• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.70-75
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• 2015

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been demonstrated to play an important role in carcinogenesis. Previous studies revealed that miRNAs are present in human plasma in a remarkably stable form that is protected from endogenous RNase activity. In this study, we measured the plasma expression levels of three miRNAs (miR-21, miR-27a, and miR-155) to investigate the usefulness of miRNAs for gastric cancer detection. We initially examined plasma miRNA expression levels in a screening cohort consisting of 15 patients with gastric cancer and 15 healthy controls from Korean population, using TaqMan quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. We observed that the expression level of miR-27a was significantly higher in patients with gastric cancer than in healthy controls, whereas the miR-21 and miR-155a expression levels were not significantly higher in the patients with gastric cancer. Therefore, we further validated the miR-27a expression level in 73 paired gastric cancer tissues and in a validation plasma cohort from 35 patients with gastric cancer and 35 healthy controls. In both the gastric cancer tissues and the validation plasma cohort, the miR-27a expression levels were significantly higher in patients with gastric cancer. Receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) analysis of the validation cohort, revealed an area under the ROC curve value of 0.70 with 75% sensitivity and 56% specificity in discriminating gastric cancer. Thus, the miR-27a expression level in plasma could be a useful biomarker for the diagnosis and/or prognosis of gastric cancer.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.4-15
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• 2021

Recently, endoscopic screening systems have enabled the diagnosis of gastric cancer in the early stages. Early gastric cancer (EGC) is typically characterized by a shallow invasion depth and small size, which can hinder localization of EGC tumors during laparoscopic surgery. Here, we review nine recently reported tumor localization methods for the laparoscopic resection of EGCs. Preoperative dye or blood tattooing has the disadvantage of spreading. Preoperative 3-dimensional computed tomography reconstruction is not performed in real time during laparoscopic gastrectomy. Thus, they are considered to have a low accuracy. Intraoperative portable abdominal radiography and intraoperative laparoscopic ultrasonography methods can provide real-time feedback, but these methods require expertise, and it can be difficult to define the clips in some gastric regions. Despite a few limitations, intraoperative gastrofibroscopy provides real-time feedback with high accuracy. The detection system using an endoscopic magnetic marking clip, fluorescent clip, and radio-frequency identification detection system clip is considered highly accurate and provides real-time feedback; we expect a commercial version of this setup to be available in the near future. However, there is not yet an easy method for accurate real-time detection. We hope that improved devices will soon be developed and used in clinical settings.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.600-610
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• 2008

A cancer-associated antigen gene (CAGE) was identified by serological analysis of a recombinant cDNA expression library (SEREX). The gene was identified by screening cDNA expression libraries of human testis and gastric cancer cell lines with sera from patients with gastric cancer. CAGE was found to contain a D-E-A-D box domain and encodes a putative protein of 630 amino acids with possible helicase activity. The CAGE gene is widely expressed in various cancer tissues and cancer cell lines. Demethylation plays a role in the activation of CAGE in certain cancer cell lines where the gene is not expressed. The functional roles of CAGE in tumorigenesis, the molecular mechanisms of CAGE expression, and cell motility are also discussed.

• 정신신체의학
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.82-90
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• 2012

연구목적 : 위암은 국내에서 매우 빈번하게 발생하는 암이지만, 위암과 디스트레스 간의 관련성을 규명한 연구는 거의 없었다. 본 연구에서는 위암 환자의 디스트레스의 유병률을 조사하고 관련 위험인자를 알아보고자 한다. 방 법 : 일 종합병원 암센터에 입원한 274명의 위암 환자가 본 연구에 참여하였다. 모든 참여자에게 디스트레스를 평가하는 병원 불안 우울 척도가 시행되었으며, 사회인구학적 및 암 관련 임상 자료가 조사되었다. 결 과 : 153명(55.8%)의 위암 환자가 유의한 디스트레스를 나타내었다. 로지스틱 회귀분석에서 음주 경험이 있는 경우[오즈비(OR)=2.10, p=0.034]와 수행능력이 저하된 경우(OR=2.40, p=0.002)가 위암 환자의 디스트레스에 유의한 영향을 미치는 요인으로 밝혀졌다. 결 론 : 본 연구에서 약 반 수 이상의 위암 환자가 디스트레스를 겪고 있으며, 음주 경험과 낮은 수행 능력이 관련 위험 인자로 나타났다. 본 연구의 결과로 위암 환자의 디스트레스에 대한 선별 평가 및 심리사회적 중재의 필요성을 확인하였다.

• 보건의료산업학회지
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.15-30
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• 2019

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze people's accessibility to medical institutions providing national gastric cancer screening services in Gangwon-do using a geographic information system(GIS). Methods: To assess the spatial accessibility, network analysis was applied. Two types of network analysis-Service area analysis and origin-destination cost matrix(OD-cost matrix)-were applied to create network dataset. Results: The results of the analysis of the service area revealed that it took more than 60 minutes each to reach tertiary hospitals and general hospitals from 74.4% and 9.6% of Gangwon-do areas, respectively. Similarly, it took more than 60 minutes each to reach hospitals and clinics from 4.2% and 3.4% of Gangwon-do areas, respectively. The results of the OD-cost revealed that there were large regional variations in distance and time taken to reach the medical institutions. Conclusions: there were regional variations of spatial accessibility between Si and Gun in Gangwon-do.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• 제24권2호
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• pp.145-158
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• 2024

Purpose: Although smoking and alcohol consumption are known risk factors for gastric cancer (GC), studies assessing their effects on early-onset GC are limited. In this nationwide, population-based, prospective cohort study, we assessed the effects of smoking and alcohol consumption on early-onset GC in patients aged <50 years. Materials and Methods: We analyzed data of patients aged 20-39 years who underwent cancer and general health screening in the Korean National Health Screening Program between 2009 and 2012. We calculated the adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for GC incidence until December 2020. Results: We enrolled 6,793,699 individuals (men:women=4,077,292:2,716,407) in this cohort. The mean duration of follow-up was 9.4 years. During follow-up, 9,893 cases of GC (men:women=6,304:3,589) were reported. Compared with the aHRs (95% CI) of never-smokers, those of former and current-smokers were 1.121 (1.044-1.205) and 1.282 (1.212-1.355), respectively. Compared with the aHRs (95% CI) of non-consumers, those of low-moderate- and high-risk alcohol consumers were 1.095 (1.046-1.146) and 1.212 (1.113-1.321), respectively. GC risk was the highest in current-smokers and high-risk alcohol consumers (1.447 [1.297-1.615]). Interestingly, alcohol consumption and smoking additively increased the GC risk in men but not in women (P_interaction=0.002). Conclusion: Smoking and alcohol consumption are significant risk factors for early-onset GC in young Koreans. Further studies are needed to investigate sex-based impact of alcohol consumption and smoking on GC incidence in young individuals.

• 대한지역사회영양학회지
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.205-222
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• 2022

Objectives: This study examined the characteristics of patients according to nutritional status assessed by five nutritional screening tools: Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA), NUTRISCORE, Nutritional Risk Index (NRI), Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI), and Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) and to compare the agreement, sensitivity, and specificity of these tools. Methods: A total of 952 gastric cancer patients who underwent gastrectomy and chemotherapy from January 2009 to December 2012 were included. The patients were categorized into malnutrition and normal status according to five nutritional screening tools one month after surgery. The Spearman partial correlation, Cohen's Kappa coefficient, the area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity of each two screening tools were calculated. Results: Malnutrition was observed in 86.24% of patients based on the PG-SGA and 85.82% based on the NUTRISCORE. When NRI or CONUT were applied, the proportions of malnutrition were < 30%. Patients with malnutrition had lower intakes of energy and protein than normal patients when assessed using the PG-SGA, NUTRISCORE, or NRI. Lower levels of albumin, hemoglobin, total lymphocyte count, and total cholesterol and longer postoperative hospital stays were observed among patients with malnutrition compared to normal patients when NRI, PNI, or CONUT were applied. Relatively high agreement for NUTRISCORE relative to PG-SGA was found; the sensitivity was 90.86%, and the AUC was 0.78. When NRI, PNI, and CONUT were compared, the sensitivities were 23.72% for PNI relative to NRI, 44.53% for CONUT relative to NRI, and 90.91% for CONUT relative to PNI. The AUCs were 0.95 for NRI relative to PNI and 0.91 for CONUT relative to PNI. Conclusions: NUTRISCORE had a high sensitivity compared to PG-SGA, and CONUT had a high sensitivity compared to PNI. NRI had a high specificity compared to PNI. This relatively high sensitivity and specificity resulted in 77.00% agreement between PNI and CONUT and 77.94% agreement between NRI and PNI. Further cohort studies will be needed to determine if the nutritional status assessed by PG-SGA, NUTRISCORE, NRI, PNI, and CONUT predicts the gastric cancer prognosis.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.78-87
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• 2009

위암 발생률이 높은 우리나라에서는 위암이 발생할 가능성이 높은 고위험군에서 위암 발생 여부를 알 수 있는 생물학적 인자(biological marker)의 개발이 매우 중요한데 가장 많이 연구되는 인자로 혈청 펩시노겐(Pepsinogen)이 있다. 이에 소화기질환을 가지고 있는 환자군과 건강검진센터 수진자를 대상으로 한두 가지 연구에서 혈청 펩시노겐 검사에 영향을 주는 인자를 알아보고 위축성 위염이나 위암 진단에 있어 혈청 펩시노겐 검사의 역할을 알아보았다. 혈청 펩시노겐 검사에 영향을 주는 인자로는 H. pylori 감염이 가장 컸고, 다음으로 성별, 연령이 있었다. 이를 고려한 결과 한국인에서의 내시경적 위축성 위염 진단에 있어서 PG I/II ratio 기준은 H. pylori 감염 여부에 따라 달랐는데 H. pylori 감염이 없는 경우는 PG I/II ratio 6이, H. pylori 감염이 있는 경우는 국제적 기준인 PG I/II ratio 3이 예민도와 민감도에서 우수했다. 또한 한국인에서의 위암이나 위축성 위염 진단에 있어 PG I이나 PG II는 별로 유용하지 않은 반면 PG I/II ratio는 비교적 유용함을 알 수 있었고, 특히 H. pylori 감염이 있는 경우 PG I/II ratio $\leq3$ 이하가 위암 발생위험도 예측에 도움이 되었다. 결과적으로 혈청 펩시노겐을 위암이나 위축성 위염 진단 biomarker로 사용할 때는 기존의 국제적인 기준도 중요하지만 각 나라의 현실에 맞는 기준치 적용을 위해 validation study를 시행하고 사용하는 것이 바람직한 것으로 보인다.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.574-583
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• 2023

Purpose: Gastric cancer (GC) is among the most prevalent and fatal cancers worldwide. National cancer screening programs in countries with high incidences of this disease provide medical aid beneficiaries with free-of-charge screening involving upper endoscopy to detect early-stage GC. However, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused major disruptions to routine healthcare access. Thus, this study aimed to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the diagnosis, overall incidence, and stage distribution of GC. Materials and Methods: We identified patients in our hospital cancer registry who were diagnosed with GC between January 2018 and December 2021 and compared the cancer stage at diagnosis before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subgroup analyses were conducted according to age and sex. The years 2018 and 2019 were defined as the "before COVID" period, and the years 2020 and 2021 as the "during COVID" period. Results: Overall, 10,875 patients were evaluated; 6,535 and 4,340 patients were diagnosed before and during the COVID-19 period, respectively. The number of diagnoses was lower during the COVID-19 pandemic (189 patients/month vs. 264 patients/month) than before it. Notably, the proportion of patients with stages 3 or 4 GC in 2021 was higher among men and patients aged ≥40 years. Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall number of GC diagnoses decreased significantly in a single institute. Moreover, GCs were in more advanced stages at the time of diagnosis. Further studies are required to elucidate the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and the delay in the detection of GC worldwide.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• 제42권sup1호
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• pp.39-45
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• 2008

PET or PET/CT detects only less than 50% of early gastric cancer and 62-98% of advanced gastric cancer. Therefore, mass screening programs are recommended for all adults over the age of 40 for early detection and early treatment of gastric cancer through endoscopy or various radiological tests. The most important step after diagnosis of gastric cancer is accurate staging, which mainly evaluates tumor resectability to avoid unnecessary surgery. Important factors that affect tumor resectability are whether the tumor can be separated from adjacent organs or important blood vessels, the extent of lymph node metastasis, presence of peritoneal metastasis, or distant organ metastasis. To evaluate the extent of local tumor invasion, anatomical imaging that has superior spatial resolution is essential. There are a few studies on prognostic significance of FDG uptake with inconsistent results between them. In spite of lower sensitivity for lymph node staging, the specificity of CT and PET are very high, and the specificity for PET tends to be higher than that for CT. Limited data published so far show that PET seems less useful in the detection of lung and bone metastasis. In the evaluation of pleural or peritoneal metastasis, PET seems very specific but insensitive as well. When FOG uptake of primary tumor is low, distant metastasis also tends to show low FDG uptake reducing its detection on PET. There are only a few data available in the evaluation of recurrence detection and treatment response using FDG PET or PET/CT.