Meningitis and Ventriculitis due to Nocardia araoensis Infection.

A 73-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with disturbance of consciousness, fever and headache. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis revealed pleocytosis with neutrophil predominance, increased protein and low glucose. CSF and blood cultures yielded negative results. Antibiotics and antituberculous drugs were started for meningitis. An antimycotic was also added. The patient died from transtentorial hernia 99 days after admission. Autopsy revealed meningitis, ventriculitis and brain abscess, and Nocardia araoensis was detected in pus from the left lateral ventricle. This appears to represent the first report of N. araoensis meningitis complicated by ventriculitis and brain abscess.

[Efficacy and safety of TS-1 monotherapy for advanced/metastatic breast cancer - an observational study by the Kumamoto Breast Cancer Cooperative Group(KBCCG)].

TS-1, an oral fluoropyrimidine, is known to be effective for the treatment of various carcinomas including advanced/metastatic breast cancer.The Kumamoto Breast Cancer Cooperative Group(KBCCG)conducted an observational study, wherein, the efficacy and safety of TS-1 monotherapy was analyzed in 35 patients with recurrent or metastatic breast cancer.The median time to cancer progression was 3.7 months, overall response rate was 12%, and clinical benefit rate was 32%. Adverse events were observed in 27 patients(77%), and adverse events of Grade >3 were observed in 7 patients(20%). The rate of treatment-related Grade 3 and 4 adverse events increased, and was associated with poor levels of creatinine clearance(Ccr)ie <60mL/min.This study suggests that TS-1 monotherapy can potentially be used as a salvage treatment for advanced/metastatic breast cancer owing to its safety and efficacy.Measuring the level of Ccr before TS-1 therapy should be considered to avoid severe adverse events.

Chemotherapy with bevacizumab for metastatic colorectal cancer: a retrospective review of 181 Japanese patients.

BACKGROUND: There has so far been little information on the clinical effect of bevacizumab against colorectal cancer in Japan. Hence, this study was conducted to retrospectively evaluate the safety and efficacy of bevacizumab in clinical practice. METHODS: A total of 181 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) received bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy at 18 hospitals in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan. We surveyed the medical records of all patients regarding the patient characteristics, objective tumor responses, and adverse events. We analyzed their overall survival and the survival benefit when continuing the administration of bevacizumab beyond disease progression (progressive disease; PD) in patients who received bevacizumab-containing 1st line therapy. RESULTS: The response rate (RR) in all lines of therapy was 42 %. The 1st line patients showed significantly better survival in comparison to the patients who received further lines of treatment (P = 0.005). There were no significant differences in survival between the group with post-PD treatment with bevacizumab and the group with post-PD treatment without bevacizumab (P = 0.13). The most common grade 3 or greater adverse event associated with bevacizumab was hypertension (12.2 %). Especially, a high incidence of gastrointestinal (GI) perforation was shown in this study (4.4 %) and most of the patients with GI perforation had some risk factors for this complication. CONCLUSION: Although the survival benefit of bevacizumab in Japanese patients with mCRC was similar to that observed in previous clinical trials, this study showed a high incidence of GI perforation in comparison to previous studies. Therefore, the careful selection of patients with few risk factors for this complication is likely to lead to a greater benefit from bevacizumab treatment.

[A case of inflammatory carcinoma, well-controlled by chemotherapy, especially, vinorelbine, S-1 and trastuzumab].

We experienced a case of inflammatory carcinoma, which has been well controlled by chemotherapy, especially, vinorelbine, S-1 and trastuzumab. A 54-year-old woman was diagnosed as inflammatory carcinoma with T4d, N3c, M0 in Stage III c. The lesion was diagnosed as invasive ductal carcinoma, scirrhous, ER(-), PgR(-), HER2(3+) by core needle biopsy, The skin lesion was diagnosed as dermal lymphatic carcinomatosis by skin biopsy. The following chemotherapy was performed: FEC(5-FU 500 mg/m2, epirubicin 70 mg/m2, cyclophosphamide 500 mg/m2) followed by docetaxel(DOC 70 mg/m/2), every 3 weeks, each 6 times; after that, sequentially, vinorelbine (25 mg/m2)+trastuzumab (2 mg/kg every week), UFT(300 mg, daily)+cyclophosphamide (100 mg 2 weeks on, 1 week off)+trastuzumab (continued) and S-1 (120 mg/body 4 weeks on, 2 weeks off)+trastuzumab (continued). The patient has been well controlled by the chemotherapy with good QOL. Especially vinorelbine, S-1, and trastuzumab contributed to the disappearance of skin lesion.