PURPOSE We wanted to investigate the validity of the recently introduced Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) staging system and the International Staging System (ISS) by comparing both systems with the widely accepted Durie/Salmon (DS) system for multiple myeloma patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Between 1992 and 2005, 85 multiple myeloma patients (men: women 41:44, median age: 63 years (range: 36~...

PURPOSE Anorectal malignant melanomas (AMM) are rare and have poor survival. The study aims to evaluate the clinicopathologic characteristics and outcomes of patients with AMM, and to devise a staging system predictive of survival outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a retrospective study of 28 patients diagnosed with, and treated for AMM. Patients classified by clinical staging of mucosal...

Neuroblastoma is an enigmatic disease entity; some tumors disappear spontaneously without any therapy, while others progress with a fatal outcome despite the implementation of maximal modern therapy. However, strong prognostic factors can accurately predict whether children have "good" or "bad" disease at diagnosis, and the clinical stage is currently the most significant and clinically relevan...

PURPOSE The Dukes' staging system is the gold standard for predicting colorectal cancer prognosis; however, accurate classification of intermediate-stage cases is problematic. We hypothesized that molecular fingerprints could provide more accurate staging and potentially assist in directing adjuvant therapy. METHODS A 32,000 cDNA microarray was used to evaluate 78 human colon cancer specimens...

BACKGROUND Staging systems have considerable impact on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment approaches and outcomes. There is an unmet need to improve their stratification ability. We have evaluated four commonly used staging systems and assessed whether angiogenic biomarker vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) could improve their prognostic stratification. MATERIAL AND METHODS Four ...

BACKGROUND With the advances in imaging technologies, multi-slice spiral computed tomography (MSCT) has demonstrated superiority in the diagnosis and staging of colorectal carcinoma. In the current study, preoperative TNM staging of colorectal carcinoma by using MSCT was conducted and compared with the corresponding postoperative pathological examination findings, in order to evaluate the accur...

BACKGROUND Mucosal melanoma (MM) of head and neck (H&N) is a rare entity with a quite poor prognosis. Ballantyne's staging system has been commonly used since 1970. In the 7th edition of the AJCC Staging Manual a new chapter for the staging of TNM Classification system for mucosal melanoma (MM) of the head and neck (H&N) has been introduced to reflect the particularly aggressive biological beha...

Objective: To investigate diagnostic value and clinical significance of ultrasonic contrast and endoscopic ultrasonography in preoperative staging of gastric carcinoma. Methods: 65 patients with gastric cancer were randomly selected from our hospital from February 2015 to February 2017 as the study objects and all of them were treated with ultrasonic contrast and endoscopic ultrasonography foll...

BACKGROUND The accuracy of endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) for preoperative staging of gastric cancer varies. The aim of this study was to investigate the accuracy of EUS tumor (T) and node (N) staging, and to identify the histopathological factors influencing accuracy based on the detailed tumor depth of gastric cancer. METHODS In total, 309 patients with gastric cancer with confirmed patho...

With integrated whole-body PET/MRI, a novel metabolic-anatomic imaging technique recently has been introduced into clinical practice. This review addresses PET/MRI of bone tumors, soft-tissue sarcoma, melanoma, and lymphoma. If PET/MRI literature is not yet available for some types of tumors, potential indications are based on available PET/CT and MRI data. PET/MRI seems to be of benefit in T-s...