• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.4381-4389
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• 2016

Background: Surgery is the corner stone for the management of rectal cancer. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the optimal time of surgical resection after the completion of neoadjuvant chemo-radiotherapy (CRT) in treatment of locally advanced rectal cancer. Materials and Methods: This study compared 2 groups of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer, treated with neoadjuvant CRT followed by surgical resection either 6-8 weeks or 9-14 weeks after the completion of chemo-radiotherapy. The impact of delaying surgery was tested in comparison to early surgical resection after completion of chemo-radiotherapy. Results: The total significant response rate that could result in functional preservation was estimated to be 3.85% in group I and 15.4% in group II. Some 9.62% of our patients had residual malignant cells at one cm surgical margin. All those patients with positive margins at one cm were in group I (19.23%). There was less operative time in group II, but the difference between both groups was statistically insignificant (P=0.845). The difference between both groups regarding operative blood loss and intra operative blood transfusion was significantly less in group II (P=0.044). There was no statistically significant difference between both groups regarding the intra operative complications (P=0.609). The current study showed significantly less post-operative hospital stay period, and less post-operative wound infection in group II (P=0.012 and 0.017). The current study showed more tumor regression and necrosis in group II with a highly significant main effect of time F=61.7 (P<0.001). Pathological TN stage indicated better pathological tumor response in group II (P=0.04). The current study showed recurrence free survival for all cases at 18 months of 84.2%. In group I, survival rate at the same duration was 73.8%, however none of group II cases had local recurrence (censored) (P=0.031). Disease free survival (DFS) during the same duration (18 months) was 69.4 % for patients in group I and 82.3% for group II (P=0.429). Conclusions: Surgical resection delay up to 9-14 weeks after chemo-radiation was associated with better outcome and better recurrence free survival.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.4583-4589
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• 2013

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effect of multimodality treatment of advanced paediatric hepatoblastoma (HB) and the factors affecting prognosis. Methods: A total of 35 children underwent multimodality treatments consisting of chemotherapy, surgery, interventional therapy, and autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. The patients were followed up every month. Results: Serum AFP levels in 33 out of 35 patients in this study were significantly increased (P = 0.0002). According to the statistical scatter plot, the values of serum AFP on the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentages were 1,210, 1,210 and 28,318 ng/dl, respectively. Of the 35 cases, 21 were stage IV. 18 cases were treated with systemic chemotherapy before surgery, and 3 cases with locally interventional chemotherapy before surgery. Statistical analysis showed that the preferred interventional treatment affected prognosis, and that there was a statistically significant difference (P = 0.024). Some 33 patients completed the follow-up, of which 17 were in complete remission (CR), 5 were in partial remission (PR), 1 became disease progressive (DP), and 10 died. The remission and overall survival rates were 66.7% (22/33) and 69.7% (23/33), respectively. Patients with the mixed HB phenotypes had worse prognoses than the epithelial phenotype (P < 0.001), and patients in stage IV had a lower survival rate than those in stage III (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Multimodality treatment can effectively improve remission rate and prolong the survival of children with advanced HB. In addition, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), a tumor marker of liver malignant tumors, HB pathological classification, and staging are highly useful in predicting prognosis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1847-1850
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• 2016

Background: It is reported that the percentage of smudge cells in the blood smear could be a prognostic indicator in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. However, the clinical significance of smudge cells in other hematological malignancies, solid tumors or non-malignant diseases is less clear. Hence, this study was conducted to survey the clinical significance of smudge cells in hematological cancers and other disorders. Materials and Methods: From January to November, 2015, the clinical data of patients who received blood examination with differential counts for clinical purpose and were found to have smudge cells in the peripheral blood film in Far Eastern Memorial Hospital were selected. The percentage of smudge cells and patient outcomes were evaluated for further univariate and survival analyses. Results: A total of 102 patients with smudge cells in their blood smears were included. Smudge cells were frequently presented in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA; n=30), infections (n=23), hematological cancers (n=23) and solid cancers (n=10). There was no relationship between the percentage of smudge cells and the patient mortality in all diseases (OR: 1.08, 95% CI: 0.47-2.48, P=1.000) as well as the OHCA group (OR: 1.91, 95% CI: 0.38-9.60, P=0.694). It was observed that in patients with all cancers with the percentage of smudge cells less than 50% had a lower mortality rate in comparison with those who had the percentage of smudge cells of 50% or more (OR: 22.29, 95% CI: 2.38-208.80, P<0.001). Additionally, it was seemingly that patients with smudge cells of 50% or more had a lower survival rate than those with smudge cells less than 50% in all cancers with follow-up at 2-month intervals, but without statistical significance (P=0.064). Conclusions: Our survey indicated that in all cancers, those who had higher percentage of smudge cells were prone to have poor outcomes when compared with the subjects with lower percentage of smudge cells. This finding was quite different from the results of previous studies in which the race-ethnicity of most study populations was non-Asian; hence, further investigations are required. Besides, there was no apparent association of the percentage of smudge cells with patient outcomes in all diseases, including OHCA.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.404-420
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• 1991

Surgical treatment of congenital and acquired heart disease preceded the development of accurate techniques for diagnosis, heart lung machine and cardiopulmonary bypass, intraoperative myocardial protection, operative techniques and cardiac anesthesia. For 5 years from Sep. 1985 to Sep. 1990, six hundred cases of open heart surgeries [OHS] were performed in the department of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, Pusan Paik Hospital, College of Medicine, Inje University. The results were summarized as follows. 1. The annual number of OHS[cases per year] was above 100 since 1987, and the increasing rate of cases was 23.5% per year since 1986. 2. Among the total 600 cases, there were 470 cases of congenital heart diseases and 130 cases of acquired. Age range of the congenital patients was 8 months to 44 years with the mean age of 10 years, and acquired patients was 16 to 56 years with the mean age of 36 years. 3. Among the 470 congenital anomalies, there were 429 cases of acyanotic and 41 cyanotic patients. Totally, VSD was 286 cases[60.6%], ASD 103 cases[21.9%], TOF 35 cases [7.4%], PS 20 cases [4.1%], ECD 12 cases [2.0%], Ebstein`s anomaly 3 cases [0.6%], Valsalva sinus rupture 3 cases [0.6%] and others. The appropriate one stage radical operations were applied to the all congenital cases with the result of 2.6% immediate postoperative hospital mortality rate. 4. Among the 130 acquired cases, there were 122 cases of valvular heart diseases, 6 of heart tumors [5 myxoma, one malignant histiocytoma], one of LA thrombus and one of annuloaortic ectasia. Cardiac tumors and LA thrombus were removed through the atrial septal approach. Bentall procedure was adopted to the annuloaortic ectasia case. AVR, MVR and TVA [DeVega procedure] were applied to 120 valve diseases, and there were also one of OMC and one of MVA[Jerome-Kay procedure]. 5. Among the 120 valve replacement cases, there were 87 of single valve replacement cases [AVR: 8, MVR: 79], 11 of double valve replacement [AVR+MVR: 11], 12 of MVR+TVR and 10 of MVR+AVR+TVA. The total number of implanted prosthetic valves were 141. In MVR, 45 of St. Jude Medical valves, 63 of Carpentier-Edward valves and 4 of Ionescu-Shiley valves were used. In AVR, 18 of St. Jude Medical valves and 11 of Carpentier-Edward valves were used. in MVR, 29mm and 31mm sized valves were used mostly and In AVR, 23mm sized valves were used mostly. 6. Postoperatively many kinds of complications were occurred. Among them, wound problems [30 cases], low output syndrome [29 cases], arrhythmia [20 cases], pleural effusion and pneumothorax [13 cases] were occurred frequently. The postoperative immediate hospital mortality was 3.0% in total [congenital 2.6%, acquired 4.6%].

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.45-56
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• 1972

Esophageal perforation is one of the most grave prognostic problems among thoracic and general surgical emergencies which necessitate urgent operative measures. In Korea,there are still many persons ingesting lye for suicidal attempt and thoracic surgeons in Korea have more chances to deal with lye burned esophagus with or without instrumental perforation than those in Western countries. Main cause of esophageal perforation in Korea is instrumental perforation in patients with lye stricture of the esophagus during diagnostic endoscopy or therapeutic bouginage. Other causes are corrosion of the esophagus due to ingestion of caustic agents, pathologic perforation, surgical trauma, stab wound and spontaneous rupture of the esophagus in our series. Therapeutic measures are various,and depend on duration of perforation, severity of its complications, pathology of perforated portion of the esophagus and degrees of inflammation at the point of perforation. The most important therapeutic measures are prevention of this grave condition during esophagoscopy, bouginage and surgical procedures on lungs and mediastinal structures and to make early diagnosis with prompt therapeutic measures. During the period of January, 1959, to December, 1971, the authors experienced 65 cases ofesophageal perforation including acquired esophagorespiratory fistula at Dept. of Chest Surgery, the National Medical Center in Seoul, and obtained following results in the series. 1. Female were 35 cases, and peak age incidence was 2nd and 3rd decades of life. 2. Among 65 cases, 43 were corrosive esophagitis or benign stricture of the esophagus due to caustic agents, 7 were patients with esophageal cancer. and there were 5 cases of esophageal perforation developed after pneumonectomy or pleuropneumonectomy. 3. Causes of perforation are instrumental perforation in 45, acute corrosion in 7, pathologic perforation in 7, surgical trauma in 3, stab wound in 2 cases, and one spontaneous rupture of the esophagus. 4. Most frequent sites of esophageal perforation were upper and mid thoracic esophagus, and 8 were cases with cervical esophageal perforation. 5. Complications of esophageal perforation were mediastinitis in 42, empyema or pneumothorax in 35, esophagorespiratory fistula in 12, retroperitoneal fistula or abscess in 5,pneumoperitoneum in 3, and localized peritonitis in 1 case. 6. Cases with malignant esophagorespiratory fistula were only 3 in the series which is predominant cause of acquired esophagorespiratory fistula in Western countries. 7. Various therapeutic measures were applied with mortality rate of 27.7% in the series. 8. In usual cases early treatment gave better prognosis, and least mortality rate in cases with perforation in mid thoracic esophagus. 9. Main causes of death were respiratory complications,acute hemorrhage with asphyxia, and septic complications. 10. Esophageal perforation developed after pneumonectomy gave more difficult therapeutic problems which were solved in only 1 among 5 cases.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.228-235
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• 1998

Objectives: Papillary microcarcinoma of the thyroid was evaluated as to the effectiveness of diagnostic modalities, lymphatic spread pattern, and therapeutic decision according to tumor size. Material and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed a clinicopathologic findings of 72 papillary microcarcinoma patients who were treated at the over 11 years between 1985 and 1995. The authors divided papillary microcarcinoma of the thyroid into two subgroups according to tumor size: $0{\leqq}5mm$ and $5<0{\leqq}10mm$. An analysis including age and gender distribution, diagnostic tools(thyroid sonogram, thyroid scan, thyroid function test, fine needle aspiration cytology, frozen section), pathological examination of lymphnode, and surgical procedures was carried out in each subgroups. Results: The carcinoma of smaller than 5mm were found in 32 patients, and of 6 -10mm were in 40 patients. The average age of patients was 45years and all of them were female. Cold nodules on thyroid scan were noticed in 53 patientss and normal findings were in 15 patients. Suspicious malignant lesions(fine calcification, solid mass, irregular margin) on thyroid sonography were detected in 23 patients and the sonography was more useful in detecting $0{\leqq}5mm$ small sized lesions than other diagnostic methods. FNAC were performed in 17 patients, and 7 patients were diagnosed as having thyroid papillary cancer. But diagnotic rate in $0{\leqq}5mm$ small sized lesions was very low(one of eights).Frozen section were performed in all patients, among these 15 patients were diagnosed as being benign diseases and false negative rates were higher in $0{\leqq}5mm$ small sized lesions than in $5<0{\leqq}10mm$ sized lesions(p-value<0.006). Only thyroidectomies were performed in 24 patients and thyroidectomy with node dissections in 48 patients. The lymphnode metastatic rates were much higher in multifocal lesions(61.5%) than in single lesion. The incidence of cervical lymphnode metastasis was 19.4% in $0{\leqq}5mm$ sized lesions and 47.9% in $5<0{\leqq}10mm$ sized lesions. Postoperative management were performed with TSH suppression therapy(T4, synthroid) in all patients and RI therapy in 29 patients. Conclusion: On the basis of our study, improved preoperative diagnostic tools for papillary microcarcinoma of the thyroid was helpful in the choice of surgical treatment. As a result of techninological progress(ultrasonography, FNAC), the pencentage of the discovery of papillary microcarcinoma has been increased. The thyroid ultrasonography was useful in detecting small sized lesions($0{\leqq}5mm$), but FNAC may not be beneficial in detecting small sized lesions($0{\leqq}5mm$). In the surgical procedure, thyroid lobectomy alone should be avoided because of the high rate of bilaterality and multifocality.

• Advances in pediatric surgery
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.53-57
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• 2014

Purpose: Neonatal neuroblastoma (NBL) is the most common malignant tumor in neonates, but there have been few studies about it. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical features of NBL and to compare prenatal and postnatal diagnosed groups. Methods: Nineteen patients who were diagnosed with NBL prenatally or within 28 days after birth from February 1986 to February 2013 in Seoul National University Hospital were enrolled in the study. The patients were categorized according to the International Neuroblastoma Staging System (INSS) and Children's Oncology Group (COG). Retrospective medical-record reviews were performed on these patients. The operative date, complication, pathological stage, and overall survival of the prenatally diagnosed group and the postpartum diagnosed group were compared. Results: Tumor was detected via prenatal ultrasonography in 8 patients (42.1%), and 11 patients (57.9%) were diagnosed within 28 days after birth. Based on INSS, the patients were divided into the stage I (n=8), stage II (n=1), stage III (n=3), stage IV (n=4), and stage IVs (n=3) groups, respectively. Based on COG, on the other hand, the patients were divided into the low-risk (n=8), intermediate-risk (n=8), and high-risk (n=3) groups. The postoperative complication rate was 29%. One patient died from complications from chemotherapy. The other 18 patients' mean follow-up period was 77.7 months. The differences between the postoperative complication rate, proportion of early-stage tumor, and overall survival of the prenatal and postnatal groups were not statistically significant (p=0.446, p=0.607, p=0.414). Conclusion: NBL showed favorable outcomes but relatively higher postoperative complications. There seem to be no significant statistical differences in the postoperative complications, proportion of early-stage tumor, and overall survival between the prenatally diagnosed group and the postpartum diagnosed group.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 2007

PURPOSE Osteosarcoma occurring in the head and neck region is known as a malignant tumor that shows a relatively poor prognosis and, despite various treatments, clinicians have often been confounded by it. The existence or non-existence of the mutation of the gene $p16^{INK4a}$ has been used in prognosis assessment. In this study, author have attempted to determine whether methylation of the gene $p16^{INK4a}$ could be applied to forecast the progress of osteosarcomas in the head and neck region having been given poor prognoses in the diagnostic process and the early stage of treatment. RESEARCH SUBJECT AND METHOD Clinicopathologic investigations, immunohistochemical examinations, a methylation specific polymerase reaction (MSP) analysis, and a survival analysis were conducted on the tissues of 20 patients with mandibulofacial osteosarcoma. RESULTS Neither age, sex, size, smoking or non-smoking, nor region have showed a statistical significance with methylation or unmethylation of the gene $p16^{INK4a}$ and expression rates demonstrated by immunohisto- chemical examinations. A chi-square test indicated that recurrence inclination has no relation with the expression rate of p16 protein (p=0.6615), but it showed a statistical significance with methylation of the gene $p16^{INK4a}$ (p=0.0033). With respect to investigations of the survival rates, a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis found that the manifestation rate of p16 protein did not have an impact on survival (p=0.8864), but that the methylation of the gene $p16^{INK4a}$ resulted in significant differences in survival rates (p=0.0105). CONCLUSIONS The above results show that methylation of the gene $p16^{INK4a}$ could be one of the major factors that help determine the recurrence inclination and prognosis of osteosarcomas occurring in the head and neck region.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.197-203
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• 1988

In order to examine cause-specific mortality in Korea by comparing mortality of Japan, various mortality indicators are calculated using 1995 of ficial statistics of twonations. The mortality measures are cause-specific mortality rate by sex, age, andmarital status, cause-specific age-standardized death rate and potential years of lifelost, and their ratios by sex and nation. Items of major causes of death include allcauses (total deaths),tuberculosis, malignant neoplasm, diabetes mellitushypertensive diseases, heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, liver diseasestransport accidents, and suicide. Major characteristics of mortality in Korea are asfollows . (1) Death rates from most causes except suicide are higher in Korea thanJapan and especially death rates from tuberculosis, hypertensive diseases, liverdiseases, and transport accidents are higher for economically active Koreans : (2)Death rates from tuberculosis, liver diseases, transport accidents, and malignantneoplasm are salient for Korean children (3) Sex-differentials in mortality fromliver diseases, tuberculosis , and transport accidents are large for economically activeKoreans, because male mortality is higher than female mortality : (4) Suicide ratesare lower for economically active males, and higher for females aged 10s and 20s inKorea than Japan : (5) Death rates are highest f3r divorced or widowed under 45years of age depending on causes, but death rates from all causes are highest fornever-married of the age 45 and over in Korea : and (6) Sex-differentials inmortality are greatest for widowed in Korea and for divorced in Japan.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.82-88
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• 2015

Gastric lymphoma comprises 1-6% of all gastric malignant neoplasms and among them 50% is gastric MALT lymphoma. The 60-70% of MALT lymphomas is diagnosed at early, localized diseased state. Gastric MALT lymphoma is assumed that it progress slowly with indolent course. It presents nonspecific symptoms such as epigastric pain, dyspepsia, nausea and vomiting. It is rarely associated with serious complication such as gastrointestinal bleeding or perforation. The definite diagnosis of gastric MALT lymphoma should be made with histopathologically. Wotherspoon score is used to differential diagnosis with Helicobacter pylori associated gastric inflammatory change. Gastric MALT lymphoma is associated with Helicobacter pylori infection with supported by epidemiologic and histopathologic studies. Gastric MALT lymphoma is characterized with genetic aberrations such as trisomy 3, trisomy 18, chromosomal translocations t(11;18), t(1;14), t(14;18), t(3;14). Appropriate clinical staging is essential to determine the optimal treatment strategy for gastric MALT lymphoma. Lugano International Conference classification has been applied widely. Helicobacter pylori eradication is used as the first line treatment for gastric MALT lymphoma independent of the stage. The complete remission has been achieved in 60-90% of the stage I/II1 patients with Helicobacter pylori eradication only. The treatment options for the patients with refractory to eradication are radiotherapy, chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy with the complete remission rate of 75% to 100%. The incidence of gastric MALT lymphoma can be expected to down by virtue of the decrease of Helicobacter pylori infection rate. Further basic and clinical research is necessary to advance in determine the pathogenesis and management.