug Therapy* ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Fluorouracil* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Korea ; Recurrence ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Survival Rate

BACKGROUND/AIMS: A single gene mutation alone cannot explain the poor prognosis of colorectal cancer. This study aimed to establish a correlation between the expression of six proteins and the prognosis of colorectal cancer patients. METHODS: Tissue samples were collected from 266 patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer at our institution from January 2006 to December 2007. The expression of six proteins were determined using immunohistochemical staining of specimens. RESULTS: Cathepsin D, p53, COX-2, epidermal growth factor receptor, c-erbB-2, and Ki-67 expression were detected in 38.7%, 60.9%, 37.6%, 35.7%, 30.1%, and 74.4% of the samples, respectively. The expression of cathepsin D was significantly correlated with reduced cancer-free survival (p=0.036) and colorectal cancer-specific survival (p=0.003), but the other expression levels were not. In a multivariate analysis, cathepsin D expression was found to be an independent prognostic factor for poorer colorectal cancer-specific survival (hazard ratio, 8.55; 95% confidence interval, 1.07 to 68.49). Furthermore, patients with tumors expressing four or more of the proteins had a significantly decreased cancer-free survival rate (p=0.006) and colorectal cancer-specific survival rate (p=0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with cathepsin D positivity had a poorer outcome than patients who were cathepsin D-negative. Thus, cathepsin D may provide an indicator for appropriate intensive follow-up and adjuvant chemotherapy.
Adenocarcinoma/*pathology ; Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous/pathology ; Adult ; Aged ; Cathepsin D/analysis ; Colorectal Neoplasms/*pathology ; Cyclooxygenase 2/analysis ; Female ; Humans ; Ki-67 Antigen/analysis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prognosis ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor/analysis ; Receptor, ErbB-2/analysis ; Survival Analysis ; Tumor Markers, Biological/*analysis ; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53/analysis

BACKGROUND: It is well known that the prevalence of lung cancer is higher in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis(IPF) patients than in the general population. This high prevalence is explained by the concept of 'scar carcinoma'. There have been several reports on the prevalence of histologic type of lung cancer in IPF with conflicting results. Despite of the high smoker rate in almost all previous reports, none considered the smoking history of patients. Therefore we performed a separate studies on fibrosis associated lung cancer and smoking associated lung cancer. The purpose of this study is to investigate the proportion of lung cancer in IPF that is fibrosis assiciated and to determine the most common histologic type in fibrosis associated lung cancer in IPF. METHODS: A retrospective review of medical records and radilolgic studies was performed for cases of lung cancer with IPF. We investigated smoking history, sequence of diagnosis of lung cancer and IPF, histologic type of lung cancer and the cancer location, especially whether the location is associated with fibrosis. To evaluate the proportion of fibrous associated lung cancer, the lung cancer in IPF were categorized according to the presence of fibrosis at cancer location. RESULTS: Fifty seven patients were subjects for this analysis. Six(11%) cases were diagnosed as lung cancer during follow-up for IPF, and both diseases were diagnosed simultaneously in the others. Ninety four percent of patients were smokers and the average smoking amount was 47.1±21.9 pack-year. Among the patients with IPF and lung cancer, 42(80.8%) cases were considered as 'fibrosis associated'. The remainder was 'not fibrosis associated' and probably was due to smoking etc. Although the most frequent histologic type was squamous cell carcinoma as a whole, adenocarcinoma was the prominent histologic type in 'fibrosis associated lung cancer.' CONCLUSION: Considering the proportion of 'fibrosis not associated lung cancer' in the patients with IPF and lung cancer, significant proportion of lung cancer in IPF may not be fibrosis induced. This may influence the distribution of histologic type of lung cancer in IPF.
Adenocarcinoma ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Diagnosis ; Fibrosis* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis* ; Lung Neoplasms* ; Lung* ; Medical Records ; Prevalence ; Retrospective Studies ; Smoke ; Smoking

The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of c-fos in the spinal cord during the development of allodynia, induced by peripheral nerve injury. Following tight ligation of the left L5 and L6 spinal nerves of Sprague- Dawley rat, the lumbar spinal cord was postfixed following perfusion. Frontal frozen sections of 40nm were immunostained according to the peroxidase-antiperoxidase method. The allodynic threshold was checked with 8 calibrated von Frey filaments. MK-801 (0.3 mg/kg), morphine (3 mg/kg) and saline (as a placebo) were administered subcutaneously 30 min before, and 24 and 48 hrs after surgery. The tactile threshold decreased below 3 g since 2 days after surgery in the saline and morphine groups, but delayed a little in the MK-801 group. In the superficial layer the number of Fos-like immunoreactive neurones (Fos-LI) peaked at 2 hours and decreased thereafter, and reached normal levels 24 hrs following operation, for all groups. In the deep layer they were biphasic, - peaking at 2 and 24 hrs - in the saline group, but were suppressed in the morphine and MK-801 groups until 7 days following operation. The above discrepancy between the number of Fos-LI and the allodynic threshold showed that central sensitizations are not critically involved in the development of nerve injury induced tactile allodynia.
Analgesics, Opioid/*pharmacology ; Animal ; Dizocilpine Maleate/*pharmacology ; Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists/*pharmacology ; Hyperesthesia/etiology/*metabolism ; Ligation ; Male ; Morphine/*pharmacology ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos/*metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Spinal Cord/*metabolism ; Spinal Nerves/injuries ; Wounds and Injuries/complications

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to review the incidence, types, chemotherapy regimens, operation methods, pregnancy rate and propiosis of the ov#arian malignancy under the age of twenty years old. METHODS: Retrospective reviews of the medical recordings for 22 patients with ovarian malignancy under the age of twenty years old in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hanyang University from 1986 to 1997 were done. RESULTS: Gerin cell tumor accounts for the majority of cases (77%), whereas 5 patients(23%) belong to the common epithelial poup which were all mucinous type. Our experiences with 22 cases are as followings: 5 mucinous cystadenocarcinoma, 8 immature teratoma, 4 endodermal sinus tumor, 3 dysgernma and 2 mixed germ cell tumor. The incidence of this group was 8.2% (22/266) in all ovarian malignancy. Fourteen of them are stage I, each one is, stage II and IV, and six patients are stage III. The average age was 14.9 years old in germ cell tumor and 18.4 yems old in mucinous cystadenoearcinoma. Malignant ovarian cancer under the age of twenty can be treated with conservative surgery, followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. Commonly used chemotherapeutic regimens were VAC(Vincristine, Actinomycin-D; Cyclophosphamide), VBP(Vinblastine, Bleomycin, Cisplatin) and BEP(Bleomycin, Etoposide, Cisplatin). Second look operations were done in 11 patienth and histologic positive findings were detected in 4 of them. The length of follow-up ranged ftom 3 months to 137 months and median value was 44 rnonths. CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that for young women who wish to preserve child-bearing capacity, regardless of the stage of the tumor, fertility preserving surgery with complete surgical staging, if necessary followed by combination chemotherapy is an appropriate treatment.
Bleomycin ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Cystadenocarcinoma, Mucinous ; Drug Therapy ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Endodermal Sinus Tumor ; Etoposide ; Female ; Fertility ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gynecology ; Humans ; Incidence ; Medical Records ; Mucins ; Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal ; Obstetrics ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Pregnancy Rate ; Retrospective Studies ; Teratoma

Tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) is a useful drug for treating neuropathic pain. However, tremors are one of the relatively frequent side effects of TCA. A female patient, who was suffering from postherpetic neuralgia, was treated with amitriptyline starting with 10 mg/day. She developed resting tremors on the second day after increasing the dose to 30 mg/day. This case highlights the need for the careful use of amitriptyline in the treatment of neuropathic pain in elderly patients.
Aged ; Amitriptyline ; Female ; Humans ; Neuralgia ; Neuralgia, Postherpetic ; Tremor*