Prognostic significance of the serum thymidine phosphorylase levels in venous blood drainage specimens in patients with colorectal cancer.

Background/aims: We investigated whether the serum Thymidine phosphorylase (TP) levels in venous blood drainage specimens were associated with the prognosis and risk of liver metastasis in patients with resectable colorectal cancer.

Methodology: From 88 patients with colorectal cancer, specimens of venous blood drainage were obtained during operation. The serum TP levels were measured by a highly sensitive Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) method.

Retrograde jejuno-jejunal intussusception after total gastrectomy.

An eighty-year-old female was transferred to the hospital after experiencing abdominal pain and nausea. She had had a history of total gastrectomy for gastric cancer 14 years previously. Abdominal X-ray revealed a localized expansion of the small bowel.

Carcinoembryonic antigen mRNA in the mesenteric vein is not a predictor of hepatic metastasis in patients with resectable colorectal cancer: a long-term study.

Purpose: The clinical value of carcinoembryonic antigen messenger ribonucleic acid in the draining venous blood has been controversial because of short observation period. The authors prospectively investigated the clinical significance of detection of carcinoembryonic antigen messenger ribonucleic acid in the draining venous blood to predict hepatic metastases in patients with resectable colorectal cancer.

Methods: Drainage venous blood from 80 patients who underwent curative resections for colorectal cancer were obtained immediately before surgery to determine the presence of cancer cells by means of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction.

Occurrence of hematogenous metastasis and serum levels of thymidine phosphorylase in colorectal cancer.

Thymidine phosphorylase (dThdPase) is known to promote the development of new blood vessels. Increased dThdPase expression in solid tumors has been shown to correlate with tumor growth, invasion and metastasis. In the present study, we measured dThdPase levels in the tumor tissue and in the serum from the tumor drainage and peripheral venous blood obtained from patients with resectable colorectal cancer.

Elevated IL-8 levels in the drainage vein of resectable Dukes' C colorectal cancer indicate high risk for developing hepatic metastasis.

To investigate the relationship between tumor angiogenesis and hematogenous metastasis in colorectal cancer, an immunohistochemical analysis using antibody against factor VIII was carried out on archival specimens of 35 primary tumors. In addition, we also evaluated the levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and interleukin-8 (IL-8), by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), in tumor specimens and the serum in the drainage venous blood. The levels of VEGF showed no correlation with the microvessel density and also did not increase significantly in patients with hepatic metastasis.