Abstract
AIMS: To compare and contrast the ultrastructural appearance of resected oesophageal adenocarcinomas treated with preoperative chemotherapy with that of non-treated resected controls; and to determine the usefulness of this method in the assessment of the effectiveness of the chemotherapeutic regimen. METHODS: Ten resected oesophageal adenocarcinomas treated with preoperative chemotherapy--mitomycin-C, ifosfamide, and cisplatin (MIC)--were examined by transmission electron microscopy and their appearance compared with that of 13 concurrent untreated resected oesophageal adenocarcinomas. RESULTS: The treated adenocarcinomas showed cytotoxic damage although complete tumour eradication was not achieved. In all 10 treated cases a variable proportion of the neoplastic cells showed unusual degenerative and necrotic changes not seen in untreated cases. In the most affected carcinomas the stroma contained increased numbers of inflammatory cells. CONCLUSIONS: This ultrastructural method is useful for the assessment of the in vivo effect of MIC.
Full text
PDF
Images in this article
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Hopwood D., Logan K. R., Bouchier I. A. The electron microscopy of normal human oesophageal epithelium. Virchows Arch B Cell Pathol. 1978 Feb 14;26(4):345–358. doi: 10.1007/BF02889561. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Newman J., Antonakopoulos G. N., Darnton S. J., Matthews H. R. The ultrastructure of oesophageal carcinomas: multidirectional differentiation. A transmission electron microscopic study of 43 cases. J Pathol. 1992 Jun;167(2):193–198. doi: 10.1002/path.1711670206. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Stenbäck F., Kangas L., Wasenius V. M. Cell structure and function and response to chemotherapy in tumors heterotransplanted into the subrenal capsule of mice and rats. Eur J Cancer Clin Oncol. 1985 Dec;21(12):1523–1538. doi: 10.1016/0277-5379(85)90248-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Stewart R. J., Lawson A. H., Weaver J. P. The ultrastructure of transitional cell carcinomas of the human urinary bladder treated with ethoglucid or mitomycin. J Urol. 1988 Jun;139(6):1355–1358. doi: 10.1016/s0022-5347(17)42918-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Walker S. J., Allen S. M., Steel A., Cullen M. H., Matthews H. R. Assessment of the response to chemotherapy in oesophageal cancer. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 1991;5(10):519–522. doi: 10.1016/1010-7940(91)90104-r. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]