Tumor metastasis to sentinel lymph nodes represents the first step of tumor dissemination in most human cancers and serves as a major prognostic indicator for disease progression.Recent studies have revealed that tumor lymphangiogenesisis correlated with lymph node metastasis in experimental cancer models and in several types of human Cancers.Metastatic tumor cells may continue to promote lymphatic vessel growth even after their metastasis to sentinel lymph nodes,likely promoting further cancer spread.Vascular endothelial growth factor-C(VEGF-C)and VEGF-D are the first specific lymphangiogenesis factor identified,and a large number of clinical studies have shown a correlation between tumor expression of VEGF-C or VEGF-D and lymph node metastasis.Additional tumor lymphangiogenesis factors have been recently identifled,including VEGF-A.Importantly,blockade of the VEGFR-3 pathway by specific antibodies,by soluble receptor constructs,and by small molecule kinase iubibitors efficiently inhibits experimental tumor lymphangiogenesis and metastasis and might also represent a novel therapeutic avenue for the treatment of human cancers.

AIM: To investigate the feasibility and infection efficiency of MSCs with replication-deficient adenovirus containing delivered gene, and whether enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) gene track the change during rMSCs differentiating neuron-like cells. METHODS: Rat marrow mesenchymal stem cells (rMSCs) were expanded in low density in vitro . Under the control of CMV promoter, pAd-EGFP-Vector was constructed by homologous recombination in E.coil BJ 5183, and the recombinant virus was produced in HEK 293 packaging cell line. rMSCs infected with Ad-EGFP were observed and analyzed with fluorescence microscope. Infection efficiency was assessed by microscopical scoring and flow cytometrics. After withdrawing serum and exposure to ?-mercaptoethanol medium, rMSCs infected with Ad-EGFP was induced to differentiate into neuron-like cells. As a control, the plasmid of pTrack-EGFP also was transfected into rMSCs to evaluate transfection efficiency.RESULTS: The results showed that Adenovirus vector (AdVec) delivered EGFP gene with high efficiency to marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Gene expression analysis showed that 36%?2 % of rMSCs infected with recombinant adenovirus expressed the transgene of EGFP at high levels. However, the transfection of plasmid pTrack-EGFP using routine method of lipofectamin mixed with plasmid DNA (pTrack-EGFP) was not easily successful and the transfection efficiency was much lower. rMSCs infected with Ad-EGFP in different passage could differentiate into typical morphology alike neural cells after withdrawing serum and exposure to ?-mercaptoethanol medium. Immuno-staining with neuron-specific enolase (NSE), a neuronal marker, was strong positive, which suggested that rMSCs infected with Ad-EGFP had the potential to differentiate into neurons or neuron-like cells. CONCLUSION: The AdVec system can deliver target gene into MSCs and EGFP gene carried by AdVec can track the change during rMSCs differentiating into neuron-like cells.

Purpose: Our study aimed to make a propensity score matching (PSM) analysis on the clinical application of gastricjejunum pouch anastomosis (GJPA) and Billroth-II anastomosis after distal gastrectomy. Methods: We collected clinical data from 249 patients who received distal gastrectomy from January 2016 to July 2020. According to the reconstruction method used, all patients were divided into the Billroth-II group and the GJPA group. Clinical data and operation complications were analyzed. Results: The clinical characteristics of the 2 groups were comparable after PSM. In the Billroth-II group, the incidence rate of delayed gastric emptying was higher than that in the GJPA group. Fewer patients suffered reflux gastritis in the GJPA group. The RGB (residue, gastritis, and bile) scores related to the severity of bile reflux into the remnant stomach, gastritis, and residue were higher in the Billroth-II group. Postoperative nutritional status and Visick classification demonstrated that postoperative subjective feelings in the GJPA group were improved significantly. Conclusion The application of GJPA in reconstruction after distal gastrectomy is safe, economical, and reliable. This reconstruction improved the quality of life of patients. It is worth popularizing widely in clinical settings.

Purpose: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is strongly recommended for advanced gastric cancer due to good local control and a high rate of R0 dissection with this strategy. Minimally invasive techniques such as laparoscopy-assisted or total laparoscopic approaches is becoming more and more acceptable in the treatment for gastric cancer. However, the safety and efficiency of total laparoscopic D2 gastrectomy (TLG) for advanced gastric cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy have not been well evaluated. Methods: A retrospective study in a single center from 2014 to 2016 was conducted. A total of 65 locally advanced gastric cancers were treated by laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy (LAG) or TLG. Parameters which include operation time, blood loss, complications, hospital stay, 3-year overall survival, and 3-year disease-free survival were used for comparison. Results: The time of operation in the TLG group was shorter than in the LAG group (P = 0.013), blood loss was less (P = 0.002) and time to first flatus was shorter (P = 0.039) in the TLG group than that in the LLG group. Intraoperative and postoperative complications were comparable in both groups. No significant difference was found in 3-year overall and disease-free survival. Conclusion For patients with locally advanced gastric cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, laparoscopic D2 gastrectomy can be considered as a safe and efficient alternative. A further multicenter prospective randomized controlled study is needed to elucidate the applicability of this technique for advanced gastric cancer.

OBJECTIVETo compare the clinical efficacy of the lymph node dissection patterns of the reverse and the traditional cabbage in hand-assisted laparoscopic D2 radical gastrectomy (HALG).

METHODSFrom December 2010 to October 2013, 194 patients with HALG in Chengdu Military General Hospital were enrolled in this study. According to the pattern of lymph node dissection, 108 patients were performed with the reverse procedure which took spleen as starting point, from left to right, and 86 patients were performed with the traditional cabbage procedure which took the abdominal cavity as the center, from both sides to middle. A retrospective comparative analysis was made on the intra- and post-operative data between the two groups.

RESULTSAll the patients were successfully performed with HALG, and no peri-operative death occurred. There were no significant differences in the incision length [(7.0 ± 0.2) cm vs. (6.9 ± 0.3) cm], the operative time [(170.9 ± 33.8) minute vs. (174.6 ± 22.4) minute], dissected lymph node number (17.6 ± 7.5 vs. 17.1 ± 5.8) and post-operative complications [(6.5%(7/108) vs. 8.1%(7/86)] between the reverse group and cabbage group (all P>0.05). However, less blood loss [(204.6 ± 98.2) ml vs. (259.1 ± 122.6) ml, P<0.01] and shorter postoperative hospital stay [(9.0 ± 1.7) day vs. (10.5 ± 4.0) day, P<0.01] were observed in reverse group as compared to cabbage group. During 1 to 6 months follow-up, no death case was found in reverse group, while 1 case died due to upper gastrointestinal bleeding 48 days after operation in cabbage group.

CONCLUSIONEfficacy is similar between the two HALG procedures in lymph node dissection, while reverse procedure has certain advantages, such as less blood loss and faster recovery.

Gastrectomy ; methods ; Hand-Assisted Laparoscopy ; Humans ; Length of Stay ; Lymph Node Excision ; Operative Time ; Postoperative Complications ; Postoperative Period ; Retrospective Studies ; Stomach Neoplasms ; surgery

Objective To assess the efficacy and safety of morinidazole combined with appendectomy in treating purulent or gangrenous appendicitis.Methods Double-blind randomized controlled multicenter clinical trial was designed and conducted.Totally 437 patients were included,219 in the control group and 218 in the experimental group.Cases of purulent or gangrenous appendicitis were enrolled and assigned to each of the two groups.The control group received ornidazole injection for 5 to 7 days while the experimental group received morinidazole injection.Both groups underwent appendectomy.Clinical response,micrombiological outcomes,overall response were evaluated.Adverse events and side effects were recorded.Results No significant difference was observed between the two groups regarding the clinical healing rate at 5-10 days after medicine withdrawal,anaerobia clearance and overall healing rates.Adverse events occurred in 140 patients (32.1％).Incidence of adverse events in the control group and the experimental group was 34.7％ and 29.4％,respectively (P ＞ 0.05).The overall incidence of side effects was 15.1％ (66 cases).Side effects were less seen in the experimental group compared with that in the control group (11.5％ vs.18.7％,P ＜ 0.05).The most frequent side effects were aminotransferase rising,thrombocytosis,nausea,vomiting and electrocardiographic abnormality.Conclusions The effect of morinidazole plus operation was comparable with ornidazole in treating purulent or gangrenous appendicitis.The safety of morinidazole is better than ornidazole.

OBJECTIVETo systematically assess the safety and efficacy of hand-assisted laparoscopic distal gastrectomy (HALG) versus open distal gastrectomy (ODG) for gastric cancer.

METHODSChinese or English literature regarding comparison of HALG and ODG were collected by searching in databases (such as PubMed, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang database) between January 1996 and September 2016. The data of operative time, incision length, blood loss, number of harvested lymph nodes, time to flatus, hospital stay, postoperative complication morbidity and long-term outcomes were compared between the two procedures. Then funnel plot was used to evaluate publication bias and sensitivity analysis was used to evaluate the stability of the results. All these data analyses were performed using the Meta for or Meta package of R version 3.3.1.

RESULTSA total of 7 studies with 835 patients (323 cases in HALG group and 512 cases in ODG group) were included. Compared with ODG, HALG had a longer operative time (WMD=28.93 minutes, 95%CI=9.59 to 48.28, Z=2.93, P=0.000), a shorter incision length (WMD=-10.31 cm, 95%CI=-14.01 to -6.62, Z=-5.47, P=0.000), less blood loss (WMD=-140.08 ml, 95%CI=-215.07 to -65.09, Z=-3.66, P=0.000), faster gastrointestinal recovery (WMD=-1.23 days, 95%CI=-1.89 to -0.56, Z=-3.62, P=0.000), shorter postoperative hospital stay (WMD=-3.24 days, 95%CI=-5.47 to -1.02, Z=-2.85, P=0.000). In subgroup analysis, 3 studies published before 2013 vs. 4 studies published afterwards, the number of harvested lymph nodes (WMD=-0.78, 95%CI=-2.05 to 0.50, Z=-1.19, P=0.235) and postoperative complication morbidity (RR=1.02, 95%CI=0.43 to 2.44, Z=0.05, P=0.961) did not differ significantly between two groups. Compared with ODG, the RR(95%CI) of ileus of HALG was 0.43 (0.07 to 2.82), but the difference was not statistically significant (P=0.383). One study reported the 5-year overall survival rates of HALG and ODG were 81.0% vs 67.5%, and the tumor recurrence rates were 7.1% vs 22%, respectively, but the differences were not statistically significant(all P>0.05). Sensitivity analysis showed that the above results were stable. The funnel plots of the lymph nodes and postoperative complication morbidity did not present significant publication bias.

CONCLUSIONSHALG has the advantages of minimal invasiveness such as shorter incision length and quicker recovery. Furthermore, the short-term efficacy of HALG is similar to conventional open surgery. However, the long-term efficacy is lack of support from multicenter long-term follow-up results.

Blood Loss, Surgical ; statistics & numerical data ; Comparative Effectiveness Research ; Gastrectomy ; methods ; Hand-Assisted Laparoscopy ; adverse effects ; Humans ; Length of Stay ; statistics & numerical data ; Lymph Node Excision ; statistics & numerical data ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; epidemiology ; Operative Time ; Postoperative Complications ; epidemiology ; Postoperative Period ; Recovery of Function ; Stomach Neoplasms ; mortality ; surgery ; Survival Rate ; Time ; Treatment Outcome