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We report a case in which lung adenocarcinoma with multiple pulmonary metastases was completely responsive to combination chemotherapy with carboplatin (CBDCA) and weekly paclitaxel (TXL). CBDCA AUC = 5 (day 1) and TXL 75 mg/m2 (day 1, 8, 15) were infused over 1 hour after short premedication on an outpatient basis. Administration was continued for 3 weeks followed by 1 week rest. The patient was a 54-year-old woman who suffered from lung adenocarcinoma with mediastinal lymph node metastases, stage III A, and underwent complete resection. However, multiple pulmonary metastases were found 3 years after operation. On an outpatient treatment, she was treated with CBDCA combined with weekly TXL for 6 cycles. The multiple pulmonary metastases had completely disappeared after 2 cycles and CEA decreased to within normal limit after 5 cycles. The toxic events were anemia (grade 2), leucocytopenia (grade 2) and alopecia (grade 3). No major adverse effects such as hypersensitivity reaction or peripheral neuropathy were observed.

Purpose: Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a proinflammatory cytokine derived from T cells and the pituitary gland. However, several types of solid cancers also secrete MIF, and this factor has been suggested to play an important role in carcinogenesis and the progression of malignancy. In this study, we quantified MIF mRNA expression of non-small cell lung cancer tissues and examined its relationship with clinicopathological factors., Experimental Design: MIF mRNAs of both tumor and normal tissues were quantified by a real-time monitoring reverse-transcription PCR in 59 patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The relationship between the grade of MIF expression and clinicopathological factors such as smoking history, cell type, stage, and prognosis was examined to investigate the clinical significance of intratumoral expression of MIF., Results: The mean copy number of MIF mRNA per 0.08 micro g of total mRNA in tumor tissues was 144,078.00, whereas that of normal lung tissue was 25,438.46 (P < 0.0001). The amounts of MIF proteins revealed by a Western blot analysis correlated well with those of the corresponding mRNAs. Male patients and heavy smokers showed significantly higher expression of MIF. Patients with squamous cell carcinomas showed a higher expression of MIF mRNA than other subjects. In squamous cell carcinoma patients, higher expression of MIF mRNA was significantly associated with unfavorable prognosis (P = 0.0142)., Conclusions: The general intratumoral expression and close relation with smoking suggested that MIF might contribute to tumorigenesis in the lung.

A 65-year-old woman had been followed up for a hamartoma-like mass in the right upper lobe of the lung since 1995. A follow-up CT scan showed an increase in the size of the lesion and a new lesion next to the old mass, which was highly suspected to be lung cancer. A right upper lobectomy was thus performed in May 2000. The hamartoma penetrated the visceral pleura, and adhered to the mediastinal pleura. Such a growing hamartoma with pleural invasion has so far rarely been previously reported.