The pattern of invasion of early carcinomas in Barrett's esophagus is dependent on the depth of infiltration.

The differential diagnosis "high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia" or "well-differentiated Barrett's adenocarcinoma limited to the mucosa" is controversial. We investigated 277 endoscopically resected specimens of early Barrett's carcinoma. Depth of infiltration was classified as follows: m 1=carcinoma limited to Barrett's mucosa; m 2=carcinoma infiltrating the neo-muscularis mucosae; m 3=infiltration of the original lamina propria of the esophageal mucosa; m 4=infiltration of the original muscularis mucosae; sm 1, sm 2, and sm 3=infiltration into the upper third, middle third, and lower third of the submucosa.

Lymph node preparation in resected colorectal carcinoma specimens employing the acetone clearing method.

For the histopathological evaluation of resected colorectal carcinoma specimens, the currently required minimum number of lymph nodes that need to be examined to ensure accurate staging is 12. In some cases, however, this number of lymph nodes cannot be obtained by the conventional preparation method, based on formalin-fixed fatty tissue. Since prognostic accuracy correlates with the number of lymph nodes examined, a repeat work-up of the fatty tissue after soaking in acetone for 24h is a means of achieving the required minimum of 12 lymph nodes in many cases.

The inhibition of tumor cell adhesion on human mesothelial cells (HOMC) by phospholipids in vitro.

Background And Aims: Intraperitoneal tumor cell adhesion to extracellular matrix and to mesothelial cells mediated by integrins is an important step in developing peritoneal carcinosis. In former animal studies, we could demonstrate that intraperitoneal treatment with a new phospholipid (PL) emulsion significantly reduces the amount of peritoneal carcinosis by adhesion prevention. This in vitro study tries to elucidate the influence of phospholipids on cells of the human gastric cancer cell line (NUGC-4) and the human rectal cancer cell line (HRT-18) adhering to mesothelial cells (HOMC) in a monolayer culture in vitro.