Short- and long-term oncological outcomes of totally laparoscopic gastrectomy versus laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy for clinical stage I gastric cancer

Gastric Cancer - Totally laparoscopic gastrectomy (TLG), which involves a complete intracorporeal gastric transection and the creation of an anastomosis, has been gradually adopted. However, a...     

CAPP-seq analysis of circulating tumor DNA from patients with EGFR T790M–positive lung cancer after osimertinib

International Journal of Clinical Oncology - We here applied cancer personalized profiling by deep sequencing (CAPP-seq) to analysis of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) to identify resistance...     

Portal tumor thrombus secondary to gastric carcinoma: report of a case with an emphasis on color Doppler ultrasound findings

We report the case of a 67-year-old woman with portal tumor thrombus (PTT) associated with gastric carcinoma. Abdominal ultrasound (US) revealed a marked thickening of the gastric wall and a mass lesion in the splenic vein. Color Doppler US showed the intraportal mass to be blood flow-poor and revealed a gastroepiploic vein extending from the splenic hilum to the portal confluence, passing behind the peritoneum. These findings corresponded well with gastric carcinoma with PTT. Endoscopy confirmed the presence of an advanced type II carcinoma predominantly located in the upper body, which yielded histological results consistent with a well-differentiated adenocarcinoma. The patient's general condition deteriorated rapidly, and she died 2 months later. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing the presence of a large gastroepiploic vein secondary to gastric carcinoma-associated PTT.     

Intravesical administration of exogenous microRNA-145 as a therapy for mouse orthotopic human bladder cancer xenograft

We previously reported that the level of microRNA (miR)-145 is attenuated in human bladder cancer cells. In this current study, we investigated whether intravesical administration of miR-145 could be a potential therapeutic strategy for controlling bladder cancer by using an orthotopic human bladder cancer xenograft model. Following transfection of 253J B-V cells with miR-145, the effects of the ectopic expression of miR-145 were examined by performing MTT, Western blotting analysis, Hoechst33342 staining, and wound healing assay in vitro. Also, a mouse orthotopic human bladder cancer model was established by inoculating 253J B-V cells into the bladder wall of mice. The anti-cancer effects of intravesical injections of miR-145 into these mice were then assessed. Transfection of 253J B-V cells with miR-145 induced apoptosis and suppression of cell migration in vitro. Western blotting showed that the levels of c-Myc, socs7, FSCN1, E-cadherin, β-catenin, and catenin δ-1 were decreased and that the PI3K/Akt and Erk1/2 signaling pathways were increased in compensatory fashion. In vivo, mice treated with miR-145 showed 76% inhibition of tumor growth, with a significant prolongation of animal survival (p = 0.0183 vs. control). Western blotting showed that both apoptosis and cell motility-related genes were significantly decreased as seen in vitro. Furthermore, PI3k/Akt and Erk1/2 signaling pathways, which were activated in a compensatory manner in vitro, were decreased in vivo. Intravesical administration of exogenous miR-145 was thus concluded to be a valid therapy for bladder cancer in this human bladder cancer xenograft model.     

Pharmacokinetics of gatifloxacin after a single oral dose in healthy young adult subjects and adult patients with chronic bronchitis, with a comparison of drug concentrations obtained by bronchoscopic microsampling and bronchoalveolar lavage

BACKGROUND: Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is an established technique for measuring antibiotic concentrations in the epithelial lining fluid (ELF) of the bronchiolar and alveolar regions; however, the results may not reflect concentrations in bronchial regions. Bronchoscopic microsampling (BMS) is a technique that makes it possible to obtain multiple samples from bronchial ELF. OBJECTIVE: BMS and BAL were used to analyze the pharmacokinetics of gatifloxacin in bronchial ELF from healthy young adult subjects and adult patients with chronic bronchitis. METHODS: Bronchial ELF samples were obtained by BMS at 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 10, and 24 hours after administration of a single oral dose of gatifloxacin 200 mg in healthy young adult (aged 20-25 years) subjects, and at 1, 2, 4, and 10 hours after a single dose in patients with chronic bronchitis (aged > or =20 years). At least 1 month after the initial BMS, alveolar (BAL) and bronchial (BMS) ELF samples were obtained from another group of healthy subjects 2 hours after administration of a single oral dose of gatifloxacin 200 mg for comparison of gatifloxacin concentrations in samples obtained by the 2 techniques. RESULTS: Bronchial ELF samples were obtained from 8 healthy subjects and 5 patients with chronic bronchitis; alveolar ELF samples were obtained from a separate group of 5 healthy subjects. For the healthy subjects, the mean (SD) AUC(0-24) in serum and bronchial ELF, corrected for mg/kg doses, was 4.6 (1.1) and 7.6 (3.5) mg x h/L, respectively. In the patients with chronic bronchitis, the AUC(0-10) in serum and bronchial ELF, corrected for mg/kg doses, was 3.9 (0.8) and 4.1 (1.5) mg x h/L. The C(max) in serum and bronchial ELF, corrected for mg/kg doses, was 0.6 (0.2) and 1.4 (0.8) mg/L in healthy subjects and 0.7 (0.2) and 0.7 (0.2) mg/L in patients with chronic bronchitis. In healthy subjects, the C(max) and AUC(0-24) were significantly higher in bronchial ELF than in serum (both, P < 0.05). Gatifloxacin concentrations were significantly lower in bronchial ELF obtained by BMS than in alveolar ELF obtained by BAL (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Based on the findings of this study in small numbers of healthy young adult volunteers and patients with chronic bronchitis, BMS appears to be a promising method for measuring drug concentrations and determining the pharmacokinetic profile of gatifloxacin in bronchial ELF. Additional studies are needed to correlate measured concentrations obtained by BMS with clinical and/or microbiologic outcomes in larger populations.