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PURPOSE: An experimental study was carried out to investigate the efficacy of an anti-inflammatory and antiproliferative agent all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and an antioxidant agent zinc sulphate (ZnSO(4)) in the prevention of stricture after caustic esophageal burn in rats. METHODS: Esophageal burn was induced using 50% NaOH. Rats were divided into four groups as follows: group A (sham; n = 8), group B (control; n = 8), group C (treated with ATRA; n = 8) and group D (treated with ZnSO(4); n = 8). All rats were killed on the 28th day and esophageal tissues were evaluated for histopathologic damage score, hydroxyproline (HP) content and TGF-beta1 expression. RESULTS: Significant difference was detected in terms of histopathologic damage score between groups B and C (p = 0.002). Although mean HP levels of groups C and D were lower than group B, statistical comparison was not significant. TGF-beta1 expression in group C was significantly lower than group B. CONCLUSION: Zinc has not been found effective in the prevention of stricture formation. The results indicate that ATRA has a preventive effect in the development of fibrosis in an experimental model of caustic esophageal burns in rats.

AIM: To investigate both whether the risk of gastric cancer is associated with the Ile/Val single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2) transmembrane domain-coding region at codon 655 and the suggested existence of HER-2 expression in gastric cancer cases in a Turkish patient group. METHODS: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) strategy was used to analyze the presence of HER-2 SNP at codon 655. c-erbB-2 expression pattern was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. The results were compared between gastric carcinoma group and chronic gastritis group, as well as between clinicopathological parameters and carcinoma. RESULTS: Results showed that Ile/Val genotype accounted for 20% within the Turkish gastric carcinoma group, and none in chronic gastritis group, and this genotyping was associated with stage IV gastric cancers (P=0.04). Positive membranous HER-2 immunoreactivity, on the other hand, accounted for 24% within the Turkish gastric carcinoma group and none from chronic gastritis cases; further, it was correlated with intestinal type carcinomas (P=0.007), and stage III-IV carcinomas (P=0.004). CONCLUSION: These observations imply that the tested HER-2 SNP may participate in the development and progression of gastric cancer. Thus, after confirming these results with large sample groups, HER-2 codon 655 SNP and/or c-erbB-2 overexpression may also be used as a poor prognostic indicator for gastric carcinomas.

AIM: To evaluate the prognostic impact of different histological classifications of gastric adenocarcinoma. METHODS: Between 1993-2000, 94 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma were studied. Tumors were classified according to TNM staging, WHO, Lauren and Goseki classifications. Twenty five patients (27%) had a proximal tumor and 69 (73%) a distal tumor. Intestinal type according to Lauren were more often observed among the proximal carcinomas (19/25) than in distal ones (32/69) (P=0.01). According to Goseki, lymph node metastasis were less frequently found in group III (5/13) than in other groups (64/81) (P=0.033). The mean follow-up was 23 months. Survical was not influenced by WHO, Lauren, and Goseki classifications. Survival significantly varied according to the different groups of the TNM classification. The proximal location of the tumor was associated with poorer prognosis than distal location (P=0.0373). Number of metastatic lymph nodes, invasion of perineurium, and vascular invasion had significant prognostic value in proximal carcinomas. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that gastric carcinomas should be divided into proximal and distal tumors using the Goseki classification in addition to the Lauren classification because the Goseki classification recognizes tumor groups with different dissemination routes.