Outcome of malignant melanoma in gastrointestinal tract: clinical analysis of 70 cases / 中华外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the diagnosis and treatments of malignant melanoma in gastrointestinal tract.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The clinical data of 70 cases of malignant melanoma in gastrointestinal tract treated between July 1965 and June 2007 were collected and analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There were 27 male and 43 female patients in this group with a median age of 53 years. The melanoma arose from rectum in 50 cases, from anus in 10 cases and from esophagus in 10 cases. The overall 1, 3, 5 years survival rate were 48.3%, 14.6% and 6.5%, respectively, the median survival time was 379 days. Sixty-three cases received operations with or without adjuvant therapy after the operation. There was no significant differences in overall survival rate between the 25 cases received operation only (Group 1) and 38 cases supplemented by adjuvant therapy after operation (Group 2); whereas, the cases with clinical stage III tumor in Group 2 had significantly better survival than their counterparts in Group 1. It was found that the depth of tumor invasion was the risk factor of patient's prognosis on multivariate Cox regression analysis.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Operation combined with adjuvant therapy can improve the survival of the patient with stage III melanoma in gastrointestinal tract. The depth of tumor invasion is a risk factor of survival in these patients.</p>

Peritoneal lavage cytology in 66 patients with gastric carcinoma / 中华肿瘤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the clinical and prognostic value of peritoneal lavage cytology (PLC) in detecting free cancer cells (FCC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>PLC of 66 gastric cancer patients being operated was prospectively analyzed to assess the prognostic significance of positive cytological finding and its relation with serosal invasion, lymph node metastasis and stage classification.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The overall positive rate of cytology was 36.4% (24/66). These was a closely relation between positive cytology results and serosal invasion (P = 0.025), abdominal lymph node involvement (P < 0.005) and stage classification. Peritoneal recurrence in patients with positive cytological findings was significantly higher than that with negative results (P = 0.006 7).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Micrometastasis to the abdominal cavity, formed by free cancer cells exfoliated from the tumor, are significantly responsible for peritoneal dissemination. Serosal invasion and metastatic nodes have greater risk for positive cytology and implies poor prognosis. Peritoneal lavage cytology, if practiced in all gastric cancer patients being operated, can predict the operative effect and prognosis, increase the accuracy of clinical stage and provide information for further adjuvant therapy.</p>