Biomedical subjects

Minoru Hamazaki

Publications and source records attributed to Minoru Hamazaki.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Calcifying aponeurotic fibroma of the knee: A case report with radiological findings.

Calcifying aponeurotic fibroma is a rare type of benign tumor that occurs most commonly in the distal extremities of young children. Due to its infiltrative growth, it has a high tendency of recurrence. Although the clinicopathological features of over 100 cases of this rare disease have been reported, its clinical and radiological features have yet to be described in detail. We present a case of calcifying aponeurotic fibroma of the knee from birth with radiological images, that demonstrate the peculiar features of this uncommon benign tumor and discuss its clinicopathological features based on computed tomography and magnetic resonance images.

Calcinosis↗

PubMed2006

Desmoplastic small cell tumor of soft tissue: molecular variant of EWS-WT1 chimeric fusion.

A 7-year-old girl was hospitalized because of a tumorous mass in her left periorbital region. The tumor was removed by local excision. The soft-part tumor recurred in the parotid gland region 4 months later, and a second recurrence was noted on the left side of the neck 3 years and 3 months thereafter. The patient had not received chemotherapy or local irradiation. Histological and immunohistochemical examinations of the recurrent masses revealed morphological characteristics of small cell proliferation with desmoplastic stroma that were similar to those of the initial tumor. The cellular components showed immunoreactivity for desmin, cytokeratin, vimentin, and epithelial membrane antigen in part, but the cells were negative for myogenin, CD99, and neuron-specific enolase. These findings suggested a diagnosis of desmoplastic small cell tumor, despite its extra-abdominal location. The histological diagnosis was confirmed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, which demonstrated an EWS-WT1 chimeric fusion gene. An in-frame fusion of EWS exon 9 and WT1 exon 8 was subsequently identified by cloning and sequencing. The chimeric fusion gene might be related to the tissue-specific phenotype of desmoplastic small cell tumors, although further investigation of this speculation is necessary.

Child↗

PubMed2005

CD56/NCAM-positive Langerhans cell sarcoma: a clinicopathologic study of 4 cases.

This report concerns the clinicopathologic features of 4 patients with CD56/neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM)-positive Langerhans cell sarcoma (LCS). Three of the patients were elderly, between 59 and 62 years of age at presentation, and the other was 35 years old. The presenting symptoms included fever, bone pain, and weakness. The patients shared some clinical findings, such as multiorgan involvement of lymph nodes, skin, lung, bone marrow, and spleen. LCS carries a poor prognosis, and 3 of the patients died of the disease within several years of presentation despite multiagent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Of special interest is that all of the cases showed CD56 expression on the tumor cells in addition to expression of CD1a, S100beta, and langerin, the presence of which suggests derivation from Langerhans cells. For control, CD56 was also examined in 8 cases of Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH), a single-system unifocal or multifocal disease, and the results of staining of the tumor cells were negative. Our findings indicated that CD56 may be a clinically relevant biologic marker for predicting an intractable course of Langerhans cell neoplasms, although it is often difficult to draw a definite morphologically-based distinction between LCS and LCH.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

MRI reveals fetus in fetu in the mediastinum.

Fetus in fetu is an extremely rare condition in which a fetiform calcified mass is contained within the newborn or infant, often in the retroperitoneal cavity. We report a case of a fetus in fetu in the posterior mediastinum of a newborn. The prospective diagnosis was made by fetal US and MRI and confirmed by postnatal plain radiograph, CT and MRI.

Diseases in Twins↗

PubMed2003

Neuroblastoma detected by mass screening: the Tumor Board's role in its treatment.

Japan has a nationwide mass-screening program for neuroblastoma in 6-month-old infants. Neuroblastoma can regress spontaneously, and some institutions observe selected cases. We evaluated the management of screened neuroblastoma at our hospital since 1997 when an observation program was introduced. Criteria for the observation program were stage-I, stage-II, or stage-IVs tumors, urinary vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) and homovanillic acid (HVA) levels <40 microg/mg creatinine, tumor <5 cm in diameter, no invasion to the intraspinal canal or great vessels, and parental consent to participate. Patients who did not meet observation criteria underwent surgery or mild chemotherapy according to the location of the tumor. If patients met observation criteria after chemotherapy, surgical intervention was no longer performed. Thirty-six patients attended our hospital for screened neuroblastoma from 1997 to 2002. Thirty-three patients who were managed at our hospital participated in this study. Ten subjects met observation criteria. Tumors regressed in 7 patients (mean follow-up period 36.3 months) with corresponding decreases in VMA and HVA levels (group A). Three underwent surgery (group B) because of increasing VMA and HVA levels, increase in tumor size, or guardian's request. Twenty-three subjects did not meet observation criteria. Four patients underwent primary surgery (group C), and 19 patients had chemotherapy initially. Fourteen patients met observation criteria after chemotherapy and two are still having chemotherapy (group D). Three patients required surgery due to insufficient regression of their tumors (group E). Fourteen subjects in group D had marked decreases in VMA and HVA levels and tumor size (mean follow-up period 29.1 months), and tumors were not detected using imaging techniques in 8 patients. Histological examination of all resected specimens during the study period showed favorable histology and no N-myc amplification. There was no evidence of unfavorable prognosis in any of the 33 subjects, although 1 patient who underwent primary surgery had a vanishing kidney 1 year later and 1 patient had multiple bony metastases after complete resection of tumor, which was treated by chemotherapy. Until the real significance of mass screening for neuroblastoma as a public health measure is confirmed, observation with careful follow-up should be adopted more extensively because it has a favorable outcome in many cases, and is associated with minimal therapeutic complications.

Adrenal Gland Neoplasms↗

PubMed2003

Transcriptional profiling in hepatoblastomas using high-density oligonucleotide DNA array.

Hepatoblastoma is a common hepatic tumor in children. Although evidence regarding cytogenetic and molecular genetic alterations in hepatoblastomas has been reported, the molecular events affecting the biologic characteristics of this tumor, including alterations of the gene expression profile, are largely unknown. To identify genes differentially expressed between nondiseased liver (NDL) and hepatoblastoma tumor (HBT), we analyzed the gene expression profile in 14 NDL and 16 HBT samples using a high-density oligonucleotide DNA array. Using Mann-Whitney U test followed by the k-nearest neighbor algorithm, we identified 26 genes (predictor genes) that were able to assign unknown samples derived from NDL and HBT to either the NDL group or HBT group with 100% accuracy. Using a cross-validation approach, we confirmed that the k-nearest neighbor algorithm assigned the particular samples derived from NDL and HBT to either the NDL or HBT group with 93.3% (28/30 samples) accuracy. In the 26 predictor genes, we found alteration of the expression of genes regulating cell division (NAP1L1, STMN1, CCNG2, and CDC7L1) and tumor cell growth (IGF2 and IGFBP4) in HBT. Four predictor genes (ETV3, TPR, CD34, and NR1I3) were also found to be mapped to the chromosomal region 1q21 approximately q32, which has been reported to be frequently involved in the development of hepatoblastoma. The findings obtained in this study suggest that alteration of the expression of some genes regulating cell division and tumor cell growth may be characteristics of the gene expression profile in HBT, and that alteration of the expression of the four predictor genes mapped to chromosomal region 1q21 approximately q32 may also contribute to the differences in gene expression profile between NDL and HBT.

Child↗