Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0011168 (dysphagia)
 15,644 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The prognosis of esophageal adenocarcinoma is extremely poor. Despite recent improvements in diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, the 5-years survival rate remains below 10%. Management is primarily surgical or radiotherapeutical, although pre- or postoperative radiation or chemotherapy are often employed. Chemotherapy alone, however, has not demonstrated great therapeutic efficacy in the management of this neoplasm. As most patients with cancer of the lower esophagus have an advanced stage of the disease and a very poor prognosis, the main aim of treatment should be to improve the quality of life. Intracavitary radiation (high dose rate) is a well recognised method of treatment alone or in combination with external radiotherapy. Its simplicity, the convenience of short treatment time and radiation safety provided by the remote after loading system make this the ideal palliative treatment in esophageal cancer. Endoscopic techniques, like dilation and endoprosthesis placement, laser therapy or BI-CAP probe, provide good palliation for dysphagia, with a low morbidity rate. The paper describes a case of lower esophageal adenocarcinoma treated with combined external and intracavitary radiation and endoscopic palliative techniques. Good control of the disease was achieved and the patient is alive 26 months after treatment with a good quality of life.
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PMID:[Adenocarcinoma of the distal esophagus treated with external and intracavitary radiotherapy. Description of a clinical case and review of the literature]. 179 Feb 7

In 2001, a 72-year-old woman, who had undergone left mastectomy for breast carcinoma 36 years ago, was admitted because of dysphagia. Chest CT showed pleural effusion in the right side and no tumor in the breast. Chest drainage was performed. Cytology of chest effusion revealed adenocarcinoma. A high serum CA15-3 level was noted. She was diagnosed with a pleural recurrence of breast cancer, so administration of CAF agents (4 courses) was started. Pleural effusion was improved and the serum CA15-3 level was reduced. She was then clinically followed on medication with oral anastrozole (AI). After 4 years, progression of disease was noted. The serum CA15-3 level was elevated. A tumor measuring 3 cm was confirmed on the right chest wall. The tumor was removed under local anesthesia and pathological findings showed invasive ductal carcinoma expressing estrogen receptor. Chemotherapy with taxane had to be withdrawn because of its side effect. Administration of S-1 was then started. The serum CA15-3 level was gradually elevated. Thereafter, the regimen was switched to combined S-1 and toremifene citrate. The serum CA15-3 level was reduced and sustained for several months. However, she died of multiple organ metastasis in 2008.
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PMID:[A case of recurrence of breast cancer 36 years after mastectomy treated with endocrine and chemotherapy]. 2049 24