[Two radically resected colorectal carcinoma cases with unresectable liver metastasis after adjuvant chemotherapy with bevacizumab].

Nowadays, the advancements of systemic chemotherapy for colorectal carcinoma improve a clinical response rate, and expand the possibility of resection which couldn't operable at the initial visit. In addition, the prognoses of the patients, who had a radical operation for metastasis, are clearly longer than the non-operable patients. Bevacizumab, anti-human VEGF monoclonal antibody, is significantly effective when used in combination with one of the systemic multi-agent chemotherapy such as FOLFOX regimen or FOLFIRI regimen. We report here two cases with colon carcinoma, which had initially unresectable liver metastases, were respond to the treatment of systemic multi-agent chemotherapy with bevacizumab. Then, both cases were able to undergo radical resections of primary tumor and liver metastases safely.

Hepatic resection for the treatment of liver metastases in gastric carcinoma: review of the literature.

This article presents a review of the literature on hepatic resection for the treatment of liver metastases in gastric carcinoma, and discusses the indications, mortality rates, prognostic factors and long-term results. Reports on hepatectomy for liver metastases from gastric cancer are rare, the results are disappointing, and further studies are required.

Genetic susceptibility of catechol-O-methyltransferase polymorphism in Japanese patients with breast cancer.

Polymorphic catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) catalyzes the O-methylation of catechol estrogens. It has been reported that COMT polymorphism is a representative genetic trait related to the susceptibility of an individual to breast cancer. However, there is no consensus concerning the association between breast cancer in Japanese patients and COMT polymorphism. To analyze the polymorphism distribution in Japanese patients with breast cancer, a molecular genotyping method using a polymerase chain reaction-based restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used. Based on an analysis of 201 Japanese patients with breast cancer and 352 healthy control subjects, a significant difference was observed in either the distribution of genotypes (p=0.03) or allele frequencies between the two groups (p=0.01). The relative risk of breast cancer for genotypes (COMT(Met/Met) and COMT(Val/Met)) including the variant allele (COMT(Met)) was 1.47 compared to the wild allele (COMT(Val)) and homozygote (COMT(Val/Val)). Furthermore, the distribution of genotypes in post-menopausal patients with breast cancer showed a significant difference with that of healthy subjects of the same menopausal status (p=0.01). No significant difference was found between the distribution of genotypes and clinicopathological features of the cancer. These results suggest that COMT polymorphism may thus be implicated as a genetic trait affecting the susceptibility of an individual to breast cancer in a Japanese population and be an important genetic risk factor in the development of breast cancer in post-menopausal women.