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Background: Stromal cell-derived factor-1α (SDF-1α) is a chemokine associated with tumor progression in various types of cancers. The current study aimed to evaluate whether pre-treatment or kinetics of SDF-1α can predict the prognosis in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) receiving definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Methods: A total of 97 patients with ESCC were identified at Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital between January 2010 and December 2015. Serum concentration of SDF-1α was measured at day 0 (pre-treatment) and chemotherapy day 28 to determine its kinetics and the cut-off level of pre-chemotherapy SDF-1α was 1.5 ng/mL. Two ESCC cell lines, TE1 and KYSE30, were selected to evaluate the function of SDF-1α. Results: Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that pre-treatment SDF-1α ≥ 1.5 ng/mL and an increased SDF-1α level after treatment were significantly associated with worse progression-free survival (p = 0.021 and p = 0.008, respectively) and overall survival (p = 0.005 and p

Background: Mitochondrial assembly receptor (MasR), a receptor of angiotensin-(1–7), plays an important role in the anti-cancer effect of the peptide hormone. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the crucial role of angiotensin-(1–7)/MasR axis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients who received curative esophagectomy. Methods: The immunohistochemistry of MasR in 90 ESCC patients, including 52 patients with MasR overexpression and 38 patients with low MasR expression, was examined and correlated with their treatment outcomes. Two ESCC cell lines, TE11 and KYSE270, were treated with angiotensin-(1–7) to explore the biological function of MasR. Results: A higher percentage of patients in the low MasR expression group experienced tumor recurrence than those in the MasR overexpression group (76% versus 54%, P = 0.029). Patients below 60 years of age and having early T status and negative pathologic N status were found to have significantly better disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Additionally, patients with MasR overexpression had higher DFS (88.1 months versus 50.0 months, p = 0.023) and OS (129.4 months versus 67.5 months, p = 0.028) relative to those with low MasR expression, although there was no significant difference in multivariable analysis. In vitro, these cell lines were treated with angiotensin-(1–7) and the results demonstrated that angiotensin-(1–7) could inhibit the growth of ESCC tumor cells in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion: Low expression of MasR may be associated with poor prognosis in ESCC patients receiving curative esophagectomy. Further cohort study with larger population, or a prospective study is warranted to validate this finding. Keywords: Angiotensin-(1–7), Mitochondrial assembly receptor, Esophageal cancer, Squamous cell carcinoma, Esophagectomy

Thymectomy may benefit patients with generalized myasthenia gravis (MG) or myasthenia with thymomas. Currently, video-assisted (VA) thoracic surgery is popular and plays an important role in thymectomy. We compared the clinical outcomes of VA thymectomy with conventional transsternal (TS) approach to investigate the effectiveness of VA technology in the current era. Methods: A retrospective review of our thymectomy results for patients with MG from 1998 to 2011 was conducted. A total of 83 consecutive patients were enrolled. According to the surgeons’ and patients’ preference, 39 patients received conventional TS thymectomy and 44 were operated on in a VA fashion. The results were categorized and analyzed according to the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America (MGFA) postintervention statuses with some modification. Results: No obvious difference between conventional TS thymectomy and VA thymectomy was noted regarding the remission statuses and the clinical outcomes by the modified MGFA score. However, the patients who received VA thymectomy showed shorter intensive care unit (ICU) stays (4.2 ± 3.3 days vs. 2.3 ± 1.5 days, p = 0.001). Conclusion: Compared with the conventional TS thymectomy, the VA approach is similarly effective with shorter ICU stays.