Longitudinal cholecystectomy study: patterns of care in a total community experience.

The purpose of this study was to determine outcomes and safety of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) versus open cholecystectomy (OC) in a community setting at multiple open staff hospitals with multiple surgeons. This second-year study retrospectively examined all cholecystectomy records in one city at each of five hospitals over a 1-year period beginning in April 1991 through March 1992. All charts were examined for type of surgery, rate of conversion to open procedure, sex, weight, previous abdominal surgery, surgeon, hospital, preoperative workup, operative time, antibiotic prophylaxis, cholangiograms, concurrent procedures, drains, hospital stay, common duct stones and their follow-up, pathology, reoperations, complications, and mortality. One thousand eight hundred one gallbladders were removed. One thousand three hundred four (72.4%) were successfully removed at LC. One hundred eighty-three (10.2%) others were attempted laparoscopically and converted to open cholecystectomy (CC), which represented 12.3% of the attempted LCs. Three hundred fourteen (17.4%) were removed via a standard OC. The mean operative times were 72.3 minutes for LC, 100.1 minutes for CC, and 86.2 minutes for OC. Cholangiography was attempted in 916 (70.3%) LCs, 144 (78.7%) CCs, and 250 (79.6%) OCs, with similar operative times, except in LC, when done via the GB, operative time was 65.2 versus 73.4 minutes when done via the cystic duct. Diagnosis of acute cholecystitis occurred in 306 (23.5%) LCs, 119 (65.0%) CCs, and 145 (46.2%) OCs. Complications requiring reoperation occurred in 30 (2.3%) LCs, 5 (2.7%) CCs, and 5 (1.6%) OCs. Common bile duct (CBD) injuries occurred in 5 (34%) LCs, with 4 converted to CC and 1 repaired 5 days later. Trocar site hernias occurred in 11 (0.8%) LCs. Thirty-nine surgeons participated in the study with mean numbers of 33.4 LC cases, 5.5 CC cases, and 7.2 OC cases, with ranges of 1 to 165 LC cases, 1 to 17 CC cases, and 1 to 24 OC cases. Death occurred in 12 (0.9%) LC cases, 4 (2.2%) CC cases, and 25 (8.0%) OC cases. The mean hospital stay was 39.6 hours for LC, 156.5 hours for CC, and 198.3 hours for OC.

The value of axillary dissection in T1a breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Some authors have stated the undesirability of axillary lymph node dissections for very small breast cancers, because so few of their patients have lymph node metastases (3% for T1a lesions in one series). METHODS: Of 6,308 breast cancer cases reviewed from three large urban hospitals 3,077 single primary cases with both axillary dissection and accurate tumor measurements were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: For T1a lesions we found axillary metastases to be four times higher (12%) than others have reported. For each tumor size there was a statistically significant difference in the percentage of axillary metastases. There was also a statistically significant difference in the breast cancer-specific survival of patients with different tumor sizes (n = 3,077) at the 3-year, 5-year, 7-year, and 10-year periods. CONCLUSION: These results justify axillary node dissections even for very small invasive cancers of the breast, particularly for invasive ductal histology.

Surgical treatment of cancer of the pancreas in large community hospitals.

A retrospective study compares the success rates of surgical treatment of cancer of the pancreas in large community hospitals. Although none of the surgeons averaged as many as two pancreaticoduodenal resections per year for the period of this study, their results compared well with other published series except for a few centers and surgeons who did a very high volume of such resections. Results of the study indicate that well trained surgeons in well staffed and well equipped community hospitals can provide acceptable results in pancreaticoduodenectomies for cancer of the pancreas.

Five-year survival in breast cancer treated with adjuvant immunotherapy.

In this follow-up report of the treatment of primary breast cancer with adjuvant immunotherapy, a total of 95 patients were studied: 46 patients with stage I breast cancer and 49 patients with stage II breast cancer. All patients underwent standard surgical treatment and received immunotherapy as adjuvant treatment. Patients received a primary series of eight doses (1 mL of tumor-associated antigen preparation given as 0.2 mL intradermally and 0.8 mL subcutaneously) given over 8 weeks, and then booster injections every 3 months for at least 2 years. The 5-year survival with adjuvant immunotherapy was 83% for those with negative axillary nodes and 53% for those with positive nodes; this compares favorably with national 5-year survival statistics from two other studies (node-negative, 72% and 83%; node-positive, 51% and 59%). Based on these data, the addition of immunotherapy to other adjuvant therapies in randomized prospective trials seems both reasonable and justified.

The fate of abstracts submitted to a cancer meeting: factors which influence presentation and subsequent publication.

Abstracts that are published in the proceedings of meetings receive minimal peer-review, but may be referenced or used to make decisions about management of patients. We have studied factors which influence the probability of acceptance for presentation, and of subsequent publication of articles, from abstracts included in the Proceedings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). From a random sample of 197 abstracts submitted to the 1984 meeting, 81 were accepted for presentation and a Cancerline computer search revealed 103 papers that were published subsequently in peer-reviewed journals. Communication with authors of the remaining abstracts led to identification of 12 additional articles that had been published. Major reasons for non-publication were insufficient priority or lack of time, funds or other resources. Abstracts which reported 'positive' results were more likely to be presented than those reporting 'negative' results (60% vs. 35%, p = 0.03) and to lead to subsequent publication (74% vs. 32%, p = 0.0001). Of the 81 abstracts in our sample that were selected for presentation at the meeting, 63 (78%) led to publications, compared to 45% (52/116) of those not selected (p = 0.00001). There were no significant differences in the frequency of citation of abstracts that did or did not lead to subsequent publications. We made detailed comparisons of abstracts and subsequent papers for 18 randomized phase III trials. For 15 studies (83%), there was good correlation between the conclusions of the article and of the abstract.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Chronic B-cell lymphocytosis.

Persistent elevation of lymphocyte counts is usually associated with a malignant monoclonal lymphoproliferative disease. Over the last 8 years, amongst patients investigated in our center for undetermined persistent lymphocytosis, a diagnosis of malignant lymphoproliferation was excluded in 6 cases as studies of surface membrane immunoglobulin light chains showed that they presented a polyclonal expansion of their B-lymphocyte pool. All patients were young-to-middle aged women presenting peculiar immunohematologic findings characterized by 1) persistent (2-7 yr) elevation of lymphocyte counts (4-14 x 10(9)/l), 2) presence of characteristic binucleated B cells on peripheral blood smears, 3) a normal bone marrow histology, 4) a polyclonal increase of serum IgM with low-to-normal IgG and IgA levels. Histologic examination of the spleen in 2 patients and lymph nodes in 1 showed a benign follicular lymphoid hyperplasia. The evolution was benign in every case. We suggest that chronic polyclonal B-cell lymphocytosis is a distinct clinicopathologic entity that should not be confused with malignant lymphoproliferative disorders.