The Negative Impact of Body Mass Index on the Tumor Microenvironment in Colon Cancer: Results of a Prospective Trial.

Background: The association between tumor mismatch repair status and obesity in colon cancer is not well understood. The authors of this study hypothesized that mismatch repair deficiency in colon cancer may be associated with a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) and improved patient outcome due to an enhanced tumor immune microenvironment.

Methods: For this study, 70 patients were randomly selected from a prospective trial evaluating nodal ultrastaging for colon cancer.

Prospective randomized controlled trial comparing standard analgesia with combined intra-operative cystic plate and port-site local anesthesia for post-operative pain management in elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Background: Various mechanisms, including somatic and visceral nociceptive stimulation, have been suggested as a cause for pain after laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). We therefore conducted a prospective randomized controlled trial (PRCT) to evaluate whether somatovisceral pain blockade reduces pain after LC.

Hypothesis: Analgesic efficacy of multimodal analgesia is superior to standard analgesia for patients undergoing elective LC for symptomatic cholelithiasis.

Prognostic Utility of Immunoprofiling in Colon Cancer: Results from a Prospective, Multicenter Nodal Ultrastaging Trial.

Background: Retrospective data indicate that immunoprofiling of T cell markers can be prognostic in colon cancer. Prospective T cell immunoprofiling of colon cancer has not been well defined for patients whose lymph nodes are ultrastaged.

Study Design: A prospective cohort was selected from patients enrolled in an ongoing phase II multicenter trial of nodal ultrastaging for colon cancer.

Overall Survival Is Impacted by Birthplace and Not Extent of Surgery in Asian Americans with Resectable Gastric Cancer.

Survival from gastric cancer in the USA still lags behind Asia. Genetic, environmental, and tumor biology differences, along with extent of surgery have been implicated. Our aim was to evaluate survival outcomes in Asian-American gastric cancer patients undergoing surgical resection by comparing place of birth and clinicopathologic characteristics (including evaluation of 15 lymph nodes).

Prognostic Effect of Ultra-Staging Node-Negative Colon Cancer Without Adjuvant Chemotherapy: A Prospective National Cancer Institute-Sponsored Clinical Trial.

Background: We recently reported, in a prospective randomized trial, that ultra-staging of patients with colon cancer is associated with significantly improved disease-free survival (DFS) compared with conventional staging. That trial did not control for lymph node (LN) number or adjuvant chemotherapy use.

Study Design: The current international prospective multicenter cooperative group trial (ClinicalTrials.

Long-Term Survival with Long-Acting Somatostatin Analogues Plus Aggressive Cytoreductive Surgery in Patients with Metastatic Neuroendocrine Carcinoma.

Background: Long-acting somatostatin analogues (S-LAR) improve recurrence-free survival in patients with metastatic neuroendocrine tumor (NET) from gastrointestinal (GI) primary, but their impact on overall survival when combined with aggressive cytoreductive surgery is unclear.

Study Design: We reviewed our institutional cancer database to identify patients who underwent cytoreductive surgery for metastatic NET from GI primary between December 1997 and June 2013. Additionally, a cohort selected from 3,384 metastatic neuroendocrine cases in the SEER-Medicare database (January 2003 to December 2009) was used to verify and expand on our results.

Surgical quality and nodal ultrastaging is associated with long-term disease-free survival in early colorectal cancer: an analysis of 2 international multicenter prospective trials.

Background: The National Quality Forum has endorsed a minimum of 12 lymph node (LN) as a surrogate measure of quality in colorectal cancer (CRC). The prognostic value of ultrastaging hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) negative LNs (N0) using pan-cytokeratin immunohistochemistry (pan-CK-IHC) is unknown.

Purpose: To assess the effect on survival of surgical quality and focused pathologic analysis.

Lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymphadenectomy in primary cutaneous melanoma.

The management of clinically normal regional lymph nodes in early-stage melanoma has been controversial for over a century. Lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymphadenectomy (LM/SL) has been developed as a minimally invasive surgical technique to stage the regional lymph nodes without the associated morbidity of elective complete lymph node dissection. Multiple retrospective studies have validated the accuracy of LM/SL and the importance of the sentinel nodes as a staging tool for melanoma.