Intra-arterial PLE embolization proves to be effective and safe in treating patients with CHL.

Tissue spray ionization mass spectrometry (TSI-MS) directly on small tissue samples has been shown to provide highly specific molecular information. In this study, we apply this method to the analysis of 38 pairs of human lung squamous cell carcinoma tissue (cancer) and adjacent normal lung tissue (normal). The main components of pulmonary surfactants, dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPPC, m/z 757.47), phosphatidylcholine (POPC, m/z 782.52), oleoyl phosphatidylcholine (DOPC, m/z 808.49), and arachidonic acid stearoyl phosphatidylcholine (SAPC, m/z 832.43), were identified using high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry. Monte Carlo sampling partial least squares linear discriminant analysis (PLS-LDA) was used to distinguish full-mass-range mass spectra of cancer samples from the mass spectra of normal tissues. With 5 principal components and 30 – 40 Monte Carlo samplings, the accuracy of cancer identification in matched tissue samples reached 94.42%. Classification of a tissue sample required less than 1 min, which is much faster than the analysis of frozen sections. The rapid, in situ diagnosis with minimal sample consumption provided by TSI-MS is advantageous for surgeons. TSI-MS allows them to make more informed decisions during surgery.

The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the prognostic significance of pre-treatment immunological and nutritional statuses in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer (GC), and to use the risk factors to develop a predictive score. A total of 731 patients who underwent gastrectomy for stage II/III GC from November 2010 to December 2015 were recruited into this retrospective study. On the basis of univariate and further multivariate Cox regression analyses, decreased pretreatment lymphocyte count (<1·5×109/litre) and prealbumin concentrations (<180 mg/l) were identified to be independently associated with poorer overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Low albumin concentrations (<33 g/l) were identified as an independent risk factor only for OS, but not for DFS. Thereafter, patients who had a decreased prealbumin concentration and lymphocyte count were given a combination of serum prealbumin concentration and lymphocyte count (Co-PaL) score of 2. Patients with only one or neither of these concentrations were given a Co-PaL score of 1 or 0, respectively. Both the OS and the DFS time were inversely related to the Co-PaL scores, and the differences among the three groups were all significant. In contrast, the prognosis did not differ significantly between patients with good nutrition and those with mild to moderate malnutrition according to the prognostic nutritional index. This study indicated that the simple scoring system could accurately predict the prognosis of patients who underwent gastrectomy for stage II/III GC. The score might be helpful in terms of clinical preoperative decision-making.

PurposeAllogeneic blood transfusions (BTF) are sometimes inevitable during radical gastrectomy with lymphadenectomy for advanced gastric cancer. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the association between BTF and post-operative infections, focusing on the impact of timing, amount of transfusion and the role of leukocyte depletion.MethodsThe study cohort was 2064 patients who underwent gastrectomy for gastric cancer from November 2010 to August 2017. The association between BTF and post-operative infections was estimated by univariate and multivariate analyses after propensity score matching. Subgroup analysis was performed according to the timing and amount of transfusion, and leukocyte depletion or not.ResultsOut of a total 2064 patients, 426 (20.6%) received peri-operative BTF. After one-to-one matching, 361 pairs of patients were included for further analysis, of who 68 (9.4%) developed infections. Multivariate analysis identified that an operation time ≥ 240 min, combined multi-organ resection, BTF and BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 were independent risk factors for post-operative infection. Patients given a high-volume (> 7.5 U), intra-operatively of leukocyte-non-depleted BTF had the highest risk of developing infections clarified by subgroup analysis.ConclusionInfection was the most common complication following gastrectomy for gastric cancer and BTF was identified as an independent risk factor by propensity score matching and multivariate analyses. The timing, amount of transfusion and leukocyte depletion had an impact on the incidence of infection. To decrease infection, BTF should be avoided where possible, particularly during operation, with a large amount and leukocyte-not-depleted blood.