Surgical transluminal iliac angioplasty with selective stenting: long-term results assessed by means of duplex scanning.
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PURPOSE: The safety of iliac angioplasty and selective stenting performed in the operating room by vascular surgeons was evaluated, and the short- and long-term results were assessed by means of serial duplex scanning. METHODS: Between 1989 and 1996, 281 iliac stenotic or occlusive lesions in 235 consecutive patients with chronic limb ischemia were treated by means of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) alone (n = 214) or PTA with stent (n = 67, 23.8%). There were 260 primary lesions and 21 restenosis after a first PTA, which were analyzed separately. Stents were implanted in selected cases, either primarily in totally occluded arteries or after suboptimum results of PTA (ie, residual stenosis or a dissection). Data were collected prospectively and analyzed retrospectively. Results were reported in an intention-to-treat basis. Clinical results and patency were evaluated by means of symptom assessment, ankle brachial pressure index, and duplex scanning at discharge and 1, 3, 6, and every 12 months after angioplasty. To identify factors that may affect outcome, 12 clinical and radiological variables, including the four categories of lesions defined by the Standards of Practice Committee of the Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology, were analyzed separately. The statistical significances of life-table analysis of patency were determined by means of the log-rank test. RESULTS: There were no postoperative deaths or amputations. Local, general, and vascular complications occurred in 2.1%, 1.3% and 4.7% of cases, respectively (total, 8.1%). The mean follow-up period was 29.6 months. The cumulative patency rates +/- SE of the 260 PTAs (including 55 PTAs plus stents) were 92.9% +/- 1.5% at 1 month, 86. 5% +/- 1.7% at 1 year, 81.2% +/- 2.3% at 2 years, 78.8% +/- 2.9% at 3 years, and 75.4% +/- 3.5% at 5 and 6 years. The two-year patency rate of 21 redo PTAs (including 11 PTAs plus stents) was 79.1% +/- 18.2%. Of 12 predictable variables studied in the first PTA group, only the category of the lesion was predictive of long-term patency. The two-year patency rate was 84% +/- 3% for 199 category 1 lesions and 69.7% +/- 6.5% for 61 category 2, 3, and 4 lesions together (P =. 02). There was no difference of patency in the stented and nonstented group. CONCLUSION: Iliac PTA alone or with the use of a stent (in cases of occlusion and/or suboptimal results of PTA) offers an excellent long-term patency rate. Categorization of lesions remains useful in predicting long-term outcome. PTA can be performed safely by vascular surgeons in the operating room and should be considered to be the primary treatment for localized iliac occlusive disease. (+info)
Right atrial bypass grafting for central venous obstruction associated with dialysis access: another treatment option.
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PURPOSE: Central venous obstruction is a common problem in patients with chronic renal failure who undergo maintenance hemodialysis. We studied the use of right atrial bypass grafting in nine cases of central venous obstruction associated with upper extremity venous hypertension. To better understand the options for managing this condition, we discuss the roles of surgery and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty with stent placement. METHODS: All patients had previously undergone placement of bilateral temporary subclavian vein dialysis catheters. Severe arm swelling, graft thrombosis, or graft malfunction developed because of central venous stenosis or obstruction in the absence of alternative access sites. A large-diameter (10 to 16 mm) externally reinforced polytetrafluoroethylene (GoreTex) graft was used to bypass the obstructed vein and was anastomosed to the right atrial appendage. This technique was used to bypass six lesions in the subclavian vein, two lesions at the innominate vein/superior vena caval junction, and one lesion in the distal axillary vein. RESULTS: All patients except one had significant resolution of symptoms without operative mortality. Bypass grafts remained patent, allowing the arteriovenous grafts to provide functional access for 1.5 to 52 months (mean, 15.4 months) after surgery. CONCLUSION: Because no mortality directly resulted from the procedure and the morbidity rate was acceptable, this bypass grafting technique was adequate in maintaining the dialysis access needed by these patients. Because of the magnitude of the procedure, we recommend it only for the occasional patient in whom all other access sites are exhausted and in whom percutaneous dilation and/or stenting has failed. (+info)
The expression of beta-catenin in non-small-cell lung cancer: a clinicopathological study.
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AIMS: To investigate the expression of beta-catenin in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and its clinical significance. METHODS: 101 patients were surgically treated for NSCLC by lobectomy or pneumectomy with systematic lymph node dissection. Follow up was available in all patients, ranging from 24 to 110 months. Immunostaining of tissue sections from primary tumours and (when present) their lymph node metastases was performed and evaluated using a monoclonal antibody against beta-catenin. Correlations were investigated between beta-catenin immunostaining in primary tumours and E-cadherin immunostaining (data available from a previous study), lymph node stage, and survival. RESULTS: There were significant correlations between scores for beta-catenin immunostaining and E-cadherin immunostaining in primary tumours (p = 0.007), and between the beta-catenin immunostaining score in primary tumours and in their lymph node metastases (p = 0.006). An inverse correlation was found between the beta-catenin immunostaining score in primary tumours and lymph node stage N0, N1, or N2 (p = 0.03). According to the Kaplan-Meier survival estimate, the level of beta-catenin expression in primary tumours was a statistically significant prognostic factor (p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Reduced beta-catenin expression in surgically treated NSCLC is clearly associated with lymph node metastasis and an infavourable prognosis. The existence of a functional relation between E-cadherin and beta-catenin is supported by the results of this clinicopathological study. (+info)
The influence on survival of delay in the presentation and treatment of symptomatic breast cancer.
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The aim of this study was to examine the possible influence on survival of delays prior to presentation and/or treatment among women with breast cancer. Duration of symptoms prior to hospital referral was recorded for 2964 women who presented with any stage of breast cancer to Guy's Hospital between 1975 and 1990. Median follow-up is 12.5 years. The impact of delay (defined as having symptoms for 12 or more weeks) on survival was measured from the date of diagnosis and from the date when the patient first noticed symptoms to control for lead-time bias. Thirty-two per cent (942/2964) of patients had symptoms for 12 or more weeks before their first hospital visit and 32% (302/942) of patients with delays of 12 or more weeks had locally advanced or metastatic disease, compared with only 10% (210/2022) of those with delays of less than 12 weeks (P < 0.0001). Survival measured both from the date of diagnosis (P < 0.001) and from the onset of the patient's symptoms (P = 0.003) was worse among women with longer delays. Ten years after the onset of symptoms, survival was 52% for women with delays less than 12 weeks and 47% for those with longer delays. At 20 years the survival rates were 34% and 24% respectively. Furthermore, patients with delays of 12-26 weeks had significantly worse survival rates than those with delays of less than 12 weeks. Multivariate analyses indicated that the adverse impact of delay in presentation on survival was attributable to an association between longer delays and more advanced stage. However, within individual stages, longer delay had no adverse impact on survival. Analyses based on 'total delay (i.e. the interval between a patient first noticing symptoms and starting treatment) yielded very similar results in terms of survival to those based on delay to first hospital visit (delay in presentation). (+info)
Expression of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) correlates with poor response to tamoxifen therapy in recurrent breast cancer.
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Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a serine protease which may play a role in a variety of cancer types, including breast cancer. In the present study, we evaluated whether the level of PSA in breast tumour cytosol could be associated with prognosis in primary breast cancer, or with response to tamoxifen therapy in recurrent disease. PSA levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in breast tumour cytosols, and were correlated with prognosis in 1516 patients with primary breast cancer and with response to first-line tamoxifen therapy in 434 patients with recurrent disease. Relating the levels of PSA with classical prognostic factors, low levels were more often found in larger tumours, tumours of older and post-menopausal patients, and in steroid hormone receptor-negative tumours. There was no significant association between the levels of PSA with grade of differentiation or the number of involved lymph nodes. In patients with primary breast cancer, PSA was not significantly related to the rate of relapse, and a positive association of PSA with an improved survival could be attributed to its relationship to age. In patients with recurrent breast cancer, a high level of PSA was significantly related to a poor response to tamoxifen therapy, and a short progression-free and overall survival after start of treatment for recurrent disease. In Cox multivariate analyses for response to therapy and for (progression-free) survival, corrected for age/menopausal status, disease-free interval, site of relapse and steroid hormone receptor status, PSA was an independent variable of poor prognosis. It is concluded that the level of PSA in cytosols of primary breast tumours might be a marker to select breast cancer patients who may benefit from systemic tamoxifen therapy. (+info)
p21(WAF1/CIP1) expression in stage I cutaneous malignant melanoma: its relationship with p53, cell proliferation and survival.
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The expression of p21, p53 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) was analysed by immunohistochemistry in a consecutive series of 369 clinical stage I cutaneous malignant melanoma patients. Correlation of the detected expression levels with each other, with clinicopathological data and with melanoma survival were statistically evaluated. p21 expression was significantly associated with p53 and PCNA expression levels. In addition, high levels of p53 and PCNA were significantly interrelated. Tumour thickness, recurrent disease, high TNM category and older (> or = 55 years) age at diagnosis were inversely associated with p21 expression. Gender, bleeding, tumour thickness, Clark's level of invasion, TNM category and p53 index were all important predictors of both recurrence-free and overall survival of melanoma. In Cox's multivariate analysis including 164 patients with a complete set of data, only high tumour thickness and bleeding predicted poor recurrence-free survival (P = 0.0042 and 0.0087 respectively) or overall survival (P = 0.0147 and 0.0033 respectively). Even though elevated p21 expression may be associated with more favourable prognosis in clinical stage I cutaneous melanoma, our results suggest that cell cycle regulatory effects of p21 can be overcome by some other and stronger, partly yet unknown, mechanisms. (+info)
Loss of heterozygosity at 18q21 is indicative of recurrence and therefore poor prognosis in a subset of colorectal cancers.
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Adjuvant therapies are increasingly used in colorectal cancers for the prevention of recurrence. These therapies have side-effects and should, thus, be used only if really beneficial. However, the development of recurrence cannot be predicted reliably at the moment of diagnosis, and targeting of adjuvant therapies is thus based only on the primary stage of the cancer. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in the long arm of chromosome 18 is suggested to be related to poor survival and possibly to the development of metastases. We studied the value of LOH at 18q21 as a marker of colorectal cancer prognosis, association with clinicopathological variables, tumour recurrence and survival of the patients. Of the 255 patients studied, 195 were informative as regards LOH status when analysed in primary colorectal cancer specimens using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and fragment analysis. LOH at 18q21 was significantly associated with the development of recurrence (P = 0.01) and indicated poor survival in patients of Dukes' classes B and C, in which most recurrences (82%) occurred. An increased rate of tumour recurrence is the reason for poor survival among patients with LOH at 18q21 in primary cancer. These patients are a possible target group for recurrence-preventing adjuvant therapies. (+info)
Comparison of the Ki-67 score and S-phase fraction as prognostic variables in soft-tissue sarcoma.
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Immunohistochemically determined Ki-67 scores and flow cytometrically determined S-phase fractions were successfully evaluated from the primary tumours of 123 patients with soft-tissue sarcoma. All patients had either limb or superficial trunk tumours. Ki-67 score correlated strongly with ploidy, S-phase fraction and grade. Ki-67 did not correlate with the size of the primary tumour. When analysed as a continuous variable, Ki-67 was a stronger predictor of both metastasis-free survival and disease-specific overall survival (P = 0.003 and 0.04 respectively) than was the S-phase fraction (P = 0.06 and 0.07 respectively). We tested the relevance of different cut-point values by dividing the whole material into two parts at every 10% (e.g. 10% of patients vs. the remaining 90%, 20% vs. 80%, etc.). We counted the relative risk and confidence interval at all these cut-off points. Ki-67 had good prognostic discriminating power irrespective of the cut-point value, but S-phase fraction lost its prognostic power at higher cut-point values. In conclusion, we found that Ki-67 is a useful prognostic tool in the treatment of soft-tissue sarcoma patients irrespective of the cut-point value. S-phase fraction can be used at lower cut-point values. (+info)