[Multidisciplinary treatment and survival analysis for 497 cases of pancreatic cancer with liver metastases].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the multidisciplinary therapeutic mode, clinical effect and prognostic factors of pancreatic cancer with liver metastases (PCLM). METHODS: We retrospectively selected 497 consecutive patients with PCLM who were pathologically diagnosed and treated at Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital, from January, 2000 to December, 2012. Clinical characteristics, treatment modality, survival condition and factors associated with prognosis of these cases were analyzed, and efficacy of multidisciplinary treatment model was evaluated. RESULTS: Of these patients, the male/female ratio was 1.85∶1, with a median age of 59. A total of 358 (72.0%) cases had synchronous liver metastases, and 173 (34.8%) cases complicated with extrahepatic metastases. The 0.5, 1, 3, 5 year survival rates of 497 patients were 44.1%, 19.7%, 3.2% and 2.2%, respectively, with a median survival (MS) of 5.4 months. Patients who were treated with 3 or more approaches (including surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, interventional therapy, and physiotherapy) had a longer median survival time than patients treated with 2 or only 1 approach (MS: 8.6 vs 5.2 vs 4.6 months, P< 0.001). Multivariate analysis for clinical features and treatment modality showed that age, weight loss, ascites, karnofsky performance score (KPS), primary site resection, albumin, carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9, resection of liver metastases, radiation therapy and systemic chemotherapy were prognostic variables with statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: PCLM is a refractory malignant tumor. Age >60, weight loss (≥10% within 3 months), ascites, KPS <80, albumin<35 g/L, and CA19-9 ≥500 U/ml were the most relevant predictors of poor survival. Multimodal treatment using curative resection of pancreatic cancer and/or liver metastases, systemic chemotherapy and radiation therapy may improve the prognosis and survival rate sufficiently.

Responses of dietary ileal amino acid digestibility to consumption of different cultivars of potatoes and conventional fibers in grower pigs fed a high-fat basal diet.

Whereas dietary fibers are well recognized for nutritional management of human health issues, fiber is also known to be one of the dietary factors potentially affecting digestive use of dietary proteins. As a staple food, potato (Solanum tuberosum) may be a significant dietary fiber source. The objective of this study was to examine effects of dietary supplementation of six potato cultivar-genotype samples that differ in soluble fiber content and two conventional fiber components (i.e., cellulose and guar gum) on the apparent ileal AA digestibility in pigs fed a high-fat basal diet. The basal diet was formulated as a zero-fiber negative control (NC) to contain 41.5% poultry meal, 4% casein, 15% animal fat-oil blend, 2.8% sucrose, 31% corn (Zea mays) starch, 0.50% salt, and 0.40% trace mineral-vitamin supplement with fat contributing to 47% of the dietary GE. The two fiber diets were formulated by respectively diluting the basal diet with 10% guar gum and 10% cellulose at the expense of corn starch. Six other test diets were formulated by including 8.5% guar gum and further diluting the basal diet with 25.1% one of the six cultivar-genotype samples of dehydrated potato tuber powder to contain about 10% total dietary fiber at the expense of corn starch. Eighty-one 25-kg barrows were fitted with a simple T-cannula at the distal ileum and fed the diets according to a completely randomized block design with each block lasting 28 d. Compared with the NC, the ileal digestibility of Ala, Gly, and Pro were decreased (P < 0.05) by 10% guar gum whereas the digestibility of Gly was reduced (P < 0.05) by 10% cellulose. The ileal digestibility of several AA was decreased (P < 0.05) by the test potatoes plus 8.5% guar gum compared with the NC. Our results suggest that dietary inclusion of fiber at 10% from guar gum and cellulose and contributed by potatoes may adversely affect digestive use of dietary protein.

[Synthesis and antitumor activity of beta-germanyl-alpha-amino acid derivatives].

Some beta-germanyl-alpha-amino acid derivatives were prepared from the reaction of HGeCl3 with substituted oxazolines. The compositions of the above compounds were studied using IR, element analysis and so on. Experimental results were as follows: for 1-substituted-2-amino-2-carboxyethylgermanium susquioxide (such as IIIb), the po LD50 for mice was found to be above 10 g/kg. When given ip, a maximum inhibition of 50% of the growth of S180 was obtained for IIIb, whereas an inhibition of 42% was achieved for 5-Fu under the same experimental condition.