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Objective: To explore the impact of appendectomy history on emergence of Parkinson's disease (PD).Background: Although there are several studies to investigate the relationship between appendectomy history and emergence of PD, the results are still controversial.Methods: We performed a comprehensive electronic search of the literature (the Cochrane Library, PubMed, and the Web of Science) up to April 2020 to identify studies that had employed databases allowing comparison of emergence of PD between patients with and those without appendectomy history. To integrate the impact of appendectomy history on emergence of PD, a meta-analysis was performed using random-effects models to calculate the risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for the selected studies, and heterogeneity was analyzed using I2 statistics.Results: Four studies involving a total of 6 080 710 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Among 1 470 613 patients with appendectomy history, 1845 (.13%) had emergences of PD during the observation period, whereas among 4 610 097 patients without appendectomy history, 6743 (.15%) had emergences of PD during the observation period. These results revealed that patients with appendectomy history and without appendectomy had almost the same emergence of PD (RR, 1.02; 95% CI, .87-1.20; P = .83; I2 = 87%).Conclusion: This meta-analysis has demonstrated that there was no significant difference in emergence of PD between patients with and those without appendectomy history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral uracil and tegafur plus Leucovorin(UFT/LV)therapy is one of the standard adjuvant chemotherapies for colorectal cancer, and is widely used without any serious adverse events. Herein, we describe a case of UFT/LV-induced acute liver failure in a 75-year-old woman who underwent laparoscopic sigmoidectomy for sigmoid colon cancer. She was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer and lymph node metastasis by postoperative histopathological analysis, and adjuvant chemotherapy was initiated. After 30 days of commencing the therapy, the patient visited our hospital with complaints of severe diarrhea and difficulty in food intake. The apparent cause of these symptoms was unclear on computed tomography(CT), and mild liver damage was revealed in blood test results. The hepatic disorder gradually progressed after the hospitalization, and the condition was diagnosed as acute hepatic insufficiency. Additionally, obvious atrophy of the liver parenchyma and significant ascites were confirmed on CT. Two months later, the platelet count decreased markedly, but fortunately, no bleeding occurred. There has been no recurrence since 2 years after the surgery without any additional adjuvant therapy.

Aim: To investigate the significance of the Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS) for predicting the postoperative survival of gastric cancer (GC) patients with a normal preoperative serum level of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). Because CEA is a useful marker for prognostication of several types of cancer, some patients with GC have a normal CEA level. On the other hand, the GPS has been established as a valuable inflammation-based prognostic system for cancer patients., Patients and Methods: Among 650 patients who had undergone elective surgery for GC, 425 with a normal preoperative serum CEA level (≤5.0 ng/ml) were enrolled. Uni- and multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate the relationship of the GPS to overall survival. The Kaplan-Meier analysis and log rank test were used to compare the survival curves among patients with GPS 0, 1 and 2., Results: Multivariate analysis using clinical characteristics selected from univariate analyses revealed that the GPS (0, 1/2) was associated with overall survival (hazard ratio=2.048; 95% C.I. (confidence interval)=1.002-4.185; p=0.049) along with age (≤70/>70) (years), sex, tumor type (3, 4, 5/0, 1, 2), lymph node metastasis (presence/absence) and platelet count (≤35/>35) (×10(4)/mm(3)). The Kaplan-Meier analysis and log rank test demonstrated that there were significant differences in overall survival among patients with GPS 0, 1 and 2 (p<0.001)., Conclusion: Even if GC patients have a normal serum level of CEA, the GPS is able to predict their postoperative survival and classify such patients into three independent groups before surgery., (Copyright© 2014 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.)

Aim: To investigate the influence of clinical characteristics including nutritional markers on postoperative survival in patients undergoing total gastrectomy (TG) for gastric cancer (GC)., Patients and Methods: One hundred fifty-four patients were enrolled. Uni- and multivariate analyses using the Cox proportional hazard model were performed to explore the most valuable clinical characteristic that was associated with postoperative survival., Results: Multivariate analysis using twelve clinical characteristics selected from univariate analyses revealed that age (≤ 72/>72), carcinoembryonic antigen (≤ 20/>20) (ng/ml), white blood cell count (≤ 9.5/>9.5) (× 10(3)/mm(3)), prognostic nutritional index (PNI) (≤ 45/>45) and lymph node metastasis (negative/positive) were associated with postoperative survival. Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test showed that patients with higher PNI (>45) had a higher postoperative survival rate than those with lower PNI (≤ 45) (p<0.001)., Conclusion: PNI is associated with postoperative survival of patients undergoing TG for GC and is able to divide such patients into two independent groups before surgery., (Copyright© 2014 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.)