Notch1 expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its relation with microvascular angiogenesis / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe Notch1 expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and investigate its relation with microvascular angiogenesis in the tumor.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Tissue slices of 40 cases ESCC (cancer group) and 8 cases normal esophagus tissues (normal group) were obtained to analyze the expression of Notch1 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) using immunohistochemistry and estimate the microvessel density (MVD) in the tumor.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Notch1 expression was significantly lower in the cancer group than in the normal group (P<0.05). In the cancer group, Notch1 expression was higher in highly differentiated than in poorly differentiated tumors (P<0.05) regardless of tumor infiltration or lymph nodes metastasis (P>0.05). VEGF expression and MVD were significantly higher in cancer group than in normal group, and showed significant differences between tumors with different differentiation degrees, infiltration and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). Correlation analysis showed that Notch1 expression was inversely correlated to VEGF expression.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Notch1 may be an anti-oncogene in ESCC and affects cell differentiation in early stage of the malignancy. Abnormally low expression of Notch1 in ESCC may be one of the upstream factors to induce high expression of VEGF and increased MVD. The Notch1 pathway might play a key role in microvascular angiogenesis in ESCC.</p>

Prognosis of the short-term efficacy of thymectomy for myasthenia gravis with serum protein profiles / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>The extended thymectomy for myasthenia gravis (MG) is currently available, but in 20% - 40% of the patients the results were not satisfactory. There are no ideal indicators forecasting surgical results before operation. The surface enhanced laser desorption ionization-time of flight-mass spectroscopy (SELDI-TOF-MS) is a currently new technique for detection of protein profiles, and some progresses have been made in cancer diagnosis and efficacy evaluation, but there is no report on efficacy forecasting of MG surgery. This study aimed to establish an efficacy prognosis model for forecasting the efficacy of surgery for MG by analysis of serum protein profiles of MG patients before surgery.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Fifty-six MG patients 6 months after extended thymectomy were enrolled in the study. They were classified into effective or non-effective groups according to symptoms and medication. Their pre-operative blood samples were analyzed for protein profiles by the SELDI-TOF MS technique, and protein peaks were identified for establishment of the efficacy prognosis model of MG surgery. Additional 100 MG patients were subjected to model validation and their pre-operation protein profiles reviewed for post-operative results. The results were compared with those of the post-operative follow-up so as to validate the prognosis model.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>For the model establishment, symptoms were improved in 33 patients and not improved in 18 patients, with an effective rate of 64.7%. Five (8.9%) patients were lost to follow-up. Within the molecular weight range of 1 000 to 20 000, 3 specific protein peaks were found to be significantly different between the effective and non-effective groups, ie M4110-76, M3394-58, and M1258-55. Using the efficacy prognosis model constructed with these data, the accuracy rate of classification was 87.9% for the effective group, and 83.3% for the non-effective group, with a total accuracy rate of 86.3%. For the model evaluation, 2 (8.9%) patients were lost to follow-up, 62 patients were effective and 36 were non- effective. By comparing with the real results of follow-up with 65 effective and 33 non-effective patients with an effective rate of 66.3%, the accuracy rate of prediction by the prognosis model was 86.2% for the effective group, and was 81.8% for the non-effective group with a total accuracy rate of 84.5%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>By protein profiles analysis of pre-operative blood samples taken from MG patients with the SELDI-TOF MS technique, protein peaks correlated with surgery efficacy in MG patients can be found for primary forecasting short-term efficacy of surgery for MG patients.</p>

Effect of thoracic duct ligation during transthoracic esophagectomy on the prevention of post-operative chylothorax in different tumor locations / 中华胃肠外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of thoracic duct ligation during transthoracic esophagectomy on preventing post-operative chylothorax in different tumor locations.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Between March 2003 and June 2007, 243 patients with thoracic esophageal carcinoma underwent esophageal resection in our hospital. All the cases were divided into five groups according to tumor localization, including cervical, upper middle, middle, lower middle and lower sections. Each was then subdivided into 2 groups: with and without intraoperative thoracic duct ligation. Statistical analysis was carried out to evaluate the relevance between ligation and non-ligation of the thoracic duct during esophagectomy and the incidence of post-operative chylothorax.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 8 cases of post-operative chylothorax was recorded and the incidence was 3.3%. Incidence with respect to tumor location was as follows: cervical section: ligation subgroup 3 cases and non-ligation subgroup 5 cases; upper middle section: no one for both ligation and non-ligation subgroups; middle section: ligation subgroup 0/26 and non-ligation subgroup 1/28 (3.6%); lower middle section: ligation subgroup 1/39 (2.6%) and non-ligation subgroup 1/35 (2.9%); lower section: ligation subgroup 1/37 (2.7%) and non-ligation subgroup 2/44 (4.5%). Logistic regression analysis revealed no significant difference between ligation and non-ligation subgroup in the prevention of post-operative chylothorax (P>0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Thoracic duct ligation as preventive measure can not decrease the incidence of chylothorax secondary to esophagectomy.</p>

The clinical analysis of the early outcome and crisis onset after surgical treatment on myastheaia gravis with thymoma / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

Objective To observe the early outcome and crisis onset after surgical treatment on myasthenia gravis with thymoma and analyze the relevant factors.Methods 436 patients with myasthenia gravis were treated surgically between January 1999 and Jan- uary 2005,58 patients with thymoma.The severity of MG disease was classified according to modified Osserman classification:type Ⅰ(n=17),type Ⅱ a(n=23),type Ⅱ b(n=12)and type Ⅲ(n=6).The distribution of thymomas by the Masaoka clinical stage showed 30 in stage Ⅰ,18 in stage Ⅱ,7 in stage Ⅲ and 3 in stage Ⅳ.The early outcome and crisis onset after surgical treat- ment were analyzed by statistical methods.Results After operation,symptoms improved in 16 eases(27.59%),no change in 18 eases(31.03%),deterioration in 11 cases(18.97%)and crisis onset or death in 13 cases.Logistic test showed that the possibility of crisis onset in patients with thymoma is 1.286 times higher than patients without thymoma.Patients with thymoma,type Ⅱ or above are in high risk group of crisis.The incidence rate of crsis in type Ⅱ group or above was significantly higher than type Ⅰ(P=0.048 0.05).Conclusion The risk of crsis onset after operation significantly raises in myasthenia gravis patients with thymoma.The staging of the disease are associated to development of crisis and crisis onset is independents to patho-staging of thymoma.