Prognosis of gastric carcinoma patients aged 85 years or older who underwent surgery or who received best supportive care only.

BACKGROUND: There is controversy regarding strategies for treating very elderly patients with gastric carcinoma. We aimed to assess survival after surgery in very elderly patients according to their clinical characteristics. METHODS: Gastric cancer patients aged ≥85 years were retrospectively reviewed. There were no significant differences in clinical characteristics between 58 patients with curative resection (OP group) and 32 patients with best supportive care alone (BSC group) in cancer stage IA-IIIC and with a performance status of 0-3. RESULTS: Overall survival (OS) was significantly better in the OP group than in the BSC group in females [hazard ratio (HR) 0.27, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.12-0.57, P < 0.001] but not in males (HR 0.71, 95 % CI 0.35-1.49, P = 0.35). OS was significantly better in the OP group in patients aged 85-89 years (HR 0.44, 95 % CI 0.25-0.78, P = 0.006) but not in patients aged ≥90 years (HR 0.47, 95 % CI 0.12-1.66, P = 0.24). OS was significantly better in the OP group in patients with stage IB-IIIC cancer (HR 0.29, 95 % CI 0.14-0.58, P < 0.001) but not in patients with stage IA cancer (HR 0.52, 95 % CI 0.21-1.27, P = 0.15). CONCLUSIONS: Females, patients aged 85-89 years, and patients with stage IB-IIIC cancer had significantly better OS with surgery than without. For males, patients aged ≥90 years, or stage IA patients, the decision to perform surgery should be carefully made, and BSC might be an optimal strategy.

Diagnostic capability of gadoxetate disodium-enhanced liver MRI for diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: comparison with multi-detector CT.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic capability of gadoxetate disodium (Gd-EOB)-MRI for the detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) compared with multidetector CT (MDCT). Fifty patients with 57 surgically proven HCCs who underwent Gd-EOB-MRI and MDCT from March 2008 to June 2011 were evaluated. Two observers evaluated MR and CT on a lesion-by-lesion basis. We analyzed sensitivity by grading on a 5-point scale, the degree of arterial enhancement and the differences in histological grades in the diffusion-weighted images (DWI). The results showed that the sensitivity of Gd-EOB-MRI was higher than that of MDCT especially for HCCs that were 1 cm in diameter or smaller. The hepatobiliary phase was useful for the detecting of small HCC. We had few cases in which it was difficult to judge HCC in the arterial enhancement between MRI and MDCT. In the diffusion-weighted image, well differentiated HCC tended to show a low signal intensity, and poorly differentiated HCC tended to show a high signal intensity. In moderately differentiated HCC's, the mean diameter of the high signal intensity group was larger than that of the low signal intensity group (24.5 mm vs. 15.8 mm). In conclusion, Gd-EOB-MRI tended to show higher sensitivity compared to MDCT in the detection of HCC.

[Long-term survival of a case of advanced cancer of the esophagogastric junction with complete response to low-dose 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin chemotherapy].

A 58-year-old man was admitted to the author's institution with complaints of dysphagia and tarry stool. An advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagogastric junction was revealed by endoscopy. The clinical stage was GE, T4, N1, H0, M0, cStageIVa, according to the Japanese Classification of Esophageal Cancer. Low-dose FP chemotherapy(continuous 5-FU div of 500mg/day with intermittent CDDP div of 10mg/day)was used. The tumor size was remarkably reduced while the side effects were trivial. A clinically complete response was recognized with CT and with pathological findings from endoscopic biopsy. As a recurrence was diagnosed in the off-treatment period, the same regimen was resumed. Soon, a complete response was again. The patient is doing well with no reoccurrence after almost 10 years, with a low-dose FP chemotherapy.

Treatment for gastric carcinoma in the oldest old patients.

BACKGROUND: The strategy for treating extremely aged patients with gastric carcinoma is controversial. This study reviews the prognoses of patients aged 85 years and older who were diagnosed with gastric carcinoma. METHODS: One hundred seventeen patients aged 85 years and older were diagnosed as having gastric carcinoma after 1969 in our institution. After excluding those at stage IV, 36 cases underwent curative resection and 30 cases received best supportive care (BSC), which we reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS: Surgical methods included distal gastrectomy for 28 cases, total gastrectomy for five cases, and other procedures for three cases. Postoperatively, pneumonia developed in four cases, anastomotic leakage in two cases, and pancreatic fistula in one case. Two patients died of pneumonia within 1 month of surgery. Univariate analysis demonstrated that age, surgery, performance status, and sodium level were statistically significant prognostic factors. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that surgery was the only independent prognostic factor. When patients with a performance status of 4 were excluded, the clinical characteristics of the surgery group (n = 36) and BSC group (n = 20) were statistically identical, and the overall survival was significantly better in the surgery group (p = 0.0078). CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative outcomes were relatively acceptable. Surgery may be feasible and beneficial even for extremely aged patients 85 years and older, except for those with a performance status of 4.

Study of low-dose capecitabine monotherapy for metastatic breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Capecitabine is an established therapy for metastatic breast cancer. In Japan, a 4 weekly regimen is often used, but data for this schedule in the first-line setting are lacking. METHODS: Metastatic breast cancer patients who had received no chemotherapy for recurrent disease received capecitabine 825 mg/m(2) twice daily, on days 1-21 of a 28-day cycle until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The primary endpoint was response rate. RESULTS: In 33 eligible patients, median age was 53 years (range 27-73). Prior adjuvant therapy included an anthracycline in 90% and a taxane in 40%. The response rate was 18%; a further 24% had stable disease for >or=6 months. Median progression-free and overall survival were 6.9 and 24.8 months, respectively. The only grade 3 events were neutropenia (6%) and hand-foot syndrome (15%). CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results confirm previous data showing that a lower capecitabine dose is an active and well-tolerated first-line therapy for metastatic breast cancer.

Prognostic factors for gastrectomy in elderly patients.

The decision to undergo surgery for gastric cancer patients aged ≥85 years should be made carefully. We retrospectively reviewed the prognostic factors of gastrectomy for 64 patients aged ≥85 years who had undergone curative gastrectomy for gastric cancer. The effects of various clinical characteristics and surgical interventions on survival were retrospectively analyzed. Univariate analysis revealed that sex (male/female; P = 0.001), the extent of gastric resection (total/distal; P = 0.028), the extent of lymph node dissection (D2/

Gastric neuroendocrine tumors in our institutions according to the WHO 2010 classification.

In 2010, World Health Organization classified gastric neuroendocrine tumor (NET) as follows: NET grade (G) 1, NET G2, neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC). We reviewed 22 gastric NETs that were encountered in our institutions. Nine, 6, and 4 were NET G1, G2, and NEC, respectively. We also encountered 3 NET G3. NET G1 was treated with observation in 2 patients, endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) in 3, and gastrectomy in 4 patients. No recurrence was experienced during a median of 53 months of follow-up. All NET G2 was treated with gastrectomy. No patient experienced recurrence during a median of 25 months of follow-up. NET G3 was treated with gastrectomy. One patient died of liver metastasis 52 months after gastrectomy. For NEC, gastrectomy was performed in 3 cases and no patients died of tumor-related death. We conclude that the prognoses of NET G1 and G2 were good. We also experienced long-term survivors of NEC. An accumulation of more patients is needed for further investigation.

Overexpression of the Wilms' tumor gene WT1 in colorectal adenocarcinoma.

Expression of the Wilms' tumor gene WT1 was examined in 59 cases of colorectal adenocarcinoma to examine the involvement of WT1 in tumorigenesis. Quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) showed that WT1 mRNA was expressed in the range from 7.2 x 10(-5) to 4.9 x 10(-1) levels (WT1 expression level in K562 leukemic cells was defined as 1.0) in all (100%) of the 28 cases of colorectal adenocarcinoma examined, and that the WT1 mRNA expression levels were higher in 20 (71%) of the 28 cases compared to those of normal-appearing mucosal tissues examined. Immunohistochemical analysis using an anti-WT1 antibody was performed on 46 cases of colorectal adenocarcinoma (15 of the 28 cases with WT1 mRNA expression and 31 newly collected cases), and the expression of WT1 protein was detected in 41 (89%) of the 46 cases. The direct sequencing analysis of the WT1 genomic DNA showed no mutations in any of the 10 exons of the WT1 gene in any of 5 different colorectal adenocarcinomas. These results may indicate an important role of the wild-type WT1 gene in tumorigenesis of colorectal adenocarcinoma.