A case of primary small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the liver / 대한내과학회지

Extrapulmonary small cell carcinoma is a highly malignant and poorly differentiated neuroendocrine tumor. The overall incidence in the United States is approximately 0.1~0.4%. Moreover, small cell carcinoma of the liver is extremely rare and few cases have been reported in the literature. We experienced a 65-year-old woman with a 15 cm hepatic mass, which was localized in the left lobe of a noncirrhotic liver. The mass was confirmed as small cell carcinoma by immunohistochemical staining of a biopsy specimen. Other possible primary sites were excluded by radiologic and endoscopic evaluations. The patient was treated with combination chemotherapy. She was in partial response on the last follow-up visit.

A case of Castleman's disease patient treated successfully with cyclic high-dose steroid therapy / 대한내과학회지

Castleman's disease is rare, and its cause is unknown. Although various treatments have been attempted, no standard treatment has been established for it. A 51-year-old male on hemodialysis with end-stage renal disease was admitted to our hospital with fever and myalgia. He was diagnosed with multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD) of the hyaline vascular type. Considering his underlying disease and general condition, cyclic high-dose steroid therapy (prednisolone 1 mg/kg/day for 5 days) was administered every 4 weeks, eight times in total. After this, no symptomatic manifestations of MCD or signs on computed tomography were observed. We report an immunocompromised patient diagnosed with MCD of the hyaline vascular type, who was successfully treated with cyclic high-dose steroid therapy.

Differences in Overall Survival When Colorectal Cancer Patients are Stratified into New TNM Staging Strategy / Journal of the Korean Cancer Association, 대한암학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to determine whether the prognosis can be more precisely gauged by the revised 6th AJCC staging system and if this is suitable for Korean colorectal cancer patients, and especially for those patients in the Youngdong district. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between September 1996 and December 2003, 365 patients with histologically confirmed colorectal cancer were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier analyses were used to compare the overall and stage-specific 5-year survival. All the statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS: The overall 5-year survival for the entire cohort was 62%. According to the stages defined by the AJCC fifth edition system, the 5-year stage-specific survival was 91% for stage I, 82% for stage II, 51% for stage III and 4% for stage IV. According to the stages defined by the AJCC sixth edition system, the 5-year stage-specific survival was 91% for stage I, 81% forstage IIa, 83% for stage IIb, 100% for stage IIIa, 64% for stage IIIb, 37% for stage IIIc and 4% for stage IV. The 5-year survival was significantly better for the patients with stage IIIb (64%) than those patients with stage IIIc (37%) (p<.001). CONCLUSION: It is widely known that the AJCC sixth edition system for colorectal cancer stratifies survival more distinctly than does the fifth edition system by providing more substages. Our study showed that stage IIIb disease had better survival than stage IIIc disease, but we couldn't confirm that this new staging system is relevant in our Korean clinical practice due to the small study population. Therefore, further study is required in a larger population.

Ten Cases of Fitz-Hugh-Curtis Syndrome / 대한소화기학회지

Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome, a kind of perihepatitis, occurs approximately in 3 to 10 percent of patients with pelvic inflammatory disease. It is not easy to detect in clinical settings due to requirement of invasive methods for diagnosis, for example, like a laparoscopic examination. Now, it has become possible to recognize it easily with the aid of non-invasive methods including an abdominal dynamic CT scan and laboratory tests. Moreover, it can be improved after the oral administration of antibiotics. Therefore, noninvasive diagnosis is desirable. Herein, clinical characteristics of ten cases of Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome are reported, with a review of the literature.