Background: Despite recent advances in diagnosis and treatment, esophageal cancer still has high mortality. Prognostic factors associated with patient and with disease itself are multiple and poorly explored. Aim: Assess prognostic variables in esophageal cancer patients. Methods: Retrospective review of all patients with esophageal cancer in an oncology referral center. They were divided according to histological diagnosis (444 squamous cell carcinoma patients and 105 adenocarcinoma), and their demographic, pathological and clinical characteristics were analyzed and compared to clinical stage and overall survival. Results: No difference was noted between squamous cell carcinoma and esophageal adenocarcinoma overall survival curves. Squamous cell carcinoma presented 22.8% survival after five years against 20.2% for adenocarcinoma. When considering only patients treated with curative intent resection, after five years squamous cell carcinoma survival rate was 56.6 and adenocarcinoma, 58%. In patients with squamous cell carcinoma, poor differentiation histology and tumor size were associated with worse oncology stage, but this was not evidenced in adenocarcinoma. Conclusion: Weight loss (kg), BMI variation (kg/m²) and percentage of weight loss are factors that predict worse stage at diagnosis in the squamous cell carcinoma. In adenocarcinoma, these findings were not statistically significant.

-Background -Esophageal cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality among the neoplasms that affect the gastrointestinal tract. There are several factors that contribute for development of an epidemiological esophageal cancer profile in a population.Objective -This study aims to describe both clinically and epidemiologically the population of patients with diagnosis of esophageal cancer treated in a quaternary attention institute for cancer from January, 2009 to December, 2011, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Methods -The charts of all patients diagnosed with esophageal cancer from January, 2009, to December, 2011, in a Sao Paulo (Brazil) quaternary oncology institute were retrospectively reviewed. Results -Squamous cell cancer made up to 80% of the cases of esophageal cancer. Average age at diagnosis was 60.66 years old for esophageal adenocarcinoma and 62 for squamous cell cancer, average time from the beginning of symptoms to the diagnosis was 3.52 months for esophageal adenocarcinoma and 4.2 months for squamous cell cancer. Average time for initiating treatment when esophageal cancer is diagnosed was 4 months for esophageal adenocarcinoma and 4.42 months for squamous cell cancer. There was a clear association between squamous cell cancer and head and neck cancers, as well as certain habits, such as smoking and alcoholism, while adenocarcinoma cancer showed more association with gastric cancer and gastroesophageal reflux disease. Tumoral bleeding and pneumonia were the main causes of death. No difference in survival rate was noted between the two groups. Conclusion -Adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are different diseases, but both are diagnosed in advanced stages in Brazil, compromising the patients' possibilities of cure. HEADINGS -Adenocarcinoma. Squamous cell carcinoma. Epidemiologic factors. Period analysis.

Background: Knowing esophageal tumors behavior in relationship to lymph node involvement, distant metastases and local tumor invasion is of paramount importance for the best esophageal tumors management. Aim: To describe lymph node involvement, distant metastases, and local tumor invasion in esophageal carcinoma, according to tumor topography and histology. Methods: A total of 444 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and 105 adenocarcinoma were retrospectively analyzed. They were divided into four groups: adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma in the three esophageal segments: cervical, middle, and distal. They were compared based on their CT scans at the time of the diagnosis. Results: Nodal metastasis showed great relationship with of primary tumor site. Lymph nodes of hepatogastric, perigastric and peripancreatic ligaments were mainly affected in distal tumors. Periaortic, interaortocaval and portocaval nodes were more commonly found in distal squamous carcinoma; subcarinal, paratracheal and subaortic nodes in middle; neck chains were more affected in cervical squamous carcinoma. Adenocarcinoma had a higher frequency of peritoneal involvement (11.8%) and liver (24.5%) than squamous cell carcinoma. Considering the local tumor invasion, the more cranial neoplasia, more common squamous invasion of airways, reaching 64.7% in the incidence of cervical tumors. Middle esophageal tumors invade more often aorta (27.6%) and distal esophageal tumors, the pericardium and the right atrium (10.4%). Conclusion: Esophageal adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma in different topographies present peculiarities in lymph node involvement, distant metastasis and local tumor invasion. These differences must be taken into account in esophageal cancer patients' care.

Objective: The current method for screening anal cancer is anal cytology, which has low sensitivity. Since high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) is associated with almost 90% of cases of anal cancer, the objective of this study is to evaluate whether testing for HR-HPV can optimize the screening.Design: Prospective study with patients enrolled in a screening program for anal dysplasia. Considering high-resolution anoscopy (HRA)-guided biopsy as the gold standard for diagnosis of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, the diagnostic performance of anal cytology, HR-HPV testing, and the combination of both was calculated.Settings: A single center for anal dysplasia.Participants: A total of 364 patients (72% males, 82% HIV-positive).Intervention: Patients underwent anal cytology, HR-HPV test, and HRA-guided biopsy of the anal canal.Main outcome measures: Ability of cytology and HR-HPV test (individually and combined) to detect high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, and analysis of the cost of each diagnostic algorithm.Results: Cytology alone was the cheapest approach, but had the lowest sensitivity [59%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 46-71%], despite of highest specificity (73%, 95% CI 68-78%). Cotesting had the highest sensitivity (85%, 95% CI 74-93%) and lowest specificity (43%, 95% CI 38-49%), and did not seem to be cost-effective. However, HR-HPV testing can be used to triage patients with normal and atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance cytology for HRA, resulting in an algorithm with high sensitivity (80%, 95% CI 68-89%), and specificity (71%, 95% CI 65-76%), allied to a good cost-effectiveness.Conclusion: HR-HPV testing is helpful to optimize the screening in cases of normal and atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance cytology.

Background and Aim Endoscopic submucosal dissection and transanal endoscopic microsurgery are good options for the treatment of rectal adenomas and early rectal carcinomas, but whether long‐term outcomes of these procedures are comparable is not known. The aim of this study was to address this question. Methods A retrospective single‐center study evaluating 98 consecutive procedures between June 2008 and December 2017 was performed in a tertiary cancer center. Consecutive patients who had undergone either endoscopic submucosal resection or transanal endoscopic microsurgery for rectal adenomas and early rectal carcinomas were evaluated, and long‐term recurrence and complication rates were compared. Results Both groups were similar regarding sex, age, preoperative surgical risk, and en bloc resection rate (95.7% in the endoscopic and 100% in the surgical group, P = 0.81). Mean follow‐up period was 37.6 months. Lesions resected endoscopically were significantly larger (68.5 mm) than those resected by transanal resection (44.5 mm), P = 0.003. Curative resections occurred in 97.2% of endoscopic resections and 85.2% of the surgical ones (P = 0.04). Comparing resections that fulfilled histologic curative criteria, there were no recurrences in the endoscopic group (out of 69 cases) and two recurrences in the transanal group (8.3% of 24 cases), P = 0.06. Late complications occurred in 12.7% of endoscopic procedures and 25.9% of surgical procedures (P = 0.13). Conclusions In our experience, endoscopic submucosal resection seems to have advantages over transanal endoscopic microsurgery, with similar en bloc resection rate and lower rate of late complications and recurrences. Multicenter randomized controlled trials are needed to support our findings.

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