[A Case Report of Surgery and Chemotherapy for a Patient with Rapidly Progressing Breast Cancer during Pregnancy].

A 33-year-old woman became aware of a right breast mass at her 28th week of pregnancy. From the biopsy results, we diagnosed her with right breast cancer. At her 33rd week of pregnancy, she underwent modified radical mastectomy (pT2N3aM0, Stage III C, ER-negative, PR-negative, HER2-positive), and she elected to receive adjuvant therapy after the surgery during her pregnancy. She received the first course of EC (epirubicin plus cyclophosphamide) therapy on the 13th postoperative day (35 weeks of gestation) and gave a natural, vaginal delivery at 36 weeks and 5 days of gestation. On the 4th day after birth, the patient noticed a contralateral left breast mass and was diagnosed with left breast cancer, after core needle biopsy. She received 4 courses of EC therapy and is currently undergoing PTX plus HER (paclitaxel plus trastuzumab) therapy. Regarding chemotherapy during pregnancy, we recommend that there is no need to perform artificial preterm birth, because chemotherapy has little influence on children after their second-trimester. After the second-trimester, chemotherapy can be safely performed.

[Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma with Excessive Inflammation and High Level of Interleukin 6 - A Case Report].

Malignant mesothelioma is a rare aggressive solid tumor that is invariably incurable. A 23-year-old female patient with ascites, anemia, and high levels of ferritin and CRP was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma by exploratory laparotomy. She remained asymptomatic, but 7 years later, she developed intractable diarrhea and fever. Systematic chemotherapy with both cisplatin and pemetrexed was administered. However, the treatment was discontinued due to side effects, after which time the diarrhea, ascites, and fever became progressively more severe. Hepatomegaly and hepatic siderosis also developed. At the same time, the patient's serum interleukin 6(IL-6)levels were abnormally high. Although there was a temporary symptomatic improvement after intraperitoneal injection of cisplatin, the intractable mesothelioma-associated symptoms returned a few days later. The patient died of liver failure 1 week later. The poor prognosis in this case was due to symptoms associated with the high IL-6 level. There are limited medically proven treatments, and it is important to develop new treatments. Therefore, "anti-IL-6 therapy" may have to be tested as a potential treatment for symptoms associated with high IL-6 levels.