Search

Recognition of Individual and environmental risks is crucial to alleviate damage inflicted by disasters. In particular, an awareness of floods and their health risks in patients’ residences is important for patients and their healthcare professionals.

Cancer patients, particularly those post-surgery, are prone to skin infection following immersion in flood waters. We reported secondary surgical site infection in a postoperative 80-year-old post-operation breast cancer patient affected by Typhoon Hagibis. Individualized responses based on individual and environmental risks are crucial to alleviate the damage of disasters.

One of the major factors for successful DCs immunotherapy is thought to be the maintenance of the migratory activity of matured DCs. We evaluated the effectiveness of PSK on OK432-activated DCs, in terms of maturation, migration and induction of CTLs. When DCs were treated with both OK432 and PSK, migration ability of the DCs were significantly high as compared to OK432 alone preserving the beneficial effect of OK432 treatment. BRM cocktail treatment with OK432 and PSK induced high level of migration activity in activated DCs, suggesting a potential protocol for more effective DCs immunotherapy for cancer.

Background. To determine the significance of bone marrow disseminated tumor cells in gastric cancer, we investigated the mRNA expression levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cytokeratin 19 (CK19), and cytokeratin 20 (CK20) using the real-time quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RQ-PCR). Methods. Bone marrow samples were aspirated from the sternum at the time of surgery in 65 patients with resectable gastric cancer. Total RNA was extracted from bone marrow; and the expression levels of CEA, CK19, and CK20 mRNA were determined by RQ-PCR using an ABI PRISM 7000 and quantified against the GAPDH mRNA level. Results. The detection limits of these genes were determined in the gastric cancer cell line MKN-45 and the colon cancer cell line C-1, which had been serially diluted in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). A rate of 1 cancer cell/ million PBMCs was obtained by detecting CEA and CK19 mRNA in MKN-45 and by detecting CK20 mRNA in C-1. In the clinical samples, only 1 of the 65 gastric cancer patients (1.5%) who had stage IV disease was positive for CEA, CK19, and CK20 mRNA; none of CEA, CK19, or CK20 mRNA was positive in the remaining 64 patients. No significant correlation was observed between disseminated cancer cells in bone marrow and clinicopathological features, including simultaneous or metachronous hepatic metastasis and patient survival. Conclusion. The incidence of disseminated cancer cells in bone marrow in our study appears low, unlike that in previous reports. The significance of disseminated cancer cells in bone marrow may also be quite low in gastric cancer.

症例は15歳,男性.発熱および右大腿部痛あり.歩行困難となり,当院搬入された.来院時,右大腿部は著明に腫脹し,激しい疼痛あり.さらに右側腹部を中心に圧痛を認めた.腹部CT上,右腎の高さから右後腹膜に膿瘍を形成し,大腿部も膝上まで鏡面像を伴った膿瘍を形成していた.大腿部および背側より後腹膜ヘドレナージを施行したところ,便汁様の膿汁が約1,000ml排出された.腸管が後腹膜への穿孔し,後腹膜および大腿にガスを伴った膿瘍を形成したものと診断し,開腹手術を行った.虫垂先端が直腸右側の後腹膜に癒着,穿通し,後腹膜から大腿へ広範に膿瘍を形成していた.後腹膜を開放すると約500mlの便汁様の膿が排出された.また大腿へは大腿輪にて交通し膿瘍を形成していた.術後は,敗血症性ショックの状態であったが,順調に回復し,後術8カ月後退院となった.早期に診断,開腹ドレナージを施行できたことが,救命できた要因と考えた.

To seek for a candidate gene that would regulate tumour progression and metastasis in gastric cancer, we investigated gene expression profiles by using DNA microarray. Tumour tissue and adjacent normal tissue were obtained from 21 patients with gastric cancer and then examined for their gene expression profiles by the Gene Chip® Human U95Av2 array, which includes 12 000 human genes and EST sequences. A total of 25 genes were upregulated and two genes were downregulated by at least four-fold in the tumour tissue. In a further analysis according to lymph node metastasis, the expressed levels of maspin, as well as carcinoembryonic antigen and nonspecific crossreacting antigen were significantly higher in tumours with lymph node metastasis than in those without it. Maspin expression in 85 gastric cancer patients was further investigated by using immunohistochemistry. Maspin expression was not observed in normal gastric epithelia without intestinal metaplasia. In contrast, maspin was expressed in 74 of 85 tumour tissues. There was a significant correlation between the incidence of maspin-positive tumour staining and lymph node metastasis. These results suggest that maspin has a potential role for tumour metastasis in gastric cancer.

This study was designed to investigate the role of thymidylate synthase (TS), dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD), and thymidine phosphorylase (TP) in tumor progression and sensitivity to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU).A total of 275 tumor samples from 275 patients with gastric cancer were utilized in this study. TS activity was determined in 130 samples by 5-fluorodeoxyuridine monophosphate binding assay. DPD activity was measured in 140 samples by radioenzymatic assay, and TP protein level was determined in 157 samples by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) system. These parameters were compared with several clinicopathologic factors and sensitivity to 5-FU determined by in-vitro ATP assay. The antitumor activities of 5-FU, uracil plus tegafur (UFT), and 1M tegafur--0.4 M 5-chloro-2,4-dihydroxypyridine--1 M potassium oxonate (S-1 [TS-1]) were also compared, using three human gastric cancer xenografts in nude mice.There was no correlation between either TS or TP and sensitivity to 5-FU. However, a weak inverse correlation was found between DPD activity and sensitivity to 5-FU. High DPD activity in tumor resulted in poor prognosis, especially in patients who received 5-FU-based adjuvant chemotherapy. Although TP was significantly correlated with depth of tumor invasion and with lymphatic and venous invasions, TP alone had no impact on survival. On the other hand, TS, as well as peritoneal, hepatic, and lymph node metastases, was selected as an independent prognostic factor in gastric cancer. In the animal model, there was no significant difference in antitumor activities among the drugs in a tumor with low DPD activity. However, S-1 showed superior antitumor activity to 5-FU or UFT in tumors with high DPD activity.DPD is considered to be a most important predictive factor of 5-FU sensitivity. The use of DPD inhibitory fluoropyrimidines is strongly recommended for tumors with high DPD activity.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the colon of unknown etiology. There are varied manifestations in the natural course of UC. However, duodenum is not generally considered a target organ of UC. Here, we report two patients with steroid-responsive ulcerative duodenitis with colitis that was consistent with UC, but not with Crohn's disease. We also reviewed six cases of ulcerative duodenitis with UC. Duodenal lesion with UC may be a more common phenomenon, although infrequently clinically manifested under steroid therapy. Upper gastrointestinal tract inflammation in UC warrants further studies to ascertain whether the duodenum is a target organ in UC, especially in steroid-free conditions.

4200 Background: We had previously reported that peritoneal micrometastasis determined by CEA mRNA level in peritoneal washings using real-time quantitative RT-PCR (RQ-PCR) is a good predictor for ...