The prognosis of advanced esophageal cancer patients is poor. Trimodality therapy of surgical resection plus neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) has been developed to improve survival through locoregional control, leading to prevention of micrometastasis. We investigated whether or not neoadjuvant CRT led to survival benefits in TNM stage II/III e...

OBJECTIVE We present our experience in using videothoracoscopy for the staging and assessment of resectability of lung cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS Since 1993 we have carried out exploratory videothoracoscopy (EVT) for lung cancer staging and assessment of resectability. When intrapericardial vessel involvement is suspected, exploration by videopericardioscopy (VPC) is also useful for assessi...

BACKGROUND Liver remnant function limits major liver resections to generally leave patients with ≥2 Couinaud segments. Associating Liver Partition and Portal vein ligation for Staged hepatectomy (ALPPS) induces extensive hypertrophy and allows surgeons to perform extreme liver resections. METHODS The international ALPPS registry (NCT01924741; 2011-2014) was screened for novel resection type w...

HYPOTHESIS Despite advances in preoperative radiologic imaging, a significant fraction of potentially resectable pancreatic cancers are found to be unresectable at laparotomy. We tested the hypothesis that preoperative serum levels of CA19-9 (cancer antigen) and carcinoembryonic antigen will identify patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer despite radiologic staging demonstrating resectabl...

Portal vein embolization (PVE) is known as an effective and safe preoperative procedure that increases the future liver remnant (FLR) in patients with insufficient FLR. However, some possible major complications can lead to non-resectability or delayed elective surgery that results in increased morbidity and mortality. Although the majority of these complications are rare, knowledge of the radi...

Preoperative imaging with MRI/MRA/MRCP is an accurate non-invasive method for staging cholangiocarcinoma,and determining resectability. It provides information regarding tumor size, extent of bile duct involvement, vascular patency, extrahepatic extension, nodal or distant metastases, and the presence of lobar atrophy. MRCP is better for demonstrating bile ducts distal to the stricture, althoug...