Po-Kuei Hsu

Taipei Veterans General Hospital · Department of Surgery

Background Physical activity and daylight exposure predict rest-activity circadian rhythm (RACR) in patients with cancer. However, whether daylight exposure mediates the relationship between physical activity and RACR and the optimal amounts of physical activity and daylight that benefit RACR remain unclear. Objectives This study investigated the...

Background: Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) progression is dependent on the immune tumor microenvironment through paracrine signaling. NKX2-1 is the lineage-specific transcription factor that serves as a well-characterized pathology marker to define LUAD with progressive impact in patients. However, the involvement of NKX2-1 in modeling the tumor immune...

Simple Summary The rates of adverse events and incomplete treatment remain high among patients with unresectable or metastatic esophageal cancer who receive definitive treatment. The overall survival and treatment-related adverse events were analyzed. Subgroup analysis was performed based on the completeness of the treatment plan. Complete treatmen...

Background There is no consensus regarding the superiority of volatile or total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) in reducing the incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) after lung resection surgery (LRS). Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the different anesthetic regimens and the incidence of PPCs in patients who underwe...

Background There is no consensus regarding the superiority of volatile or total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) in reducing the incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) after lung resection surgery (LRS). Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of TIVA and volatile anesthesia on the incidence of PPCs in patients wh...

Objectives Dexmedetomidine is an alpha-2 agonist with anti-anxiety, sedative, and analgesic effects and causes a lesser degree of respiratory depression. We hypothesized that the use of dexmedetomidine in non-intubated video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) may reduce opioid-related complications such as postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), dy...

Background: The optimal type of esophagectomy and extent of lymphadenectomy for patients after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma remain controversial. We hypothesized that a more radical resection is associated with better survival. Methods: Data of patients who received nCRT followed by resection for es...

Background: Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) is now the standard of care for patients with inoperable early-stage lung cancer. Many of these patients are elderly. EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) mutation is also common in the Asian population. Methods: To evaluate the effects of old age and EGFR mutation on treatment outcomes an...

Background Although rest-activity circadian rhythm (RACR) disruption is associated with mortality in patients with cancer, few studies have examined the effect of RACR on patients with esophageal and gastric cancer. Objective The aim of this study was to identify the predictors of RACR. Methods This cross-sectional, single-site study included...

Objectives Dexmedetomidine is an alpha-2 agonist with anti-anxiety, sedative, and analgesic effects and causes a lesser degree of respiratory depression. We hypothesized that the use of dexmedetomidine in non-intubated video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) may reduce opioid-related complications such as postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), dy...

Lymph node metastasis is one of the most important prognostic factors in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. However, the optimal extent of lymph node dissection is still under debate. We specifically address several controversies regarding lymph node dissection, for example, recurrent laryngeal node lymphadenectomy, cervical lymphadenectomy, and t...

Background: Advances in surgical techniques and treatment modalities have improved the outcomes of esophageal cancer, yet difficult decision making for physicians while encountering multiple primary cancers (MPCs) continues to exist. The aim of this study was to evaluate long-term survival for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) associated wi...

Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy has been used for patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). However, the optimal dose of radiation therapy and the effect of lymphadenectomy after neoadjuvant therapy on patient outcomes are uncertain. We retrospectively reviewed the data of patients who received neoadjuvant therapy foll...

Background Recurrent esophageal cancer is associated with dismal prognosis. There is no consensus about the role of surgical treatments in patients with limited recurrences. This study aimed to evaluate the role of surgical resection in patients with resectable recurrences after curative esophagectomy and to identify their prognostic factors. Meth...

Background: To evaluate the long-term outcomes after surgical resection for stage I lung adenocarcinoma based on the percentage of lepidic component (LC) and invasive tumor size (IS). Methods: The clinicopathological characteristics of 1049 patients with stage I lung adenocarcinoma who underwent surgery between 2006 and 2016 were retrospectively...

We aimed to evaluate the role of esophagectomy in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma with clinically complete response (cCR) after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Data of patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who achieved cCR after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy between October 2008 and September 2018 were re...

Objectives: In this study, we examined predictors of exercise adherence, contamination and dropout in lung and oesophageal cancer patients who participated in two randomised controlled trials. Methods: We used data on 188 lung and oesophageal cancer patients from two previous studies (intervention: moderate-intensity walking for 12 weeks). Basel...

Background: The most beneficial neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) combination for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in Asia remains uncertain. Herein, we compared the neoadjuvant carboplatin/paclitaxel (CROSS) regimen versus the cisplatin/5-fluorouracil (PF) regimen in combination with 41.4-50.4 Gy of radiotherapy. Methods: Patients w...

Lung carcinoma (LC) is the third most common cancer diagnosis and accounted for the most cancer-related mortality worldwide in 2018. Based on the type of cells from which it originates, LC is commonly classified into non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancers (SCLC). NSCLC account for the majority of LC and can be further categ...

Background Recurrent esophageal cancer is associated with dismal prognosis. There is no consensus about the role of surgical treatments in patients with limited recurrences. This study aimed to evaluate the role of surgical resection in patients with resectable recurrences after curative esophagectomy and to identify their prognostic factors. Metho...

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are noncoding products of backsplicing of pre-mRNAs which have been established to possess potent biological functions. Dysregulated circRNA expression has been linked to diseases including different types of cancer. Cancer progression is known to result from the dysregulation of several molecular mechanisms responsible for...

The PD-1/PD-L1 pathway is critical in T cell biology; however, the role of the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway in clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes in pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients is unclear. We prospectively enrolled PTB, latent TB infection (LTBI), and non-TB, non-LTBI subjects. The expression of PD-1/PD-L1 on peripheral blood mononucle...

Peptide drugs that target protein–protein interactions have attracted mounting research efforts towards clinical developments over the past decades. Increasing reports have indicated that expression of Musashi 1 (MSI1) is tightly correlated to high grade of cancers as well as enrichment of cancer stem cells. Treatment failure in malignant tumors gl...

Background: Localization of a small pulmonary nodule is essential for proper and prompt management. Hence, studies explored different modalities for localizing pulmonary nodules. These modalities include preoperative computed tomography (CT)-guided localization, intraoperative CT- guided localization in hybrid operating rooms (ORs), and intraoperat...

Lung cancers are the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, and the majority of lung cancers are non–small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Overexpressed or activated EGFR has been associated with a poor prognosis in NSCLC. We previously identified a circular noncoding RNA, hsa_circ_0000190 (C190), as a negative prognostic biomarker of lu...

OBJECTIVES Recurrent laryngeal nerve lymph node dissection (LND) has been incorporated into oesophagectomy for patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma, but with uncertain oncological efficacy. METHODS The data of patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma, including who underwent upfront surgery (surgery group) and those who recei...

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, and its tumorigenesis involves the accumulation of genetic and epigenetic events in the respiratory epithelium. Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, RNA modification, and histone modifications, have been widely reported to play an important role in lung cancer dev...

Objective Non-intubated anesthesia, electromagnetic navigation (EMN)-guided preoperative localization, and uniportal video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) are recent innovations in minimally invasive thoracic surgery. Our objective was to explore the feasibility of applying non-intubated anesthesia in the “one-stage” localization and resection wor...

Background Multidisciplinary management strategies are standard in esophageal cancer. Based on a multidisciplinary tumor board (MTB) database in a high-volume center, we aimed to evaluate real-world treatment patterns and patient outcomes in patients with esophageal cancer. In addition, we determined the impact of MTB discussions on patient prognos...

The prognostic role of histological patterns of dominant tumor (DT) and second dominant tumor (sDT) in synchronous multiple adenocarcinoma (SMADC) of lung remains unclear. SMADC patients diagnosed between 2003 and 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. DT and sDT were defined as two maximum diameters of consolidation among multiple tumors. Histologica...

Background: Differing surgical series for the treatment of primary lung tumor with synchronous oligometastatic stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have been published; however, outcomes remain ambiguous. Methods: Patients with synchronous oligometastatic stage IV NSCLC treated from 2005 to 2017 were enrolled to identify the impact of tre...

Background: Esophageal cancer patients experience severe symptoms and poor quality of life. Objective: We examined the effects of a rehabilitation program on quality of life, sleep, rest-activity rhythms, anxiety, and depression of esophageal cancer patients. Methods: Forty-four patients with esophageal cancer were randomly assigned to an expe...

Background Preoperative positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is recommended as a guideline for staging of lung cancer. However, for patients with pulmonary ground‐glass opacity (GGO) nodules who are supposed to have a relatively low risk of incidence of lymphatic metastasis, it remains uncertain whether PET/CT is more effective...

Background: The presence of lymphovascular invasion (LVI) and perineural invasion (PNI) are of great prognostic importance in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Currently, positron emission tomography (PET) scans are the only means of functional assessment prior to treatment. We aimed to predict the presence of LVI and PNI in esophageal squamous...

OBJECTIVES The present study aimed to clarify the association between preoperative biopsy and surgical outcomes in clinical stage I non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with different proportions of ground-glass opacity (GGO). METHODS Data on patients who underwent pulmonary resection for NSCLC from 2006 to 2016 were drawn from a prospective registe...

Background Pathologic complete lymph node regression (LNR), where the lymph nodes show evidence of neoadjuvant treatment effect but have no viable residual tumor cells, is sometimes observed following neoadjuvant treatments and has been shown to be prognostic; conflicting results exist in the current literature.Methods Patients who received neoadju...

Introduction: Few studies have investigated the impact of active surveillance on pathological outcome ground-glass nodules (GGNs). We focused on GGNs that needed preoperative localization before resection and compared the pathological results between GGNs that underwent early resection or active surveillance. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed...

Background: Non-intubated video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) is widely used due to its acceptable postoperative outcomes. Transnasal humidified rapid-insufflation ventilatory exchange (THRIVE) has been successfully applied in cases of prolonged difficult intubation and intensive respiratory care in patients receiving VATS lobectomy. Thopaz Dig...

Background Adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer, and pre-operative biopsy plays an important role to determine its major subtypes. As proposed by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), American Thoracic Society (ATS), and European Respiratory Society (ERS) in 2011, the predominant histological subtype o...

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Objectives: Tubeless uniportal video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS), using a uniportal approach and non-intubated anaesthesia while avoiding postoperative chest drain insertion, for patients undergoing thoracoscopic surgery has been demonstrated to be feasible in selected cases. However, to date, the safety of the procedure has not been studied....

Background: Lobectomy plus lymph node dissection is the standard treatment of early-stage lung cancer, but the low lymph node metastasis rate with ground-glass opacity (GGO) makes surgeons not perform lymphadenectomy. This study aimed to re-evaluate the lymph node metastasis rate of GGO to help make a clinical judgment. Methods: We performed thi...

Background: The impact of delayed surgery on clinical outcomes after histologic or radiologic diagnosis of clinical stage I adenocarcinoma remains controversial. We evaluated the effects of delayed surgery on outcomes of patients with early-stage lung cancer. Methods: Associations between time intervals of "histologic diagnosis-to-surgery" (HDS)...

Objectives: An optimal method for preoperative localization of small lung nodules is yet to be established, and there are few comparative studies in the literature. In the present study, we aimed to compare electromagnetic navigation-guided and computed tomography (CT)-guided methods of percutaneous transthoracic localization. Methods: The clini...

Background The role of extracapsular lymph node involvement (ELNI) in esophageal cancer has not been fully investigated. We aim to assess its incidence and prognostic significance in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) treated with and without neoadjuvant treatments.Methods Data of patients who underwent esophagectomy for ESCC i...

The prognostic impact of circumferential resection margin (CRM) in surgically resected esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has been controversial. This investigation assessed the prognostic impact of CRM in surgically resected pathologic T3 ESCC patients with or without neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT). We reviewed consecutive p/yp T3 ESC...

Background This study aimed to compare survival between standard lobectomy and surgeons' preference sublobar resection among patients with stage I non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods Medical records of patients undergoing pulmonary resection between 2006 and 2016 were reviewed retrospectively. Differences in disease‐free survival (DFS) and...

Background: Thoracoscopic resection of small pulmonary nodules can be challenging, which highlights the importance of preoperative localization. We report our experience with electromagnetic navigation (EMN)-guided localization. Methods: The clinical, radiographic, surgical, and pathological data of patients who underwent EMN-guided preoperative...

Purpose: To evaluate whether preoperative biopsy affects the outcomes of patients undergoing at least lobectomy for stage I lung adenocarcinoma. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of patients who underwent surgery for stage I lung adenocarcinoma between 2006 and 2013. Tumor recurrence and survival were compared between patients who underwe...

Introduction: Digital thoracic drainage systems are a new technology in minimally invasive thoracic surgery. However, the criteria for chest tube removal in digital thoracic drainage systems have never been evaluated. We aim to investigate the incidence and predictive factors of complications and reinterventions after drainage tube removal in pati...

BACKGROUND: Anastomotic leaks are associated with significant risk of morbidity, mortality and treatment costs after oesophagectomy. The aim of this study was to evaluate international variation in unit-level clinical practice and resource availability for the prevention and management of anastomotic leak following oesophagectomy. METHOD: The Oeso...

Background Studies addressing both lymphovascular invasion (LVI) and perineural invasion (PNI) in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) treated with or without neoadjuvant therapy are limited. We aimed to analyze the incidence and prognostic significance of LVI and PNI in patients with thoracic ESCC. Methods This retrospective st...

In esophageal cancer, few prediction tools can be confidently used in current clinical practice. We developed a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) with 798 positron emission tomography (PET) scans of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and 309 PET scans of stage I lung cancer. In the first stage, we pretrained a 3D-CNN with all PET scans for a...

Mediastinal Mullerian cyst was first reported by Hattori in 2005. We report a case of a posterior mediastinal paravertebral cyst found incidentally by surveillance chest roentgenogram in a 44-year-old woman. She had a "no drain" uniportal thoracoscopic removal procedure, and histologic examination showed single layer of columnar epithelial lining t...

Objectives: The 8th edition American Joint Committee on Cancer Tumour-Nodes-Metastasis (TNM) staging system distinguishes between the clinical (c), pathological (p) and post-neoadjuvant pathological (yp) stage groups. However, the ability to discriminate between ypStage II and ypStage III is poor. We aim to identify prognostic factors in patients...

Background The benefits of neoadjuvant chemoradiation (NCRT) compared to upfront esophagectomy (UE) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is controversial. Our purpose was to determine whether clinical stages based on the 8th edition American Joint Committee on Cancer Tumor-Node-Metastasis staging system could guide treatment decision. Meth...

Background: Current esophageal treatment guidelines suggest that, when more than 15 lymph nodes are detected, dissection should be done as the minimum requirement for staging in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients undergoing esophagectomy without induction chemoradiotherapy (CRT). However, for neoadjuvant CRT, there is limited infor...

Background Both lymphovascular invasion, which is characterized by penetration of tumor cells into the peritumoural vascular or lymphatic network, and perineural invasion, which is characterized by involvement of tumor cells surrounding nerve fibers, are considered as an important step for tumor spreading, and are known poor prognostic factors in e...

Locally advanced esophageal cancer is usually dealt with multimodal therapies. The current treatment of choice is neoadjuvant chemoradiation with surgery, but several other choices are also available for adenocarcinoma. For example, adjuvant therapy can be added to the patients received upfront surgery or neoadjuvant therapy in certain conditions....

Background: The tubeless technique, defined as non-intubated general anesthesia with omission of chest drainage after video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), is a new concept to further minimize surgical trauma. However, there has been little investigation into the associated feasibility and safety. Minimization of postoperative pneumothorax...

Adjuvant chemoradiation is reported to have a survival benefit for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). We evaluated the "upfront surgery and pathological stage-based adjuvant chemoradiation" strategy, in which adjuvant therapy is guided by pathological stage, in locally advanced ESCC. Data from 2976 clinical stage II/III ESCC patients, inclu...

Achieving a good treatment for esophageal cancer is a great challenge. For early stage cancer, endoscopic treatment is considered the first line and a possible curative therapy. Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery are all used for the treatment of locally advanced esophageal cancer, administered either alone or combined. Some combinations have...

Background: The 8th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer Tumor-Node-Metastasis staging system separates classifications for the clinical (c), pathologic (p), and postneoadjuvant pathologic (yp) stages. We aimed to evaluate its application in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods: Patient data were obtained...

Objectives: Although preoperative chemoradiation followed by surgery has been recognized as an efficient strategy for esophageal cancer treatments, several studies demonstrate survival benefits of postoperative chemoradiation for those undergoing upfront resection. The optimal sequence of surgery and chemoradiation remains unclear. Methods: Data...