Analysis of relation between alpha-fetoprotein and gastric cancer.

INTRODUCTION: It has been reported that Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) producing gastric cancers have a worse prognosis than those not producing. We aimed to investigate gastric cancers patients in regards of AFP producing cancers incidence and pathological variables of those not producing AFP. METHODS: Patients who had diagnosed with gastric adenocarcinoma and hospitalized in general surgery ward for operation were enrolled to the study. Study was designed to collect data of gastric cancer patients in a prospective manner between dates 2014-2015 in Dursun Odabaş Health Center. Patients' blood samples were collected before and after surgery for analyzing AFP. The relation between serum levels of AFP and histopathological variables were analyzed. RESULTS: Totally 63 cases were evaluated. Increased AFP level was observed in 2 cases (incidence=3.17%). Serum AFPs were 1.520 ng/mL and 0.590 ng/mL in preoperative and postoperative period respectively (p<0.001). There were no relation between preoperative AFP levels and tumor stage and neurovascular invasion status. We observed that the correlation between preoperative AFP levels and number of metastatic lymph node was not significant (spearman's rho=-0.183, p=0.157). According to tumor location, there was significant difference in AFP levels (p=0.021). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: AFP producing gastric cancers is rare between patients who referred to our center. Tumor stage and AFP levels seems unrelated. Distally located gastric cancers cases should be evaluated cautiously in patients whose AFP levels are in normal range

Effect of Y addition on the structural transformation and thermal stability of Ti-22Al-25Nb alloy produced by mechanical alloying

In this study, a Ti-22Al-25Nb alloy with nanocrystalline structure was produced by high energy mechanical alloying (HEMA) and 1 at.-% yttrium was added as a thermal stabilizer. The as-milled samples were annealed at various temperatures up to 900 °C in a protective gas atmosphere, and the samples were allowed to cool to room temperature in the furnace. The phase transformations and microstructural changes as a function of the annealing temperatures and alloy compositions were studied using room- and high-temperature X-ray diffraction (XRD), focused ion beam microscopy (FIB), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The mechanical properties of the samples were interpreted based on the hardness results and their correlation with the microstructures. The results showed that the as-milled nanocrystalline structure of Ti-22Al-25Nb alloy increased from 3.4 nm to 350 nm after annealing at 800 °C due to the high driving force induced by the large grain boundary area. Consequently, the as-milled hardness of the Ti-22Al-25Nb alloy dropped from 7.63 ± 0.18 GPa to 5.37 ± 0.28 GPa. The grain size stability of the Ti-22Al-25Nb alloy after annealing at elevated temperature was ensured through the addition of yttrium. Thus, the grain size remained at the level of 125 nm, and the hardness value was maintained at around 6.98 ± 0.43 GPa after annealing at 800 °C

Factors affecting survival in operated gastric cancer

In this study, our aim was to determine the possible effects of Helicobacter pylori (HP), chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG), and gastrointestinal metaplasia (GIM) on survival in operated bowel type gastric cancer patients (INT-GC). Among 548 patients, 347(63.3%) were male. The median age was 57 years. Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were significantly shorter in patients with GIM than those in patients without GIM (log rank, P = 0.003 and log rank P = 0.003, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that presence of GIM (HR, 2.1) was found to be an independent factor of worse DFS. In our study, stage pIII patients with GIM had significantly shorter DFS and OS than those without GIM (log rank p = 0.008 and log rank p = 0.001, respectively). However, in subgroup analysis of patients with GIM, there was no significant DFS and OS difference between patients with stage pI and pII disease (log rank p = 0.999, log rank p = 0.184 vs. log rank p = 0.409, log rank p = 0.281, respectively)

The prognostic effect of pretreatment 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters in locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma treated with definitive chemoradiotherapy

Introduction: In this study, we aimed to examine the relation between pre-treatment 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters [(including the maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and tumor lesion glycolysis (TLG)] and treatment response and survival in locally-advanced Esophageal Squamous Cell Cancer (ESCC) treated with definitive chemoradiotherapy (dCRT). Methods: A total 76 patients with locally-advanced ESCC who received dCRT between June 2015 and December 2019 were included in this retrospective study. Patients were divided into two groups as complete response (CR) or non-complete response (Non-CR) according to response to treatment. AUC was obtained as 0.749 (p 12cm3 in 41(54%) patients. Median follow-up time was 14.5 months. In patients with MTV > 12cm3, median progression-free survival(mPFS) and median overall survival(mOS) were 9 months and 11 months, respectively, whereas mPFS and OS could not be reached in those with MTV & LE;12 cm3 (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). In patients with non-CR, mPFS and mOS were 8 months and 9 months, respectively, whereas mPFS and OS could not be reached in patients with CR (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). In multivariate analysis, age (odds ratio [OR], 1.07), ECOG PS (OR, 11.1), and MTV (OR, 4.73) were found to be the factors affecting treatment response. Conclusion: In our study, treatment response and MTV were found to be the factors associated with survival in patients treated with dCRT, showing the pre-treatment MTV value as a predictor of treatment response