Publications by authors named "Ilker Okten"

Purpose: Syrian refugees (SRs) have had difficulties in the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of chronic diseases, such as cancer, because of the conflict in the region. The cancer diagnosis and treatment process of SR are also a matter of curiosity. We aimed to compare the demographic characteristics and survival outcome data of SRs and Turkish citizens (TCs), and colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancer types seen with similar frequency globally.

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Article Synopsis
  • Colorectal cancer is a major global health issue, and in Turkey, a study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of second-line treatments for patients with RAS wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer.
  • The research involved a retrospective analysis of 588 patient records from 28 centers, categorizing them by the type of biological treatments received: anti-EGFR and anti-VEGF.
  • Results showed no significant differences in overall survival or progression-free survival among the different treatment groups, indicating similar effectiveness of the biological agents in second-line treatments.
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Introduction: Although cancer patients have a high risk of exposing COVID-19 and developing severe complications, they have to receive active treatment. We aimed to determine the psychological conditions of cancer patients and shed light on the establishment of early psychological intervention and intervention policies by making specific recommendations.

Method: We consecutively evaluated 385 cancer patients under treatment.

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Introduction: Ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) is an antibody-drug conjugate and its survival advantage has been shown in advanced human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer. However, clinical trials underrepresent patients ⩾65 years of age, leading to a lack of information in this population. We analyzed the real-world outcomes of older women who were treated with T-DM1 therapy.

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Purpose: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is the standard front-line treatment modality in locally advanced breast cancer. Achieving pathological complete response (pCR) is a significant prognostic factor for prolonged disease-free and overall survival. Insulin resistance is defined as a pathological condition in which insulin effect is impaired in peripheral target tissues such as the skeletal muscle, liver, and adipose tissue.

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Introduction: Nearly 50% of patients with metastatic melanoma harbor a BRAFV600-mutation, which can be targeted with the use of BRAF and MEK inhibitors, either in the front-line or treatment-refractory setting. Encorafenib is the newest BRAF-inhibitor to have received FDA-approval in combination with the MEK inhibitor binimetinib.

Areas Covered: The authors provide an overview of the preclinical development and the clinical trials that led to the use of encorafenib in BRAFV600-mutant melanoma.

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Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE) is a rare vascular tumor originating from endothelial cells. Clinical aspect of the disease covers a wide spectrum from a low-grade tumor to a fatal cancer. Most common sites of EHE are reported as lung, liver and bone.

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Objective: In this study, we aimed to explore prognostic importance of definition of preoperative metabolic tumor volume in esophageal cancer patients.

Methods: 22 patients who have histologically proven stage IIA-III esophageal cancer and underwent (18)F-FDG PET/CT for preoperative staging of disease were included to the study. After (18)F-FDG PET/CT, all the patients underwent surgery within 4 weeks period.

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Achalasia is characterized by incomplete lower oesophageal sphincter relaxation and aperistalsis of the oesophagus. It may present with dyspnea symptom. An 18-years-old male patient applied to a clinic with the complaints of cough, dyspnea, wheezing and diagnosed as asthma.

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Objective: Benign localized fibrous tumors (BLFT) of the pleura are very rare slow-growing neoplasms that generally have a favorable prognosis. The aim of this manuscript is to evaluate the predictors of outcome with the review of the literature in a series of 25 patients with BLFT.

Methods: Between January 1985 and November 2009, 25 patients underwent an operation due to BLFT.

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Thymic carcinoma, which is a thymic epithelial neoplasm with obvious cytologic atypia, is a rare neoplasm. The authors report on a 10-year-old boy who presented with respiratory distress due to bulky anterior mediastinal mass. Histological and immunohistochemical studies confirmed a lymphoepithelioma-like pattern thymic carcinoma.

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Cicatricial tracheal stenoses are mainly related to iatrogenic injury as postintubation, posttracheotomy or postoperative. Advances in airway prosthetics have provided a variety of silicone stents and expandable metal stents as a therapeutic option for tracheal stenoses. Nowadays, dynamic tracheal stents are performed prevalently for the treatment of tracheal stenosis.

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We report the outcomes of patients who underwent reconstruction with Mersilene mesh-methyl methacrylate (MM-MM) sandwich and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) grafts after a large chest wall resection. Between June 1990 and September 2001, 59 consecutive patients (37 men, 22 women; mean age, 48.1 +/- 11.

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Pulmonary hydatid cysts remain a significant health problem in endemic regions like Turkey. Here, we present our surgical experience in patients with pulmonary hydatid cysts. Between January 1985 and January 2001, 1118 operations were performed in 1032 patients (528 males, 504 females; mean age 32.

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Objective: Human echinococcosis remains a serious health problem for the Mediterranean countries. Synchronous pulmonary and hepatic hydatid disease may occur in 4% to 25% of cases. Our experience on simultaneous surgical treatment of right lung and liver hydatid disease in patients was reviewed.

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Objectives: The objective of this paper is to assess the results of surgical treatment retrospectively in a consecutive series of 85 patients with peripheral non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) invading parietal pleura and chest wall.

Methods: From 1994 to 1998, of the 572 patients having pulmonary resection for NSCLC, 29 patients with neoplasm involving the parietal pleura (group I) and 56 with that invading the chest wall (group II) underwent resection.

Results: The operative mortality rate was 3.

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Foreign body ingestion occurs commonly in children and in specific high-risk groups of adults. Foreign bodies in the gastrointestinal tract can result in serious complications depending on the size and shape of the ingested object. This report presents a patient with an unusual foreign body in the esophagus.

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