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Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is a common malignancy of the biliary tract and involves the changes in multiple oncogenes and multiple genetic genes. Since over the past decade there has been an advance in the knowledge of the genetic basis of cancer, mainly as a result of the rapid progression of molecular technology; however, conventional therapeutic approaches have not had much impact on the course of this aggressive neoplasm. Knowledge of the molecular biology of GBC is rapidly growing. Genetic alterations in GBC include adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette transporter ABCG8, membrane-bound enzyme ADAM-17 of multi-functional gene family, and other genes including p53, COX2, XPC, and RASSF1A. The advances in molecular biology have potential implications for the detection of this disease, using Synuclein-gamma, Syndecan-1, glycoprotein 72 (TAG-72), tumor endothelial marker 8 protein (TEM8) and TNF-alpha. The use of these molecular diagnostic methods is of clinical importance for the gene replacement therapy, genetic prodrug activation therapy, and antisense immunology technology for the treatment of malignancy. The author reviewed recent publications on PubMed, and summarized molecular biology of GBC, with an emphasis on features of potential clinical implications for diagnosis and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is a rather uncommon disease, but at the time when it gives symptoms it has usually reached no longer curable stage. Therefore, all attempts must be made to make the diagnosis earlier to have better opportunity for cure. The author searched PubMed, and reviewed literatures on diagnoses and treatment of GBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gallbladder cancer is a rather uncommon disease, when it gives symptoms it has usually reached an incurable stage. Therefore, every attempt must be made to find the asymptomatic stages and look for premalignant gallbladder polyps. Even if gallbladder cancer is a rare disease, gallbladder polyps are common, only a few polyps develop to cancer. This makes gallbladder polyps another problem: which are the polyps that must be surgically removed, which shall be followed-up, or for how long? The author used the keyword "gallbladder polyps" in PubMed and reviewed the scientific literatures published from January 2000 to December 2011. The present review article has summarized almost all respects of gallbladder polyp, including the risk factors, clinical diagnosis and management, and comments made from the author, in which clinical treatments are recommended. It is author's purpose that the 11-year-knowledge about gallbladder polyps summarized from all worlds' literatures is enough to know how clinicians will handle the next patient with gallbladder polyp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite advances in the treatment of pancreatic diseases, they remain clinical challenges. In this review article, the author summarized the key abstracts presented at 9th Congress of the European Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association, held in Cape Town, South Africa, from April 12th to 16th, 2011. These studies include the endoscopy, surgery, complications, and other clinical points of the pancreatic treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prognostic factors in pancreatic cancer have been a hot topic for the clinical pancreatology, and many studies have been involved in the field. The author reviewed the pancreatic abstracts of American Pancreas Club 2011, and sumarized "highlight" of all the abstracts in prognostic factors in pancreatic cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many diseases, including pancreatitis benign tumors and cancer, may require pancreas surgery. Pancreatic resection can lead to a prolonged survival in pancreatic cancer and even a potential chance for cure. However, the pancreatic surgery can result in complications, and high postoperative morbidity rates are still presence. This article reviews the pancreatic abstracts of American Pancreas Club 2011, which involves the more common complications, their prevention and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abstract is available at the Clinical pancreatic disorder I: Acute pancreatitis. North Am J Med Sci 2011; 3: 316-319. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abstract is available at the Clinical pancreatic disorder I: Acute pancreatitis. North Am J Med Sci 2011; 3: 316-319. doi: 10.4297/najms.2011.3316 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on quality and number of operations of pancreatic cancer in Germany. A table indicating the outcomes of pancreaticoduodenectomy and total pancreatectomy from 3880 consecutive patients is discussed. It is also concluded that robust clinical practice and clinicians in leadership roles can drive productivity, extensive collaboration and high patient participation.

The Annual American Pancreas Club is an important event for communicating around clinical pancreatic disorders, just as the European, Japanese, Indian, and the International Pancreatic association. Even though the meeting is only 1½ day there were 169 different abstracts and a “How do I do it session.” Among all these abstracts on the pancreas there are some real pearls, but they are almost always well hidden, never highlighted – all abstracts are similarly presented – and will too soon be forgotten. The present filing of the abstracts is one way (not the way) to get the pancreatic abstracts a little more read and a little more remembered – and perhaps a little more cited. It should also be understood that most of the abstracts are short summaries of hundreds of working hours (evenings, nights, weekends, holidays, you name them …) in the laboratory or in the clinic, often combined with blood, sweat and tears. The authors should be shown at least some respect, and their abstracts should not only be thought of as “just another little abstract” – and the best respect they can be shown are that they will be remembered to be another brick in our scientific wall. Now the pancreatic abstracts of American Pancreas Club 2011 are gathered and filed with the aim to give them a larger audience than they have had in their original abstract book. However, it is obvious that most of clinical fellows do not have time to read all the abstracts. For them I have made a “clinical highlight section” of 10 percent of all the pancreatic abstracts. If someone else should have done some collection of abstract, there should probably have been other selections, but as his is not the case, the editor’s choices are the highlighted ones. The article as series I of clinical highlight section is present, and more series will be present in the following issues. If readers will remember some of the abstracts better after reading this “abstract of abstracts”, it was worth the efforts – and without efforts there will be little progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatic cancer is still considered to be one of the leading causes of cancer deaths. The most common of all the different types of pancreatic cancer is ductal original malignant tumors, and their clinical features are commonly characterized. However, for the rare tumors in the pancreatic region, the clinical features often vary, and detection of the cancers are detected late. Limited data are available to guide the management of very rare neoplasms of the pancreas. Therefore, to recognize or detect the rare tumors in the pancreatic region are of importance for the clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of tumors found in the pancreas are adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. A small number of tumors in the pancreas, such as islet cell tumors or neuroendocrine tumors, papillary cystic neoplasms, lymphoma, acinar cell tumors, metastatic tumors to the pancreas often, have a far better prognosis, and the majority of these tumors are non-malignant or benign. The author reviewed the recent literatures, and summarized where the tumor comes originally in the pancreas, what is the type of the tumor, and how to treat the tumor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatic cancer in many cases appears in a non-curatively resectable stage when the diagnosis is made. Palliative treatment become an option in the patients with advanced stage. The present article reviewed chemotherapy and radiotherapy in various advanced stage of pancreatic cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of methods are available for the drainage of pancreatic pseudocysts, including percutaneous, endoscopic and open approaches. The author reviewed the most rently reports, and and summarized the latest advances in the pancreatic pseudocysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acute pancreatitis continues to be a serious illness, and the patients with acute pancreatitis are at risk to develop different complications from ongoing pancreatic inflammation. Aims: The present review is to highlight the classification, treatment and prognosis of acute pancreatitis. Material & Methods: We reviewed the English-language literature (Medline) addressing pancreatitis. Results: Acute pancreatitis is frequently caused by gallstone disease or excess alcohol ingestion. There are a number of important issues regarding clinical highlights in the classification, treatment and prognosis of acute pancreatitis, and treatment options for complications of acute pancreatitis including pancreatic pseudocysts. Conclusions: Multidisciplinary approach should be used for the management of the patient with acute pancreatitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the autoimmune pancreatitis was introduced in 1995, it has been recognized as a form of chronic pancreatitis, which is always associated with autoimmune manifestations. As the improvement of technical and instrumental made in ultrasonography, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, the diagnoses of autoimmune pancreatitis is no longer such difficult. Even though the treatment of autoimmune pancreatitis is available with a conservative therapy, there are many points that are still unclearly. These have stimulated widespread interest in this disease from gastroenterologists, endoscopists, pathologists, and prevalent research. The present article provides with our better understanding of the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune pancreatitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a retrospective study which investigates the effect of surgical treatments to the quality of life (QOL) and relief of symptoms of patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP) in Germany. The study made use of Pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) or Whipple procedure which results to a higher rate of exocrine and endocrine dysfunctions and an attack of diabetes mellitus. Results indicate that there was a ductal dilatation in patients after the local resection of the pancreatic head with longitudinal pancreaticojejunostomy or Frey procedure. Moreover, total pancreatectomy with islet autotransplantation improves pain, depression, and QOL measures in selected patients with CP.

Pancreatic endocrine tumours are rare tumours, and arise from the types of pancreatic cells that produce hormones. These tumours may or may not secrete hormones themselves and may or may not be cancerous (malignant). Functioning tumours secrete a particular hormones which may cause various syndromes. The present article reviews the latest reports on the pancreatic endocrine tumours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]