A 1.1% mortality rate was achieved in the last 6 years of the study period. Preoperative chemoradiation did not result in worse outcome. Reduction in mortality rate correlated with decreased blood loss.

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Survival has improved; chemoradiation enabled better patient selection for curative resections and also resulted in more R0 resections by tumor downstaging. This treatment strategy led to overall better outcome for the whole patient cohort, even in those treated by nonsurgical means.

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Although immediate postoperative outcome and hospital mortality rates were increased, no effect on long-term survival was seen in patients with complications related to errors in surgical technique.

Soluble E-cadherin is a potentially valuable pretherapeutic prognostic factor in patients with gastric cancer.

The proportion of patients with H pylori negative duodenal ulcers is on the rise because of a continued drop in incidence of H pylori positive duodenal ulcers in recent years. Such patients have distinct clinical characteristics and it is important to ascertain the H pylori status before starting eradication therapy.

SUMMARYAim: To study whether prophylaxis with lansoprazole could prevent relapse of ulcers after eradication of Helicobacter pylori in patients with NSAID-related peptic ulcers. Methods: Patients who presented with peptic ulcers and were found to be infected with H. pylori while receiving NSAIDs were recruited into the study. They received, twice daily, lansoprazole 30 mg, amoxicillin 1 g and clarithromycin 500 mg for 1 week, followed by lansoprazole 30 mg daily for 4 weeks. Patients with healed ulcers and H. pylori eradicated were given naproxen 750 mg daily, and randomly assigned to receive lansoprazole 30 mg daily or no treatment for 8 weeks. The primary endpoint was the cumulative recurrence of symptomatic and complicated ulcers. Results: At the end of the 8-week treatment period, significantly fewer patients (1/22, 4.5%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0-23) in the lansoprazole group compared with the group that received H. pylori eradication alone (9/21, 42.9%, 95% CI 22-66) developed recurrence of symptomatic and complicated ulcers (log rank test P ¼ 0.0025). Conclusions: Lansoprazole significantly reduced the cumulative relapse of symptomatic and complicated ulcers in patients requiring NSAIDs after eradication of H. pylori.