BackgroundIdiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) is an uncommon benign chronic inflammatory disease which can clinically and radiographically mimic abscess or breast cancer. Definitive diagnosis was made by histopathology and exclusion of an identifying etiology. Optimal treatment has not been yet established. The aim of this study was to report and describe the clinical signs, radiological findings, managements, clinical course, and clinical outcomes after treatment of IGM.MethodWe retrospectively studied IGM medical records of 44 patients in our institute collected from March 1990 to October 2016. The patient characteristics, clinical presentations, radiological findings, microbiological workups, tissue pathology, treatment modalities, outcomes, and follow-up data were reviewed and analyzed. The success rate, recurrence rate and time-to-healing were compared focusing on the treatment modalities to find the proper treatments for IGM patient.ResultsForty-four patients were diagnosed as IGM. The median follow-up time was 20.73 months ranging from 1.26 to 118.8 months while the median time of the diagnosis was 21 days ranging from 2 to 246 days. Due to the follow-up period, only thirty-nine patient data were used for the analysis. In the first setting, 30 patients were treated by surgery, 6 patients were treated by using steroid while other 3 patients were treated by other different treatments. Only 25 from 39 patients (64.10%) were cured by the first modality. The overall median time-to-healing was 84 days while the medians of time-to-healing treated by surgery, steroid and the rest were 75, 114.5, and 238 days respectively. The surgical treatment had the shortest time-to-healing but not statistically significant (p = 0.23). Thirteen patients out of twenty-five (52%) had wound complications after performing an excision. Lastly, five patients out of thirty-nine (12.82%) had recurrence.ConclusionIGM is an uncommon benign disease which is hardly distinguished from malignancy. There is not a significant difference among treatment modalities in term of time-to-healing and recurrence of disease. The result shows that surgery is outperformed by the shortest healing time. However, the surgical treatment must be chosen with careful due to high rate of wound complications. Multimodality treatment is recommended as the proper treatments for IGM patient.

BackgroundGastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is the most common mesenchymal neoplasm of the gastrointestinal tract. The major risk factors of recurrence and metastasis are mitotic index and tumor size. This study investigates the risk of recurrence and metastasis in solely gastric GIST. The primary outcome is to evaluate risk of recurrence and metastasis. The secondary outcome is to analyse survival rates of patients who have recurrence and metastasis after curative resection.MethodA cohort of patients who underwent curative resection of gastric GIST between January 2006 to December 2016 was reviewed. The diagnosis was confirmed with positive CD34, DOG1 or KIT (CD117) immunohistochemistry. Risk factors of recurrence and metastasis were analyzed.ResultsSixty-eight patients who received curative resection and diagnosed as gastric GIST were included in this study. Twenty (29.41%) had recurrence or metastasis. The median follow up time was 31.95 months. The mostcommon type of surgery was partial gastric resection. There were statistically-significant differences between mitotic index 6 HPF or 6 HPF in tumor size 0-5 cm, 5-10 cm and 10 cm and the risk of recurrence or metastasis (p-value 0.036). In tumors sized 6-10 cm, patients with mitotic index 6 HPF had longer survival than patients with mitotic index 6 HPF (p-value 0.0147).ConclusionThe factor that determines the outcome of recurrence or metastasis in solely gastric GIST is high mitotic index count. Patients who have abdominal pain may be suspected as advanced disease. The type of operation and tumor size are not associated with recurrence or metastasis.

Platinum/5-fluorouracil (PF) is commonly used for chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for locally advanced esophageal and esophagogastric junction (EGJ) cancers. Weekly carboplatin and paclitaxel (CP) regimen for preoperative CRT has increased in popularity due to its potentially less toxicity. We retrospectively compared the tolerability and efficacy of these regimens. Patients with esophageal and EGJ squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) or adenocarcinoma who received CRT with curative intent were included. Safety and tolerability during CRT were evaluated using the CTCAE version 4.0. Efficacy was analyzed using pathologic complete response, disease-free survival, and overall survival. One hundred and twenty-four patients were eligible for analysis (CP = 64, PF = 60). Most patients had esophageal cancer (97%) with SCC histology (91%). Preoperative CRT was planned for 43% of patients in the CP group and 34% in the PF group (p = 0.306). The relative dose intensities of cisplatin (67.0%) and 5-fluorouracil (81.4%) were lower than those of carboplatin (86.6%) and paclitaxel (86.2%). No difference in the radiotherapy dose, hospitalization, interruption, or termination was observed between the groups. Dose reduction of chemotherapy was more frequent in the CP group (38 vs. 19%; p = 0.015). Febrile neutropenia was more frequent in the PF group (8 vs. 0%; p = 0.058). All-grade nausea/vomiting was lower in the CP group (20 vs. 38%; p = 0.032). Efficacy was comparable between both regimens. In the multivariate analysis, the CRT regimen was not a significant predictor of survival. The CP regimen had less toxicity than the PF regimen, while efficacy was comparable. A large prospective randomized study is warranted to confirm these results.