Search

Tropomyosin-related kinase(TRK)fusion proteins are oncogenic drivers in multiple tumors in adults and children.Larotrectinib, an orally administered selective TRK inhibitor approved in the US, exhibits inhibitory activity against tumors harboring TRK fusions and is well tolerated.Here, we report the case of an 8-year-old female child with recurrence of an NTRK fusion low-grade sarcoma treated with larotrectinib monotherapy.The patient previously underwent resection of low-grade sarcoma in the right brachialis at 6 years of age, but local recurrence occurred after 16 months.As re-operation likely required amputation, larotrectinib was commenced at a dose of 100 mg BID.Complete radiographic remission was achieved after 3 months.There were no adverse events attributed to larotrectinib treatment.After dosing for 6 months, we performed local resection, confirming pathological complete remission.The drug was stopped, and the patient showed no evidence of relapse at 4 months after resection.In this case, larotrectinib was obtained using Single Patient Expanded Access under the FDA.In this paper, we also discuss the issues faced while accessing unapproved drugs in the precision medicine era in Japan.

Minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass surgery (MIDCAB), coronary bypass grafting with small thoracotomy using no cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), became popular recently. To attenuate perioperative stress-response, we used epidural analgesia (EPI) with general anesthesia for MIDCAB operation. In this study, we compared retrospectively 11 cases of MIDCAB managed with EPI [ED (+)], and 14 cases of MIDCAB anesthetized without using EPI [ED (-)], concerning extubation time, ICU stay, hospital stay and perioperative complications. The mean time from cessation of general anesthesia to extubation was significantly shorter in ED (+) patients (0.5 hours) when compared to ED (-) patients (18.2 hours). Mean periods of ICU stay and hospital stay were, also, shorter in ED (+) patients (2.1 days, 30.5 days, respectively) when compared to ED (-) (4.3 days, 45.1 days, respectively) patients. We experienced ventricular tachycardia in three patients of ED (-). No major complication occurred in ED (+) patients. These results suggest that EPI shortened extubation time, ICU and hospital stay for MIDCAB patients.

The authors investigated gastric emptying in 18 elderly patients with cerebral vascular diseases using the acetaminophen method. Subjects were divided into 2 groups according to their levels of daily activity. One group consisted of 10 comatose patients (71-92 years old), the other consisted of 8 patients (74-95 years old) who could walk by themselves. We also investigated gastric emptying in 6 comatose patients (38-83 years old) because of other diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and in 11 elder controls (75-95 years old). In elderly controls, the acetaminophen concentration at 45 minutes was 9.08 +/- 1.71 micrograms/ml. In comatose patients due to cerebral vascular diseases, the concentration was 3.89 +/- 1.60 micrograms/ml, which showed significantly delayed gastric emptying (p < 0.05). In patients with cerebral vascular diseases who could walk, the concentration was 6.51 +/- 0.99 micrograms/ml. In comatose patients by another diseases, the concentration was 5.82 +/- 1.13 micrograms/ml. We suspected that delayed gastric emptying is related to the comatose state. Trimebutine significantly (p < 0.01) improved gastric emptying in comatose patients with cerebral vascular diseases.