Surgery of gastric cancer and esophageal cancer: Does age matter?

Introduction: In the past, elderly patients with upper GI cancers were excluded from surgery or multimodal treatment only due to their advanced age. In an aging society this way of patient selection seems to be questionable. The aim of this retrospective exploratory study was to investigate how patients with upper GI cancer over the age of 70 years differ from younger patients in the postoperative course and which parameters influence overall survival in older patient populations.

Influence of Different Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Regimens on Response, Prognosis, and Complication Rate in Patients with Esophagogastric Adenocarcinoma.

Background: Perioperative chemotherapy improves survival in patients with advanced esophagogastric cancer, but the optimal treatment regimen remains unclear. More intensive chemotherapy may improve outcome, but also increase toxicity and complications.

Methods: A total of 843 patients were included in this retrospective study and stratified in 4 groups: doublet therapy with cisplatin or oxaliplatin and 5-fluorouracil (groups A/B) or triplet therapy with additional epirubicin or taxane (groups C/D).

Exploring the validity and reliability of a questionnaire for evaluating virtual patient design with a special emphasis on fostering clinical reasoning.

Background: Virtual patients (VPs) are increasingly used to train clinical reasoning. So far, no validated evaluation instruments for VP design are available.

Aims: We examined the validity of an instrument for assessing the perception of VP design by learners.