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Biomedical subjects

Richard S Swanson

Publications and source records attributed to Richard S Swanson.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Carcinoid tumors.

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Antineoplastic Agents↗

Treatment outcomes associated with surgery for gallbladder cancer: a 20-year experience.

The aim of this study was to evaluate contemporary outcomes associated with the management of gallbladder cancer. The medical records of 48 consecutive patients with gallbladder cancer treated at our institution from January 1981 through November 2001 were reviewed. Survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method (mean follow-up period 24 months) and the log-rank test. Prognostic factors were analyzed using Cox regression. Mean patient age was 68 years. Sixty percent of patients were female. Thirty-nine patients (81%) underwent laparotomy or laparoscopy. Eighteen patients (38%) underwent complete resection (10 simple cholecystectomies and 8 radical cholecystectomies). There were no procedure-related deaths. The overall 5-year survival rate was 13%. Patients who underwent complete resection had a higher 5-year survival rate (31%) than patients who underwent palliative surgery or no surgery (0%; P<0.05). For patients who underwent radical cholecystectomy, the 5-year survival rate was 60%. For the 18 patients who underwent curative resection, positive lymph node metastasis and patient age over 65 were factors predictive of significantly worse survival. Overall survival rates for patients with gallbladder cancer remain poor. Although radical surgery can be performed safely, it is associated with long-term survival only in a highly select subset of patients with gallbladder cancer.

Adult↗

Adenocarcinoma of the gastric cardia: what is the optimal surgical approach?

BACKGROUND: The incidence of adenocarcinoma of the gastric cardia is rising in Western countries. This study evaluates prognostic factors associated with surgical management of this cancer. STUDY DESIGN: Medical records of consecutive patients with gastric cardial cancer treated by surgical resection from 1991 through 2001 were reviewed. Survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Prognostic factors were evaluated using log-rank test and Cox regression. Mean followup period was 34 months. RESULTS: Eighty-two patients met study inclusion criteria. Median patient age was 65 years (range 86 to 22). Fifty-nine (72%) patients had type II tumors and 23 (28%) patients had type III tumors, according to the Siewert classification for gastroesophageal junction tumors. Twenty-seven (33%) patients underwent total esophagectomy, 24 (29%) patients underwent extended gastrectomy with thoracotomy, and 31 (38%) patients underwent extended gastrectomy without thoracotomy. Overall postoperative 5-year survival rate was 30%. On multivariate analysis, patient age 65 years and older, absence of lymph node metastasis, and R0 resection emerged as factors independently associated with improved postoperative survival. Frequency with which proximal resection margin was infiltrated with cancer was a function of gross margin length and T stage. Proximal gross margin length of at least 6 cm was required to achieve a microscopically negative proximal margin for T3 and T4 cancers. CONCLUSIONS: Achieving R0 resection should be the goal of surgical therapy for the gastric cardial cancer. The surgical approach should be tailored to individual patients to achieve this goal.

Adenocarcinoma↗

The prognosis of T3N0 colon cancer is dependent on the number of lymph nodes examined.

BACKGROUND: T3N0 colon cancer is the target of many adjuvant studies. Very few studies have examined the relationship of the number of lymph nodes examined to the prognosis of this stage. We examined data from the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) to determine whether the number of examined lymph nodes is prognostic for T3N0 colon cancer. METHODS: A total of 35,787 prospectively collected cases of T3N0 colon cancer that were surgically treated and pathologically reported from 1985 to 1991 to the NCDB as T3N0M0 were analyzed. RESULTS: The 5-year relative survival rate for T3N0M0 colon cancer varied from 64% if 1 or 2 lymph nodes were examined to 86% if > 25 lymph nodes were examined. Three strata of lymph nodes (1-7, 8-12, and > or = 13) distinguished significantly different observed 5-year survival rates. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that the prognosis of T3N0 colon cancer is dependent on the number of lymph nodes examined. A minimum of 13 lymph nodes should be examined to label a T3 colon cancer as node negative. These data suggest that adjuvant trials for T3N0 colon cancer should stratify according to the number of lymph nodes examined.

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