Purpose Indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) and Interleukin-6 (IL-6) contribute to poor therapeutic effects, tumor relapse and aggressive tumor growth. IDO and IL-6 incorporate a positive feedback signal loop to maintain IDO and IL-6 constitutive expression and facilitate tumor progression. Results IDO expression was associated with IL-6 expression and plasma IL-6 level (P<0.05). Concentrating ...

Neoadjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy has been widely used in the last decade for organ preservation or unresectable disease in advanced stage head and neck cancer. We examined the expression of a series of tumor markers that have been associated with chemotherapy resistance in pretreatment biopsies from 68 patients who received cisplatin-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy at either of two insti...

BACKGROUND Resectable oesophageal cancer is often treated with surgery alone or with preoperative (neoadjuvant) chemoradiotherapy or chemotherapy. We aimed to clarify the benefits of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy or chemotherapy versus surgery alone by a meta-analysis of randomised trial data. METHODS Eligible trials were identified first from earlier published meta-analyses and systematic re...

BACKGROUND Accurate and useful predictors of gastric carcinoma treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy are lacking at present. We aim to explore the potential prognostic significance of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in advanced gastric cancer receiving S-1 plus oxaliplatin (SOX) or oxaliplatin and capecitabine (XELOX) regimen. METHODS We enrolled 91 patients with advanced gastric can...

PURPOSE We aimed to determine whether clinical examination could adequately ascertain the volume of tissue to be resected during breast-conserving surgery after neoadjuvant therapy. METHODS We reviewed the clinical reports of 279 patients with histologically diagnosed invasive breast carcinomas treated with neoadjuvant therapy followed by surgery or with primary surgery alone. We estimated vo...

BACKGROUND Primary aim of our study was to assess the impact of timing of sentinel node procedure, pre- versus post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy, on final pathologic node-negative rate (pN0) in patients with clinically node-negative (cN0) breast cancer. Secondary endpoint was the usability of the sentinel node procedure in patients with clinically node-positive disease that converted to cN0 after n...

The meta-analysis by Mauri et al. ( 1 ) from nine neoadjuvant trials is important given the confl icting evidence from published studies. However, we would like to make two points that arise from this analysis. First, to establish the benefi t of neoadjuvant therapy over adjuvant therapy, treatment regimens in the two arms should be identical in terms of drugs used and in terms of scheduling. M...

Surgical intervention is the mainstay treatment for soft tissue sarcomas (STSs). The significance of adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapies, such as chemotherapy, radiation, and isolated limb perfusion, remains under controversial discussion. The goal of this review is to discuss the effects of the aforementioned treatment modalities and their timing of application in plastic surgery techniques. Fu...

INTRODUCTION This study reports the outcomes of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by surgery in a local population of Singapore. MATERIALS AND METHODS The records of 85 patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiation for locally advanced rectal cancer followed by surgery at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) between November 2002 an...

Oesophageal, fully covered self-expanding metal stents (SEMS) allow palliation of dysphagia so as to support nutrition during neoadjuvant therapy. We present a 68-year old man with an oesophageal adenocarcinoma (T3N1M0) who had a fully covered oesophageal SEMS placed prior to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Repeat endoscopy 8 weeks later (for stent removal) showed that the stent had migrated and...