Eosinophilic gastroenteritis: Clinical experience with 15 patients

AIM: To evaluate the clinic features of eosinophilicgastroenteritis and to examine the diagnosis, treatment,long-term outcome of this disease.METHODS: Charts with a diagnosis of eosinophilicgastroenteritis from 1984 to 2002 at Mackay Memorial Hospital were reviewed retrospectively. There were 15 patients diagnosed with eosinophilic gastroenteritis. The diagnosis was established in 13 by histologic evaluation of endoscopic biopsy or operative specimen and in 2 by radiologic imaging and the presence of eosinophilic ascites.RESULTS: All the patients had gastrointestinal symptoms and 12 (80 %) had hypereosinophilia (absolute eosinophil count 1 008 to 31 360/cm3). The most common symptoms were abdominal pain and diarrhea. Five of the 15 patients had a history of allergy. Seven patients had involvement of the mucosa, 2 of muscularis, and 6 of subserosa. One with a history of seafood allergy was successfully treated with an elimination diet. Another patient improved spontaneously after fasted for several days. The remaining 13 patients were treated with oral prednisolone, 10 to 40 mg/day initially,which was then tapered. The symptoms in all the patients subsided within two weeks. Eleven of the 15 patients were followed up for more than 12 months (12 to 104 months,mean 48.7), of whom 5 had relapses after discontinuing steroids (13 episodes). Two of these patients required longterm maintenance oral prednisolone (5 to 10 mg/day).CONCLUSION: Eosinophilic gastroenteritis is a rare condition of unclear etiology characterized by relapses and remissions. Short courses of corticosteroids are the mainstay of treatment, although some patients with relapsing disease require long-term low-dose steroids.

Esophagectomy for locally advanced esophageal cancer, followed by chemoradiotherapy and adjuvant chemotherapy

AIM: To compare the efficacy and toxicity of a three-step combination therapy with post-operative radiation alone for locally advanced esophageal cancer.METHODS: Patients with T3-4 and N0-1 esophageal carcinoma from a number of institutions were non-randomly,prospectively enrolled in the study. All patients underwent single-stage curative en bloc esophagectomy. The patients were then assigned into one of two treatment groups based on treatment consisting of either post-operative concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) with weekly cisplatin 30 mg/m2 followed by systemic adjuvant chemotherapy (four monthly cycles of cisplatin 20 mg/m2 and 5-fiuorouracil 1 000 mg/m2 for five consecutive days),or, post-operative radiation alone. The radiotherapy dose was 55-60 Gy for all patients. Primary end-point of this study was to assess the per-protocol patients' improvement of overall survival benefit. Secondary end-point was designed to evaluate both the per-protocol and intent-to-treat patients' outcome of survival.RESULTS: A total of 60 patients (n = 30 per group) were enrolled in this study. The two groups were generally comparable for demographic characteristics and hematological and non-hematological toxicities. The CCRT with weekly cisplatin was well tolerated, with significantly better overall survival (30.9 mo vs 20.7 mo; 95% CI,27.5-36.4 vs15.2-26.1) and 3-year survival (70.0% vs 33.7%; P = 0.003). Low histological grade of tumor (P＜0.001) was associated with favorable survival in these locally advanced patients.CONCLUSION: For locally advanced esophageal cancer,the combination of esophagectomy, post-operative CCRT with weekly cisplatin and systemic adjuvant chemotherapy is well tolerated and effective. A large-scale, prospective randomized trial of this regimen is in progress.