2010 SSO John Wayne Clinical Research Lecture: Rectal Cancer Outcome Improvements in Europe: Population-Based Outcome Registrations will Conquer the World

During the past two decades, rectal cancer treatment has improved considerably in Europe. Clinical trials played a crucial role in improving surgical techniques, (neo)adjuvant treatment schedules, imaging, and pathology. However, there is still a wide variation in outcome after rectal cancer. In most western health care systems, efforts are made to reduce hospital variation by focusing on selective referral and encouraging patients to seek care in high-volume hospitals. On the other hand, the expertise for diagnosis and treatment of common types of cancer should be preferably widespread and easily accessible for all patients. As an alternative to volume-based referral, hospitals and surgeons can improve their results by learning from their own outcome statistics and those from colleagues treating a similar patient group. Several European surgical (colo)rectal audits have led to improvements with a greater impact than any of the adjuvant therapies currently under study. However, differences remain between European countries, which cannot be easily explained. To generate the best care for colorectal cancer in the whole of Europe and to meet political and public demands for transparency, the European CanCer Organisation (ECCO) initiated an international, multidisciplinary, outcome-based quality improvement program: European Registration of Cancer Care (EURECCA). The goal is to create a multidisciplinary European registration structure for patient, tumor, and treatment characteristics linked to outcome registration. Clinical trials will always play a major role in improving rectal cancer treatment. To further improve outcomes and diminish variation, EURECCA will establish the basis for a strong, multidisciplinary, international audit structure that can be used as a template for similar projects worldwide

Recent Advances in Percutaneous Cardioscopy

Percutaneous cardioscopy, using high-resolution fiberoptic imaging, enables direct visualization of the cardiac interior, thereby enabling macroscopic pathological diagnosis. Percutaneous cardioscopy has demonstrated that the endocardial surface exhibits various colors characteristic of different heart diseases. This imaging modality can now be used for evaluation of the severity of myocardial ischemia, and staging of myocarditis. Myocardial blood flow recovery induced by vasodilating agents or percutaneous coronary interventions can be clearly visualized. Morphological and functional changes in the cardiac valves can also be evaluated. Cardioscope-guided endomyocardial biopsy enables pin-point biopsy of the diseased myocardium. Recently, dye-image cardioscopy and fluorescence cardioscopy were developed for evaluation of the subendocardial microcirculation. Cardioscope-guided intracardiac therapies such as myotomy, myectomy, valvulotomy, and transendocardial angiogenic and myogenic therapy have been trialed using animal models in anticipation of future clinical applications. Percutaneous cardioscopy has the potential to contribute to our understanding of heart disease, and to assist in guidance for intracardiac therapies

Heart valve tissue engineering : how far is the bedside from the bench?

Heart disease, including valve pathologies, is the leading cause of death worldwide. Despite the progress made thanks to improving transplantation techniques, a perfect valve substitute has not yet been developed: once a diseased valve is replaced with current technologies, the newly implanted valve still needs to be changed some time in the future. This situation is particularly dramatic in the case of children and young adults, because of the necessity of valve growth during the patient's life. Our review focuses on the current status of heart valve (HV) therapy and the challenges that must be solved in the development of new approaches based on tissue engineering. Scientists and physicians have proposed tissue-engineered heart valves (TEHVs) as the most promising solution for HV replacement, especially given that they can help to avoid thrombosis, structural deterioration and xenoinfections. Lastly, TEHVs might also serve as a model for studying human valve development and pathologies.Peer reviewe