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Background: Accurate microsatellite instability (MSI) testing is essential for identifying gastric cancer (GC) patients eligible for immunotherapy. We aimed to develop and validate a CT-based radiomics signature to predict MSI and immunotherapy outcomes in GC., Methods: This retrospective multicohort study included a total of 457 GC patients from two independent medical centers in China and The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA) databases. The primary cohort (n = 201, center 1, 2017-2022), was used for signature development via Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) and logistic regression analysis. Two independent immunotherapy cohorts, one from center 1 (n = 184, 2018-2021) and another from center 2 (n = 43, 2020-2021), were utilized to assess the signature's association with immunotherapy response and survival. Diagnostic efficiency was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), and survival outcomes were analyzed via the Kaplan-Meier method. The TCIA cohort (n = 29) was included to evaluate the immune infiltration landscape of the radiomics signature subgroups using both CT images and mRNA sequencing data., Results: Nine radiomics features were identified for signature development, exhibiting excellent discriminative performance in both the training (AUC: 0.851, 95%CI: 0.782, 0.919) and validation cohorts (AUC: 0.816, 95%CI: 0.706, 0.926). The radscore, calculated using the signature, demonstrated strong predictive abilities for objective response in immunotherapy cohorts (AUC: 0.734, 95%CI: 0.662, 0.806; AUC: 0.724, 95%CI: 0.572, 0.877). Additionally, the radscore showed a significant association with PFS and OS, with GC patients with a low radscore experiencing a significant survival benefit from immunotherapy. Immune infiltration analysis revealed significantly higher levels of CD8 + T cells, activated CD4 + B cells, and TNFRSF18 expression in the low radscore group, while the high radscore group exhibited higher levels of T cells regulatory and HHLA2 expression., Conclusion: This study developed a robust radiomics signature with the potential to serve as a non-invasive biomarker for GC's MSI status and immunotherapy response, demonstrating notable links to post-immunotherapy PFS and OS. Additionally, distinct immune profiles were observed between low and high radscore groups, highlighting their potential clinical implications., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Current radiomics for treatment response assessment in gastric cancer (GC) have focused solely on Computed tomography (CT). The importance of multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (mp-MRI) radiomics in GC is less clear., Purpose: To compare and combine CT and mp-MRI radiomics for pretreatment identification of pathological response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in GC., Study Type: Retrospective., Population: Two hundred twenty-five GC patients were recruited and split into training (157) and validation dataset (68) in the ratio of 7:3 randomly., Field/sequence: T2-weighted fast spin echo (fat suppressed T2-weighted imaging [fs-T2WI]), diffusion weighted echo planar imaging (DWI), and fast gradient echo (dynamic contrast enhanced [DCE]) sequences at 3.0T., Assessment: Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps were generated from DWI. CT, fs-T2WI, ADC, DCE, and mp-MRI Radiomics score (Radscores) were compared between responders and non-responders. A multimodal nomogram combining CT and mp-MRI Radscores was developed. Patients were followed up for 3-65 months (median 19) after surgery, the overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS) were calculated., Statistical Tests: A logistic regression classifier was applied to construct the five models. Each model's performance was evaluated using a receiver operating characteristic curve. The association of the nomogram with OS/PFS was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and C-index. A P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant., Results: CT Radscore, mp-MRI Radscore and nomogram were significantly associated with tumor regression grading. The nomogram achieved the highest area under the curves (AUCs) of 0.893 (0.834-0.937) and 0.871 (0.767-0.940) in training and validation datasets, respectively. The C-index was 0.589 for OS and 0.601 for PFS. The AUCs of the mp-MRI model were not significantly different to that of the CT model in training (0.831 vs. 0.770, P = 0.267) and validation dataset (0.797 vs. 0.746, P = 0.137)., Data Conclusions: mp-MRI radiomics provides similar results to CT radiomics for early identification of pathologic response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The multimodal radiomics nomogram further improved the capability., Evidence Level: 3 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: 2., (© 2022 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.)

Background: The preoperative prediction of peritoneal metastasis (PM) in gastric cancer would prevent unnecessary surgery and promptly indicate an appropriate treatment plan., Aim: To explore the predictive value of visceral fat (VF) parameters obtained from preoperative computed tomography (CT) images for occult PM and to develop an individualized model for predicting occult PM in patients with gastric carcinoma (GC)., Methods: A total of 128 confirmed GC cases (84 male and 44 female patients) that underwent CT scans were analyzed and categorized into PM-positive ( n = 43) and PM-negative ( n = 85) groups. The clinical characteristics and VF parameters of two regions of interest (ROIs) were collected. Univariate and stratified analyses based on VF volume were performed to screen for predictive characteristics for occult PM. Prediction models with and without VF parameters were established by multivariable logistic regression analysis., Results: The mean attenuations of VF ROI 1 and VF ROI 2 varied significantly between the PM-positive and PM-negative groups ( P = 0.044 and 0.001, respectively). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of VF ROI 1 and VF ROI 2 were 0.599 and 0.657, respectively. The mean attenuation of VF ROI 2 was included in the final prediction combined model, but not an independent risk factor of PM ( P = 0.068). No significant difference was observed between the models with and without mean attenuation of VF (AUC: 0.749 vs 0.730, P = 0.339)., Conclusion: The mean attenuation of VF is a potential auxiliary parameter for predicting occult PM in patients with GC., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article., (©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Gastric glomus tumor (GGT) is a rare neoplasm that is difficult to distinguish from other gastric submucosal tumors due to a lack of diagnostic experience. The goal of this study was to better understand GGT by looking at its clinicopathological features, computed tomography (CT) features, and differential diagnosis., Methods: The clinical data and CT findings of 21 pathologically confirmed GGT patients were examined. The clinical characteristics and CT findings of benign GGT were compared to gastric stromal tumors (GST) (n = 30) and heterotopic pancreas (n = 30)., Results: The 21 cases included six males and fifteen females ranging in age from 42 to 64 years. The lesions were found in the gastric body in four cases and the antrum in seventeen. GGT was diagnosed as benign in 20 cases and malignant in one. In benign cases, the glomus cells were small, uniform, showed perivascular hemangiopericytoma‑like or solid nest‑like structures. Obvious mitotic figures were observed in the malignant case. SMA staining was positive in the tumor cells. A quasi-round or round solid mass protruded into the gastric cavity in 20 benign cases, with a clear and smooth edge. The long to short diameter ratio was 1.01 ± 0.15. All of the benign cases had obvious enhancement, with homogeneous enhancement in ten cases and heterogeneous enhancement in ten cases, as well as central filling enhancement in 12 cases. The ratio of CT value of lesion to abdominal aorta in arterial phase and venous phase were (0.41 ± 0.11) and (0.81 ± 0.20), which were significantly higher than GST and heterotopic pancreas. The irregular mass broke through the gastric wall and invaded liver with poorly defined boundary and internal necrosis, heterogeneous persistent moderate enhancement with thickening blood supply arteries was seen in one malignant case with a long diameter of 150 mm and a thick diameter of 30 mm., Conclusions: CT enhancement usually shows persistent obvious enhancement, especially in arterial phase, which provides important value for the diagnosis. CT findings can help in the differential diagnosis of GGT and other submucosal tumors., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of combined diagnostic model based on extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) algorithm to determine the pathological grading of gastric neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs). Methods: A total of 81 gastric NENs patients in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University confirmed by definite pathological grading from August 2012 to December 2019 were enrolled. The data of clinical and CT findings were collected. The number of lesions, tumor location, shape, lymph node metastasis, thickness, longitude of tumor and CT values in arterial and venous phase were analyzed. ITK-SNAP software and Python 2.1.0 PyRadiomics software were used to perform the image preprocessing and radiomics features extraction from segmented images. XGBoost algorithm was used to build the CT findings model, radiomics model in arterial phase, radiomics model in venous phase and combined diagnostic model. The diagnostic efficacy of CT imaging model, radiomics model in arterial phase, radiomics model in venous phase and combined diagnostic model were evaluated by accuracy, mean squared error (MSE) and mean absolute error (MAE). Results: The subjects were 28.0 to 78.0 (58.6+10.7) years old, including 56 males (69.1%). The number of lesions, tumor location, shape, lymph node metastasis, thickness and longitude of tumor between G1/G2 and G3 patients showed statistic significances (all P values<0.05), while there were no differences in CT values in arterial and venous phase (both P values>0.05). Six most important features in the combined diagnostic model were A&#95;logarithm&#95;glcm&#95;Imc1, P&#95;squareroot&#95;glcm&#95;Maximum Probability, thickness, longitude, A&#95;wavelet-HHL&#95;glrlm&#95;GrayLevelNonUniformity and P&#95;wavelet-LLL&#95;ngtdm&#95;Contrast, respectively. The accuracy of CT findings model, radiomics model in arterial phase, radiomics model in venous phase and combined diagnostic model were 81.8%, 86.0%, 87.8% and 91.0%, respectively; with MSE were 539.41, 490.08, 429.99 and 371.92, respectively; and MAE were 16.72, 15.25, 14.23 and 12.33, respectively. The MAE value of the combined diagnostic model was lower than those of CT findings model and radiomics model in arterial phase ( P <0.001 and 0.004, respectively), while no statistically difference was detected compared to radiomics model in venous phase ( P =0.111). Conclusion: The combined diagnostic model based on XGBoost algorithm have a good diagnostic efficiency for the pathological grading of gastric NENs.

Background: Preoperative evaluation of the number of lymph node metastasis (LNM) is the basis of individual treatment of locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC). However, the routinely used preoperative determination method is not accurate enough., Patients and Methods: We enrolled 730 LAGC patients from five centers in China and one center in Italy, and divided them into one primary cohort, three external validation cohorts, and one international validation cohort. A deep learning radiomic nomogram (DLRN) was built based on the images from multiphase computed tomography (CT) for preoperatively determining the number of LNM in LAGC. We comprehensively tested the DLRN and compared it with three state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, we investigated the value of the DLRN in survival analysis., Results: The DLRN showed good discrimination of the number of LNM on all cohorts [overall C-indexes (95% confidence interval): 0.821 (0.785-0.858) in the primary cohort, 0.797 (0.771-0.823) in the external validation cohorts, and 0.822 (0.756-0.887) in the international validation cohort]. The nomogram performed significantly better than the routinely used clinical N stages, tumor size, and clinical model (P < 0.05). Besides, DLRN was significantly associated with the overall survival of LAGC patients (n = 271)., Conclusion: A deep learning-based radiomic nomogram had good predictive value for LNM in LAGC. In staging-oriented treatment of gastric cancer, this preoperative nomogram could provide baseline information for individual treatment of LAGC., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors have declared no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To investigate the spectral CT-based radiomics in predicting preoperatively the lymph node metastasis (LNM) of advanced gastric cancer. Methods: From January 2014 to October 2018, the spectral CT imaging and clinical data of 196 gastric adenocarcinoma patients confirmed by pathology in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University were retrospectively enrolled (training set and test set were randomly divided according to the ratio of 1∶1). These 196 patients include143 males and 53 females, aged from 28 to 81 years, with an average age of (59±11) years, and were divided into nodular metastasis group and non-metastasis group according to clinicopathological data. The spectral parameters were measured and calculated, and the CT-reported lymph node (LN) status from CT images were obtained. 273 radiomics features were extracted from the dual-phases CT images in different energy level (40, 65 and 100 keV) to build the radiomics signature respectively. Univariate analysis was used to compare the differences of spectral parameters and radiomics features between two groups, and then the significant indicators were put into multivariable logistic regression analysis to construct combined prediction model and radiomics nomogram. In addition, the performance of prediction model in training and test set were measured using the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves and were compared using DeLong test. Results: Both in training set and in test set, the iodine concentration (IC) of tumor in venous phase (VP) in nodular metastasis group were higher than that in non-metastasis group [training set: 22.98 (100 mg/L)>20.31 (100 mg/L), P= 0.086; test set: 25.14 (100 mg/L)>21.07 (100 mg/L), P= 0.009]. The CT-reported LN status showed significant differences between the two group ( P< 0.001, P= 0.001). The radiomics signatures 40 keV-arterial phase, 65 keV-venous phase, IC-VP of tumor and CT-reported LN status were independent indicators for prediction of preoperative LNM of advanced gastric cancer in combined prediction model ( P< 0.05). The radiomics nomogram predicated LNM with an area under curve (AUC) and 95% confidence interval ( CI ) of 0.822 (0.739-0.906) in training set and 0.819(0.732-0.906) in test set, and there were no significant differences in AUC between two sets ( P> 0.05). Conclusions: The spectral CT-based radiomics can be used to quantitatively predict the LNM of advanced gastric cancer preoperatively.

Objective: To investigate the morbidity and treatment of early postoperative complications after laparoscopic D2 radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer, and to explore the risk factors. Methods: A case-control study was performed to retrospectively collect clinicopathological data of 764 patients undergoing laparoscopic D2 radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer at our department between January 2015 and December 2017. Patient inclusion criteria: (1) gastric cancer diagnosed by preoperative electronic gastroscopy and biopsy, and confirmed by postoperative pathology; (2) without invasion into adjacent organs by preoperative evaluation of tumors; (3) tumors without definite liver and distant metastasis; (4) R0 resection of gastric cancer and standard D2 lymph node dissection; (5) patients with informed consent. Exclusion criteria: (1) unperformed laparoscopic D2 radical resection; (2) other types of gastric tumor confirmed by pathology; (3) cases with incomplete clinical data. Complication occurring within two weeks after laparoscopic D2 gastrectomy was defined as early postoperative complication. Patients were divided into two groups: non-complication group (693 cases) and complication group (71 cases) according to the occurrence of complications after operation. The clinicopathological data of two groups were analyzed and compared with t test and χ(2) test, and the factors of P < 0.2 were included in the multivariate logistic regression model to analyze the risk factors of postoperative complications. Results: Of 764 patients, 71 (9.3%) developed early postoperative complications, with median onset time of 3 (1 to 11) days. Surgical complications accounted for 7.9% (60/764), including 13 cases (1.7%) of abdominal hemorrhage, 12 cases (1.6%) of anastomotic leakage, 10 cases (1.3%) of incision infection, 8 cases (1.0%) of anastomotic bleeding, 7 cases (0.9%) of gastric stump weakness, 4 cases (0.5%) of abdominal infection, 4 cases (0.5%) of duodenal stump leakage and 2 cases (0.3%) of small intestinal obstruction. Non-surgical complications accounted for 1.4% (11/764), including 6 cases (0.8%) of pulmonary infection and 5 cases (0.7%) of cardiovascular disease. Two cases (0.3%) died of sepsis caused by severe abdominal infection; 9 cases (1.2%) recovered after receiving the second operation, among whom 5 cases were abdominal hemorrhage, 2 cases were anastomotic leakage and 2 cases were duodenal stump leakage; the remaining patients were healed with conservative treatment. Compared with patients without complications, patients with complications had higher proportions of BMI ≥24 kg/m(2) [42.3% (30/71) vs. 24.2%(168/693), χ(2)=10.881, P= 0.001], comorbity [64.8% (46/71) vs. 33.5% (232/693), χ(2)=27.277, P <0.001], combined organ resection [70.4% (50/71) vs. 20.5% (142/693), χ(2)=85.338, P <0.001], and pTNM stage of III [70.4% (50/71) vs. 40.1% (278/693), χ(2)=24.196, P <0.001], meanwhile had longer time to postoperative flatus [(4.2±2.1) days vs. (2.9±1.2) days, t =4.621, P =0.023], longer hospital stay [(34.6±12.6) days vs. (14.2±6.2) days, t =9.862, P <0.001] and higher hospitalization cost [(126.8±64.5) thousand yuan vs. (85.2±35.8) thousand yuan, t= 11.235, P <0.001]. Multivariate analysis showed that BMI ≥24 kg/m(2) (OR=3.762, 95% CI: 1.960-8.783, P =0.035), accompanying disease (OR=8.620, 95% CI: 1.862-29.752, P <0.001), combined organ resection (OR=6.210, 95% CI: 1.357-21.568, P =0.026), and pTNM stage (OR=4.752, 95% CI: 1.214-12.658, P <0.001) were the independent risk factors of postoperative complications. Conclusions: Laparoscopic D2 radical gastrectomy is a safe and effective approach for gastric cancer. Most early postoperative complications can obtain satisfactory efficacy after conservative treatment. Perioperative management should be strengthened for those patients with high BMI, accompanying diseases, combined organ resection, and advanced pTNM stage.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy and feasibility of laparoscopic resection for gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) in unfavorable location by comparing with open surgery. Methods: Clinicopathological and follow-up data of 176 patients with gastric GIST in unfavorable location admitted at Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology from January 2005 to December 2017 were analyzed retrospectively. There were 94 males and 82 females, aging of (57.4±12.7) years (range: 20-90 years). Of the 176 patients, 64 underwent laparoscopic surgery (laparoscopic group) and 112 underwent open surgery (open group). One-to-one propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to balance the covariance between laparoscopic group and open surgery group. Before PSM, the differences between the two group in tumor size and modified National Institutes of Health risk classification were significant. After PSM, there were 63 pairs (63 cases in laparoscopic group and 63 cases in open group) and the baseline characteristics were comparable between the two groups( P> 0.05). The difference of short-term outcome between the two groups were compared using t test, χ(2) test or Wilcoxon rank-sum test. The survival curve was established by Kaplan-Meier method and the Log-rank test was used to compare the survival of the two groups. Results: The operation time of laparoscopic group was shorter ((141.6±100.6) minutes vs . (100.4±67.7) minutes, t= 2.681, P= 0.008), the hospitalization cost was higher ((5.2±0.7) ten thousand yuan vs . (4.2±0.8) ten thousand yuan, t= 7.357, P= 0.000) than open group. The time to first flatus ((49.1±8.2) hours vs . (71.0±4.6) hours, t= -18.482, P= 0.000) and preoperative hospital stay ((10.3±6.0) days vs . (14.8±7.6) days, t= -3.717, P= 0.000) was shorter in laparoscopic group. With a median follow-up time of 44 months (range: 10 to 154 months), the 1-, 3-, 5-year relapse-free survival rates in the laparoscopic group and open group were 98.3%, 92.1%, 92.1% and 100%, 86.3%, 83.2%, respectively (χ(2)=0.696, P= 0.404). The 1-, 3-, 5-year overall survival rates in the laparoscopic group and open group were 96.6%, 94.7%, 94.7% and 100%, 91.1%, 81.4%, respectively (χ(2)=0.366, P= 0.545). Conclusions: In experienced medical centers, laparoscopic resection is safe and feasible for GIST in unfavorable location. Compared to open surgery, laparoscopic resection achieves a faster postoperative recovery and a similar long-term prognosis.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated lymphoepithelioma-like gastric carcinoma (LELGC) is a rare primary stomach tumor, which has overlapping imaging features with mass forming gastric carcinoma (GC). The aim of our study was to present the computed tomography (CT) findings and clinical features of EBV-associated LELGC to increase awareness of this entity.The CT findings and clinical features of 4 patients with pathologically documented EBV-associated LELGC were retrospectively analyzed.Among the 4 patients, 3 were male, and 1 was female. The medium age was 51 years old. All cases were single lesions including 1 was in the gastric cardia, 1 was in the gastric body, and 2 were in the gastric antrum. A focal thickening of the gastric wall was conducted, with a large thickness-to-length ratio. The low-density stripe of the normal gastric wall abruptly terminated at the edge of the lesion. The CT images of 4 cases showed inhomogeneous density with the radiodensity values ranging from 25 to 48 HU. In addition, an ulcer was demonstrated with an irregular base and slightly raised borders in all cases. Enhancement after injection of contrast material was heterogeneous enhancement (n = 3) or homogeneous (n = 1). After enhancement, obvious enhancement was seen in 1 case, moderate enhancement was seen in 3 cases, with the peak value of the tumor in the portal phase. No evidence of lymph node involvement and distant invasion was observed.Although LELGC is quite rare, it should be considered in differential diagnosis of early GC, advanced GC, and lymphoma. The relatively typical CT appearance, combined the age and sex of patients, can suggest the diagnosis of LELGC.

Background: Occult peritoneal metastasis (PM) in advanced gastric cancer (AGC) patients is highly possible to be missed on computed tomography (CT) images. Patients with occult PMs are subject to late detection or even improper surgical treatment. We therefore aimed to develop a radiomic nomogram to preoperatively identify occult PMs in AGC patients., Patients and Methods: A total of 554 AGC patients from 4 centers were divided into 1 training, 1 internal validation, and 2 external validation cohorts. All patients' PM status was firstly diagnosed as negative by CT, but later confirmed by laparoscopy (PM-positive n = 122, PM-negative n = 432). Radiomic signatures reflecting phenotypes of the primary tumor (RS1) and peritoneum region (RS2) were built as predictors of PM from 266 quantitative image features. Individualized nomograms of PM status incorporating RS1, RS2, or clinical factors were developed and evaluated regarding prediction ability., Results: RS1, RS2, and Lauren type were significant predictors of occult PM (all P < 0.05). A nomogram of these three factors demonstrated better diagnostic accuracy than the model with RS1, RS2, or clinical factors alone (all net reclassification improvement P < 0.05). The area under curve yielded was 0.958 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.923-0.993], 0.941 (95% CI 0.904-0.977), 0.928 (95% CI 0.886-0.971), and 0.920 (95% CI 0.862-0.978) for the training, internal, and two external validation cohorts, respectively. Stratification analysis showed that this nomogram had potential generalization ability., Conclusion: CT phenotypes of both primary tumor and nearby peritoneum are significantly associated with occult PM status. A nomogram of these CT phenotypes and Lauren type has an excellent prediction ability of occult PM, and may have significant clinical implications on early detection of occult PM for AGC., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology.)

Hepatoid adenocarcinoma of the stomach (HAS) is an extremely rare and unique gastric malignancy. The present study aimed to examine the relevance of the clinicopathological characteristics of HAS with patient prognosis. We retrospectively reviewed clinical data of 34 HAS patients treated at our institution between January 2010 and December 2016, as well as 294 cases reported prior to 2017 in research databases. Among these patients, 45.6% (115/252) had lesions in the gastric antrum and 77.0% (235/305) were male. Elevated levels of serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) were detected in most patients (75/93, 80.6%). Vascular invasion (199/286, 69.6%), lymph node metastasis (222/283, 78.4%), and preoperative distant metastasis (121/328, 36.9%) were commonly observed. The 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) were 20.7% and 29.2%, respectively. DFS and DSS of patients receiving neoadjuvant therapy were significantly higher than those of patients receiving postoperative adjuvant therapy [DFS: P<0.001, hazard ratio (HR)=-1.831, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.060-0.429; DSS: P<0.001, HR=-2.185, 95% CI: 0.032-0.401]. In conclusion, HAS exhibits distinct clinicopathological characteristics and a strikingly worse prognosis when compared with common gastric cancer. Complete surgery, early pTNM stage, and adjuvant therapy may predict a more favorable prognosis. Neoadjuvant therapy is strongly recommended for patients with lymph node metastasis or/and preoperative distant metastasis.

The prognostic value of anterior gradient-2 (AGR2) in tumours remains inconclusive. Here, we systematically reviewed the literature evidence and assessed the association between AGR2 expression and prognosis in solid tumours. The primary outcomes were overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and disease-free survival (DFS)/recurrence-free survival (RFS)/progression-free survival (PFS). All analyses were performed by STATA 12.0, with the hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratios (OR), and 95% confidence interval (CI) as the effect size estimate. A total of 20 studies containing 3285 cases were included. Pooled analyses revealed that AGR2 overexpression had an unfavourable impact on OS (HR 1.93, 95% CI 1.32-2.81) and time to tumour progression (TTP) (DFS/RFS/PFS) (HR 1.60 95% CI 1.06-2.40) in solid tumour patients. Subgroup analyses indicated that AGR2 overexpression in breast cancer patients was significantly associated with poor OS (HR 3.02, 95% CI 1.03-8.81) and TTP (HR 1.93, 95% CI 1.17-3.20). Excluding breast cancer, AGR2 overexpression was also found to have a significant correlation with poor OS in the remaining solid tumour patients (HR 1.51, 95% CI 1.04-2.19). Overall, AGR2 might be a potential biomarker to predict prognosis in solid tumour patients.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to use virtual monochromatic spectral CT to investigate the usefulness of iodine concentration (IC) and its correlation with clinicopathologically determined prognostic factors in gastric adenocarcinoma., Subjects and Methods: From June 2012 to March 2015, 34 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma underwent arterial and portal venous phase spectral CT. The ICs in the arterial and portal venous phases were calculated and then normalized with the aorta as normalized IC (NIC). The surgical specimen was evaluated with CD34 staining to determine microvessel density (MVD). The correlation between imaging results and clinicopathologic findings was investigated for histologic grading, lymph node metastasis, serosal involvement, distant metastasis, pathologic TNM stage, and MVD., Results: The mean arterial phase NIC value of tumors was 0.12 ± 0.03, portal venous phase NIC value was 0.39 ± 0.06, and MVD was 26.94 ± 7.87 vessels per high-power field (×400). Both arterial phase and portal venous phase NIC values were significantly higher in poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinomas (p = 0.005) than in moderately differentiated tumors (p = 0.013). There was no significant correlation between NIC and serosal involvement or distant metastasis. There was significant correlation between the NIC and MVD in gastric adenocarcinoma (arterial phase NIC, p = 0.013; portal venous phase NIC, p = 0.001). However, neither the arterial nor the portal venous phase NIC of gastric adenocarcinoma had a significant relation to lymphatic metastasis or pathologic TNM stage. There was a significant difference between the high and low MVD groups with respect to portal venous phase NIC (p = 0.045)., Conclusion: NIC can serve as a useful predictor of angiogenesis and degree of differentiation of moderately and poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinomas.

Aim: To investigate the correlation of iodine concentration (IC) generated by spectral computed tomography (CT) with micro-vessel density (MVD) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in patients with advanced gastric carcinoma (GC)., Methods: Thirty-four advanced GC patients underwent abdominal enhanced CT in the gemstone spectral imaging mode. The IC of the primary lesion in the arterial phase (AP) and venous phase (VP) were measured, and were then normalized against that in the aorta to provide the normalized IC (nIC). MVD and VEGF were detected by immunohistochemical assays, using CD34 and VEGF-A antibodies, respectively. Correlations of nIC with MVD, VEGF, and clinical-pathological features were analyzed., Results: Both nICs correlated linearly with MVD and were higher in the primary lesion site than in the normal control site, but were not correlated with VEGF expression. After stratification by clinical-pathological subtypes, nIC-AP showed a statistically significant correlation with MVD, particularly in the group with tumors at stage T4, without nodular involvement, of a mixed Lauren type, where the tumor was located at the antrum site, and occurred in female individuals. nIC-VP showed a positive correlation with MVD in the group with the tumor at stage T4 and above, had nodular involvement, was poorly differentiated, was located at the pylorus site, of a mixed and diffused Lauren subtype, and occurred in male individuals. nIC-AP and nIC-VP showed significant differences in terms of histological differentiation and Lauren subtype., Conclusion: The IC detected by spectral CT correlated with the MVD. nIC-AP and nIC-VP can reflect angiogenesis in different pathological subgroups of advanced GC., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate the computed tomographic characteristic and clinical findings of gastric neuroendocrine carcinoma (G-NEC) to increase awareness of this disease., Methods: Twenty-two patients with a diagnosis of G-NEC were identified through the PACS of our hospital from August 2010 to November 2014. The clinical data, computed tomography (CT) features, and pathology records were analyzed., Results: Among the 22 patients, 21 were male (95.45%), and 1 was female (4.55%). The mean age was 63.5 years old. Positive rates of neuroendocrine markers were 77.28% for chromogranin A staining, 86.36% for synaptophysin staining. All cases were single lesions including 16 (72.73%) in the gastric fundus, 3 (13.64%) in the gastric body and 1 (4.55%) in the gastric angle. Additionally 2 (9.09%) were found in the gastric antrum. Gastric wall was local thickening in 15 cases, and mass formation in 7 cases, with the stenosis and deformation of the adjacent gastric cavity. The long-axis diameter of the lesions ranged from 1.2 to7.4 cm (mean diameter, 2.47 cm), and the long-axis diameter was <2 cm in 12 case, 2-7.4 cm in 10 cases. The radiodensity values of the lesions were homogeneous density in 15 cases ranging from 22 to 47 HU (mean 34 HU). An ulcer with an irregular base and slightly raised borders located in the stomach was seen in 19 cases. The CT images showed homogeneous enhancement in 15 cases and heterogeneous enhancement in 7 cases. Obvious enhancement was seen in two cases, moderate enhancement was seen in sixteen cases, and mildly enhancement was seen in four cases. The peak value occurred in the arterial phase in 5 cases and the peak value was seen in 17 cases in the portal phase. Eleven lesions invaded the gastric serosa, and lymphatic metastasis was observed in 21 cases, 8 of which were combined with liver metastasis. CT images revealed 2 cases of the liver metastasis had obvious enhancement., Conclusion: The CT features regarding location, incidence rates of ulcer and enhancement pattern described in our findings are common in all malignant gastric tumors. Therefore, the diagnosis of G-NEC must be confirmed with pathological test.

Aim: To analyze the radiological features of multiple primary carcinoma (MPC) in the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract, study its biological characteristics and evaluate X-ray examination in its diagnosis., Methods: Hypotonic double-contrast GI radiography was performed in 59 multiple primary carcinoma cases, pathologically proved by surgery or endoscopy biopsy. Radiological findings were analyzed., Results: Of the 59 cases, esophageal MPC (EMPC) was seen in 24, esophageal and gastric MPC (EGMPC) in 27 and gastric MPC (GMPC) in 8. Of the 49 lesions found in 24 EMPC, hyperplastic type was seen in 23, medullary type in 9. The lesions were located at the upper (n = 17), middle (n = 19) or lower (n = 13) segment of the esophagus. In 27 EGMPC, the esophageal lesions were located at the middle (n = 16) or lower (n = 11) segment of the esophagus, while the gastric lesions were located at the gastric cardia (n = 16), fundus (n = 1), body (n = 3) and antrum (n = 7). The esophageal lesions were mainly of the hyperplastic type (n = 12) or medullary type (n = 7), while the gastric lesions were mainly of the hyperplastic type (n = 18). A total of 119 lesions in the 59 patients with synchronous multiple carcinoma were proved by surgery or endoscopy biopsy, and preoperative upper radiographic examination detected 100 of them (84.03% sensitivity). Eighteen (52.94%) of the T(1) lesions were found during preoperative diagnosis by radiographic examination. Moreover, only 3 (3.53%) of the T(2-4) lesions were misdiagnosed., Conclusion: Hypotonic double-contrast upper gastrointestinal examination, providing accurate information about lesion morphology, location and size, can serve as a sensitive technique for the preoperative diagnosis of MPC.