Construction of a maxillary prosthesis with a hollow obturator by the balloon technique and a case report

The authors devised a new method for making a maxillary prosthesis with a hollow obturator, which was named the Balloon Technique. This new technique has a number of advantages over the conventional method in that it not only facilitates the molding of a soft plastic hollow obturator in a single process, but also simplifies the trial fitting of the completed obturator. Furthermore, it makes possible firm adhesion of the hollow obturator and the denture base by the hot-melt method while the denture base resin is cured. Finally, the completed maxillary prosthesis is extremely light.     

Contact dermatitis from a compound mixture of sugar and povidone-iodine

2 patients with leg ulcers got worse after the application of a compound mixture of sugar and povidone-iodine (sugar/PI compound). Because they had been suffering from stasis dermatitis, symptoms of contact dermatitis were ambiguous. Patch tests showed positive reactions to 10% povidone-iodine in water and 5% potassium iodide in water, with no response to sugar. They were also tested with sugar/PI compound, containing 3% povidone-iodine, resulting in another positive reaction. They improved after the application of sugar/PI compound was discontinued. Contact dermatitis from topical agents should be considered as more probable than angry back syndrome in cases of leg ulcer.     

Evaluations of psychological preparation for children undergoing endoscopy

We provided psychological preparation to children who were hospitalized for endoscopy. We performed a multifaceted evaluation of the effects of the preparation to identify appropriate methods for individual children. The subjects were 20 children, ages 4 to 15 years (average 9.9 years), who were divided into 3 groups according to the preparation methods. From our study, we suggest that it is important to discuss the preparation methods for medical procedures using methods appropriate to the level of cognitive development of each individual child.     

Total body irradiation and melphalan as a conditioning regimen for children with hematological malignancies undergoing transplantation with stem cells from HLA‐identical related donors

Watanabe N, Takahashi Y, Matsumoto K, Horikoshi Y, Hama A, Muramatsu H, Yoshida N, Yagasaki H, Kudo K, Horibe K, Kato K, Kojima S. Total body irradiation and melphalan as a conditioning regimen for children with hematological malignancies undergoing transplantation with stem cells from HLA‐identical related donors.
Pediatr Transplantation 2011: 15: 642–649. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Abstract: Although some studies have reported that TBI and MEL offer an effective conditioning regimen for autologous SCT in acute leukemia, little has been reported regarding outcomes of allogeneic SCT. We retrospectively evaluated outcomes for 50 pediatric patients who underwent allo‐SCT conditioned with intravenous MEL (180–210 mg/m²) and fractionated TBI (12–13.2 Gy) from HLA‐identical related donors. Nineteen patients were in CR1, 18 were in CR2, and 13 showed advanced‐stage disease (≥CR3). Patients had received allo‐SCT from HLA‐identical siblings (n = 45) or phenotypically HLA‐identical family donors (n = 5). Median duration of follow‐up for all disease‐free patients was 61 months (range, 8.8–177 months). At the time of analysis, 12 patients had died. Eleven of those died of relapse, and one died of TRM. DFS rates for all patients, patients with AML (n = 12), and patients with lymphoid malignancy (n = 38) were 61.4% and 82.1%, respectively. DFS rates for CR1, CR2, and ≥CR3 cases were 89.2%, 88.1%, and 23.1%, respectively (p < 0.05). MEL/TBI for pediatric patients with hematological malignancies was associated with lower relapse rates and no increase in toxicity, resulting in better survival.     

Induction of Apoptosis after Stent Implantation in Canine Portal Vein

The purpose of this study was to analyze apoptosis in the vessel wall after stent implantation in the canine portal vein and also to investigate the expression of the p21 cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, which may regulate cellular proliferation after vascular injury. Uninjured, control veins had few detectable TUNEL-positive cells in the intima and media (0.829 ± 0.413%). At 4 weeks after stent implantation, TUNEL-positive cells significantly increased to 50.5 ± 4.639%. These cells were predominantly located around the stent struts, and appeared to be smooth muscle cells morphologically. At 12 weeks, 44.7 ± 6.178% of the intimal and medial cells were still TUNEL positive, and there was no significant difference between 4 and 12 weeks. P21 was not detected in uninjured, normal veins. At 4 and 12 weeks after stent implantation, positive p21 immunostaining was sparsely expressed in the intima and media adjacent to the stent struts. Thus, stent implantation induced a prolonged apoptotic response and increased expression of p21 in the portal venous system. This prolonged apoptotic response, possibly regulated by p21, may have a significant role in modulating the cellularity of intimal formation.     

Outcomes of long-term nivolumab and subsequent chemotherapy in Japanese patients with head and neck cancer: 2-year follow-up from a multicenter real-world study

Background

We have previously reported the effectiveness and safety of nivolumab in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) in real-world clinical practice in Japan. Here, we report long-term outcomes from this study in the overall population and subgroups stratified by subsequent chemotherapy.

Methods

In this multicenter, retrospective observational study, Japanese patients with recurrent or metastatic (R/M) HNC receiving nivolumab were followed up for 2 years. Effectiveness endpoints included overall survival (OS), OS rate, progression-free survival (PFS), and PFS rate. Safety endpoints included the incidence of immune-related adverse events (irAEs).

Results

Overall, 256 patients received a median of 6.0 doses (range: 1–52) of nivolumab over a median duration of 72.5 days (range: 1–736). Median OS was 9.5 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 8.2–12.0] and median PFS was 2.1 months (95% CI 1.8–2.7). A significant difference between 2-year survivors (n = 62) and non-2-year survivors was observed by median age (P = 0.0227) and ECOG PS (P = 0.0001). Of 95 patients who received subsequent chemotherapy, 54.7% received paclitaxel ± cetuximab. The median OS and PFS from the start of paclitaxel ± cetuximab were 6.9 months (95% CI 5.9–11.9) and 3.5 months (95% CI 2.3–5.5), respectively. IrAEs were reported in 17.2% of patients. Endocrine (7.0%) and lung (4.3%) disorders were the most common irAEs; kidney disorder (n = 1) was newly identified in this follow-up analysis.

Conclusions

Results demonstrated the long-term effectiveness of nivolumab and potential effectiveness of subsequent chemotherapy in patients with R/M HNC in the real-world setting. Safety was consistent with that over the 1-year follow-up.