The identification of cancer testis (CT) antigens has been an important advance in determining potential targets for cancer immunotherapy. Multiple previous studies have shown that CT antigen vaccines, using both peptides and dendritic cell vaccines, can elicit clinical and immunologic responses in several different tumors. This review details the expression of melanoma antigen family A, 1 (MAG...

Primary malignant melanoma of the esophagus (PMME) is a rare malignancy and the prognosis is typically poor. There is currently a lack of appropriate treatment strategies and clear guidance. The current study presents the case of a 65-year-old female with a two-month history of progressive dysphagia, the investigations of which resulted in a diagnosis of PMME. The patient was treated with a rad...

Esophageal melanocytosis is a rare but benign clinicopathologic entity, often presenting incidentally, with reported incidence in 0.07% to 2.1% of gastrointestinal endoscopies. It characterised by non-atypical melanocytic proliferation and increased melanin deposition the esophageal mucosa. We report 71-year-old female who underwent oesophagogastroduodenoscopy for progressive 1-year history dys...

BACKGROUND The incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma is rising dramatically. This increase may reflect increased disease burden, reclassification of related cancers, or overdiagnosis resulting from increased diagnostic intensity, particularly upper endoscopy for patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease or Barrett esophagus. METHODS We used the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, E...

INTRODUCTION Melanoma-associated antigen 1 (MAGE1) expression in normal tissues is restricted to the testes, whilst being over-expressed in a number of human cancers. This feature of MAGE1 makes it a promising cancer biomarker. This study aimed to determine the expression of MAGE1 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and its relationship with clinicopathological factors. METHODS This i...

The sentinel node (SN) concept has revolutionized the surgical staging of both melanoma and breast cancer over the past two decades. However, the validity of the SN hypothesis has been controversial for esophageal cancer, because SN mapping for esophageal cancer is technically complicated, and the number of early-stage esophageal cancer is very limited. Nevertheless previous studies nicely demo...

Primary malignant melanoma of the esophagus is an uncommon tumor, with approximately 300 cases having been reported thus far. The purpose of this study was to describe a case of a 60 year-old man with a 10 month history of progressive dysphagia and thoracic pain, the investigations of which led to a diagnosis of primary malignant melanoma of the esophagus. The patient underwent a transhiatal es...

Primary malignant melanoma of the esophagus (PMME) forms about 0.1% of all primary esophageal cancers. Treatment options are very limited for patients unfit for surgery. This is the first report describing the results of external radiotherapy combined with regional hyperthermia for two inoperable PMME patients. Two patients with a T2-3N0M0 PMME were considered unfit for surgery based on age and...