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Background: As gastric cancer patients aged ≥ 85 years have a short life expectancy and often die from other diseases such as pneumonia, indications for surgery are controversial. In this study, we retrospectively analyzed the prognostic factors of elderly patients with gastric cancer who are candidates for curative gastrectomy. Methods: Among 114 patients aged ≥ 85 years with gastric cancer at our hospital between 2010 and 2019, prognostic factors were examined using the Cox proportional hazards model in 76 patients excluding those with cStage IVB or endoscopic submucosal dissection. We also analyzed the factors of pneumonia death. Results: cStage was I/IIA/IIB/III/IVA in 37/6/14/14/5 patients, respectively. Treatment included distal gastrectomy in 28 patients, total gastrectomy in 6, local resection in 9, others in 3, and no surgery in 30. In univariate analyses of overall survival, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status, physiological score of Physiological and Operative Severity Score for the enUmeration of Mortality and morbidity (POSSUM), Onodera's prognostic nutritional index, cStage, and treatment were prognostic factors. In a multivariate analysis, POSSUM physiological score, cStage, treatment method {no surgery vs. distal gastrectomy: hazard ratio (HR) 5.78, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.33–14.3}, (total gastrectomy vs. distal gastrectomy: HR 4.26, 95% CI 1.22–14.9) were independent prognostic factors. In univariate analyses of pneumonia-specific survival, treatment (total gastrectomy vs. distal gastrectomy: HR 6.98, 95% CI 1.18–41.3) was the only prognostic factor. Conclusions: The prognosis of distal gastrectomy was better than that of non-surgery even in patients aged ≥ 85 years. However, total gastrectomy was considered to be avoidable due to the high rate of postoperative pneumonia death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study explored the effect of liver resection on perioperative circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and found that the prognostic significance of surgery was associated with changes in CTC counts in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods: One hundred thirty-nine patients with HCC were consecutively enrolled. The time-points for collecting blood were one day before operation and three days after operation. CTCs in the peripheral blood were detected by the CellSearch™ System.Results: Both CTC detection incidence and mean CTC counts showed greater increases postoperatively (54%, mean 1.54 cells) than preoperatively (43%, mean 1.13 cells). The postoperative CTC counts increased in 41.7% of patients, decreased in 25.2% of patients and did not change in 33.1% of patients. The increase in postoperative CTC counts was significantly associated with the macroscopic tumor thrombus status. Patients with increased postoperative CTC counts (from preoperative CTC < 2 to postoperative CTC ≥ 2) had significantly shorter disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) than did patients with persistent CTC < 2. Patients with persistent CTC levels of ≥2 had the worst prognoses.Conclusions: Surgical liver resection is associated with an increase in CTC counts, and increased postoperative CTC numbers are associated with a worse prognosis in patients with HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the survival outcome for middle ear cancer and to construct prognostic models to provide patients and clinicians with more accurate estimates of individual survival probability. Methods: Patients diagnosed with middle ear cancer between 1983 and 2011 were selected for the study from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results Program. We used the Kaplan-Meier product limit method to describe overall survival and cause-specific survival. Cox proportional hazards models were fitted to model the relationships between patient characteristics and prognosis. Nomograms for predicting overall survival and cause-specific survival were built using the Cox models established. Results: The entire cohort comprised 247 patients with malignant middle ear cancer. Median duration of follow-up until censoring or death was 25 months (range, 1-319 months). Five-year overall survival and cause-specific survival were 47.4% (95% Confidence Interval (CI), 41.2% to 54.6%) and 58.0% (95% CI, 51.6% to 65.3%), respectively. In multivariable analysis, age, histological subtype, stage, surgery and radiotherapy were predictive of survival. The bootstrap corrected c-index for model predicting overall and cause-specific survival was 0.73 and 0.74, respectively. Calibration plots showed that the predicted survival reasonably approximated observed outcomes. Conclusion: The models represent an objective analysis of all currently available data. The resulting models demonstrated good accuracy in predicting overall survival and cause-specific survival. Nomograms should thus be considered as a useful tool for predicting clinical prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]