Objective To investigate the effect and surgical skill of ultracision harmonic scalpel in curative gastrectomy for patients with gastric carcinoma. Methods From January 2007 to May 2008, the data of 152 patients who were treated by curative gastrectomy with ultracision harmonic scalpel were analyzed retrospectively. Results The mean operative time was (189.5±24.2) min. Compared with the conventional operation, the number of harvested lymph nodes (mean: 30.4±11.6) in patients treated with ultracision harmonic scalpel was increased. The application of ultracision harmonic scalpel could shorten the operation time, decrease the intraoperative blood loss and make the operation field clear. There were no postoperative complications, such as anastomotic leakage, lymphatic leakage and massive hemorrhage. And there was no death in this series. Conclusion The usage of ultracision harmonic scalpel which could improve the curative degree of lymphadenectomy is safe in curative gastrectomy for patients with gastric carcinoma.
Objective To investigate the significance and surgical skill for lymphadenectomy around common hepatic artery in gastric cancer. Methods Two hundred and fifty-seven cases with undergoing lymphadenectomy around common hepatic artery in gastric cancer between January 2001 and December 2006 were retrospectively reviewed. Experiences and understanding of dealing with this procedure in curative gastrectomy for gastric cancer were concluded. Results The number of dissected No.8 lymph node was 2.2±1.7, and the positive rate of No.8 lymph node was 30.35%. There were no lymphadenectomy related complications, such as anastomotic leakage, lymphatic fistula and postoperative hemorrhage in this series. Dissection around common hepatic artery lymph nodes along artery intrathecal space, division and ligation of left gastric vein at its root, and sufficient exposure of anatomic structures were important to dissection lymph nodes around the common hepatic artery. The exposure of anatomic structures included liberation of common hepatic artery by traction with the band, and the exposure of posterior side of pancreas by Kocher incision.Conclusion Being familiar with the anatomy around common hepatic artery, careful dissection, and attention to the surgical skill of lymphadenectomy are very important to improve the effectiveness of lymphadenectomy around common hepatic artery in gastric cancer.
Objective To investigate the clinicopathological characteristics of proximal gastric cancer (PGC). MethodsThe clinical course and pathologic feature of 118 PGC patients were analyzed, and compared with those of 310 distal gastric cancer (DGC) patients. ResultsThe incidence of PGC was lower than DGC, the percentage of Ⅲ,Ⅳ stages and undifferentiated type in the PGC group were significantly higher than in DGC. For the surgical procedure, patients in the PGC had significantly higher percentages of total gastrectomy and other organ resection than in DGC. The percentage of patients with positive margin and lymph node metastasis in PGC was also significantly higher than in DGC. Esophageal invasion and lymph node metastasis were much more in PGC. The 5year survival of patients with PGC was significantly lower than that with DGC. No significant differences were found between the two groups with respect to the mortality rates and complications. Conclusion The relatively poor prognosis associated with PGC is mainly from advanced cases and esophageal invasion. Early detection and treatment is the most important strategy to improve the survival of patients with PGC.
Objective To investigate perfusion features of gastric antrum cancer by 64-multidetector CT and to assess the correlation between perfusion CT parameters and immunohistochemical markers of angiogenesis in gastric cancer. Methods Perfusion CT was performed in 30 patients with gastric antrum cancer （gastric antrum cancer group） and 24 patients with normal stomach (control group), and postoperative specimens were stained using a polyclonal antibody to VEGF and CD34. The correlation between perfusion parameters and microvessel density (MVD), and VEGF were analyzed. Results Blood volume (BV) increased in the gastric antrum cancer group (Plt;0.01). There was no significant difference in perfusion (PF), peak enhancement (PE), or time to peak (TTP) between the gastric antrum cancer and the normal groups (Pgt;0.05). BV was positively significantly correlated with MVD （r=0.522, P=0.02), but no significant correlation was found between PF （r=0.072, P=0.78), PE （r=0.253, P=0.31), or TTP （r=0.235, P=0.35) and MVD. No correlation was found between PF （r=-0.208, P=0.45), PE （r=-0.251, P=0.37), TTP（r=-0.284, P=0.31), or BV（r=-0.472, P=0.09) and VEGF.Conclusion Blood volume can evaluate the angiogenesis of tumor and perfusion CT can be a tool to assess microvessel status in gastric antrum cancer.
Objective To summarize the current value of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for potentially resectable gastric cancer. Methods The recent 5-year literatures searched through the PubMed with the key words: stomach neoplasm, gastric cancer/carcinoma, neoadjuvant therapy/chemotherapy and preoperative therapy/chemotherapy as well as the relevant reports presented in the ASCO Annual Meeting in 2007 and 2008 were analyzed. The present status of NAC for advanced gastric cancer was summarized, the necessity and feasibility were evaluated, and the patients features for selecting, the predictors for response, the mainly existing problems and development trend of NAC were analyzed. Results At present, there were 7 randomized control trails (RCT) published, and among them 3 were phase Ⅲ. It was safe, effective and feasible to most of trails in NAC for gastric cancer. However, it was still little to obtain survival benefit for NAC RCT, and short of randomized trial comparing strict preoperative chemotherapy to surgery alone or perioperative chemotherapy to surgery plus adjuvant chemotherapy. It remained lots of problems such as how to select the appropriate patients, the effective induced regimes and the predicted factors, the evaluated indices for response. Conclusion NAC is a safe, feasible and efficient method to potentially resectable gastric cancer, but strict phase Ⅲ randomized trials are needed. In the future, substantial improvements of treatment outcome will likely depend on the novel drugs and molecular biological targeted therapies.
Objective To investigate the effect of mRNA expression of gelatinase A on the invasion and metastasis of human gastric carcinoma (HGC). MethodsThirtysix cases of HGC were examined by in situ hybridization technique. ResultsPositive expression rates of gelatinase A in the normal gastric tissue, peritumor tissue and HGC were 8.3%,35.7% and 83.3% respectively （P＜0.01）. The positive rates of gelatinase A in the group with serosal invasion and lymph node metastasis were 93.1% and 90.6%, much higher than those in the group with negative ones (42.9% and 25.0%).By in situ hybridization, gelatinase A mRNA was showed to be expressed in the extracellular matrix of tumor tissues,which surrounded the invasive margin of cancer tissues. The positive cells at these sites were mainly tumorinfiltrating macrophages. Conclusion There is good correlation between gelatinase A mRNA expression and the invasion, metastasis of HGC. So it can be used as a useful marker for invasion and metastasis of HGC.
Objective To investigate the expression of growth hormone receptor (GHR) in human gastric cancer tissue. Methods The GHR was detected in samples of the human gastric cancer (57 cases) and the distal normal tissues (57 cases) by immunohistochemistry technique. Results The GHR expression positive rate was 80.7%(46/57) in the human gastric cancer tissues and 70.2%(40/57) in the distal normal tissues. There was no statistic difference between the human gastric cancer tissues and the distal normal tissues (Pgt;0.05). There were also no statistic differences among the gastric cancer tissues of different differentiation, different tissue type, different gender and different age ranges (Pgt;0.05). Conclusion It is similar that the expression of GHR between the human gastric cancer tissues and the distal normal tissues.
Objective To study the relationship between expression of nm23, CD44 in gastric carcinoma and lymph-node metastasis and prognosis. Methods Expression of nm 23, CD44H and CD44V6 in 105 cases of gastric carcinoma were assayed by immunohistochemistry. Among them, 59 cases were followed up. Results The incidences of nm23, CD44H and CD44V6 protein positivity in gastric carcinoma were 44.8%, 54.3% and 48.6% respectively. The positive expression of nm23, CD44V6 protein in human gastric carcinoma tissues was related to the differentiation, depth of invasion, TNM stage and prognosis (Ｐ＜0.05), but expression of CD44H was not correlated with other clinicopathologic indices. The reactivity to these three antibodies were correlate with metastasis of lymph nodes (Ｐ＜0.01 for CD44V6 and Ｐ＜0.05 for nm23, CD44H). Conclusion Expression of the standard form of CD44 (CD44H) might be useful in observing the progression of the disease, wile CD44V6 and nm23 hold promise as a prognostic indicator.
Objective To assess the safety and effect of different intravenous chemotherapic regimens in patients with gastric carcinomas who had received gastrectomy. Method A systematic review of all the relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was performed. RCTs were identified from Medline and Embase (1980-2001.4), Chinese Bio-medicine Database (1990-2001.1). Literature references were checked at the same time. We included randomized andquasi-randomized trials in patients with confirmed gastric carcinomas who had received gastrectomy comparing the effect of intravenous chemotherapy after gastrectomy with that of gastrectomy alone.Results Twenty trials involving 4 171 patients were included. Meta-analysis was done with fixed effects model. Heterogeneity analyses was performed also. The effects of intravenous chemotherapy with 5FU + MCCNU, 5FU + MMC, 5FU + BCNU or FAM after gastrectomy were failed to show have better effects than that of surgery alone. There were eleven trials which detailed the side effects according to the toxicity grade by WHO standard. The side effects halting treatment were haematologic and biochemical toxicity, debilitating nausea and vomiting. There were twenty-two patients died of chemotherapic toxicity. Conclusions Based on the review, there is no enough evidence to show that intravenous chemotherapy after gastrectomy have positive treatment effect on gastric cancer.
Objective To analyze the clinicopathologic characteristics of remnant gastric cancer （RGC）. Methods The clinical data of 114 patients with RGC treated in The Second Affiliated Hospital of Northern Sichuan MedicalCollege and The General Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army from March 2000 to May 2008 were reviewed and analyzed retrospectively. The clinicopathologic characteristics between the patients with primary benign diseases and those with malignant diseases were evaluated. Results A total of 114 cases，the age was （62.6±11.3） years，and the males versus females was 4.7∶1.0. Most patients （76.2%，64/84） were diagnosed at advanced stages （consistent with pT），and the proportion of pT1 stage cases was only 23.8% （20/84），tumor invasion pT4 was 60.7% （51/84）. It was more common that tumor directly invaded adjacent organs or structures （27.4%，23/84），lymph nodes positive （42.9%，36/84），and distant metastasis （27.2%，31/114）. The location of distant metastasis was usually confined in the abdominal cavity （93.5%，29/31），and the peritoneum disseminated was the most commonly structures （67.7%，21/31）. Histologically，the incidence of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma （76.7%，79/103） was the mostly histologic grade as well as the diffuse type （78.6%，81/103） was the mostly Laurén classification. Between the patients with primary benign diseases and those with initial malignant disease，the initial gastrectomy or the methods of reconstruction had significantly differences （both P=0.000）. The median time from initial resection to development of RGC was 30.0 years in the patients with original benign disease，contrary to 3.3 years in those with previous malignant disease （P=0.000）. Both primary diseases （benign or malignant） and the age at initial gastrectomy were the major influencing factors for the time of RGC developed （P＜0.05）. For pathohistology characters，except signet-ring cell carcinoma （P=0.045）， pT4b （P=0.049），pN stage （P=0.025），and Borrmann classification （P=0.005），there were no significant differences between the patients with previous benign diseases and those with original malignant disease，as well as the resectability rate，curative resection （R0） rate，and overall survival rate （P＞0.05）. Conclusions It is almost unaffected by originalbenign diseases or malignant diseases for clinicopathologic characteristics including the treatment option and prognostic factors.It is necessary and feasibility to form a pattern of endoscopic follow-up for RGC.