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Synchronous double cancers are an infrequent finding. The focus of this study was a case of diagnosed synchronous double breast cancer (BC) and axillary (Ax) follicular lymphoma (FL). The patient was a 73-year-old woman who had been visiting her local doctor for follow-up of a fibroadenoma of the left breast, and was referred to our hospital after being diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the left breast. Ultrasonography (US) revealed enlarged Ax lymph nodes (LNs) and US-guided core needle biopsy (CNB) was performed. CNB revealed no metastasis of IDC; however, a diagnosis of FL was made. Therefore, the patient was diagnosed with synchronous double BC and Ax FL and underwent partial surgical resection of the BC and close monitoring of the FL. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of malignant lymphoma diagnosed by CNB of Ax LNs during preoperative BC screening. CNB allows for a shorter waiting time for the examination, and it is considered to be minimally invasive, cost-effective and non-inferior to surgical resection in terms of specimen volume. Therefore, active preoperative evaluation of Ax LNs using US-guided CNB may contribute to BC staging, and may also help diagnose synchronous cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 2013, a 50-year-old woman presented to our hospital with right abdominal pain as the main complaint. Careful examinations led to the diagnosis of ascending colon cancer. In October 2013, resection of the right half colon and removal of the D3 lymph nodes were performed. As postoperative adjunctive chemotherapy, 6 courses of CAPOX therapy were initiated. PET-CT conducted 17 months after the surgery revealed an enlarged right para-aoric lymph nodes and abnormal FDG accumulation. Lymph node recurrence was diagnosed. In April 2015, 10 courses of CAPOX plus BEV therapy, followed by 12courses of capecitabine single agent, were initiated. PET-CT revealed complete remission of the right para-aoric lymph nodes. However, abnormal FDG accumulation was detected in the right ovary and uterine corpus. After careful examinations in March 2017, we performed expanded total hysterectomy, bilateral resection of the appendicular organs, resection of body reticular region, and removal of the lymph nodes and those at the right side of the aorta for the ovarian and uterine cancer. Pathologically, intimal cancer in the right ovary and uterine corpus was diagnosed. Examination of the right para-aoric lymph nodes resected at the same time showed complete remission on images, although histological complete remission was found with scarring. Currently, 63 months after the initial surgery, the patient is alive without recurrence.

At present, there is no apparent consensus about the indications for hepatectomy for liver metastases of gastric cancer. In this study, we identified factors of poor prognosis to investigate the indications for hepatectomy in 24 cases of hepatectomy for liver metastases of gastric cancer at our hospital during a period from August 2001 to September 2017. The 1-, 3-, and 5- year survival rates in all 24 cases were 63%, 21%, and 17%, respectively. Single variable analysis revealed that significant factors of poor prognosis were 3 or more liver metastases, synchronous liver metastasis, and positive surgical margin. Multivariable analysis revealed that significant independent factors of poor prognosis were synchronous liver metastases(HR 4.71, 95%CI: 1.08-21.79, p=0.040)and positive surgical margin(HR 5.95, 95%CI: 1.56-25.81, p=0.009). These findings indicated that, in cases of metachronous tumors and negative surgical margin, favorable prognosis can be expected following surgical resection for liver metastases of gastric cancer.

Low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1B (LRP1B) is frequently deleted in tumors of various types, but its status and expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCs) have never been reported. In the course of a program to screen ESC cell lines for copy-number aberrations using array-based comparative genomic hybridization, we identified a homozygous deletion of LRP1B. Genomic PCR experiments revealed homozygous deletions of LRP1B in additional ESC cell lines (total, 6 of 43; 14.0%) and in primary esophageal tumors (30 of 70; 42.9%). Moreover, expression of LRP1B mRNA was frequently silenced in ESC lines without homozygous deletions (14 of 37; 37.8%). Using bisulfite-PCR analysis and sequencing, we found that LRP1B-nonexpressing cells without homozygous deletions were highly methylated at a CpG island of LRP1B, a sequence possessing promoter activity. Treatment with 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine restored expression of LRP1B in those ESC lines. Histone acetylation status correlated directly with expression of LRP1B and inversely with the methylation status of the CpG island. Methylation of LRP1B was also detected in primary esophageal tumors. Restoration of LRP1B expression in ESC cells reduced colony formation. These results suggest that loss of LRP1B function in esophageal carcinogenesis most often occurs either by homozygous deletion or by transcriptional silencing through hypermethylation of its CpG island.

Among the transcription factors that direct proliferation, differentiation, and death of cells, several Krüppel-like zinc finger molecules such as GLI1 and ZNF147 can become oncogenic when the genes encoding them are overexpressed by the DNA amplification mechanism. Here, we report the discovery of a novel member of this class, ZASC1, from a recently reported critical region of 3q26 amplification frequently observed in various squamous cell carcinomas, including esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCs). The deduced 485-amino acid protein product of ZASC1 contained a putative nuclear localization signal; the exogenously transfected ZASC1 was translocated into cell nuclei. ZASC1 was frequently coamplified and subsequently overexpressed with PIK3CA in our panel of ESC cell lines and primary tumors. In patients with ESC, a higher mRNA expression level of ZASC1 appeared to be associated with shorter overall survival, and a multivariate analysis demonstrated that ZASC1 mRNA expression was an independent prognosticator. In addition, exogenous expression of ZASC1 promoted the growth of ESC cells, whereas down-regulation of ZASC1 expression by means of an antisense oligonucleotide suppressed the growth of ESC cells. Taken together, our results suggest that ZASC1 might be involved in the pathogenesis of ESC as one of the targets for 3q26 amplification, alone or in concert with other targets.