Byung Chul Cho

Purpose: Anaplastic thyroid cancer is known to have a poor prognosis due to its aggressive and rapid metastasis with median survival of less than 6 months. Multimodal treatment involving surgery and chemoradiotherapy has been used to improve the survival of patients. Here, we retrospectively review of treatment outcome of 13 consecutive patients who were treated at a single center. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 13 anaplastic thyroid cancer patients who rec

Purpose: Elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) is associated with poor prognosis in several tumor types. The purpose of this study was to investigate serum CRP as a prognostic marker in small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Materials and Methods: The pretreatment serum CRP level was measured in 157 newly diagnosed SCLC patients,and correlation between serum CRP level and other clinical parameters was analyzed. Multivariate analyses were performed to find prognostic markers using Cox’s proportional hazards

The study of cancer in patients treated with dialysis in Korea has not been reported. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and mortality of cancer among patients on dialysis in Korea. The study subjects were 106 cancer patients (2.3%) out of 4,562 end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients maintained on hemodialysis (HD) or peritoneal dialysis (PD) at Yonsei University Health System from 1996 to 2005. We excluded patients in whom the diagnosis of cancer preceded dialysis or those

Interruption of the inferior vena cava IVC) with azygos continuation is an uncommon vascular anomaly that results from aberrant development during embryogenesis. We report a rare case of this anomaly, presenting with massive pulmonary embolism. Subsequent evaluation with abdominal CT scan revealed the congenital absence of retrohepatic IVC. The patient was successfully treated with anticoagulation. When deep venous thrombosis (DVT) develops in patients with no apparent risk factors, the presence

Purpose: Standard treatment for cases of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) exhibiting acquired drug resistance includes tumorrebiopsy, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation testing (e.g., for T790M mutations), and the subsequent administrationof third-generation EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs). However, rebiopsies are typically invasive, costly, and occasionallynot feasible. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess rebiopsy procedures by analyzing real-world data coll

Purpose: Mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) have been confirmed as predictors of the efficacy of treatment with EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). We investigated whether polymorphisms of the EGFR gene were associated with clinical outcomes in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with EGFR-TKI. Materials and Methods: A polymorphic dinucleotide repeat in intron 1 [CA simple sequence repeat in intron 1(CA-SSR1)] in intron 1 and single nucleotide polymorphi

Tailgut cysts (TGCs) are rare congenital cysts that occur in the retrorectal or presacral spaces. Although most tailgut cysts have been reported as benign, there have been at least 9 cases associated with malignant change. We report herein on an unusual case of a 40-year-old woman with a carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-producing adenocarcinoma arising within a TGC who underwent surgical resection and local radiation therapy. Despite the complete resection, metastatic adenocarcinoma developed five

Percutaneous pericardiocentesis guided by two-dimensional echocardiography was introduced in 1983 as an alternative to electrocardiographically or fluoroscopically guided puncture for the management of pericardial effusion. The objective of this study was to investigate echocardiographically (echo)- guided pericardiocenteses performed at Yonsei Cardiovascular Center from January 1, 1993 to December 31, 2003, and also to determine whether patient profiles, etiology, and practice patterns have cha

Transglutaminase 2 (TG2), a cross-linking enzyme, is involved in drug resistance and in the constitutive activation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB). We investigated the association of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment efficacy with TG2 and NF-κB expression in 120 patients: 102 with adenocarcinoma and 18 with other histologic types. All patients underwent surgery; 88 received adjuvant chemotherapy, with 28 receiving platinum-based doublet chemotherapy as first-line treatment and 29 r

Purpose: The prognostic and predictive value of pretreatment serum levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cytokeratin-19 fragments (CYFRA 21-1) were assessed in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with gefitinib or erlotinib. Materials and Methods: Pretreatment CEA and CYFRA 21-1 were measured in 123 advanced NSCLC patients receiving gefitinib or erlotinib. High CEA levels (h-CEA) were significantly associated with females, patients with adenocarcinoma, and non-smo

Lazertinib is an oral, irreversible, third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) thatforms an irreversible covalent bond to the Cys797 residue in the ATP-binding site of the EGFR kinase domain and exhibits a highselectivity for sensitizing and T790M EGFR mutations. In January 2021, it was first approved for the treatment of advanced ormetastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with EGFR T790M who had previously received EGFR TKI therapy ba

Purpose: This study was designed to determine the relationship of cigarette smoking to the frequency and qualitative differences among KRAS mutations in lung adenocarcinomas from Korean patients. Materials and Methods: Detailed smoking histories were obtained from 200 consecutively enrolled patients with lung adenocarcinoma according to a standard protocol. EGFR (exons 18 to 21) and KRAS (codons 12/13) mutations were determined via direct-sequencing. Results:The incidence of KRAS mutations was 8

Purpose: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the association between polymorphisms of the target genes of pemetrexed and clinical outcomes in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with pemetrexed. Materials and Methods: We assessed polymorphisms at 8 sites in 4 genes [thymidylate synthase (TS), dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR; 1610, 680, 317, intron 1), methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR; 677, 1298), glycinamide ribonucleotide formyl transferase (GARFT; 2255)] as

Transient bacteremia associated with various endoscopic procedures is a well-documented phenomenon. Clinically important bacteremias are very rarely seen, however, this malady has significant morbidity in susceptible patients with valvular heart disease, liver cirrhosis, malignancy and immune deficiency. This bacteremia is a complication that is generally observed secondary to upper endoscopy and other associated invasive procedures in at risk patients, and the more serious manifestations includ

Chylopericardium is a rare clinical entity in which chylous fluid accumulates in the pericardial cavity. We report a case of primary idiopathic chylopericardium associated with multiple, small cervicomediastinal cystic hygromas occurring in an asymptomatic 43-year-old woman with no history of trauma, thoracic surgery, malignancy, infection or tuberculosis. Echocardiography showed a large amount of pericardial effusions and pericardial fluid analysis revealed inappropriately elevated triglyceride