Laparoscopic approach for port site mass diagnosed as a Schloffer tumor following surgery of ascending colon cancer.

Schloffer tumor is a foreign body granuloma that develops in the subcutaneous layer of the abdomen over several months to several years after surgery due to sutures. Here, we performed a laparoscopic resection for a benign Schloffer tumor that showed positive F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) at the port site of a laparoscopic right hemicolectomy for advanced colon cancer. We report a case in which systemic chemotherapy was avoided as a result of the histological examination following the laparoscopic approach. A 66-year-old female, who underwent laparoscopic right hemi colectomy for stage IIIA ascending colon cancer, was revealed an enhanced mass at the right side of the abdominal subcutaneous layer. PET examination showed a high accumulation of FDG. Laparoscopic tumor resection was performed. Pathological findings reported the formation identical to the Schloffer tumor. Schloffer tumor, which is rare, should be considered as one of the differential diagnoses for tumor with FDG-PET positivity at the port site during the postoperative surveillance period of colorectal cancer.

Mitochondrial transcription factor a worsens the clinical course of patients with pancreatic cancer through inhibition of apoptosis of cancer cells.

OBJECTIVE: Mitochondrial transcription factor A (mtTFA) is mandatory for both the transcription and maintenance of mitochondrial DNA. This study aimed to investigate the significance of mtTFA expression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). METHODS: Surgical specimens from 93 patients with PDAC who all underwent pancreatectomy were immunohistochemically stained using a polyclonal anti-mtTFA antibody. The relationship between the expression of mtTFA, clinicopathologic factors, and prognosis of these patients were evaluated. RESULTS: Positive mtTFA expression was significantly associated with lymphovascular invasion and metastatic recurrence in the liver and correlated with an advanced surgical stage. A univariate analysis showed that the patients with positive mtTFA expression had a significantly shorter survival time than those patients with negative mtTFA expression, and a multivariate analysis revealed that mtTFA expression was one of the independent prognostic factors in patients with PDAC. Positive mtTFA expression was significantly correlated with a low apoptotic index but not significantly correlated with the mind bomb homolog-1 (MIB-1) index. CONCLUSIONS: The expression mtTFA worsens the clinical course of patients with PDAC through the inhibition of apoptosis of PDAC cells and is an independent marker for the poor prognosis of the patients with PDAC after pancreatectomy. Mitochondrial transcription factor A may be a novel target for the treatment of PDAC.

Clinical significance of mitochondrial transcription factor A expression in patients with colorectal cancer.

Mitochondrial transcription factor A (mtTFA) is necessary for both the transcription and maintenance of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). The present study investigated the relationship between clinicopathological factors, prognosis and the immunohistochemical expression of mtTFA in the tumors of patients diagnosed with primary colorectal cancer (CRC). Surgical specimens from 105 colorectal patients were immunohistochemically stained using a polyclonal anti-mtTFA antibody. The relationships among the mtTFA expression, clinicopathological factors and prognosis were evaluated. A total of 47 (44.8%) of the 105 patients with CRC were determined to have positive mtTFA expression. The positive expression of mtTFA significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and advanced TNM staging. On the other hand, negative mtTFA expression showed a tendency to correlate with high Ki-67 index. The survival of patients with positive mtTFA expression was significantly worse than that of patients with negative mtTFA expression. The positive mtTFA expression appears to be a useful marker for tumor progression and poor prognosis in patients with CRC.