Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0546837 (esophageal cancer)
 8,907 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We assessed the feasibility of using balloon cytology to screen an asymptomatic group of alcoholics at increased risk for esophageal cancer. The results indicate that this group can be studied with minimal morbidity and that useful material can be obtained in 85% of subjects. Keratinization was present in 68% of specimens and fungus was noted in 9%. Individuals with moderate to large amounts of keratinization consumed significantly more alcohol than those without cytologic evidence of keratin. We speculate that keratinization and fungus may represent markers of enhanced malignant potential in this population.
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PMID:Balloon cytology in screening of asymptomatic alcoholics for esophageal cancer, Part I. 389 2

In this study, I investigated the molecular weights of keratin-subunits in the tissue of esophageal cancer by enzyme-labeled antibody technique with four kinds of antikeratin monoclonal antibodies with different spectrums of reacting keratin-subunits. Further more, the correlation between the molecular weights of keratin-subunits and clinicopathological factors was evaluated, and that between the molecular weights and the prognosis was studied also. The positive rates of four kinds of primary antibodies did not correlate to clinical feature or prognosis, and each primary antibody showed different attitude regarding correlation to histopathological factors. I analyzed the molecular weights of keratin-subunits increased in the carcinoma tissue by the difference of staining intensities of four monoclonal antibodies. The histological findings of the cases with carcinoma tissues in which 48, 56 kd keratins increased were in high malignancy compared with other groups, and their prognosis was significantly poor. Examination of prognostic factors with multivariate analysis revealed that the increase of 48, 56 kd keratins in the carcinoma tissues was the most important determining factor of prognosis next to lymphatic invasion.
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PMID:[Immunohistological evaluation of esophageal cancer with antikeratin monoclonal antibodies]. 856 74

A 58-year-old Japanese man with superficial esophageal cancer accompanied by unusual epithelial changes, including esophageal mucosal epidermization, is reported. Staining with Lugol's iodine clearly showed irregular unstained lesions, which could not be seen clearly macroscopically, in the resected specimen. Histologic examination of the irregular unstained areas showed definite granular and horny layers regarded as epidermization, acanthosis with slight nuclear enlargement, and epithelial atrophy. The immunohistochemical staining patterns of keratins in the epidermized and atrophic lesions were similar to those in the epidermis, and the keratin staining patterns of the acanthotic lesion were similar to those of the oral epithelium.
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PMID:Epidermization in the esophageal mucosa: unusual epithelial changes clearly detected by Lugol's staining. 915 87

Esophageal small cell carcinoma (SmC) is considered an aggressive cancer carrying a poor prognosis, although the rarity of this tumor has impeded statistical evaluation. We reviewed records of 457 esophageal cancer patients treated in our department from 1986 to 2000, comparing clinicopathologic factors and post-treatment outcomes, for 9 patients with SmC, most undergoing esophagectomy including lymphadenectomy, with data from 128 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SqC) invading to the muscular layer or beyond. Immunohistochemical features were compared between the SmC and 12 consecutive SqC. All patients studied had localized disease according to preoperative staging. SmC showed more ulcerative and infiltrative growth, and more aggressive lymphatic spread, than SqC. All SmC patients had lymph node metastasis (thoracic nodes, 9 patients: abdominal 6; cervical 1). All SmC specimens but no SqC were immunoreactive for neuron-specific enolase. Two and three SmC specimens were reactive for epithelial membrane antigen and keratin, respectively. Survival of SmC patients after esophagectomy (median, 11 months) was worse than for SqC patients (p=0.013). However, 1 SmC patient remains alive at 76 months. Survival was not related to any clinicopathologic or immunohistochemical features. While SmC shows aggressive behavior and worse outcomes than SqC, combining esophagectomy with chemotherapy or radiotherapy may prolong survival.
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PMID:Clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical features of surgically resected small cell carcinoma of the esophagus. 1237 28

Esophageal cancer is a prototypic squamous cell cancer that carries a poor prognosis, primarily due to presentation at advanced stages. We used human esophageal epithelial cells as a platform to recapitulate esophageal squamous cell cancer, thereby providing insights into the molecular pathogenesis of squamous cell cancers in general. This was achieved through the retroviral-mediated transduction into normal, primary human esophageal epithelial cells of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), the catalytic subunit of human telomerase (hTERT), and p53(R175H), genes that are frequently altered in human esophageal squamous cell cancer. These cells demonstrated increased migration and invasion when compared with control cells. When these genetically altered cells were placed within the in vivo-like context of an organotypic three-dimensional (3D) culture system, the cells formed a high-grade dysplastic epithelium with malignant cells invading into the stromal extracellular matrix (ECM). The invasive phenotype was in part modulated by the activation of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9). Using pharmacological and genetic approaches to decrease MMP-9, invasion into the underlying ECM could be suppressed partially. In addition, tumor differentiation was influenced by the type of fibroblasts within the stromal ECM. To that end, fetal esophageal fibroblasts fostered a microenvironment conducive to poorly differentiated invading tumor cells, whereas fetal skin fibroblasts supported a well-differentiated tumor as illustrated by keratin "pearl" formation, a hallmark feature of well-differentiated squamous cell cancers. When inducible AKT was introduced into fetal skin esophageal fibroblasts, a more invasive, less-differentiated esophageal cancer phenotype was achieved. Invasion into the stromal ECM was attenuated by genetic knockdown of AKT1 as well as AKT2. Taken together, alterations in key oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in esophageal epithelial cells, the composition and activation of fibroblasts, and the components of the ECM conspire to regulate the physical and biological properties of the stroma.
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PMID:The functional interplay between EGFR overexpression, hTERT activation, and p53 mutation in esophageal epithelial cells with activation of stromal fibroblasts induces tumor development, invasion, and differentiation. 1797 18

To investigate the application of human finger nails in the diagnosis of cancer, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was employed to study the finger nails from some normal people and some with esophagus cancer and others with an operation for curing esophagus cancer five months ago. The results showed that there are obvious differences between FTIR spectra in them in spectral parameters such as frequency, intensity and band shape etc. The changes in the phosphate symmetric stretching vibration v(s) (PO2-) and asymmetric stretching vibration v(a)s(PO2-) modes are uniform, the v(s) (PO2-) and v(a)s(PO2-) absorption peaks of cancerous ones shift to high wave number compared with those of normal people, while those with operation shift to low wave number compared with those of cancerous ones. The C-O stretching vibration mode of protein located at 1 164 cm(-1) is composed of three absorption peaks located at 1 173.3, 1 158.0 and 1 151.1 cm(-1) respectively, meanwhile, the intensities and the wave numbers of the three peaks of cancerous ones all increase compared with normal people. The wave numbers of amide I and amide II of cancerous ones are both lower than those of normal people, while those with operation are between the cancerous ones and normal people, which suggest that the contents of protein and alpha-helix in finger nails of normal people, cancerous ones and the ones with operation are discriminative. The peak of bending vibration delta(CH2) mode of CH2 groups of protein lipid of cancerous ones shifts to high wave number slightly and the intensity of the peak weakens compared with that of normal people, which indicate that the methylene chain in the finger nails membrane lipids of cancerous ones is more ordered than that of normal people. Nevertheless, the peak of stretching vibration v(s) (CH2) of cancerous ones is lower than that of normal people, while that of the ones with operation is between cancerous ones and normal ones. As a result, the pathological changes in viscera can induce the changing of framework structure of phosphate in nucleic acid molecule of finger nails, and destroy the hydrogen bond of C-O(H) group in amino acid remnant group in finger nails. Furthermore, it also can decrease the C-O bond in keratin which participates in the action of hydrogen bond, and prompt the changing of content of keratin in finger nails, nevertheless the content of keratin in finger nails of cancerous ones can be resumed to level of normal people by operation.
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PMID:[Study on FTIR spectra of finger nails of normal people and patients of esophagus cancer]. 1847 16

Carcinoma cuniculatum, a unique variant of well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma, has been only rarely reported in the esophagus. We report 9 cases of esophageal carcinoma cuniculatum diagnosed on esophagectomy specimens in 7 men and 2 women during a 20-year period. All but 1 of the patients presented with persistent or progressive dysphagia. All patients had an esophageal mass or lesion on endoscopic examination. In 8 cases (88.8%), the tumor was located in the distal esophagus. Burrowing was noted on the tumor surface in 2 recent cases on macroscopic examination. All carcinomas were invasive either at the mucosa (n=2), submucosa (n=1), muscularis propria (n=4), adventitia (n=3), or adventitia and lung (n=1). All carcinomas demonstrated a common histologic pattern characterized by hyperkeratosis, acanthosis, dyskeratosis, abnormal keratinization, keratin-filled cyst/furrows, koilocyte-like cells, intraepithelial neutrophils, and focal cytologic atypia. In situ hybridization for human papillomavirus subtypes was negative in all 10 tumors tested. None of the cases showed lymph node metastasis. Two patients died postoperatively due to complications. The remaining patients were followed up for a median duration of 84 months (48 to 214 mo). During the follow-up period, 3 patients died 49, 66, and 214 months after esophagectomy at the ages of 66, 68, and 91 years, respectively; death in these 3 cases was not related to recurrence/metastases of esophageal cancer. Four patients were alive without disease at 48, 49, 84, and 87 months after curative resection. Our report identifies a common histomorphologic pattern of esophageal carcinoma cuniculatum and supports the fact that surgical resection of the tumor by esophagectomy provides long-term survival even in patients with T3 tumor.
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PMID:Esophageal carcinoma cuniculatum: report of 9 cases. 2202 41