Surgical risk and benefits of laparoscopic surgery for elderly patients with gastric cancer: a multicenter prospective cohort study.

Background: Laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) might have greater clinical benefits for elderly patients as less invasive surgery; however, there is still little evidence to support its benefit. We evaluated the surgical outcomes of elderly patients in a nationwide prospective cohort study.

Methods: One hundred and sixty-nine participating institutions were identified by stratified random sampling, and were adjusted for hospital volume, type and location.

Endoscopic ultrasonography is valuable for identifying early gastric cancers meeting expanded-indication criteria for endoscopic submucosal dissection.

Background: Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) has become a reliable method for predicting the invasion depth of early gastric cancer (EGC). This study evaluated the accuracy of EUS in identifying lesions meeting expanded-indication criteria for endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) and analyzed clinicopathologic factors influencing the diagnostic accuracy of EUS in assessing tumor invasion depth.

Methods: This study investigated 542 EGCs of 515 patients who underwent EUS pretreatment.

Trastuzumab and vinorelbine as first-line therapy for HER2-overexpressing metastatic breast cancer: multicenter phase II and pharmacokinetic study in Japan.

Tolerability and response rate to weekly combination chemotherapy with trastuzumab and vinorelbine in Japanese women with HER2-overexpressing breast cancer not previously receiving either therapy were assessed. Tumor response was evaluated every 4 weeks and adverse events were graded. A total of 23 patients from six participating centers in Japan were enrolled.