We aim to use propensity score models to investigate the association between lymph node number and long-term survival for colorectal cancer patients.
Materials and methods: 4SC-202 cost Taiwan Cancer Database was employed to review all patients with newly diagnosed colorectal cancer from 2003 to 2005. Exclusion criteria included those patients with stage IV disease or without information of lymph node. Propensity score models (examined lymph node >12 or <12 as dependent variable) were applied to group of patients with Stage II or Stage III disease and primary end point was 5-year survival (and mortality). We also report results of Stage I-III for comparison.
Results: We identified 15,731
newly diagnosed colorectal cancers during study period, among which a total of 10,517 colorectal cancer patients treated at 32 hospitals fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Pathology reports of about 63% (6658/10517) patients revealed lymph node retrieval >12. After propensity score matching, there were 2888, 1079, 1094 pairs recruited for Stage I-III, Stage II and Stage III, respectively. According to analysis of these matched pairs, the 5-year risk adjusted overall mortality
were lower for lymph node examined >= 12 than <12 among Stage II (24.3% vs. 31.1%, p = 0.012) and Stage I-III (20.8% vs. 23.6%, p = 0.003), but insignificant for Stage LXH254 mouse III (40.2% vs. 45.6%, p = 0.073). Similar situation happened with regard to disease-free and disease-specific mortality.
Conclusion: For patients with colorectal cancer undergoing colorectal surgery, the quality metric of lymph node is associated with 10058-F4 significantly better 5-year
survival except for Stage III disease. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“The Ni:B2O3 nanoparticles have been synthesized by a novel two-step chemical reduction method, under ambient conditions and subsequent annealing in air. The evolution of this structure has been followed through a sequence of annealing treatments. Structural and magnetic investigations on as-prepared and annealed samples revealed that as-prepared samples are weakly magnetic and develop into spherical ferromagnetic entities with superior magnetic properties. The saturation magnetization (M-s similar to 42 emu/g) and coercivity (H-c similar to 482 Oe) at room temperature clearly suggest that the air annealed (500 degrees C) samples are protected from the oxidation due to formation of B2O3 protective layer. The magnetization results are consistent with the observed microstructural changes and satisfactorily explained on the basis of a core-shell model, where we consider each particle as a magnetically heterogeneous system consisting of a ferromagnetic core of Ni and nonmagnetic shell of B2O3. These results suggest that this kind of nanocomposite systems might have significant potential as a recording media.