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The author offers information on World Gastroenterology Organization(WGO)'s WGO Digestive Oncology Task Force.The goal of advanced training in Digestive oncology is to enhance knowledge and skills beyond the expertise obtained during normal Hepatogastroenterology(HGE) residency program. The task force project are represented by the adaptation of the standard HGE curriculum for digestive oncology. He states that there is an insufficient number of oncologists to attend patients with cancer.

Recent research suggests that oxidative stress plays an important role in the development of gastroduodenal diseases associated with Helicobacter pylon. We investigated the variation of oxidative stress parameters following administration of antiulcer therapy in 79 patients with duodenal ulcer and chronic gastritis respectively, infected with Helicobacter pylon. Serum and tissue oxidative stress parameters were significantly modified in the period between diagnosis and healing of lesions. The results obtained indicated an increased production of oxygen reactive species at both serum and gastric tissue levels in the patients diagnosed with gastro-duodenal peptic disease. The production was directly correlated with the severity of the injury. In parallel a deficit of the physiological production of endogenous antioxidants was found, also correlated with the severity of the injuries. Antiulcer treatment led to the improvement of the antioxidant status, healing of lesions and eradication of the infection; a significant decrease of the pro-oxidant compounds in the blood and in the tissue was also found, especially at the level of the antral gastric tissue; they were more marked in the patients with duodenal ulcer as compared to those with chronic gastritis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to assess the long-term evolution of chronic hepatitis B acquired in childhood. Methods: The study was carried out in 2007 - 2008 on a group of 77 adult patients who were diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B in childhood. The actual assessment included epidemiological, clinical, biological and virological data, ultrasound examination in all patients and liver histology in 3 patients. Results: From the 77 patients, 69 were HBeAg positive and the other 8 patients were anti-HBe positive when the diagnosis was made in their childhood. Thirty-seven patients from the HBeAg positive group and 2 patients from the anti-HBe group had been treated in childhood with IFN-α and the other 38 patients remained untreated (32 patients with HBeAg positive and 6 patients anti-HBe positive). Overall, 78.26% seroconverted to anti-HBe (87.50% untreated and 70.27% of patients treated with IFN). After a median follow-up period of 13 years, 36 patients from the HBeAg positive group (48.65% of treated patients and 56.25% of untreated ones) became inactive carriers. Seroconversion to anti-HBs, in the HBeAg positive group, occurred in 10.14% of cases (8.1% in treated patients) without statistical significance. Three patients from the whole group developed cirrhosis but none developed hepatocellular carcinoma. Conclusion: The long-term outcome in our patients with CHB acquired in childhood did not differ between treated and untreated patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various studies show that reactive oxygen species (ROS) are involved in ulcerous disease. This has multiple etiopathogenetic factors, among which the administration of NSAIDs plays an important role. The digestive lesions may be prevented by the association of proton pump inhibitors (PPI), and there are also data that indicate the advantages of the therapeutic supplementation of potentially antioxidant potions.The aim of the study was to evidence the growth of the oxidative stress level due to the administration of aspirin, and its decrease following the association of the antiulcerous protection, the antioxidant. There are considerable variations of the oxidant-antioxidant balance among the study groups. The aspirin treatment alters considerably the serum oxidative stress parameters and the gastric tissue in favor of prooxidants. The preventive administration of PPI considerably improves the status of serum antioxidants. PPI therapy decreases the level of tissue antioxidants (probably due to excessive consumption), but pathomorphologically improves the gastric mucous membrane. The association with antioxidants decreases the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and improves the anatomo-pathological aspect of the gastric mucous membrane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether there is a correlation between peripheral blood expression of angiogenic transcriptional factors/receptors and colorectal cancer (CRC)., Methods: Eighty six blood samples collected from patients with CRC (N=42), adenomas and/or hyperplastic polyps(AP, N=30) and individuals without colon pathology (control group/CTR, N=14) were used for this study. Twelve transcription factors and receptors were assessed by qRT-PCR in a case-control study. The molecules with a minimum of 30% differences in gene expression for CRC and AP compared to CTR were then analyzed separately for each sample. Gene expression was evaluated relatively to the CTR after normalization to the large ribosomal protein PO (RPLPO) housekeeping gene, and the differential expression between studied groups was assessed by ANOVA., Results: Seven out of 12 genes presented differences in expression between 10-29% in CRC and/or AP compared to CTR. Considering the selection criteria, we further individually evaluated the levels of expression of 5 genes that had a minimum of 30% expression in the case-control study. Our data showed a significant up-regulation of platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) C in the blood of the patients with CRC compared to CTR (p=0.007). Likewise, clusterin (CLU) was significantly up-regulated both in CRC and AP groups compared to healthy subjects (p=0.01). For VEGFR1, PDGFRA and TGFB1 we didn't find significantly differential expression between any of the studied groups, even if increased levels were observed in both CRC and AP vs CTR., Conclusions: The results of our study indicated that increased blood level of PDGFC mRNA was associated with the presence of CRC (p=0.007). Additionally, high levels of circulating CLU mRNA were observed in both malignant and benign colorectal pathologies.

We report the clinical observation of a 58-year old patient who presented with upper abdominal pain and a small ecchymosis located in the umbilical area. Personal history of the patient revealed ischemic heart disease and chronic atrial fibrillation. He was under treatment with oral anticoagulants (coumarins). The clinical data and especially the imaging investigations led to a diagnosis of gastric wall hematoma, possibly occurring post-traumatically in a patient under anticoagulant treatment. A conservative therapeutic approach was adopted and ultrasound surveillance. After 6 months the gastric parietal collection manifested complete resorption, spontaneously. In relation to the case presentation, we also discuss some issues on the frequency, diagnosis and therapeutic attitude in this rare complication of anticoagulant therapy.

Unlabelled: The AIM of this study was to assess the long-term evolution of chronic hepatitis B acquired in childhood., Methods: The study was carried out in 2007 - 2008 on a group of 77 adult patients who were diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B in childhood. The actual assessment included epidemiological, clinical, biological and virological data, ultrasound examination in all patients and liver histology in 3 patients., Results: From the 77 patients, 69 were HBeAg positive and the other 8 patients were anti-HBe positive when the diagnosis was made in their childhood. Thirty-seven patients from the HBeAg positive group and 2 patients from the anti-HBe group had been treated in childhood with IFN-alpha and the other 38 patients remained untreated (32 patients with HBeAg positive and 6 patients anti-HBe positive). Overall, 78.26% seroconverted to anti-HBe (87.50% untreated and 70.27% of patients treated with IFN). After a median follow-up period of 13 years, 36 patients from the HBeAg positive group (48.65% of treated patients and 56.25% of untreated ones) became inactive carriers. Seroconversion to anti-HBs, in the HBeAg positive group, occurred in 10.14% of cases (8.1% in treated patients) without statistical significance. Three patients from the whole group developed cirrhosis but none developed hepatocellular carcinoma., Conclusion: The long-term outcome in our patients with CHB acquired in childhood did not differ between treated and untreated patients.

Background: Steady and persisting falls in gastric cancer (GC) mortality rates have been observed worldwide in the last 50 years, and in Romania too. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is presently the most frequent digestive neoplasia in the Western countries. An increase of CRC incidence and mortality rates has been reported recently in Eastern European countries, including Romania., Methods: Mortality data from GC and CRC, derived from population based mortality statistics, have been available on a national scale for 1955-2003. The data were identified from the statistics of the Ministry of Health (Bucharest, Romania) and of IARC/OMS (Lyon, France). GC and CRC mortality rates global and/or per gender were registered by time intervals. After 1995, only data on general mortality rates were available., Results: Between 1955-59 and 1990-92, GC mortality rates/100,000 decreased from 33.14 to 17.70 in males and from 18.77 to 7.00 in females. Between 1995 and 2003, general mortality rates/100,000 from GC remained stable (17.54 and 17.74, respectively). Between 1955-59 and 1990-92, CRC mortality rates/100,000/gender increased from 4.65 to 10.10 in males and from 4.57 to 7.40 in females. Between 1995 and 2003, CRC general mortality rates/100 000 increased from 14.90 to 19.20., Conclusions: Our study reports opposite trends in GC and CRC mortality rates in the period under study, with GC declining and CRC increasing. A male predominance was registered in both neoplasms under study, more obvious in GC (male/female ratio: 2-3/1) than in CRC (male/female ratio: 1.5/1).