An accurate preoperative staging is important for selecting an appropriate therapy for esophageal cancer. In particular, diagnosis of lymph node metastases influences the indication for radical surgery. [18F]Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) has been widely applied primarily as a useful tool for initial staging of esophageal cancer. However, false-negative cases sometimes make it difficult to select the appropriate treatment. We report two patients with esophageal cancer and PET-negative enlarged lymph node successfully diagnosed by laparoscopic sampling. This procedure did not only allow accurate histopathological staging, but also helped to select the optimal minimally invasive management. This technique can be recommended for patients with esophageal cancer in whom the diagnosis of enlarged lymph node cannot be confirmed by preoperative imaging.
A case of an amebic abscess localized in the lesser omentum is reported. There was no sign of a liver abscess in the imaging examination or the operative findings. However, it is likely that the amebic infection occurred after a liver abscess ruptured into the abdominal cavity. Early diagnosis and therapy are required when an abscess of unknown origin borders the liver, given the possibility of amebic abscess.
41 Background: Treatment of HER2 positive gastric cancer (GC) with trastuzumab, receptor-tyrosine-kinase (RTK) inhibitor, has led to significant gains in overall survival. Several other targeted therapies are currently undergoing preclinical and clinical testing in some malignancies and GC, directed against diverse oncogenic RTK, therefor it is important to define the expression pattern of target RTK in GC. A multicenter retrospective study was conducted to evaluate the correlation between the expression of some RTKs, HER2, EGFR and c-KIT, and clinicopathological features in GC. Methods: A total of 153 cases with GC which was surgically resected between 2000 and 2006 were registered from nine hospitals. The neoadjuvant treatment cases were excluded. Tumors were centrally examined for HER2, EGFR and c-KIT status with immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) for HER2. The relation between the expressions of HER2, EGFR and c-KIT and clinicopathological factors was examined by Fisher’s exact test. The hazard ratio (HR) for death was estimated, and overall survivals (OS) were compared between positive and negative cases of HER2, EGFR, and c-KIT using log-rank test. Results: The proportion of positive cases with IHC of HER2, EGFR and c-KIT was 7.8%, 14.4% and 11.1%, respectively. There was no significant correlation between the expression of HER2, EGFR and c-KIT and differentiation, location and depth. HER2-positive cases tended to be more frequent in differentiated type tumors. EGFR-positve cases were more frequent in lymph node metastasis (P=0.013). c-KIT-positive cases tended to be more frequent in T1-T2 tumors. OS in HER2-positive cases were clearly worse than in HER2-negative cases (HR 2.23 (95%CI, 1.16-4.38); P=0.014). EGFR-positive cases had a tendency to be worse than in EGFR-negative cases (HR 1.60 (95%CI, 0.94-2.71); P=0.082). c-KIT-negative cases were worse than in c-KIT-positive cases (HR 0.42 (95%CI, 0.17-1.02); P=0.048). Conclusions: This study showed that HER2 expression is a factor of poor prognosis and that EGFR-positive status and c-KIT-negative status tended to be associated with worse outcomes in resected GC.
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