[Endoscopic ultrasound-guided hepaticogastrostomy for treatment of malignant biliary obstruction in patient with Roux-en-Y gastrectomy]. / Hepático-gastrostomía guiada por eco endoscopia en obstrucción biliar maligna y gastrectomía subtotal con reconstrucción en Y de Roux.

Endoscopic retrograde cholangiography with biliary stenting is the generally recognized optimal treatment of malignant biliary obstruction. This procedure, though, is challenging in patients with surgically altered anatomy. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) enables tissue sampling by means of fine-needle aspiration and also represents an alternative recourse for biliary drainage in preference to a percutaneous approach. We aimed to report a case in which EUS enabled a definitive diagnosis of the recurrence of oncologic disease and the relief of biliary obstruction in a patient with a surgically altered anatomy.

Hepático-gastrostomía guiada por eco endoscopia en obstrucción biliar maligna y gastrectomía subtotal con reconstrucción en Y de Roux / Endoscopic ultrasound-guided hepaticogastrostomy for treatment of malignant biliary obstruction in patient with Roux-en-Y gastrectomy

RESUMEN La colangiopancreatografía retrógrada endoscópica (CPRE) representa el tratamiento de primera línea para el drenaje biliar en pacientes con obstrucción biliar maligna avanzada. Sin embargo, este procedimiento representa un desafío en pacientes con anatomía alterada quirúrgicamente. El ultrasonido endoscópico (USE) permite la toma de muestras de tejido mediante punción aspiración con aguja fina y también representa una alternativa de drenaje biliar al abordaje percutáneo o quirúrgico. Nuestro objetivo es comunicar un caso en el que la ecoendoscopia permitió el diagnóstico definitivo de la recurrencia de la enfermedad oncológica de base y el alivio de la obstrucción biliar en un paciente con anatomía alterada quirúrgicamente.

ABSTRACT Endoscopic retrograde cholangiography with biliary stenting is the generally recognized optimal treatment of malignant biliary obstruction. This procedure, though, is challenging in patients with surgically altered anatomy. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) enables tissue sampling by means of fine-needle aspiration and also represents an alternative recourse for biliary drainage in preference to a percutaneous approach. We aimed to report a case in which EUS enabled a definitive diagnosis of the recurrence of oncologic disease and the relief of biliary obstruction in a patient with a surgically altered anatomy.

Role of Endoscopy in the Management of Boerhaave Syndrome.

Boerhaave syndrome (BS) is a spontaneous esophageal perforation which carries high mortality. Surgical treatment is well established, but the development of interventional endoscopy has proposed new therapies. We expose our experience in a Gastrointestinal and Endoscopy Unit. With a retrospective, observational, open-label, single center, consecutive case series. All patients diagnosed with BS who were managed in our center were included. Treated conservatively, endoscopically or surgically, according to their clinical condition and lesion presentation. Fourteen patients were included. Ten were treated with primary surgery. One conservatively. In total, 7/14 patients required an endoscopic treatment. All required metallic stents deployment, 3 cases over-the-scope-clips concomitantly and one case a novel technique an internal drain. 6/7 cases endoscopically treated achieved complete esophageal healing. In conclusion, endoscopy is an useful tool at all stages BS management: difficult diagnosis, primary treatment in selected patients and as salvage when surgery fails. With mortality rates and outcomes comparables to surgery.

Targeting CD44 as a novel therapeutic approach for treating pancreatic cancer recurrence.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an extraordinarily lethal disease, which, despite a more or less efficient chemotherapeutic treatment, systematically displays a rapid and uncontrolled progression towards a fatal recurrence. Determining which cells give rise to such tumor recurrence is thus crucial before an improved therapeutics outcome can be envisaged for patients with PDAC. In this regard, we recently reported that following a standard chemotherapy for PDAC, a heterogeneous subpopulation of CD44+ cells proliferates and is responsible for tumor recurrence, as shown by almost all recurrent tumor cells becoming CD44+. We designed a strategy to eliminate these cells based on a weekly administration of an anti-CD44 monoclonal antibody to human PDAC-derived xenografts in mice. We demonstrate that xenografts, which were unresponsive to gemcitabine treatment, are however sensitive to this strategy. In conclusion, CD44 represents an efficient therapeutic target in patients with recurrent PDAC.

Deciphering the cellular source of tumor relapse identifies CD44 as a major therapeutic target in pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

It has been commonly found that in patients presenting Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC), after a period of satisfactory response to standard treatments, the tumor becomes non-responsive and patient death quickly follows. This phenomenon is mainly due to the rapid and uncontrolled development of the residual tumor. The origin and biological characteristics of residual tumor cells in PDAC still remain unclear. In this work, using PDACs from patients, preserved as xenografts in nude mice, we demonstrated that a residual PDAC tumor originated from a small number of CD44+ cells present in the tumor. During PDAC relapse, proliferating CD44+ cells decrease expression of ZEB1, while overexpressing the MUC1 protein, and gain morphological and biological characteristics of differentiation. Also, we report that CD44+ cells, in primary and residual PDAC tumors, are part of a heterogeneous population, which includes variable numbers of CD133+ and EpCAM+ cells. We confirmed the propagation of CD44+ cells in samples from cases of human relapse, following standard PDAC treatment. Finally, using systemic administration of anti-CD44 antibodies in vivo, we demonstrated that CD44 is an efficient therapeutic target for treating tumor relapse, but not primary PDAC tumors. We conclude that CD44+ cells generate the relapsing tumor and, as such, are themselves promising therapeutic targets for treating patients with recurrent PDAC.