Updated analysis of SWOG-directed intergroup study 0116: a phase III trial of adjuvant radiochemotherapy versus observation after curative gastric cancer resection.

Purpose: Surgical resection of gastric cancer has produced suboptimal survival despite multiple randomized trials that used postoperative chemotherapy or more aggressive surgical procedures. We performed a randomized phase III trial of postoperative radiochemotherapy in those at moderate risk of locoregional failure (LRF) following surgery. We originally reported results with 4-year median follow-up.

Association of Helicobacter pylori infection and diet on the risk of gastric cancer: a case-control study in Hawaii.

Objective: The risk factors most strongly associated with gastric cancer are the gastric bacteria Helicobacter pylori and diet. Utilizing data from a case-control study among residents in Hawaii, we examined the association of diet, presence of H. pylori, and non-cardia gastric cancer risk.

The relation of pepsinogen group II (PGII) expression to intestinal metaplasia and gastric cancer.

Aims: A substantial minority of intestinal metaplasia (IM)-associated stomach cancers express a gastric product-pepsinogen group II (PGII). The aim of this study was to examine PGII expression as it relates to IM and to tumour heterogeneity.

Methods And Results: The extent of IM was divided into four levels: none, minimal, moderate, extensive.

Helicobacter pylori, pepsinogen, and gastric adenocarcinoma in Hawaii.

Background: The objective was to investigate the association of Helicobacter pylori and serum pepsinogen (PG) levels with gastric adenocarcinoma.

Methods: Serum obtained from 299 patients at the time of cancer diagnosis and from 336 population-based control subjects was tested for PG I, PG II, and antibodies to H. pylori and to CagA.

Prospective study of the association of serum triglyceride and glucose with colorectal cancer.

To determine if serum triglyceride and glucose levels are associated with colorectal cancer, a prospective study among 7619 Japanese-American men was conducted. From 1968 to 1998, 376 colon and 124 rectal cancer incident cases were diagnosed. A strong positive association of alcohol intake and pack-years of cigarette smoking with colorectal cancer was observed.

Serum vitamins and the subsequent risk of bladder cancer.

Purpose: We determined whether serum vitamins are inversely related to bladder cancer risk.

Materials And Methods: A cohort of 9,345 Japanese-American men was examined from 1971 to 1977. At examination a blood specimen was obtained and the serum was frozen.

Case-control study of diet and other risk factors for gastric cancer in Hawaii (United States).

Objective: To investigate the association of diet and other factors with gastric adenocarcinoma of the distal stomach.

Methods: Three hundred cases and 446 population-based controls were interviewed with a quantitative, food frequency questionnaire, which listed over 250 foods. The questionnaire also included information on smoking history, alcohol intake, education, medical history, medication use, and a family history of cancer.

Serum insulin-like growth factor I and subsequent risk of colorectal cancer among Japanese-American men.

Recent reports suggest that colorectal cancer is positively related to insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and inversely related to insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3). To evaluate these associations further and separately for colon and rectal cancer, the authors conducted a nested case-control study in a cohort of 9,345 Japanese-American men examined in Hawaii in 1971-1977. A total of 177 incident colon cancer cases and 105 incident rectal cancer cases were identified from 1972 to 1996.

TP53 and gastric carcinoma: a review.

In this article, we survey the major p53 (TP53) alterations identified in gastric carcinomas and their precursors. These include p53 expression, mutations, and loss of heterozygosity (LOH). Not only are the various abnormalities summarized, but in addition there is a survey of the literature with respect to the impact of these changes on patient prognosis and treatment response.

Gastric carcinoma distal to the cardia: a review of the epidemiological pathology of the precusors to a preventable cancer.

A distinctive gastritis precedes the development of cancer distal to the cardia. Helicobacter pylori infection and the use of pickled foods as substitutes for fresh fruits and vegetables constitute the most important environmental factors that generate this gastritis. This review describes the anatomical changes that characterise the step-by-step evolution of a process that begins in childhood and culminates in invasive cancer in middle and old age.

Helicobacter pylori CagA seropositivity and gastric carcinoma risk in a Japanese American population.

Helicobacter pylori colonization is associated with gastric cancer, but whether and to what extent the risk is greater for strains with the cagA gene than for those without needs to be determined. Between 1967 and 1977, 9963 Japanese American men were recruited and examined. By 1996, incident cases of gastric carcinoma of the distal stomach had been diagnosed in 261 men.

Gastric carcinoma: pathology findings in a multiethnic population.

Objectives: To assess the pathology of gastric carcinoma and to determine whether carcinoma of the cardia occurs more often among whites than among other ethnic groups in Hawaii. This study focuses on demographic differences in subsite locations and histologic types of gastric carcinoma.

Methods: We reviewed 532 sequential gastric carcinomas accessioned between 1993 and 1999 in the Hawaii Tumor Registry.

Relation between Helicobacter pylori cagA status and risk of peptic ulcer disease.

Although colonization with any Helicobacter pylori strain is associated with peptic ulcer, it is uncertain whether the risk is greater with cagA(+) or cagA(-) strains, which differ in their biology. A nested case-control study was done, based on a cohort of 5,443 Japanese-American men examined on the Hawaiian island of Oahu from 1967 to 1970. A total of 150 men with gastric ulcer, 65 with duodenal ulcer, and 14 with both diseases were identified.

Chemoradiotherapy after surgery compared with surgery alone for adenocarcinoma of the stomach or gastroesophageal junction.

Background: Surgical resection of adenocarcinoma of the stomach is curative in less than 40 percent of cases. We investigated the effect of surgery plus postoperative (adjuvant) chemoradiotherapy on the survival of patients with resectable adenocarcinoma of the stomach or gastroesophageal junction.

Methods: A total of 556 patients with resected adenocarcinoma of the stomach or gastroesophageal junction were randomly assigned to surgery plus postoperative chemoradiotherapy or surgery alone.

Variant form of diffuse corporal gastritis in NHE2 knockout mice.

Mice lacking the NHE2 Na+/H+ gene develop gastritis of the glandular mucosa as early as the tenth day of life, achieving maximal intensity of inflammation from 17 to 19 days after birth and maximal atrophy at one year. We assessed the effects of this process in such mice to 16 months of age. The stomach of NHE2 null mutants was examined at 10, 17 to 20, 24 to 35 and 49 to 70 days, and at 12 to 16 months.

Serum selenium and subsequent risk of prostate cancer.

It is suspected that selenium is protective against prostate cancer. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a nested case-control study in a cohort of 9345 Japanese-American men examined between 1971 and 1977. At the time of examination, a blood specimen was obtained, and the serum was frozen.

Comparative studies of prostate cancer in Japan versus the United States. A review.

This article reviews the available data on prostate cancer in Japan compared with that in the United States, with emphasis on epidemiologic, pathologic, and molecular aspects. Previous studies have demonstrated ethnic/racial differences in the incidence of prostate cancer between the two countries. Recent investigations indicate that different genetic alterations or polymorphisms are related to carcinogenesis in the prostate.

Alterations in exon 4 of the p53 gene in gastric carcinoma.

Background & Aims: Our long-term goal was to evaluate the role of p53 in the prognosis of gastric cancer. We previously showed a discrepancy between p53 expression and the presence of mutations when only exons 5-9 were examined. We then evaluated exon 4.

Esophageal squamous cell carcinomas arising in patients from a high-risk area of North China lack an association with Epstein-Barr virus.

The aim of this study was to determine whether EBV associates with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), the most common malignancy in some parts of northern China, because these tumors frequently have an intense lymphocyte infiltrate. Fifty-one paraffin-embedded samples of ESCC from a high-risk area of North China were studied. The tumors included 9 well-differentiated, 31 moderately differentiated, and 11 poorly differentiated tumors.

The relation of p53 gene mutations to gastric cancer subsite and phenotype.

Objectives: We investigated p53 gene mutations in advanced gastric cancers by direct DNA sequencing, in order to determine the frequency of mutations in gastric cancers having different epidemiological backgrounds, tumors of the cardia were compared with those arising in the antrum or corpus. Intestinal type cancers were compared with diffuse or other histologic types. We have chosen to assess the frequency of mutations solely based on DNA sequencing.

p53 immunoreactivity and single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis often fail to predict p53 mutational status.

The intent of this study was to investigate the ability of p53 expression and single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis (SSCP) to predict p53 mutational status in archival, paraffin-embedded tissues of gastric cancer. We evaluated paraffin-embedded tissues from 78 patients with advanced gastric cancer. The mutational status of the p53 gene (exons 5-9) was examined by SSCP analysis and by direct sequencing.

The I1307K polymorphism of the APC gene in colorectal cancer.

Background & Aims: Colorectal cancer is one of the most frequent cancers in humans. Recently, a germline missense mutation, I1307K, was identified in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene that was suggested to increase cancer predisposition in Ashkenazi Jews. However, a second study indicated that the I1307K mutation did not contribute greatly to the risk of colon cancer in Ashkenazi breast-ovarian cancer families, and a role of mismatch repair deficiency was suggested.

Serum vitamin D metabolite levels and the subsequent development of prostate cancer (Hawaii, United States).

Objectives: Because several serum studies of vitamin D metabolites have produced equivocal results on their relation to prostate cancer risk, the purpose of this study is to evaluate this association further.

Methods: A nested case-control study in a cohort of 3,737 Japanese-American men examined from 1967 to 1970 was conducted in Hawaii (United States). At the time of examination, a single blood specimen was obtained, and the serum was frozen.