Metastatic serous adenocarcinoma arising in the adnexa uteri and forming pleural cysts on the diaphragmatic pleura.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Kunimitsu Kawahara.
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Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) is an aggressive form of human leukemia/lymphoma. Although this disease is initiated by infection with human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), many HTLV-1 carriers survive for a long period without aggressive illness, suggesting that other factors may play roles in the progression of ATLL to an aggressive state. However, the mechanism involved in this progression still remains unclear. Previously, we have reported that ASY/Nogo mRNA was markedly down-regulated in human small-cell lung carcinomas, whereas it was expressed in normal tissues and other lung carcinomas, such as adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. To understand whether or not ASY/Nogo gene is involved in the progression of ATLL, we examined the expression of ASY/Nogo mRNA in smoldering, chronic and aggressive ATLL, and found that the expression level of ASY/Nogo mRNA was markedly reduced in clinically aggressive ATLL. HTLV-1 Tax expression was not affected by the down-regulation of ASY/Nogo mRNA. These results indicate that the ASY/Nogo gene may act as a suppressor against ATLL progression, independent of Tax expression.
The development of primary squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the liver has only rarely been reported in association with pre-existing hepatic cysts and biliary tract diseases. This report describes an unusual case of SCC originating in a cirrhotic liver. A 63-year-old male alcoholic was incidentally found to have a 6-cm liver tumor which showed mixed echogenic by sonography and a low-density area with rim enhancement by computed tomography. Tumor biopsy led to a diagnosis of SCC with a sarcomatoid change. The tumor showed fatal rapid growth accompanied by abdominal pain. Transcatheter arterial embolization and chemotherapy were not effective, and the tumor increased to 13cm in diameter over an 8-month period. A post-mortem search revealed no alternative primary tumor site other than liver. Review of the literature shows that abdominal pain is a chief symptom of primary liver SCC. Only three of the nine patients treated with hepatic resection survived without recurrence during 8 months to 4 years of follow-up. We propose that SCC with a grave prognosis should be considered as a rare entity of primary liver tumor even in cirrhotic patients.
Longterm observation with chest radiograph and computed tomography (CT) scan was performed for pulmonary amyloidosis. There are few reports of primary pulmonary amyloidosis with a longterm observation. We encountered three cases of nodular pulmonary amyloidosis observed by intermittent chest radiograph or CT for 5 years or more. The patients were a 54-year-old man, and 67- and 68-year old women. For diagnosis, transbronchial biopsy and percutaneous lung biopsy were performed. Amyloid nodules grew slowly and two cases showed findings of cavity and calcification.
Ectopic cervical or cervico-mediastinal thymomas are very rare and most of them are asymptomatic, except for the presence of a cervical mass. We present the case of a 71-year-old man with an ectopic cervico-mediastinal thymoma threatening superior vena cava syndrome. He had a slight headache and presented with venous dilatation on the chest wall. A computed tomographic scan and magnetic resonance imaging of the chest demonstrated a mass extending from the right neck to the hilum, that indented the trachea and compressed and displaced the brachiocephalic veins anteriorly. Under a right hemicollar incision and median sternotomy, the mass was resected en bloc together with the thymus. The resected specimen was an encapsulated mass measuring 11x7x4 cm. The pathological diagnosis was type AB, non-invasive thymoma, confirmed by 3-color flow cytometry of tumor-derived lymphocytes. Flow cytometry using biopsy material may contribute to the preoperative diagnosis of ectopic thymoma.
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We present the case of a 57-year-old woman with pulmonary suture abscess. She had undergone right S3 segmentectomy for early lung adenocarcinoma 7 years before and right breast-conserving surgery for invasive ductal carcinoma 5 months previously, followed by irradiation plus endocrine therapy. Chest radiography and computed tomography revealed an irregular mass (3.5 cm in diameter) between the residual S1 segment and the middle lobe, neighboring the staple line of the segmentectomy. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake into the mass increased, seen by positron emission scans. Therefore, we could not rule out the possibility of local recurrence of lung cancer and resected it. Pathologically and microbiologically, the mass was a suture abscess arising around the nylon suture of the previous segmentectomy. This lesion was the result of a foreign-body reaction, as confirmed by polarized microscopy. Moreover, titanium staples at the segmentectomy and breast-conserving surgery may also have contributed to this condition.
We report the first case of a pathological complete response for plasmacytoid urothelial carcinoma of the bladder. A 76-year-old man was diagnosed with plasmacytoid urothelial carcinoma (T4, N0, M0) by the microscopically plasmacytoid appearance of the specimen from the transurethral resection. Immunohistochemical studies were positive for epithelial markers and negative for lymphoid markers. Two cycles of systemic chemotherapy were performed with methotrexate, etoposide, vinblastine, and cisplatin, followed by radical cystectomy. The pathological examination revealed no residual cancer cells in the resected specimen.
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the usefulness of the Sasada transbronchial angled forceps (STAF) in patients with peripheral pulmonary lesions (PPLs), which are difficult to manipulate with standard forceps. METHODS: We have invented the STAF, a forceps with an angled tip. One hundred ten patients with PPLs that were difficult to reach with standard forceps were retrospectively evaluated. The patients first underwent bronchoscopy with a standard forceps and then with the STAF. The specimens obtained with standard forceps and those obtained with STAF were separately fixed and analyzed histologically. We compared the histologic diagnosis of the specimens obtained by STAF with that obtained by the specimens obtained with standard forceps. Statistical significance was calculated with the McNemar chi(2) statistic. RESULTS: The diagnostic yield of all lesions from the specimens obtained with STAF (86 of 110 lesions; 78.2%) was significantly higher than that of lesions from the specimens obtained with standard forceps (43 of 110 lesions; 39.1%; p < 0.001). Among malignant lesions, the yield obtained with STAF (60 of 72 lesions; 83.3%) was significantly higher than that obtained with standard forceps (32 of 72 lesions; 44.4%; p < 0.001). Among benign lesions, the yield obtained with STAF (26 of 38 lesions; 68.4%) was also significantly higher than that obtained with standard forceps (11 of 38 lesions; 28.9%; p < 0.001). Among the different lesion areas, the right upper lobe plus the left upper division gave the greatest difference in yield (STAF, 46 of 60 lesions; 76.7%; standard forceps, 22 of 60 lesions; 36.7%; p < 0.001). Among the different size ranges, the diagnostic yields obtained with STAF were significantly higher than that obtained with standard forceps except for the size range of < or = 10 mm. There were two complications, pneumothorax and bronchial bleeding, both of which were controlled easily. CONCLUSIONS: The STAF was shown to be useful for obtaining specimens that were sufficient for histologic diagnosis from PPLs that were difficult to manipulate with standard forceps.
OBJECTIVE: To analyze the situation of tuberculosis infection by DNA fingerprinting in the middle and eastern part of Osaka, Japan. DESIGN: We performed IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) on 1200 isolates from tuberculosis patients who visited our hospital from January 2001 to December 2003. A cluster was defined as a series of isolates with more than 90% similarity by IS6110 RFLP and those with the same drug-susceptibility pattern. The isolates with fewer than six copies of IS6110 were considered to be clustered if the IS6110 RFLP patterns and the variable numbers of tandem repeats with 16 regions of ETR and MIRU "allele profile" were identical. RESULTS: The number of samples in incremental study periods was 422 in 2001, 817 between 2001 and 2002 and 1200 between 2001 and 2003. The percentage of clustered cases was 27.8% in 2001, 19.1% in 2002 and 19.5% in 2003. The cumulative percentage of clustered cases was 27.8% in the first year, 29.7% over two years and 32.6% over three years. The percentage of clustered cases of isolates with a drug resistance was significantly lower (25.0%) than that of drug susceptible isolates (33.7%). Next, we investigated the clustered cases by gender and age. The percentage of clustered cases with isolates from young males and females (0-19 years old) was 23.8%. In contrast, the percentage of clustered cases with isolates from 20-59 year-old females gradually decreased from 14.7% to 4.4%. Conversely, the percentage of clustered cases from young and middle aged male (20-59 years old) was higher (20.2%-32.4%) than that of females. CONCLUSION: The sharp increase in the cumulative cluster formation rate was curbed by the decline in the tuberculosis incidence rate in Osaka, Japan, after the first year of examination. We thought that this phenomenon suggests the success of the anti-tuberculosis measure in Japan.
PURPOSE: To know the treatment outcome of patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) during gestation. METHOD: Retrospective study of 3 cases of pregnant women, who were treated for MDR-TB with a regimen including pyrazinamide, ethambutol, para-aminosalicylic acid, cycloserine and amoxicillin-clavulanic acid. RESULT: All patients showed a good response to anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy without any serious adverse effect, and were culture-negative at the time of delivery. Two patients delivered vaginally at weeks 40, and one patient delivered surgically at weeks 38. All newborns were healthy, and their tuberculin skin tests and placental tissue examinations were negative for tuberculosis. CONCLUSION: MDR-TB can be successfully treated during pregnancy by using a regimen including effective second-line anti-tuberculosis drugs.
Thoracolithiasis is a rare condition with only 12 cases of surgically removed nodules reported in the literature. We report 2 additional cases. Case 1: A 19-year-old male admitted with an abnormal shadow on a chest X-ray. Computed tomography (CT) revealed a nodule in the right lower lung lobe. The material extirpated by thoracoscopy was milky white, glossy, and 1.6 cm in diameter. Histopathologically, it consisted of fatty necrotic tissue covered with hyalinized fibrous tissue. Case 2: A 78-year-old female, with a past history of breast cancer, admitted with an abnormal shadow on chest X-ray. CT revealed a nodule in the left lung S(1+2) segment, of which transbronchial biopsy findings indicated primary lung adenocarcinoma. Exploratory thoracoscopy incidentally revealed some pearly material, 0.4 cm in diameter, in the thoracic cavity. They were extirpated during left upper lobectomy for lung cancer; all of them demonstrated concentric hyalinized fibrous tissue. Thoracic surgeons should consider this condition in the differential diagnosis of a peripheral pulmonary nodule.
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Hepatoma-derived growth factor (HDGF), unrelated to hepatocyte growth factor, is a heparin-binding protein originally purified from human hepatoma HuH-7 cells. HDGF exhibits mitogenic activities for certain hepatoma cells, fibroblasts and vascular smooth muscle cells, and angiogenic activities through nuclear targeting. Recently, HDGF was found to be a mitogen for lung epithelial cells in vitro and in vivo. This suggests that HDGF may play a critical role in the development and progression of lung cancer. We investigated, immunohistochemically, the relationship between HDGF expression and clinicopathological variables, and the prognostic significance of HDGF in 102 patients with completely resected non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC: 70 adenocarcinomas and 32 squamous cell carcinomas). To address the mechanism of action of HDGF, we evaluated the contribution of HDGF to tumor cell proliferation and intratumor angiogenesis using anti-Ki-67 and anti-CD31 antibodies, respectively. HDGF expression was strongly detected in the nucleus of cancer cells; the HDGF-labeling index (LI) was 20-95% (median 64.5%). There was no significant association between HDGF-expression level and clinicopathological variables. Patients with NSCLC showing a high HDGF-LI (> or =65%) had significantly worse overall and disease-free survivals than those with NSCLC showing a low HDGF-LI. Multivariate analysis revealed that HDGF is a significant independent prognostic factor, more powerful than pathological stage. Moreover, HDGF expression correlated with Ki-67-LI and intratumor microvessel density. We consider HDGF as a useful prognostic marker for patients with completely resected NSCLC and it may play a critical role in the pathobiology of lung cancer through its mitogenic and angiogenic activities.
A 61-year-old man consulted our hospital because of bloody sputum. Cells of Class V (adenocarcinoma) were found on sputum cytologic examination. Chest computed tomography (CT) showed reticular shadows but no obvious mass was detected. Positron emission tomography with 18-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG-PET) revealed FDG uptake in both lower lung fields and more increased FDG uptake in a small area of the left lung field. Repeated chest CT, bronchial brushing, bronchial washing, and lung-imaging fluorescence endoscopy were performed, however, resulting in no detection of the primary site of lung cancer. Six months after initial consultation, chest CT showed an enlargement of the shadow in left S6 corresponding to the area of the more increased FDG uptake in PET. On the other hand, the shadow in right S10 did not change in size. Bronchial brushing of the left S6 was performed again, and class IV cells (adenocarcinoma) were found. After left lower lobectomy, diagnoses of well differentiated adenocarcinoma and usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) were established histologically. There has been no report demonstrating the efficacy of FDG-PET for diagnosis of lung cancer with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).However, combination of lung cancer should be considered if PET shows spots of high FDG uptake in the lung fields of IPF.
Gefitinib has a modest activity in previously treated patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the efficacy and safety of gefitinib monotherapy in untreated advanced NSCLC is not known. We retrospectively reviewed the records of 12 patients of NSCLC who were unfit or refused cytotoxic chemotherapy, and were treated with a single-agent gefitinib as first-line therapy in our hospital. The patients were 6 males and 6 females. The median age was 76.5 years (range 34-82). The histological types were adenocarcinoma in all patients. Clinical stage was IIB in one patient, IIIB in four, and IV in seven. Five were elderly patients and four were patients with ECOG PS (performance status) 3. Five had partial response (PR), and two had stable disease (SD). The response rate was 41%. The median time to progression (TTP) was 126 days. Grade 1 diarrhea was observed in three patients, grade 1 or 2 eruption paronychia was in eight, and grade 1 or 2 liver dysfunction was in two. No grade 3 or 4 toxicities occurred. Gefitinib monotherapy may provide an opportunity for untreated NSCLC, particularly unsuitable patients with standard chemotherapy. Prospective studies of gefitinib monotherapy as first-line treatment are warranted.
The long-term histological and virological outcomes of spontaneous circulating hepatitis C virus (HCV) clearance were studied in chronic liver disease. Between 1979 and 1984, three patients underwent laparoscopy for chronic non-A, non-B liver disease, and two were found to have cirrhosis and one with chronic active hepatitis. After HCV assays became available in 1990, they were positive persistently for HCV antibody without serum HCV RNA. Reductions of antibody levels to HCV core and/or nonstructural proteins were observed, and liver biopsies were undertaken between 1995 and 2000. Liver biopsies at 11-19 years after laparoscopy disclosed marked alleviation of liver inflammation and fibrosis in each case although a low grade of inflammation remained. The two patients with cirrhosis no longer showed histological features of cirrhosis, and the poor liver function in one patient had been ameliorated. Liver specimens from two patients were subjected to polymerase chain reaction to detect positive and negative HCV RNA strands and hepatitis B virus DNA. Only the positive HCV RNA strand was detected for one patient who had previously cirrhosis. Liver specimens were examined from another six nonviremic HCV-seropositive individuals without chronic liver disease. Five patients displayed low-grade liver inflammation without evident fibrosis, but none had any viral genome in the liver. These findings suggest that spontaneous circulating HCV clearance in chronic liver disease confers favorable liver histological outcome, although occult HCV infection persists. J. Med. Virol. 69:41-49, 2003.
There have been few studies regarding cancer progression from differentiated thyroid carcinoma to the undifferentiated one. To examine the possible involvement of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in this progression, 10 papillary carcinomas and 11 undifferentiated carcinomas were subjected to mRNA in situ hybridization, indirect immunofluorescence staining, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and reverse-transcriptase PCR. mRNA in situ hybridization using a BamHIW probe revealed signals in all of the examined samples, although the signal strength was weaker in the papillary carcinomas than in the undifferentiated carcinomas. EBV nuclear antigen-2 (EBNA2) in situ hybridization produced almost the same results; however, the signals were detected less frequently in the papillary carcinomas. Indirect immunofluorescence using anti-EBNA2, anti-latent membrane protein-1 (LMP1), and anti-BZLF1 antibodies also showed positive results with high frequency and with more prominent fluorescence in undifferentiated carcinomas than in papillary carcinomas. An examination of thyroid carcinoma cell lines also confirmed these findings. EBV infected all of the thyroid carcinomas irrespective of the degree of pathological differentiation. The expression of EBV, especially of EBNA2 and LMP1 (both of which are oncogene products of EBV), was stronger in the undifferentiated carcinomas than in the papillary carcinomas. These results suggest that increased expression of EBV may be involved in the progression of thyroid papillary carcinoma to undifferentiated carcinoma.