Search

The present study is a safety survey of patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2-positive, chemotherapy-naive breast cancer treated with trastuzumab plus paclitaxel at the Saitama Cancer Center (Saitama, Japan) between April 2018 and March 2022. The expression of infusion reaction (IR) and the effect on cardiac function were investigated in patients who switched from reference trastuzumab (HERCEPTIN®) to biosimilar trastuzumab (Trastuzumab-NK) and continued treatment (switching group). The two groups (reference vs. biosimilar trastuzumab) had no significant difference in the expression of IR (P>0.999). In the switching group, IR associated with switching did not occur in all nine eligible patients. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was used to assess cardiac function, and no patient in either group experienced a significant decrease in LVEF with treatment, meaning that there was no effect of switching on the decrease in LVEF. These results suggested that switching from reference to biosimilar trastuzumab may not have a significant effect on the frequency of IR expression or the occurrence of cardiac dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ongoing climate change has increased the impact of landslides and related slope disasters on infrastructure and human lives. Microwave satellite remote sensing, particularly interferometric analysis of synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data, is a powerful tool for routine monitoring of the displacement of slopes on small wavelength scales, independently from solar illumination and cloud coverage. Although various sophisticated techniques for time-series InSAR have been developed, practical application in conjunction with geological analysis to reveal intrinsic and triggering factors of slope displacement is still limited. In this paper, we describe a practical case of time-series InSAR analysis with a special focus on its geological implications in northwestern Kyushu, a high-risk area for slope-related disasters in Japan. The extracted susceptible polygons from the InSAR results show accuracy comparable with that of other recent research on landslide mapping. Intrinsic factor analysis based on a geographic information system reveals that the displacement occurs on relatively gentle slopes instead of steep areas, corresponding to the transient zone of Paleogene-Neogene sedimentary rocks and basalt. Triggering factor analysis based on correlation coefficients reveals a significant link between some displacement areas with mean and/or maximum precipitation for each observation duration. Those findings confirm the importance of carefully accounting for the geological background for landslide susceptibility assessment and policy making, apart from topographic and meteorological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the topographic change and the recovery process, as well as the sediment sources, for tsunami deposits based on field surveys and analysis of digital elevation model data before and after the A.D. 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami at the Sendai Plain, Japan. We found that the amount of sediment deposited on land was approximately four times greater than the eroded volume of sediment at the beach. Large amounts of the sediments deposited at the studied transect probably originated from liquefaction. This result suggests that the vented sediments might have been an important source of the tsunami deposits if liquefaction is generated by the strong ground motion of a near-field earthquake. In contrast, minor erosion was observed at the beach, and the beach berm was rebuilt within three months after the tsunami. Moreover, the erosional channel that had cut into the beach had been filled by sand within 13 days after the tsunami. Therefore, it is not expected that a sedimentary record of the tsunami will be preserved in the nearshore zone along the Sendai coast, although remnants of small scours on land might remain long after the tsunami. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]