Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA
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The majority of patients diagnosed with early stage endometrial cancer have a favorable prognosis; however, approximately 10% to 15% experience a recurrence. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate whether postoperative carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA-125) levels could be used to predict recurrence and recurrence-free survival (RFS) in patients with surgical stage I endometrial cancer. ⋯ In patients with stage I endometrial cancer, a postoperative CA-125 level ≥13.75 U/mL was found to be significantly correlated with a higher recurrence rate, as well as a shorter RFS. Therefore, obtaining a follow-up CA-125 level within 6 to 12 months after staging surgery may be a promising noninvasive biomarker for predicting recurrence.
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Tumor staging is crucial for melanoma, of which acral melanoma is the predominant subtype in Asians. 18 F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) and 18 F-FDG-PET/computed tomography ( 18 F-FDG-PET/CT) serve as noninvasive imaging tools for tumor staging. However, the literature is scarce on the diagnostic value of PET for acral melanoma. ⋯ Although noninvasive, PET/CT has relatively low sensitivity in regional lymph node evaluations, and fair sensitivity in distal metastasis detection in Asian patients with acral melanoma. Thus, PET/CT may be more useful in patients with clinically palpable nodes or more advanced disease stages.