Surgical oncology
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To assess long-term quality of life (QoL) and psycho-social outcomes, and to determine their predictive factors after oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) surgery and radial forearm free-flap (RFFF) reconstruction. ⋯ Psychological distress is the main determinant of long-term QoL and is therefore of critical importance in the multidisciplinary management of OPC patients.
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Laparoscopic liver resection is rapidly increasing, and certain types of resection are considered standard procedures for liver resection, especially for small malignant tumors located on the liver surface or in the anterolateral segments of the liver. Several specialized centers have performed many types of highly complex hepatectomies, anatomical resections, and laparoscopic donor hepatectomies. Even though several international consensus conferences and expert meetings have been held, until now there have been no practical guidelines for beginners or experts conducting laparoscopic liver resection. We describe here practical guidelines for performing laparoscopic liver resection, including the indications, technical considerations, and training required.
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To investigate the optimal approach for laparoscopic splenic hilum lymph node dissection in proximal advanced gastric cancer, we compared the operative outcomes between laparoscopic spleen-preserving total gastrectomy (sp-LTG) and laparoscopic total gastrectomy with splenectomy (sr-LTG). ⋯ In laparoscopic total gastrectomy for proximal advanced gastric cancer, spleen-preserving hilar dissection showed comparable short-term and long-term outcomes.
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Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) provides surgeons with new opportunities to improve real-time cancer nodule detection and tumor margin visualization. Currently, the most important challenge in this field is the development of fluorescent dyes that specifically target tumors. We developed, characterized and evaluated SGM-101, an innovative antibody-dye conjugate in which the fluorochrome BM104, which has an absorbance band centered at 700 nm, is coupled to a chimeric monoclonal antibody (mAb) against carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). ⋯ These preclinical data indicate that SGM-101 is an attractive candidate for FGS of CEA-expressing tumors and is currently assessed in clinical trials.
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Surgeons tend to view the robotic right colectomy (RRC) as an ideal beginning procedure to gain proficiency in robotic general and colorectal surgery. Nevertheless, oncological RRC, especially if performed with intracorporeal ileocolic anastomosis confectioning, cannot be considered a technically easier procedure. The aim of this study was to assess the learning curve of the RRC performed for oncological purposes and to evaluate its safety and efficacy investigating the perioperative and pathology outcomes in the different learning phases. ⋯ The learning curve for oncological RRC with intracorporeal anastomosis is composed of 3 phases. Our data indicate that the performance of RRC is safe from an oncological point of view in all of the three phases of the learning curve. However, the technical skills necessary to significantly reduce operative time, conversion to open surgery rate and to significantly improve the number of harvested lymph nodes were achieved after 44 procedures. These data suggest that it might be prudent to start the RRC learning curve by treating only benign diseases and to reserve the performance of oncological resection to when at least the initial learning phase has been completed.