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IgG4-related disease is diagnosed when both the elevation of the serum IgG4 level and invasion of IgG4-positive interstitial cells and sclerosis to a tumor are noted. Some cases have demonstrated malignant disease. In the head and neck lesion in particular, IgG4-producing mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma has arisen during the treatment of IgG4-related disease. We herein report the first case of IgG4-producing MALT lymphoma during the treatment of IgG4-related disease in the renal hilum. A 79-year-old man was being followed for autoimmune pancreatitis and IgG4-related sclerosing cholangitis. During follow-up, magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography detected a mass in the renal hilum, so he was referred to our department for a further examination. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography detected a standard uptake of 9.7, and the tumor size was gradually increasing. Due to these findings, laparoscopic nephro-ureterectomy was performed. A pathological examination revealed IgG4-producing marginal zone B cell lymphoma. We herein report a rare case of IgG4-producing B cell lymphoma in the renal hilum.

Castleman’s disease was first reported in 1954 by Castleman et al. and identified as an uncommon lymphoproliferative disorder. In most cases, Castleman’s diseases are detected in the chest, head, and neck. A 71-year-old man was referred to our hospital due to a retroperitoneal tumor in the para-aortic area by computed tomography (CT). Positron emission tomography-CT revealed an uptake in this tumor, suggesting malignant diseases. Laparoscopic tumorectomy was performed, and the pathological diagnosis was Castleman’s disease, hyaline vascular type. No evidence of recurrence was observed 20 months after surgery. We herein report a rare case of retroperitoneal Castleman’s disease.

A 45-year-old woman with dyspnea and appetite and weight loss was admitted to our hospital. Computed tomography (CT) revealed a right hypovascular renal tumor with tumor thrombus in the inferior vena cava and metastases in the liver, stomach, and left kidney. The renal tumor was diagnosed as a mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinoma (MTSCC) by pathological examination of a percutaneous needle biopsy specimen. She was treated with temsirolimus (25 mg per week). Five weeks after initiation of this treatment, her liver metastases had clearly decreased in size and her appetite had been restored. However, progressive disease was diagnosed by CT scan revealing expansion of tumor thrombus after 7 weeks, prompting a switch in treatment to axitinib. Approximately 6 months after the diagnosis, she died of cancer. MTSCC is considered to have relative good prognosis, however, many cases with poor prognoses have been reported recently. Our experience with this patient suggests that temsirolimus may be effective treatment for metastatic MTSCC.

A 50-year-old Japanese man with a two-year history of a painless right scrotal mass visited our hospital. Considering laboratory findings and computed tomography, the patient was diagnosed with an uncharacteristic testicular tumor. No metastases were present on radiographic study at the first visit. Emergent high radical orchiectomy was performed, and the tumor was identified as a squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of a testicular epidermal cyst. He is alive without recurrence or metastasis six months after surgery. Testicular SCC is an extremely rare tumor. This is the third case of testicular SCC associated with an epidermal cyst in English literature.

Introduction and Objectives. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been suggested to be a simple marker of the systemic inflammatory response in critical care patients. We previously assessed the utility of NLR as a biomarker to predict tumor recurrence and cancer death in bladder cancer patients who underwent radical cystectomy. In this study, we evaluated the prognostic impact of NLR in bladder cancer patients who received gemcitabine and nedaplatin (GN) chemotherapy.Methods. A total of 23 patients who received GN chemotherapy for advanced bladder cancer were enrolled in this study. The cut-off point of NLR according to the sensitivity and specificity levels was derived from the area under receiver operator characteristics (AUROC) curve plotted for disease progression or overall mortality.Results. The NLR cut-off point was determined as 4.14 for both tumor progression and overall mortality. Median progression-free survival (PFS)/overall survival (OS) in the higher NLR group (NLR ≥ 4.14) and lower NLR group (NLR < 4.14) were 194/468 days versus 73/237 days, respectively. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that higher NLR significantly correlated with poorer PFS (p=0.011) and OS (p=0.045).Conclusions. NLR may serve as a new biomarker to predict responses to GN-based chemotherapy in advanced bladder cancer patients and/or their prognosis.

Xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis (XGP) is a type of chronic suppurative renal inflammation. We present an extremely rare case of XGP concomitant with chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (RCC). A-39-year-old woman presented with transient fever and left lower abdominal pain during steroid pulse therapy for thyroid eye disease. Imaging studies including contrast-enhanced computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and doppler ultrasonography, showed a 40 mm unusual mass lesion in the upper pole of the left kidney, and we could not rule out the possibility of malignancy.A left open partial nephrectomy for the renal mass was performed. Pathological examination revealed a 5 mm chromophobe RCC located beside a 30 mm XGP. The patient presented a favorable course without inflammatory episodes or tumor recurrence during the 9-month follow-up. This is the first case report of the coexistent XGP and chromophobe RCC.

Background Primary large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the kidney is a rare and generally very aggressive disease. We present a case of a patient with primary large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the kidney with cardiac metastasis. Case presentation A 59-year-old Japanese man presented to his previous physician with hematuria. Computed tomography revealed masses in the heart and right kidney, and fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography showed abnormal uptake in the heart. A cardiac biopsy under transesophageal echocardiographic guidance revealed a metastatic tumor. Subsequently, multiple lung lesions were detected, and a right nephrectomy was performed after these metastases were suspected to have originated from renal carcinoma. Large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the kidney was ultimately diagnosed. Pancreatic metastasis was detected on computed tomography postoperatively. Three courses of chemotherapy with carboplatin and irinotecan were administered, and were temporarily effective against the metastatic lesions in the lungs and pancreas. However, our patient’s general condition deteriorated with the progression of the lesions, and he died 9 months after his initial examination. Conclusions Multi-agent chemotherapy, including platinum-based drugs was effective against large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma metastases, albeit only temporarily. This is the first reported case of large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma with cardiac metastasis.

A 79-year-old Japanese man underwent a medical examination for hoarseness. Computed tomography revealed a left renal tumor, and radical nephrectomy was performed. The tumor was a clear cell carcinoma. Fourteen months after the operation, the tumor had metastasized to the spleen, right lung, and retroperitoneal lymph nodes. We initiated molecular targeted therapy sequentially with sorafenib, sunitinib, and axitinib and then conducted a rechallenge with sorafenib. His metastatic lesions had completely vanished 5 months after initiation of the rechallenge. Ten months after the rechallenge, lumbar vertebral body metastasis appeared. However, we consider that the sorafenib rechallenge was effective because of the very slow growth of the metastatic lesion, with no other metastasis for 30 months, at the time of writing this report. Approximately 7 years after the first local recurrence, he remained alive, with relatively normal daily functioning.

Introduction. Gemcitabine and cisplatin (GC) is a gold-standard first-line systemic chemotherapy for advanced urothelial carcinoma (UC). However, it may cause severe adverse effects such as renal toxicity, gastrointestinal toxicity, and neurotoxicity. Sarcopenia is the age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass. A correlation between sarcopenia and the oncological prognosis has been reported. In UC, several studies have noted that patients with sarcopenia had a greater incidence of complications and worse survival after radical cystectomy or chemotherapy. Our institute introduced gemcitabine and nedaplatin (GN) for UC patients with renal failure. We investigated whether the presence of sarcopenia predicted the prognosis of patients with advanced UC who were treated by GN chemotherapy. Methods. A total of 27 patients (male, n=21; female, n=6) received GN therapy for metastatic UC from 2005 to 2016. The institutional review board of Yokohama City University Hospital approved this study. The psoas muscle index (PMI, cm2/m2) was calculated using this formula: right psoas muscle area (cm2)/the square of the body height (m2). The overall survival (OS) of the high PMI group (male: ≥2.49, female: ≥2.07) and low PMI group (male: Results. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and a log-rank test revealed that the high PMI group had significantly better OS than the low PMI group (p=0.015). The mean survival of the high and low PMI groups was 561 days and 223 days, respectively. Conclusions. In the present study, we revealed that sarcopenia (a low psoas muscle volume) might be a predictive factor for poorer overall survival in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma who are undergoing GN chemotherapy.

A 48-year-old woman with a history of voiding difficulty visited our hospital. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a periurethral tumor, which was pathologically diagnosed as an adenocarcinoma via transperineal needle biopsy. Radical cystectomy and urethrectomy were performed, and the urinary tract was reconstructed using an ileal conduit. Pathological examination of a resected specimen confirmed adenocarcinoma of the urethral diverticulum. The patient received adjuvant gemcitabine and cisplatin chemotherapy. She is alive at 5 months since the operation.

Recently, optical pulses propagating through a tapered fiber (TF) immersed in heavy water (D2O) or photonic crystal fi ber (PCF) of a special design were reported to yield a broad and fl at supercontinuum (SC) spectrum because the fi ber dispersion characteristics are of low dispersion around 1000 nm. This study was undertaken to investigate spectral intensities and phase distributions of SC pulses generated in low-dispersion fi bers. Results show that highly nonlinear PCF with group velocity dispersion (GVD) distributions having an extremum value and zero dispersion around 1000 nm is useful at short fiber length for applications in which the phase distribution is a concern.

It was reported recently that optical pulses propagating through a tapered fiber (TF) immersed in heavy water (D 2 O) or photonic crystal fiber (PCF) of special design yield a broad and flat supercontinuum (SC) spectrum because the fiber dispersion characteristics are of low dispersion: around 1000 nm. This work was undertaken to investigate spectral intensities and phase distributions of SC pulses generated in low-dispersion fibers. Results show that PCF with group velocity dispersion (GVD) distributions having an extremum value of zero dispersion can be used at short fiber length for applications where the phase distribution is a concern.