Clinical analysis of 36 cases of esophageal mucoepidermoid carcinoma / 中华肿瘤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To review the clinical characteristics, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of esophageal mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Clinical data of 36 patients with pathologically confirmed esophageal MEC who received surgical treatment in Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College from Jan 1991 to Jun 2010 were retrospectively analyzed. The survival analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier method.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of the 4253 patients diagnosed as esophageal cancer during the same time in our center, only 36 had esophageal MEC, accounted for 0.8%. This group included 27 men and 9 women ranging in age from 40 to 78 years (median 58 years). Esophageal MEC showed similar clinical symptoms, radiological and endoscopic features to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Of the 20 cases who received preoperatively endoscopic biopsy, 18 were misdiagnosed as ESCC and 2 were misdiagnosed as esophageal adenosquamous carcinoma. The mean follow-up duration of this series was 38.8 months (3-142 months). 22 patients died of the disease during the follow-up period, 12 were still alive and 2 were lost of follow-up. The median survival time (MST) of the 36 patients was 29.0 months, and the 1-, 2-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival rates (OS) were 80.6%, 57.1%, 34.4%, 25.8%, respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Esophageal MEC is a rare disease and prone to be misdiagnosed by endoscopic biopsy. Surgical resection is the primary treatment but the prognosis is poor.</p>

Surgical treatment of Siewert II adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction / 中华胃肠外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the outcomes after surgical treatment of esophagogastric junction carcinoma (EGJC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>One hundred and eighty-five patients with EGJC undergoing surgery from October 2000 to September 2006 at the Cancer Hospital of Shantou University were reviewed retrospectively. The clinical outcomes were compared between transthoracic and transabdominal approach.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of the 185 patients, 133 underwent operation via transthoracic approach and 52 via transabdominal approach. The postoperative complication rates were 10.5%(14/133) and 11.5%(6/52) and the 1-, 3-, 5-year overall survival rates were 83.9%, 44.5%, 32.9% and 86.0%, 38.0%, 30.0% in transthoracic and transabdominal groups respectively, and the difference were not statistically significant (both P>0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Surgical approach should be individualized for EGCJ.</p>

Manual microdissection of defined cells and RNA extraction for gene expression analysis of esophageal carcinoma progress / 中国医学科学院学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVES</b>To isolate cells of interest from heterogeneous tissue blocks to obtain accurate representations of molecular alterations acquired by neoplastic cells so as to meet the demands of further study on gene expression patterns of the esophageal carcinoma (EC) evolution.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Blocks of EC were stored at -70 degrees C as close as possible to the time of surgical resection. The tissue block was embedded in OCT and frozen sections of 35 microns in thickness were cut in a cryostat under strict RNAse-free conditions. Individual frozen sections were mounted on plain glass slides and 30-gauge needle attached to a 1 ml syringe was used to microdissect defined cells in the sections. The procured cells were used for total RNA extraction.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>An optimized protocol of manual microdissection was developed successfully whereby regions with an area as small as 1/25 mm2 could be accurately dissected. The RNA recovered from procured cells was of high quality suitable for subsequent applications of molecular analysis as assessed of 18S and 28S rRNAs by electrophoresis on agarose gel.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>It is believed that manual microdissection is capable to procure defined cell populations from complex primary tissues, thus allowing investigation of tissue-, cell-, and function-specific gene expression patterns. The technique is simple, easy to perform, versatile, and of particular usefulness when laser capture microdissection (LCM) is practically unavailable.</p>