• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.61 no.6
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• pp.753-760
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• 2018

Objective : We investigated the effect of optimization in dose-limiting shell method on the dosimetric quality of CyberKnife (CK) plans in treating brain metastases (BMs). Methods : We selected 19 BMs previously treated using CK between 2014 and 2015. The original CK plans ($CK_{original}$) had been produced using 1 to 3 dose-limiting shells : one at the prescription isodose level (PIDL) for dose conformity and the others at low-isodose levels (10-30% of prescription dose) for dose spillage. In each case, a modified CK plan ($CK_{modified}$) was generated using 5 dose-limiting shells : one at the PIDL, another at intermediate isodose level (50% of prescription dose) for steeper dose fall-off, and the others at low-isodose levels, with an optimized shell-dilation size based on our experience. A Gamma Knife (GK) plan was also produced using the original contour set. Thus, three data sets of dosimetric parameters were generated and compared. Results : There were no differences in the conformity indices among the $CK_{original}$, $CK_{modified}$, and GK plans (mean 1.22, 1.18, and 1.24, respectively; p=0.079) and tumor coverage (mean 99.5%, 99.5%, and 99.4%, respectively; p=0.177), whereas the $CK_{modified}$ plans produced significantly smaller normal tissue volumes receiving 50% of prescription dose than those produced by the $CK_{original}$ plans (p<0.001), with no statistical differences in those volumes compared with GK plans (p=0.345). Conclusion : These results indicate that significantly steeper dose fall-off is able to be achieved in the CK system by optimizing the shell function while maintaining high conformity of dose to tumor.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.94-97
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• 2012

Tumors that metastasize to the pituitary gland are unusual, and are typically seen in elderly patients with diffuse malignant disease. The most common metastases to the pituitary are from primary breast and lung cancers. We report a 65-year-old woman with pituitary metastasis from breast cancer who presented with recent-onset left progressive deterioration of visual acuity and visual field. The clinical diagnosis was made after brain and sellar magnetic resonance imaging showed a large sellar mass compressing the optic chiasm and invading the pituitary stalk. An otorhinolaryngology and neurosurgery team removed the tumor via a transsphenoidal approach, and this procedure obtained symptomatic relief. Postoperatively, metastasis from breast invasive ductal adenocarcinoma was confirmed histologically. We report this unusual case with a review of the relevant literature.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.297-304
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• 1989

A 45-year old woman with congestive heart failure due to left atrial tumor was operated on. Three tumor masses arising from posterior wall, atrial septum, anterior portion of mitral valve were resected. Pathological diagnosis was malignant fibrous histiocytoma [MFH]. Above one case and sixteen previous reports are reviewed. Eleven cases out of 17 were females. The tumors all originated primarily in the left atrium and 8 had distant metastases. The metastatic sites are lung [4 cases], brain [2 cases], liver, jejunum, cervix and pleura etc. Careful pathologic study is necessary to differentiate the uniformly fatal MFH of the heart from the more common benign atrial myxoma. The treatment modalities are surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy & the prognosis of intracardiac MFH is poor. We underwent partial resection of left atrial MFH and obtained symptom relief and patient still alive 7 months post-operatively in state of NYHA class II.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1665-1667
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• 2013

Background: Ten to 30% of early breast cancer (EBC) patients develop brain metastasis (BM) during their follow-up. In this study, we aimed to evaluate importance of the lymph node ratio (LNR) in development of BM in EBC cases. Materials and Methods: Ninety patients whom had axillary metastases in lymph nodes at their initial diagnosis and developed BM during 5-year follow-up were detected in 950 EBC patients. LNR values were calculated for all patients and after categorization into 4 molecular sub-types as luminal A, luminal B HER-2 (+), HER-2 overexpressing and basal- like. Comparison was with control group patients who had similar characteristics. Results: In the comparison of all molecular sub-types of LNR, 54.9% and 28.4% values were found in patients with and without BM respectively (p<0.001). In the comparison of the LNR with control groups, a statistically significant differences were found with luminal A with BM (p=0.001), luminal B HER-2 (p=0.001), HER-2 overexpressing (p=0.027) and basal-like groups (p<0.001). In the evaluation of patients with BM, the highest ratio was found in the basal-like group (67.9%) and there was a statistically significant difference between this group and the others (p=0.048). Conclusions: EBC patients developing BM within 5 years follow-up had significantly higher LNRs for all molecular sub-types, especially in the basal-like group. Larger scale studies are now needed for evaluating LNR prognostic importance for EBC regarding BM development.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.2959-2962
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• 2013

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical characteristics, patterns of recurrence and survival outcomes in patients with uterine carcinosarcomas treated in our institution. Materials and Methods: Records of 26 patients diagnosed between 2007 and 2011 with uterine carcinosarcoma were retrospectively evaluated for demographic features, tumor characteristics, treatment regimens and patient outcomes in terms of DFS and OS Results: Median age was 61 (range 43-78). 10 patients (38%) had stage I disease at diagnosis, 3 (12%) had stage II, 4 (15%) had stage III and 9 (35%) had stage IV. Sixteen patients (62%) received chemotherapy with paclitaxel and carboplatin for 6 cycles. One patient underwent radiotherapy. Median follow up was 17 months. Sixteen patients relapsed and 13 died during follow up. Considering recurrence, 5 out of 16 patients had lung metastases, one had brain metastases and 9 had only intraabdominal recurrence. The 3 year DFS was 37% and the 3 year OS was 30%. Conclusions: Our data show that uterine carcinosarcomas tend to be at advanced stage at diagnosis and despite the use of chemotherapy, overall prognosis is poor. Surgery remains the mainstay of treatment. More effective adjuvant strategies are needed to reduce relapse and death rates.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.96-100
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• 2009

Purpose: Angiosarcoma of the scalp is unusual vascular tumor originating from endothelial cell. Angiosarcoma is an aggressive tumor with high propensity for both local recurrence and distant metastasis. We report 2 cases of angiosarcoma having poor prognosis recently. Methods: Case 1 was a 67 - year - old male patient. He visited the hospital with a $3{\times}5cm$ sized discolored mass in forehead. It began at one month ago from coming to the hospital. Case 2 was a 64 - year - old male patient. He visited for our hospital to remove a $4{\times}5cm$ sized scalp mass. He had a pruritis on scalp from 9 months ago before coming to the hospital. Despite of the conservative treatments, the wound was not healed and advanced necrotic lesion with hemorrhage. Results: Case 1 diagnosed as an angiosarcoma. He underwent a radical operation 5 times. But the tumor expanded multiple area in dura & frontal area of the brain. The patient rejected the treatment any more. And he died one month later. Case 2 diagnosed as an angiosarcoma and metastased to skull in MRI. He got a radical resection including cranium. Three months later, it recurred to ipsilateral Sternocleidomastoideus muscle. He got a additional operation & started radiotherapy. And now he is receiving chemotherapy, but the recurred lesion is expanding. Conclusion: Angiosarcoma is a highly malignant tumor. Especially it arises in vascularized area, it easily metastases. So it is the best to treat angiosarcoma with surgery included wide margins. Despite of the lesion is small, we remember that angiosarcoma is a tumor that consider to metastases.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.174-177
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• 2005

Skin metastasis from papillary thyroid carcinoma is extremely rare. Due to similar histopathologic features, it is difficult to differentiate skin metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma and some primary skin neoplasms without a clinical history. However, most of metastatic skin lesions showed a strong reactivity to the antithyroglobulin antibodies unlike primary skin neoplasms. Metastatic skin lesions must be completely removed and radiotherapy can be added. Investigators reported that prognosis of skin metastases from thyroid carcinoma is dismal and the average survival after it's diagnosis was only 19 months because distant metastases were often discovered at diagnosis of skin metastasis or during follow-up period. We report a case of skin metastasis from tall cell variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma. In our case, the anti thyroglobulin antibodies measured from cystic fluid from a skin lesion was more than 2000 IU/ml. Skin metastasis was diagnosed at 20 months after primary surgery for thyroid cancer and brain metastasis at 12 months after diagnosis of skin metastasis. Although skin metastasis is an ominous prognostic indicator in patients with thyroid carcinoma, a radical treatment for skin lesions and early diagnosis of distant metastasis could provide a chance to the patients to improve their survival.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.165-168
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• 2011

Background: The prognosis of melanoma metastasized to other organs is very poor. There have been many studies on metastatic melanoma in Western society, but there have been few studies done in Korea because of the small number of cases. Materials and Methods: A retrospective review of 7 patients who underwent complete resection of pulmonary metastases from melanoma from January 2005 to December 2009 was performed. When the primary lesion was controlled or simultaneously controllable and no other metastatic lesion was found, pulmonary resections were performed. We analyzed the clinical prognoses after the initial melanoma diagnosis. Results: Of the seven patients, one was male and six were female. The mean age was 58.2 years (range 45~71). Six patients had a single pulmonary lesion and one patient had three lesions confined to the same lobe. The mean disease-free interval was 43.5 months (0~146 months). Before pulmonary resection, 4 patients had received systemic therapy. After pulmonary resection, 6 patients received systemic therapy. Complete resection was confirmed histologically. The metastasectomy was performed by wedge resection (6 patients) or lobectomy (1 patient). There were no mortalities or complications. After pulmonary resection, 1 patient had recurrent multiple lesions in the lung and 4 patients had metastases to other organs. The organs were the liver, brain, pleura, and lymph nodes. The mean observation time was 31.6 months and 3 patients died during observation. The mean survival was 27.7 months (14~60 months) and the 1-year and 3-year survival rates were 100% and 42%, respectively. Conclusion: When patients were selected carefully, the complete resection of pulmonary metastatic lesions was considered a major therapeutic tool.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.909-914
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• 2012

Background: Gefitinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), is used both as a single drug and concurrently with whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) the standard treatment for brain metastases (BM), and is reported to be effective in a few small studies of patients with BM from non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, no study has compared the two treatment modalities. This retrospective analysis was conducted to compare the efficacy of gefitinib alone with gefitinib plus concomitant WBRT in treatment of BM from NSCLC. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 90 patients with BM from NSCLC who received gefitinib alone (250mg/day, gefitinib group) or with concomitant WBRT (40Gy/20f/4w, gefitinib-WBRT group) between September 2005 and September 2009 at Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center. Forty-five patients were in each group. Results: The objective response rate of BM was significantly higher in gefitinib-WBRT group (64.4%) compared with gefitinib group (26.7%, P<0.001). The disease control rate of BM was 71.1% in gefitinib-WBRT group and 42.2% in gefitinib group (P=0.006). The median time to progression of BM was 10.6 months in gefitinib-WBRT group and 6.57 months in gefitinib group (P<0.001). The median overall survival(OS) of gefitinib-WBRT and gefitinib alone group was 23.40 months and 14.83 months, respectively (HR, 0.432, P=0.002). Conclusion: Gefitinib plus concomitant WBRT had higher response rate of BM and significant improvement in OS compared with gefitinib alone in treatment of BM from NSCLC.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.65-69
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• 2001

The incidence of lung cancer and its mortality rate are increasing in Korea. At the time of diagnosis, 40% patients of lung cancer patients had metastatic lesions. The common metastatic sites are the contralateral lung, bone, liver, adrenal gland and the brain. Metastasis to oral mucosa is rarely encountered in lung cancer and metastasis to the gingiva is more uncommon. Approximately 1% of malignant carcinomas in the oral cavity are the result of metastases, and 10-25% of metastatic cancers originate from lung cancer. Clinically metastatic gingival lesions are benign including hemangioma, pyogenic granuloma, giant-cell granuloma or a peripheral fibroma. Often metastases to the gingiva are diagnosed too late and by the time they are detected, they have metastases to other organs. Here we report a case of small cell lung carcinoma that had metastased to the gingiva with review of relevant literature.