Annals of surgical oncology
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Comparative Study
Direct Comparison of In-Person Versus Virtual Interviews for Complex General Surgical Oncology Fellowship in the COVID-19 Era.
In the era of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many Complex General Surgical Oncology (CGSO) fellowship programs implemented virtual interviews (VI) during the 2020 interview season. At our institution, we had the unique opportunity to conduct an in-person interview (IPI) prior to the pandemic-related travel restrictions, and a VI after the restrictions were in place. ⋯ While the VI modality offers several advantages over the IPI, it still falls short in conveying some of the more subjective aspects of the programs, including program culture. Strategies to provide applicants with better insight into these areas during the VI will be important moving forward.
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Several inflammation-based prognostic scores have a prognostic value in patients with various cancers. This study investigated the prognostic value of various inflammation-based prognostic scores in patients who underwent a surgery for adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction (AEG) and upper gastric cancer (UGC). ⋯ In various inflammation-based prognostic scores, PI and PNI were more strongly associated with poor prognosis in patients who underwent surgery for AEG and UGC.
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This study was designed to investigate the potential additive influence of perioperative blood transfusion (BTF) and postoperative infections on cancer-specific survival (CSS) in patients with stage II/III gastric cancer (GC) after radical gastrectomy. ⋯ Infection was the most common complication after gastrectomy and BTF was identified as an independent risk factor. BTF was associated with shorter CSS in stages II/III GC, independent of infections, and receiving BTF and developing infections had an additive effect that was associated with even worse CSS. However, complete AC could significantly improve CSS in these patients. Thus, strategies designed to ensure the completion of AC, such as neoadjuvant chemotherapy, should be further investigated.