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Young-Jae Mok

Publications and source records attributed to Young-Jae Mok.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

Gastric neuroendocrine carcinoma: clinicopathologic review and immunohistochemical study of E-cadherin and Ki-67 as prognostic markers.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Gastric neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) is an uncommon cancer of the stomach. The classification of NEC and its clinical behavior remains controversial, and prognostic markers and their therapeutic guidelines have not been clearly defined. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinicopathologic characteristics of these tumors and analyze the expression of E-cadherin and Ki-67 as prognostic markers in gastric NECs. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 17 cases of gastric NECs. Tumor pathology was reviewed and the tumors were categorized as well-differentiated NEC (n = 5) and poorly differentiated NEC (n = 12) according to the WHO classification. With the aim of evaluating the expression of E-cadherin and Ki-67 and their prognostic role in gastric NEC, immunohistochemical analysis of the tumors was performed. RESULTS: The median survival of patients was 20.0 months (95% confidence interval (CI), 13.2-28.8). There was a statistically significant difference in overall survival between well and poorly differentiated NECs (P = 0.021). However, there was no significant difference in overall survival between patients with poorly differentiated small cell and large cell NEC (P = 0.796). Loss of E-cadherin was correlated with lymph node metastasis (P= 0.044). A high Ki-67 proliferation index (PI) (>60%) was correlated with tumor recurrence (P = 0.013) and histologic differentiation (P= 0.028). CONCLUSIONS: Loss of E-cadherin may predict lymph node metastasis in gastric NECs. A high Ki-67 PI (>60%) could be used as a prognostic marker to predict aggressive gastric NECs in addition to standard pathologic classification.

Aged↗

Expression of liver-intestine cadherin and its correlation with lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer: can it predict N stage preoperatively?

BACKGROUND: Reliable method to predict lymph node metastasis is not yet available. In the present study, therefore, we examined LI-cadherin expression in human gastric cancer and attempted to find its relationship with clinicopathologic data, especially with lymph node metastasis. We also analyzed the expression in preoperative biopsy specimen to uncover its possibility of prognostication for lymph node metastasis. METHODS: The paired preoperative endoscopic biopsy and postoperative resected specimens from 208 patients who had surgically been treated for gastric cancer were retrospectively analyzed immunohistochemically for expression of LI-cadherin. RESULTS: There were 47 (22.6%) and 161 (77.4%) tumors which had positive and negative LI-cadherin expression, respectively. LI-cadherin expression was significantly correlated with tumor histology and lymph node metastasis: Furthermore, reduced expression of LI-cadherin was closely associated with tumor progression and lymph node metastasis in human gastric carcinoma. LI-cadherin expressions in both resected tumor and preoperative endoscopic tissues were found to be independent factors associated with lymph node metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: There is a close association between reduced expression of LI-cadherin and lymph node metastasis in human gastric cancer. Immunohistochemical study of LI-cadherin is relatively simple compared to sentinel node navigation surgery, and it could be a practical prediction method for lymph node metastasis in patients with this malignancy.

Biomarkers, Tumor↗

Prognostic factors for patients with node-negative gastric cancer: Can extended lymph node dissection have a survival benefit?

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: For the patients with node-negative gastric cancer, there is no agreement on which clinicopathological factors influence the final results except T stage. The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic factors, and to reveal whether the extent of lymph node dissection is associated with survival benefit for these patients. METHODS: Clinicopathological data of 506 patients with node-negative gastric cancer were studied. We divided the patients into D1 and D2 groups and carried out univariate and multivariate survival analyses. RESULTS: On the univariate analysis, the factors influencing survival were age, tumor size, Borrmann type, resection type, and the T stage. However, multivariate analysis with the Cox proportional hazard model disclosed age and the T stage to be significant variables. The extent of lymphadenectomy was revealed to be the independent prognostic factors for survival only for the patients with T3 stage. CONCLUSIONS: For the patients with clinically node-negative gastric cancer, an extended D2 lymph node dissection for the patients with T1 and T2 stage has no survival benefits. Although it might have some benefit for T3 stage by multivariate analysis, we should ascertain its value through a large randomized prospective study.

Aged↗

Mesenteric Castleman's disease.

We report here a rare case of mesenteric Castleman's disease presenting as a mesenteric mass. A 13-year-old female child was admitted to our hospital complaining of intermittent vague abdominal pain. She had hypochromic anemia, thrombocytosis and an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). Ultrasonography and computed tomography indicated an intra- abdominal mass might represent a lymphoma or gastrointestinal stromal tumor or leiomyoma, but the definitive preoperative diagnosis couldn't be confirmed. The surgical resection of the mass revealed the mesenteric hyaline vascular-type Castleman's disease.

Adolescent↗

Gastric cancer confined to the muscularis propria: a possible candidate for laparoscopic surgery or adjuvant therapy.

OBJECTIVE: Gastric cancer confined to the muscularis propria (mp) has a favorable prognosis, but still belongs to the advanced category. Many oncologists have difficulties in selecting treatment modalities owing to the confused situation of mp cancer. To clarify the therapeutic strategy, the clinicopathological characteristics were investigated, and the risk factors, of this intermediate-stage gastric cancer, evaluated. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 155 patients who underwent curative resection for primary gastric cancer between 1993 and 2001 were diagnosed with mp cancer. The patients were divided into recurrent and non-recurrent groups and analyzed clinicopathologically. RESULTS: The rate of recurrence was 20%. A multivariate analysis disclosed only lymphatic metastasis as an independent risk factor for recurrence of mp cancer. Hematogenous metastasis accounted for 37% of the recurrent patterns, and the liver (83.3%) was the most common organ. The 5-year survival rate of all mp cancer patients was 80.9%, but that of patients with recurrent disease was 19.2%. The median survival time of the recurred patients was 24 months, and 74% of those patients died within 3 years. CONCLUSIONS: Lymph node metastasis is the only significant risk factor of mp cancer. Patients with lymphatic metastasis should undergo postoperative adjuvant therapy. On the other hand, patients with mp cancer without lymph node involvement have an excellent prognosis and could be candidates for laparoscopic gastric surgery.

Adenocarcinoma↗

Impact of skip metastasis in gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND: Several studies have shown the features of skip metastasis in other cancers besides gastric cancer. Since minimally invasive surgery has been applied to gastric cancer, the concerns and awareness of skip metastasis have grown in the medical community. We conducted the present retrospective study to reveal the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with skip metastasis. We also wished to clarify the clinical impact of skip metastasis for gastric cancer. METHODS: Five hundred and eighty-nine patients having lymphatic metastases were enrolled in the present study. Among them, 266 patients had positive nodes extending into the N2 group. We divided these patients into the skip positive (+) and the skip negative (-) group, and we comparatively analysed clinicopathological factors and calculated the survival probabilities for the two groups. RESULTS: The skip (+) and skip (-) groups involved 14 (5.3%) and 252 (94.7%) patients, respectively. Of all the investigated factors, a significant difference between two groups was observed only in the total number of retrieved nodes. Stations of skip nodes were along left gastric (7), anterior common hepatic (8a), celiac (9), splenic (11) artery and right paracardial nodes (1). The survival curves calculated in the present study did not show any statistical differences between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Due to problems of skip metastasis in gastric cancer, D2 lymph node dissection should be performed until sentinel node detection is feasible and reliable. The potential risk from skip metastasis is not great and skip metastasis itself should not be a major consideration in therapeutic decisions.

Adenocarcinoma↗