Experience in the treatment of synchronous and metachronous carcinoma of the oesophagus and the head and neck

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Treatment of multiple primary squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck and oesophagus is controversial. The poor prognosis of these 2 types of carcinoma taken individually and their anatomic proximity complicate the therapeutic strategy and limit the treatment choices for each location. METHODS: From 1986 to 1998, 43 patients received curative treatment for multiple synchronous (n = 30) or metachronous (n = 13) primary neoplasms of the oesophagus and head and neck. For synchronous cancers, the therapeutic strategy consisted of first curing the head and neck cancer and then planning oesophagectomy according to the type of head and neck cancer therapy. RESULTS: Ten total oesopharyngolaryngectomies and 33 subtotal oesophagectomies were performed. The postoperative mortality rate was 9.3% (4/43). The rate of anastomotic leakage was 30% (13/43), and all such leaks were cervical. Pulmonary infection occurred in 19% of cases (8/43). A past history of cervical radiation therapy or cervicotomy did not appear to be a significant risk factor for anastomotic leakage or pulmonary complications. Oesophagectomy did not affect the functional results in the 31 patients whose larynx could be preserved. CONCLUSIONS: Oesophagectomy after head and neck cancer treatment is possible with a low mortality rate and acceptable morbidity.     

Ductal lavage and ductoscopy: the opportunities and the limitations

Two related techniques of breast epithelial sampling have emerged in the past several years: ductal lavage, in which fluid-yielding nipple ducts are cannulated at their orifices and lavaged with saline while the breast is intermittently massaged; and ductoscopy, in which discharging or fluid-yielding duct orifices are dilated, intubated with a microendoscope, and the lumen directly visualized. Both of these techniques have significant potential in terms of allowing the repeated sampling of ductal epithelium over time and, as such, have generated considerable enthusiasm. However, data regarding the impact of these techniques on the detection of significant breast disease is very scant. It is important at the outset of the assessment of this new technology that breast cancer clinicians and clinical researchers think carefully about the standards of evidence that need to be met regarding the benefits of these procedures before they are widely adopted. In this review of the rationale and early results of these procedures, we attempt to define some of these evidentiary requirements.     

胆囊结石及胆囊切除与结直肠癌的关系探讨

目的 探讨胆囊结石及胆囊切除与结直肠癌的关系.方法 回顾性分析347例结直肠癌及608例其他消化道癌的临床资料.结果 结直肠癌患者胆囊结石发生率及既往胆囊切除率显著高于对照组(P<0.05).结论 胆囊结石及胆囊切除可能是结直肠癌的高危因素.     

直肠癌ER／PE受体表达及预后关系的病理学分析

 本文应用石蜡切片免疫组化PAP法，回顾性观察了61例直肠中分化管状腺癌组织ER、PR表达情况。ER(+)/PR(+)为42.6%；ER(-)/PR(-)为57.4%。ER/PR的存在表明该癌组织具有了依赖性激素的特性。ER(+)/PR(+)者的中位生存期为4.5年，一、三、五年生存率为88.5%、53.9%、38.5%，均高于ER(-)/PR(-)者的生存率。　ER(-)/PR(-)者的中位生存期为2.4年，一、三、五年生存率为65.7%、42.8%、28.6%。表达阳性与阴性两者的生存期有明显差异(P<0.01)。检测ER/PR受体亦可做为判定预后的指标之一。本实验证实ER、PR表达与年龄、性别以及LNM之间无明显差异(P>0.05)。     

Cutaneous head and neck melanoma: the old and the new

The incidence rate of malignant melanoma has shown a rapid worldwide rise in recent years. The staging and management of head and neck melanoma presents some unique challenges. Surgery remains the cornerstone of treatment, while sentinel node biopsy is the most accurate staging modality for regional disease. The complex regional anatomy and lymphovascular drainage of this region may account for the increased biologic aggressiveness and treatment challenges of this disease. Improved understanding of the radiobiology of melanoma has resulted in new adjuvant radiotherapy approaches, yielding improved control rates. The treatment outcomes of metastatic head and neck melanoma remain disappointing but important progress has been made in the understanding of melanoma biology.     

类癌及结肠癌、肺癌中神经内分泌细胞免疫组织化学研究

应用铬粒素 A、NSE、S-100蛋白及 Leu7单克隆抗体免疫组织化学方法,对24例结肠癌和肺癌、8例类癌、4例小细胞肺癌进行研究,结果表明除类癌外,结肠腺癌和肺癌中也存在神经内分泌细胞,阳性率为铬粒素 A 20.8%(5/24 3,NSE 33%(8/24),S-100蛋白33%(8/24),Len7 12.5%(3/24)。探讨了神经内分泌源性肿瘤与结肠癌、肺癌之间的关系和组织发生学。初步提出了类癌可能起源于壁内内分泌细胞,但须进一步研究和证实。     

Clinicopathological study of carcinomas of the lip and the mucosa of the upper and lower lips

BACKGROUND: Lip carcinomas are rare oral tumors, and there have been few reports of lip carcinoma in Japan. METHODS: Of 914 patients with oral carcinomas treated between January 1980 and December 1998, 12 (1.3%) had lip carcinoma and 5 (0.5%) had lip mucosal carcinoma. We investigated the clinicopathological features of these 17 patients. RESULTS: Of the 12 patients with carcinoma of the lip, 10 had squamous cell carcinomas (9, external lower lip; 1 commissures) and 2 had mucoepidermoid carcinomas (external upper lip). Of the 5 patients with lip mucosal carcinoma, 3 had squamous cell carcinomas (2, mucosa of the lower lip; 1, mucosa of the upper lip), 1 had mucoepidermoid carcinoma (mucosa of the lower lip), and 1 had acinic cell carcinoma (mucosa of the lower lip). Of the 12 patients with lip carcinoma, 9 were classified as stage I, 2 as stage II, and 1 as stage III; all 5 of the patients with lip mucosal carcinoma were stage I. Five patients with lip carcinoma were treated by resection, 5 by a combination of resection and reconstruction, and 2 by radiotherapy alone. All patients with lip mucosal carcinoma were treated by resection. After the initial therapy, 3 patients without neck dissection had regional recurrences and received delayed neck dissection, and 2 died with neck regional recurrence after dissection. The 5-year cumulative survival rates of the patients with lip carcinoma and those with lip mucosal carcinoma were 82.5% and 80.0%, respectively. CONCLUSION: We suggest that early-stage carcinomas of the lip and of the mucosa of the upper and lower lips are frequent, and we found that the outcome of these patients was excellent. However, an aggressive therapeutic approach to the lip carcinoma patient with cervical metastasis appears warranted, in an attempt to improve locoregional control and ultimate survival.     

Effect of freezing the helix and the rim or edge of the human and pig ear

We have studied the effect of increasing freeze times on the normal pig's ear and on a variety of lesions of the human ear. The clinical and laboratory data suggest that cartilage necrosis secondary to cryosurgery is a dose-related phenomenon and is uncommon with the freeze times used in clinical practice. Cryosurgery is an effective and cosmetically acceptable treatment for superficial skin lesions of the ear.     

The relation between the aging of the steroid generating system and the geneses of cancers of the stomach, the breast and the uterine cervix

The purpose of the present study is to test the validity of the steroid carcinogenesis hypothesis in humans by investigating the problem whether or not a cancer-specific change of the hormonal milieu emerges at a specified stage of life where the growth rate of cancer risk is at its zenith. A case-control study of 14 urinary steroid excretions was conducted for each of 3 human neoplasias. The identification and the size (in parenthesis) of the population units used in this study were,given as follows: a) the male gastric cancer group (421); b) the male control group (104); c) the female breast cancer group (245); d) the cervical cancer group (345); e) the female control group (127). Two kinds of steroid parameters were employed for the statistical analysis of hormonal data: a) the logarithm of a steroid excretion figure (mu g/day), as expressed by log x; b) the logarithm of a relative weight of a given steroid to tetrahydrocortisol, as expressed by log x/THF. The case-control difference for each parameter was expressed in terms of a t-value of Student's t-test. The steroid deviation profile was prepared for each neoplasia and for each of the log x data set and the log x/THF data set. The results obtained are as follows: a) the 2 steroid parameters (log x and log x/THF) for each of 14 urinary steroids were both subject to change with the progress of host age. The rate of age-dependent change was different for each steroid parameter and for each population unit. b) The above differential age dependency of the steroid parameters gave rise to a continual transition of the steroid deviation profile in the course of aging. c) The hormonal traits of male gastric cancer, female breast cancer and cervical cancer were described each as a complex of androgen depression and glucocorticoid stimulation (male gastric cancer), a sequential emergence of premenopausal progestin depression and postmenopausal predominance of glucocorticoid over androgen (female breast cancer), and a complex of androgen-glucocorticoid depression over progestin (cervical cancer). d) The emergence of the above cancer-specific steroid disorders chronologically coincided with the quasiexponential growth phase of cancer risk (and slow growth phase of cancer risk in postmenopausal breast cancer). e) The usefulness of the log x/THF type deviation profile for the assessment of the hormonal milieu of the host was verified by both theoretical approach to the problem and its application to the real data of a case-control study. f) The age dependent decline of androgens was generally much faster in their progressions than that of glucocorticoids - a finding to suggest the possibility that the production of a cancer-specific steroid deviation profile might have taken the form of the stress shift of Hans Selye, since both phenomena share depletion of gonadal steroids relative to glucocorticoid in common. The etiological relevancy of the 3 cancer-specific steroid changes to the geneses of 3 cancers:was discussed in the light of the experimental pathology studies in our laboratory as well as in other laboratories.     

Cancer and systemic inflammation: treat the tumour and treat the host

Determinants of cancer progression and survival are multifactorial and host responses are increasingly appreciated to have a major role. Indeed, the development and maintenance of a systemic inflammatory response has been consistently observed to confer poorer outcome, in both early and advanced stage disease. For patients, cancer-associated symptoms are of particular importance resulting in a marked impact on day-to-day quality of life and are also associated with poorer outcome. These symptoms are now recognised to cluster with one another with anorexia, weight loss and physical function forming a recognised cluster whereas fatigue, pain and depression forming another. Importantly, it has become apparent that these symptom clusters are associated with presence of a systemic inflammatory response in the patient with cancer. Given the understanding of the above, there is now a need to intervene to moderate systemic inflammatory responses, where present. In this context the rationale for therapeutic intervention using nonselective anti-inflammatory agents is clear and compelling and likely to become a part of routine clinical practice in the near future. The published literature on therapeutic intervention using anti-inflammatory agents for cancer-associated symptoms was reviewed. There are important parallels with the development of useful treatments for the systemic inflammatory response in patients with rheumatological disease and cardiovascular disease.     

Mastocytosis and the skin

The most frequent site of organ involvement in individuals with any form of mastocytosis is the skin. Cutaneous lesions include urticaria pigmentosa, mastocytoma, diffuse and erythematous cutaneous mastocytosis, and telangiectasia macularis eruptiva perstans. The major histologic feature is an increase in the number of mast cells in the dermis. Treatment depends on the type of skin lesions.     

瘦素与胃癌及胃相关疾病的关系

  瘦素（Leptin）是脂肪组织表达的一种调节能量的激素。其受体分布广泛，影响机体许多生理系统及代谢通路。随着对Leptin的进一步研究，人们对其作用已不再限于肥胖和消瘦的范畴。Leptin与胃黏膜功能密切相关，参与了胃癌及胃相关疾病的病理生理过程。