• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.13-17
• /
• 2019

Stomach cancer is the fifth most common malignancy in the world. The incidence of stomach cancer is declining worldwide, however, gastric cancer still remains the third most common cause of cancer death. The tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM) staging system has been frequently used as a method for cancer staging system and the most important reference in cancer treatment. In 2016, the classification of gastric cancer TNM staging was revised in the 8^th American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) edition. There are several modifications in stomach cancer staging in this edition compared to the 7^th edition. First, the anatomical boundary between esophagus and stomach has been revised, therefore the definition of stomach cancer and esophageal cancer has refined. Second, N3 is separated into N3a and N3b in pathological classification. Patients with N3a and N3b revealed distinct prognosis in stomach cancer, and these results brought changes in pathological staging. Several large retrospective studies were conducted to compare staging between the 7^th and 8^th AJCC editions including prognostic value, stage grouping homogeneity, discriminatory ability, and monotonicity of gradients globally. The main objective of this review is to evaluate the clinical and pathological implications of AJCC 8^th staging classification in the stomach cancer.

• Journal of Breast Disease
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.35-38
• /
• 2018

Purpose: The eighth American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system for breast cancer was recently published to more accurately predict the prognosis by adding biomarkers such as estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2. However, this system is very complicated and difficult to use by clinicians. The authors developed a program to aid in setting up the staging system and confirmed its usefulness by applying it to theoretical combinations and actual clinical data. Methods: The program was developed using the Microsoft Excel Macro. It was used for the anatomic, clinical and pathological prognostic staging of 588 theoretical combinations. The stages were also calculated the stages using 840 patients with breast cancer without carcinoma in situ or distant metastasis who did not undergo preoperative chemotherapy. Results: The anatomic, clinical and pathological prognostic stages were identical in 240 out of 588 theoretical combinations. In the actual patients' data, stages IB and IIIB were more frequent in clinical and pathological prognostic stages than in the anatomic stage. The anatomic stage was similar to the clinical prognostic stage in 58.2% and to the pathological prognostic stage in 61.9% of patients. Oncotype DX changed the pathological prognostic stage in 2.1% of patients. Conclusion: We developed a program for the new American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system that will be useful for clinical prognostic prediction and large survival data analysis.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.207-214
• /
• 2016

Purpose: The utility of N classification has been questioned after the 7th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)/Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) was published. We evaluated the correlation between ratio-based N (rN) classification with the overall survival of pathological T4 gastric cancer patients who underwent D2 lymphadenectomy. Materials and Methods: We reviewed 222 cases of advanced gastric cancer patients who underwent curative gastrectomy between January 2006 and December 2015. The T4 gastric cancer patents were classified into four groups according to the lymph node ratio (the number of metastatic lymph nodes divided by the retrieved lymph nodes): rN0, 0%; rN1, ${\leq}13.3%$; rN2, ${\leq}40.0%$; and rN3, >40.0%. Results: The rN stage showed a large down stage migration compared with pathological T4N3 (AJCC/UICC). There was a significant difference in overall survival between rN2 and rN3 groups in patients with pT4N3 (P=0.013). In contrast, the difference in metastatic lymph nodes was not significant in these patients (${\geq}16$ vs. <15; P=0.177). In addition, the rN staging system showed a more distinct difference in overall survival than the pN staging system for pathological T4 gastric cancer patients. Conclusions: Our results confirm that rN staging could be a good alternative for pathological T4 gastric cancer patients who undergo D2 lymphadenectomy. However, before applying this system to gastric cancer patients who undergo D2 lymphadenectomy, a larger sample size is required to further evaluate the usefulness of the rN staging system for all stages, including less advanced stages.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.21
• /
• pp.9487-9494
• /
• 2014

Background: The size of a hepatic neoplasm is critical for staging, prognosis and selection of appropriate treatment. Our study aimed to compare the radiological size of solid hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) masses on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with the pathological size in a Chinese population, and to elucidate discrepancies. Materials and Methods: A total of 178 consecutive patients diagnosed with HCC who underwent curative hepatic resection after enhanced MRI between July 2010 and October 2013 were retrospectively identified and analyzed. Pathological data of the whole removed tumors wereassessed and differences between radiological and pathological tumor size were identified. All patients were restaged using a modified Tumor-Node-Metastasis (TNM) staging system postoperatively according to the maximum diameter alteration. The lesions were classified as hypo-staged, iso-staged or hyper-staged for qualitative assessment. In the quantitative analysis, the relative pre and postoperative tumor size contrast ratio ($%{\Delta}size$) was also computed according to size intervals. In addition, the relationship between radiological and pathological tumor diameter variation and histologic grade was analyzed. Results: Pathological examination showed 85 (47.8%) patients were overestimated, 82 (46.1%) patients underestimated, while accurate measurement by MRI was found in 11 (6.2%) patients. Among the total subjects, 14 (7.9%) patients were hypo-staged and 15 (8.4%) were hyper-staged post-operatively. Accuracy of MRI for calculation and characterized staging was related to the lesion size, ranging from 83.1% to 87.4% (<2cm to ${\geq}5cm$, p=0.328) and from 62.5% to 89.1% (cT1 to cT4, p=0.006), respectively. Overall, MRI misjudged pathological size by 6.0 mm (p=0.588 ), and the greatest difference was observed in tumors <2cm (3.6 mm, $%{\Delta}size=16.9%$, p=0.028). No statistically significant difference was observed for moderately differentiated HCC (5.5mm, p=0.781). However, for well differentiated and poorly differentiated cases, radiographic tumor maximum diameter was significantly larger than the pathological maximum diameter by 3.15 mm and underestimated by 4.51 mm, respectively (p=0.034 and 0.020). Conclusions: A preoperative HCC tumor size measurement using MRI can provide relatively acceptable accuracy but may give rise to discrepancy in tumors in a certain size range or histologic grade. In pathological well differentiated subjects, the pathological tumor size was significantly overestimated, but underestimated in poorly differentiated HCC. The difference between radiological and pathological tumor size was greatest for tumors <2 cm. For some HCC patients, the size difference may have implications for the decision of resection, transplantation, ablation, or arterially directed therapy, and should be considered in staging or selecting the appropriate treatment tactics.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.55 no.6
• /
• pp.470-477
• /
• 2022

Background: Upfront surgery followed by systemic treatment is recommended to treat clinical stage I-IIA small cell lung cancer (SCLC), but data on the clinical outcomes are sparse. Thus, this study evaluated the stage migration and long-term prognosis of surgically treated clinical stage I-IIA SCLC. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 49 patients with clinical stage I-IIA SCLC who underwent upfront surgery between 2000 and 2020. Additionally, we re-evaluated the TNM (tumor-node-metastasis) staging according to the eighth edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system for lung cancer. Results: The clinical stages of SCLC were cIA in 75.5%, cIB in 18.4%, and cIIA in 6.1% of patients. A preoperative histologic diagnosis was made in 65.3% of patients. Lobectomy and systematic lymph node dissection were performed in 77.6% and 83.7% of patients, respectively. The pathological stages were pI in 67.3%, pII in 24.5%, pIII in 4.1%, and pIV in 4.1% of patients. The concordance rate between clinical and pathological stages was 44.9%, and the upstaging rate was 49.0%. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rate was 67.8%. No significant difference in OS was found between stages pI and pII. However, the OS for stages pIII/IV was significantly worse than for stages pI/II (p<0.001). Conclusion: In clinical stage I-IIA SCLC, approximately half of the patients were pathologically upstaged, and OS was favorable after upfront surgery, particularly in pI/II patients. The poor prognosis of pIII/IV patients indicates the necessity of intensive preoperative pathologic mediastinal staging.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.1707-1710
• /
• 2014

Background: The objective of this study was to evaluate baseline use and positive rates of staging images (bone scan, CT) in newly diagnosed patients with prostate cancer (PCa) and to improve staging image overuse. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study covered a consecutive series of patients with PCa who underwent stage imaging at our institution between 2006 and 2011. Various clinical and pathological variables (age, PSA, biopsy Gleason score, clinical T stage, positive biopsy core rate) were evaluated by multivariate logistic regression analysis for their ability to predict a positive staging image. All patients were stratified according to the NCCN risk stratification and positive rates were compared in each risk group. Results: 410 patients (100%) underwent a bone scan and 315 patients (76.8%) underwent a CT scan. Some 51 patients (12.4%) had a positive bone scan, clinical T3 and T4 being significant independent predictors. Positive bone scan rates for low-, intermediate-, high-, and very high-risk groups were 0%, 0%, 8.25%, and 56.6%. Some 59 (18.7%) patients had a positive CT scan, with elevated PSA and clinical T3, T4 as significant independent predictors. Low-, intermediate-, high- and very high-risk group rates were 0%, 0%, 13.8% and 80.0%. Conclusions: The incidences of positive staging image in low- and intermediate- risk group were reasonably low. Following feedback on these results, staging in low- and intermediate- risk groups could be omitted.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.11
• /
• pp.4487-4491
• /
• 2014

Objective: To explore the clinical manifestations and imaging characteristics of gliomatosis cerebri to raise the awareness and improve its diagnostic accuracy for patients. Materials and Methods: Clinical data, imaging characteristics and pathological examination of 12 patients with GC from Jan., 2008 to Jan., 2012 were analyzed retrospectively. Results: Patients with GC were clinically manifested with headache, vomiting, repeated seizures, fatigue and unstable walking, most of whom had more than 2 lesions involving in parietal lobe, followed by temporal lobe, frontal lobe, periventricular white matter and corpus callosum. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed diffuse distribution, T1-weighted images (T1WI) with equal and low signals and T2-weighted images (T2WI) with bilateral symmetrical high diffuse signals. There was no reinforcement by enhancement scanning and signals were different in diffusion-weighted images (DWI). The higher the tumor staging, the stronger the signals. Pathological examination showed neuroastrocytoma in which tumor tissues were manifested by infiltrative growth in blood vessels and around neurons. Conclusions: In clinical diagnosis of GC, much attention should be paid to the diffuse distribution of imaging characteristics, incomplete matching between clinical and imaging characteristics and confirmation by combining with histopathological examination.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.40 no.2
• /
• pp.135-141
• /
• 2007

Conjugation of the methyl group at the fifth carbon of cytosines within the palindromic dinucleotide 5'-CpG-3' sequence (DNA methylation) is the best studied epigenetic mechanism, which acts together with other epigenetic entities: histone modification, chromatin remodeling and microRNAs to shape the chromatin structure of DNA according to its functional state. The cancer genome is frequently characterized by hypermethylation of specific genes concurrently with an overall decrease in the level of 5-methyl cytosine, the pathological implication of which to the cancerous state has been well established. While the latest genome-wide technologies have been applied to classify and interpret the epigenetic layer of gene regulation in the physiological and disease states, the epigenetic testing has also been seriously explored in clinical practice for early detection, refining tumor staging and predicting disease recurrence. This critique reviews the latest research findings on the use of DNA methylation in cancer diagnosis, prognosis and staging/classification.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.67-72
• /
• 1986

Authors evaluated the accuracy of preoperative pelvic CT scan staging and its effects on management in 12 biopsy proved rectal cancer patients. Authors also studied postoperative CT in 5 patients to detect disease recurrence and metastasis. Preoperative CT staging was identical to surgical and/or pathological staging in 9 patients(75%), but it was underestimated in two cases and overstimated in one instance than in surgical stagings. In 7 cases, CT scan didnot alter original choice of procedures. However, preoperative CT staging gave definitive informations to change management plans in 5 cases otherwise the treatment would be difficult and inadequate. Postoperative CT showed local recurrence in one and liver metastases in 2 cases. One of them was not detected at exploratory laparotomy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.719-724
• /
• 2012

This study aimed to investigate the clinical significance of expression and amplification of decoy receptor 3 (DcR3) in pancreatic carcinomas (PC). mRNA expression was detected by PQ-PCR, and amplification was determined. DcR3 protein expression was detected by immunohistochemistry and ELISA. Correlations between DcR3 expression and clinical pathological factors were analyzed. The relative amount of DcR3 in PC tissues and non-cancerous tissues showed a statistically significant difference, 21 cases displaying more than two fold DcR3 amplification, while no such amplification was found in normal pancreatic tissues. DcR3 positive cell staining was located in the cytoplasm. The positive rate of DcR3 in PC and non-cancerous tissues showed a significant difference. DcR3 mRNA expression was correlated with clinical staging, size of the tumor, lymph node metastasis and histological staging, while protein expression was correlated with clinical data like tumor size. DcR3 gene amplification only correlated with tumor size. The level of DcR3 in serum of the PC resectable group before operation was $72.2{\pm}10.2$ pg/ml, showing a significant difference compared to gallbladder carcinoma group (GC) or pancreatic benign tumor (PBT) group (P < 0.01). In conclusion, DcR3 amplification is correlated with DcR3 expression in PC tissues, especially those clinical pathological factors which reflect tumor progression. Assessment of DcR3 level in sera of PC patients may be helpful for the early diagnosis and prognostic judgement.