Neoadjuvant therapy has become the standard treatment for locally advanced resectable esophageal cancer, significantly improving long-term survival compared to surgery alone. Neoadjuvant therapy has evolved to include various strategies, such as concurrent chemoradiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or targeted combination therapy. This enriches clinical treatment options and provides a more personalized and scientific treatment approach for patients. This article aims to comprehensively summarize current academic research hot topics, review the rationale and evaluation measures of neoadjuvant therapy, discuss challenges in restaging methods after neoadjuvant therapy, and identify the advantages and disadvantages of various neoadjuvant therapeutic strategies.

Objective To explore the value of oral contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (OCEUS) combined with contrast-enhanced CT in predicting preoperative T staging in patients with gastric cancer. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 80 patients with gastric cancer confirmed via endoscopic biopsy or postoperative pathology at the First People’s Hospital of Jining from January 2021 to November 2024. The cohort included 56 males and 24 females, aged 38-79 years, with a median age of 55.9 years. All patients underwent both OCEUS and contrast-enhanced CT within one week prior to surgery. T staging of gastric cancer was determined using OCEUS, contrast-enhanced CT, or their combination. The results were compared with pathological T staging, and statistical differences in accuracy were analyzed. Results Pathological T staging identified T1 in 9 cases, T2 in 16 cases, T3 in 42 cases, and T4 in 13 cases. OCEUS indicated T1 in 6 cases, T2 in 14 cases, T3 in 50 cases, and T4 in 10 cases, with an accuracy rate of 80.0%. Contrast-enhanced CT indicated T1 in 4 cases, T2 in 12 cases, T3 in 52 cases, and T4 in 12 cases, with an accuracy rate of 75.0%. The combination of OCEUS and contrast-enhanced CT indicated T1 in 6 cases, T2 in 15 cases, T3 in 47 cases, and T4 in 12 cases, with an accuracy rate of 87.5%. The combined approach demonstrated significantly higher accuracy in preoperative T staging compared to either method alone (P < 0.05). Conclusion The combination of OCEUS and contrast-enhanced CT improves the accuracy of preoperative T staging in gastric cancer patients, providing valuable support for their diagnosis and treatment.

"Global cancer statistics 2022" based on the latest GLOBCAN data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) was recently released, providing a systematic analysis of the incidence and mortality of 36 types of cancer across 185 countries worldwide. The international burden of cancer is expected to continue to increase over the next 30 years, posing a severe public health and social challenge for many countries, including China. This article offers a key point interpretation of the "Global cancer statistics 2022", focusing on the evolution of cancer epidemiology and future development trends. The aim is to broaden the international perspective on cancer prevention and treatment, with the hope of providing reference and guidance for cancer prevention and treatment efforts in our country.

Since December 2019, unexplained pneumonia has appeared in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, and a new type of coronavirus infection was confirmed as COVID-19. COVID-19 spread rapidly nationwide and abroad. The COVID-19 has brought huge impacts to all the people and walks of life, especially to the medical and health systems. It has also brought great challenges to the treatment of patients with cancer. Esophageal cancer is a common malignant tumor in China and most of the patients are in the middle and advanced stage when diagnosed, with immunosuppressive and poor prognosis. The selection of surgical procedures and perioperative managements of esophageal cancer require all thoracic surgeons work together to figure out a reasonable system of surgical treatment and emergency response.

Definitive chemoradiotherapy (dCRT) is the general recommendation for the treatment of cervical esophageal cancer for organ preservation. However, the long-term survival of dCRT is not satisfactory. Surgical resection alone is not superior to dCRT in the treatment of cervical esophageal cancer. Surgical resection is often combined with laryngectomy, which will affect the quality of life. Recent evidence suggests that neoadjuvant therapy combined with surgery improves the long-term survival of cervical esophageal cancer. On the other hand, the development of technologies such as laryngeal preservation surgery and minimally invasive esophagectomy has reduced the risk of operation and improved the quality of life. This article will review the new progress in the comprehensive treatment of cervical esophageal cancer from the perspective of surgery.

Esophageal cancer is located in the 8th position of the incidence of malignant tumors and the 6th most common cause of cancer-related mortality in the world, while China has the highest incidence and mortality of esophageal cancer. Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), the predominant histologic type of esophageal cancer in China, accounts for about 90%. Despite recent improvement of surgical techniques and philosophy, however, the prognosis of ESCC patients treated with surgery is still poor, and 5-year survival remains unsatisfactorily low. So far, the pathogenesis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is still unclear, and effective prevention is also out of the question. To find the main factors affecting the prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, and to improve the survival of patients, are the main directions of all scholars. Postoperative pathology of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is considered to be one of the most important predictors of prognosis. Currently, the evaluation of postoperative esophageal prognosis mainly depends on TNM staging, but some criteria of its specific content and staging remains controversial. In this paper recent domestic and foreign related researches and clinical trials reports are collected, and the postoperative pathological features affecting esophageal squamous cell carcinoma prognosis were reviewed.

AIM: To observe the expression change of growth and differentiation factor 10 ( GDF10 ) in the spinal cord of the rats with neuropathic pain .METHODS:Male SD rats (n=60) were used.The neuropathic pain was induced by ligation of left L 5 spinal nerves of the animals .The paw withdrawal threshold was detected 1 d before surgery , and 0 d, 1 d, 3 d, 10 d and 21 d after surgery.The changes of GDF10 in the dorsal horn of L5 spinal cord were detected by immunofluorescence staining and Western blot .RESULTS:The paw withdrawal threshold of the rats with spinal nerve ligation was decreased from 1 d after surgery until 3 d with obvious difference compared with the na ve rats ( P<0.05 ) , continuously decreased until 10 d, and then stabilized at 21 d.The GDF10 was located in the cytoplasm of the neurons in the dorsal horn of L5 spinal cord detected by immunofluorescence staining .The expression of GDF10 in L5 dorsal horn de-tected by immunofluorescence staining was reduced after surgery , significantly decreased from 10 d ( P<0.05) until more than 21 d after surgery in spinal nerve ligation group compared with na ve group.GDF10 in L5 spinal cord detected at 10 d after surgery by Western blot was significantly down-regulated in spinal nerve ligation group compared with na ve group (P<0.05).CONCLUSION:Spinal nerve ligation induces the decrease in GDF 10 expression in spinal dorsal horn .The down-regulation of GDF10 may contribute to the regulation of hyperpathia caused by mechanical stimulation after the injury of spinal nerve .

Objective To investigate the application value and feasibility of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) in thoracoscopic and laparoscopic esophagectomy for esophageal cancer.Methods The clinical data of 304 patients with esophageal cancer who were admitted to the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University from December 2013 and July 2014 were retrospectively analyzed.All the patients underwent esophagogastric partial resection, esophagogastric cervical anastomosis and 2-field lymph node dissection under general anesthesia.The management of 195 patients guided by ERAS were allocated to the ERAS group and 109 patients receiving perioperative traditional treatments were allocated to the control group.Observing indicators included : (1) enteral and parenteral nutritional support treatments;(2) nutrient indexs: levels of serum albumin (Alb) and prealbumin;(3) the recovery of gastrointestinal function: time to anal exsufflation and defecation;(4) postoperative complications and the grading according to Clavien standard;(5) duration of postoperative hospital stay and treatment expenses;(6) risk factors affecting postoperative complications by multivariate analysis;(7) independent risk factors affecting occurrence rate of postoperative complications by univariate analysis.Measurement data with normal distribution were presented as (x) ± s and analyzed using the t test.Nonnormal distribution data were analyzed by the Wilcoxon rank sum test.Comparison of repeated data was analyzed by the repeated measures ANOVA.Categorical variables were analyzed using the chi-square test or Fisher's exact probability.The multiple linear regression analysis and Logistic regression were used to measure the multivariate analysis of continuous variables and binary variable, respectively.Results (1) During the enteral and parenteral nutritional support treatments, 11 patients with surgery-related complications in the ERAS group didn't receive oral intake at postoperative day 1,26 proceeded the intravenous rehydration at postoperative day 4 due to calorie intake less than 80％ of calorie requirement, and enteral nutritional support treatment was well-tolerated in the control group.(2) Comparison of nutrient indexs : the levels of serum Alb and prealbumin at postoperative day 1, 3 and 5 were (37.2±3.9)g/L, (39.1 ±3.5)g/L, (38.5 ±3.0)g/L and (0.20 ±0.06)g/L, (0.13 ±0.04)g/L, (0.13 ±0.04)g/L in the ERAS group, (37.7 ±2.8)g/L, (39.0 ±3.6)g/L, (38.4 ±3.8)g/L and (0.18 ± 0.06) g/L, (0.13 ± 0.04) g/L, (0.13 ± 0.04) g/L in the control group, respectively, showing no significant difference in the postoperative changing trends between the 2 groups (F =0.357, 0.453, P ＞ 0.05).(3) The recovery of gastrointestinal function : time to first anal exsufflation and first defecation were (2.1 ± 0.8) days and (3.4 ± 1.2) days in the ERAS group, (3.2 ± 0.9) days and (5.5 ± 1.5) days in the control group, respectively,showing significant differences between the 2 groups (t =-10.505,-13.174, P ＜0.05).(4) There was no death in the perioperative period.The overall incidences of postoperative complications and number of patients with severe complications were 26.15％ (51/195) and 8 in the ERAS group, 30.28％ (33/109) and 8 in the control group, with no significant difference between the 2 groups (x2=0.594, 1.469, P ＞ 0.05).Eight and 10 patients in the ERAS and control groups underwent gastrointestinal decompression, 6 and 8 patients in the ERAS and control groups underwent retreatment in the intensive care unit (ICU), 3 and 2 patients in the ERAS and control groups were readmitted to the hospital at 3 weeks after discharge, with no significant difference in the above indexes (x2=0.185, 2.892, P ＞0.05).(5)The duration of postoperative hospital stay and treatment expenses were (6.8 ±2.4)days and (25 088 ±10 336)yuan in the ERAS group, (11.1 ±3.4)days and (38 819± 14 854)yuan in the control group, showing significant differences between the 2 groups (t =-12.782,-9.452,P ＜ 0.05).(6) The age, gender, preoperative weight loss ＞ 10％, tumor staging, tumor differentiation,neoadjuvant chemotherapy and time of food intake were risk factors affecting incidence of postoperative complication in patients with esophageal cancer by the univariate analysis (x2=2.484, 2.333, 0.061, 8.553,2.459, 0.163, 3.462, P ＜ 0.05).(7) The age, preoperative weight loss ＞ 10％, tumor staging and neoadjuvant chemotherapy were independent risk factors affecting incidence of postoperative complication in patients with esophageal cancer by the multivariate analysis (OR =0.365, 10.761,0.290, 8.140, 95％ confidence interval :0.198-0.671, 4.122-28.095, 0.130-0.645, 3.946-16.791, P ＜0.05), but time of food intake was not an independent risk factor (OR =0.540, 95％ CI: 0.280-1.041, P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions ERAS in the esophageal minimally invasive surgery for esophageal cancer is safe and feasible, with the advantages of shorter recovery time of gastrointestinal function and duration of hospital stay, lower treatment expenses and a better application value compared with traditional treatment.

Objective To explore the function of gene phoN1 in Shigella flexneri.Method Using the λ-Red recombi-nant system, phoN1was knocked out from S.flexneri 2a strain 301.Comparative proteomics was performed to analyze the differences between mutant and wild-type strains in protein expression profiles .Sereny tests and competitive infection assays were carried out to compare the virulence of mutant and wild-type strains .Results The deletion mutant of phoN1 was suc-cessfully constructed .No significant difference between the two strains was found in the comparative proteomics analyses . The function of gene phoN1 might be unrelated to the invasion ability of S.flexneri according to the results of Sereny tests and competitive infection assays .Conclusion Gene phoN1 might be of no use for the in vitro survival and host cell invasion of S.flexneri.