Changes of cancer diagnosis disclosure to children in Japan in the last 20 years

International Journal of Clinical Oncology - The practice of cancer diagnosis disclosure to children has been changed with the times. The regulations of clinical trials in the 2000s might change...     

Locally applied cilostazol suppresses neointimal hyperplasia and medial thickening in a vein graft model.

BACKGROUND: Pathological changes in vein grafts begin immediately after arterial circulation is applied to the grafts. Chemical mediator stimulation and mechanical strain induce neointimal hyperplasia and medial thickening of the vein grafts, resulting in their failure. We investigated the inhibitory effect of locally applied cilostazol, an inhibitor of cyclic adenosine monophosphate phosphodiesterase III, on neointimal hyperplasia and medial thickening of the grafts. METHODS AND RESULTS: We established a distal anastomotic stricture model of femoral vein-abdominal aorta interposition grafting in rats. In this model, neointimal hyperplasia was observed not only at the distal anastomotic sites, but also in the graft body at postoperative day 14 and was markedly progressed at day 28. A strong expression of tenascin-C was found in the media and neointima of the graft body. In the grafts around which cilostazol was administered locally using Pluronic gel, neointimal hyperplasia was significantly suppressed compared with control grafts treated with the gel alone, with the mean neointimal cross-sectional area reduced by 87.1% for the graft body and by 78.9% for the distal anastomotic sites and mean medial cross-sectional area of the graft body reduced by 54.2% at day 28 versus the control. Cilostazol treatment decreased cell proliferation and the number of tenascin-C-producing cells seen by in situ hybridization, but the expression of tenascin-C protein was not suppressed. CONCLUSION: We concluded that a single perivascular application of cilostazol inhibits neointimal hyperplasia and medial thickening of vein grafts in a rat model.     

The biological characteristics and chemosensitivity of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma transplanted into nude mice

Three xenografts established from three patients with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma were investigated for their biological characteristics and chemosensitivity. The histological and immunohistochemical findings of these tumors were almost the same as those of the original tumors. Although the growth rate of each xenograft was constant, the tumor doubling time varied from 4.8 per 9.0 days, and the labeling indexes, determined using bromodeoxyuridine pulse labeling, varied from 11.4 to 25.1 per cent. The chemosensitivity tests were performed according to the Battelle Columbus Laboratories Protocol, with adriamycin, cyclophosphamide, cisplatin, mitomycin C and tegafur administered intraperitoneally to tumor-bearing nude mice in maximum tolerable doses. Tumors with slower growth rates tended to be sensitive to more drugs. Furthermore, cyclophosphamide showed antitumor effects against all the tumors tested. Although previous treatments of the original tumors may have affected the results, our results suggest that a more suitable chemotherapy for anaplastic thyroid carcinoma could be developed.