Jaffer Ajani

..We hypothesized that a model based on clinical parameters could predict pathCR with a high (≥60%) probability...

..9%) (p<0.01). These data support previous publications demonstrating that patients with diseases requiring specialized treatment have lower operative mortality when treated at high-volume centers...

..Given that these genes are involved in tumor growth and progression including angiogenesis, dissemination, and invasiveness, we hypothesized that these polymorphisms would be associated with survival in patients with gastric cancer...

..AGUIA uses a semantic web formalism, resource description framework (RDF), and a bottom-up design of knowledge bases that employ the S3DB tool as the starting point for the client's interface assembly...

..In this study, we investigated the association between potentially functional SNPs of these two genes and risk of gastric cancer in a US population...

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..Established prognostic variables for patients with anal carcinoma include tumor diameter, clinical nodal status, and sex, but pretreatment variables that would predict the likelihood of colostomy are unknown...

..The progress that has been made against esophageal carcinoma is limited. Many relevant issues remain. Herein the author discusses his outlook for the treatment of this disease, which has a steadily rising incidence...

..Upon further expansion and validation, these results may provide a biomarker-based understanding of heterogeneous clinical biology of patients with anal carcinoma...

..A multi-institutional study of preoperative chemoradiotherapy was done to assess the R0 resection rate, pathologic complete response (pathCR) rate, safety, and survival in patients with resectable gastric carcinoma...

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..We hypothesized that, in a cooperative group setting, preoperative chemoradiotherapy would induce a 20% pathologic complete response (pathCR) rate. Combined-modality therapy quality, survival, and safety were secondary end points...

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..S-1 with cisplatin is considered highly active in Japanese gastric cancer patients. Therefore, we initiated a phase I pharmacokinetic study of this combination in our gastric cancer patients...

..We compared the overall response rate (ORR) and safety of docetaxel plus cisplatin (DC) with DC plus fluorouracil (DCF) to select either DC or DCF as the experimental treatment in the ensuing phase III part of trial V-325...

..Chemoradiation as definitive therapy is the preferred primary therapy for patients with anal canal carcinoma; however, the 5-year disease-free survival rate from concurrent fluorouracil/mitomycin and radiation is only approximately 65%...

..Using validated instruments, we prospectively assessed QOL (even after completion of protocol treatment) as one of the secondary end points of the V325 phase III trial...

..However, a prospective evaluation of clinical benefit in AGGEC patients has never before been reported in a phase III setting...

..The primary end point was to assess whether any approach would achieve a >or= 77.5% 1-year survival rate, surpassing the historical 66% rate from the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) protocol 9405...

..In this way, clinicians might recommend combinations of molecularly targeted agents and other therapies on the basis of an individual patient's proteomic profile...

..Recently reported phase III results with these agents now demonstrate positive developments in the treatment options for patients with advanced gastric cancer...

..Our preliminary data suggest that the proportion of patients with significant pathologic response can be increased by using the three-step strategy...

..Patients with localized esophageal carcinoma often develop locoregional and distant disease recurrence. The current study investigated the outcome of a new chemotherapy combination as induction therapy before chemoradiotherapy...

..We studied a 120-hour infusion schedule of Taxol in patients with metastatic measurable colorectal carcinoma who had had one prior 5-FU-based chemotherapy...

..We hypothesized that activated NF-kappaB would define clinical biology irrespective of the type of chemotherapy or sequence administered...

..Future developments will lead to the incorporation of docetaxel in regimens with improved safety profile...

..Modifications in doses and schedule are warranted to increase the tolerability of the regimen. Phase III trials are necessary to establish the clinical utility of irinotecan/cisplatin in these patient populations...

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..This Phase II study assessed the response rate and toxicity profile of the combination CPT-11 and cisplatin administered weekly to patients with untreated, advanced adenocarcinoma of the stomach or the gastroesophageal junction...

..After chemoradiotherapy, patients underwent surgery. The feasibility of this approach, curative resection rates, patient survival, and patterns of failure were assessed...

..The combination of irinotecan and cisplatin is active against gastric or gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma and should undergo further study. The addition of other active drugs or radiation therapy to this regimen would be of interest...

..In conclusion, future clinical research is likely to focus on the development of convenient outpatient regimens with efficacy equal to that of intravenous regimens...

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..With the primary endpoint of assessing ixabepilone's response rate against metastatic gastric cancer previously treated with a taxane, we performed a multi-center phase II trial...

..A prognostic factor analysis for anal cancer from a prospective database has been published from only 1 study (N = 110). To confirm and uncover new prognostic factors, we analyzed the prospective database of intergroup RTOG 98-11...

..Immunogen G17DT elicits a specific and high-affinity AGA. The authors evaluated G17DT vaccination given with cisplatin plus 5-fluorouracil for the treatment gastric adenocarcinoma...

..Patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma need more efficacious and safer treatments than established today. S-1, a contemporary oral fluoropyrimidine, can provide that advantage...

..We conducted a phase II multi-institutional trial, in the West, in patients with untreated advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma to evaluate activity and safety of this combination...

..It was hypothesized that chemoradiotherapy with fluoropyrimidine, taxane, and camptothecin would have preserved or improved efficacy with no compromise in safety...

..It is, therefore, important to share and build on experiences, through research and discussion, to maximise the healthcare professional's ability to offer the best standard of care to patients...

..The primary aim of this study was to assess pulmonary radiation toxicity quantitatively in patients who received thoracic radiotherapy combined with induction and/or concurrent chemotherapy with or without taxanes for esophageal cancer...

..Future investigations should focus on reducing the proportion of residual carcinoma and metastatic disease progression in patients with esophageal carcinoma...

..EUS and EUS-guided FNA can be helpful in identifying residual tumor in the lymph nodes after preoperative chemoXRT to select patients who benefit maximally from surgery...

..CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that activation of the Hh pathway may promote tumor repopulation after chemoradiotherapy and contribute to chemoradiation resistance in esophageal cancers...

..Given the importance of Sp1 in the expression of VEGF, our data suggest that dysregulated Sp1 expression and activation play important roles in VEGF overexpression and, thus, gastric cancer development and progression...

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..The authors report a case of an 8-year-old girl with gastric adenocarcinoma. The case will be followed by a brief discussion of the presentation, current management guidelines, and prognosis of this rare pediatric entity...

..Whether the type of therapy influences the outcomes remains largely unanswered. It is hypothesized that induction chemotherapy (IC) or the type of cytotoxics used would not influence patient outcomes...

..The objective of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of a weekly formulation of DCF...

..Additional understanding of NF-kappaB regulated pathways may uncover potential therapeutic targets...

..Therefore, dysregulated expression of IGF-IR and/or Sp1 may contribute to the growth and metastasis of gastric cancer and potentially can be a target of therapeutic intervention...

..However, local and distant recurrence and toxicity remain to be a problem. Innovative approaches are needed to improve the outcome...

..Phase I/II studies of the combination of S-1 plus cisplatin have been completed and a global phase III study, accruing rapidly, is comparing S-1 plus cisplatin to 5-fluorouracil plus cisplatin (a reference regimen)...

..In this study, we investigated potential differences in clinical outcomes in esophageal adenocarcinoma patients based on the presence of identifiable Barrett's mucosa and/or history of symptomatic GERD...

..It is not known whether EGFR plays a similar role in esophageal and EGJ adenocarcinomas...

..The authors suggest modification of the tumor-lymph node-metastasis (TNM) staging classification (ypTNM) to include the number of positive LNs in the ypN1 category...

..Baseline NPA (> 1), reflecting the regional nodal metastases, is an independent predictor of OS. Baseline PET may become a useful stratification factor in randomized trials and for individualizing therapy...

..CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggests that disruption of KLF4-mediated negative regulation contributes to the molecular events of Sp1 overexpression and to the development and progression of human gastric cancer...

..These rates are comparable to the best results reported with mitomycin-C and 5-FU. Without the normally severe toxicity, cisplatin-based therapy results in a wider therapeutic index...

..In our opinion, all of the patients in the West who have had a curatively resected node-positive gastric carcinoma (R0 resection) should be offered an option of receiving postoperative chemoradiotherapy...

..The findings in the current study supported the concept of downstaging by preoperative therapy...

..We hypothesized that the standardized uptake value (SUV) of positron emission tomography (PET) after chemoradiation would define the clinical outcome in patients...

..Proximal gastric cancer represents a distinct subtype of gastric cancer that may have different biology, risk factors, and clinical behavior...

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..The increased use of preoperative chemoradiation, better preoperative staging, and other time-dependent factors may have contributed to the observed increase in survival...

..Advanced gastroesophageal cancer is an incurable condition and more research is desirable. Considerable new and important information, however, has become available...

..Further development of this combination is warranted once an effective method to ameliorate or prevent myalgias can be established...

..Local progression of advanced gastric cancer often manifests as bleeding, dysphagia/obstruction, or pain. We evaluated the magnitude and durability of palliation with radiotherapy (RT)...

..The authors evaluated initial standardized unit value (iSUV) of 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography and its association with overall survival and the degree of pathologic response after surgery...

..In the current study, we did an in-depth investigation of the expression of 1q21-1q25 region genes to uncover the role of the EDC and its flanking genes in CTXRT response...

..Frequent presence of malignant nodes in the resected specimens of ACA patients resulted in a shorter time-to-metastases suggesting that ACA patients need better systemic control...

..EC limited to the mucosa (T1a) can be treated effectively with minimally invasive endoscopic therapy, whereas submucosal (T1b) EC carries relatively high risk of lymph node metastasis and requires surgical resection...

..We aimed to determine the frequency and significance of a close (<1 mm) or involved CRM in patients undergoing esophagectomy after CRT...

..It is therefore important to share and build on experiences, through research and discussion, to maximise the healthcare professional's ability to offer the best standard of care to patients...

..Given the importance of Sp1 in the expression of multiple molecules key to tumor cell survival, growth, and angiogenesis, its disregulated expression and activation may play important roles in gastric cancer development and progression...

..In addition, Bay 11-7082 and rapamycin may potentially be chemopreventive drugs against Barrett's esophagus-associated EAC...

..We evaluated the use of integrated computed tomography (CT)-PET among patients with esophageal cancer being considered for resection after CRT...

..This patient exemplifies the strategy of maintenance therapy with S-1 alone and shows a prolonged and excellent response to S-1 and cisplatin...

..04). CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that patients with esophageal or EGJ adenocarcinoma who have signet-ring cell or mucinous histology benefited substantially from preoperative chemoradiation and esophagectomy...

..The extent of residual carcinoma is a reliable and reproducible predictor of survival; this grading system may allow a novel and early means of comparing outcomes after different neoadjuvant treatment regimens...

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..The role of molecular profiling is evolving and will help us differentiate the responders from the nonresponders...

..Our data indicate that further evaluation of miR-30e and miR-16-2 as prognostic biomarkers is warranted in patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma. In addition, the role of miR-34a in esophageal cancer also warrants further study...

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..The authors hypothesized that LVI status would subclassify T1b cancers and facilitate new therapeutic strategies...

..To retrospectively determine the incidence and patterns (in-field, marginal, or out-of-field) of locoregional gastric cancer recurrence in patients who received preoperative chemoradiotherapy and to determine the outcome in these patients...

..Together, our results established a crosstalk between the mTOR/S6K1 and HH pathways, which provides a mechanism for SMO-independent Gli1 activation and also a rationale for combination therapy for EAC...

..To quantify the relationship between the local radiation dose received and the posttreatment positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) [(18)F]2-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in the lung...

..Because cancer-directed surgery is associated with high morbidity and mortality in primary centers, these patients should be referred to a tertiary center for adequate treatment...

..It was hypothesized that endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) in concert with detailed histopathologic evaluation would identify low-risk cancers for an appropriate but organ-preserving strategy...

..CONCLUSION: Dysregulated Stat3 activation may play an important role in VEGF overexpression and elevated angiogenic phenotype in gastric cancer and contribute to gastric cancer development and progression...

..These patients should be stratified in future multimodality trials. The investigation of induction chemotherapy before concurrent chemoradiotherapy might be warranted in this high-risk group of patients...

..CONCLUSIONS: The recommended S-1 dose for future studies is 30 mg/m(2) twice daily, and diarrhea is the most frequent toxic effect. Additional trials of S-1 in the treatment of patients with solid tumors are warranted...

..For this study, the authors explored their institution's large surgical experience to examine the impact of age on long-term patient survival and surgical complications...

..In addition, phosphorylated histone H3 is a potential supportive marker to histology in differentiating low-grade dysplasia from indefinite for dysplasia and high-grade dysplasia from adenocarcinoma in the mucosal biopsy samples...

..Although microRNA (miRNA) expression signatures have been associated with the etiology and prognosis of several types of cancers, their roles in the development of esophageal adenocarcinoma have not been extensively evaluated...

..Overall survival and disease-free survival were increased in patients who received CCRT, especially in the subset of patients who had more advanced disease...

..Our goal is to pave the way for a strategy in the future that will allow administration of effective therapy, improve safety, and preserve the esophagus in some patients. ..