The Role of Postoperative Radiotherapy in Intracranial Solitary Fibrous Tumor/Hemangiopericytoma: A Multi-institutional Retrospective Study (KROG 18-11) / Journal of the Korean Cancer Association, 대한암학회지

Purpose@#This study aimed to evaluate the role of postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) in intracranial solitary fibrous tumor/hemangiopericytoma (SFT/HPC). @*Materials and Methods@#A total of 133 patients with histologically confirmed HPC were included from eight institutions. Gross total resection (GTR) and subtotal resection (STR) were performed in 86 and 47 patients, respectively. PORT was performed in 85 patients (64%). The prognostic effects of sex, age, performance, World Health Organization (WHO) grade, location, size, Ki-67, surgical extent, and PORT on local control (LC), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) were estimated by univariate and multivariate analyses. @*Results@#The 10-year PFS, and OS rates were 45%, and 71%, respectively. The multivariate analysis suggested that PORT significantly improved LC (p < 0.001) and PFS (p < 0.001). The PFS benefit of PORT was maintained in the subgroup of GTR (p=0.001), WHO grade II (p=0.001), or STR (p < 0.001). In the favorable subgroup of GTR and WHO grade II, PORT was also significantly related to better PFS (p=0.028). WHO grade III was significantly associated with poor DMFS (p=0.029). In the PORT subgroup, the 0-0.5 cm margin of the target volume showed an inferior LC to a large margin with 1.0-2.0 cm (p=0.021). Time-dependent Cox proportion analysis showed that distant failures were significantly associated with poor OS (p=0.003). @*Conclusion@#This multicenter study supports the role of PORT in disease control of intracranial SFT/HPC, irrespective of the surgical extent and grade. For LC, PORT should enclose the tumor bed with sufficient margin.

The Development of Antibody-Drug Conjugates for Urothelial Carcinoma Treatment

Urothelial cancer is the seventh most common cancer among men worldwide. Bacille de Calmette-Guérin is a type of anticancer immunotherapy that has been used to treat targeted bladder cancer, but the number of patients with treatment-refractory advanced urothelial cancer, patients has been increasing recently. To overcome this, enfortumab vedotin (novel nectin-4 targeting antibody-drug conjugate) known as antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), was approved. We describe the clinical development process of ADC and the potential for future development as a bladder cancer treatment.

The Effects of Recombinant Bacillus Calmette-Guérin Resistant to Antimicrobial Peptides on Orthotopic Bladder Cancer Mouse Model

Purpose@#Although Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is the most widely used bladder cancer immunotherapy, innate immune responses involving antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) cause BCG failure. Here, we developed genetically modified recombinant BCG (rBCG) strains which escape AMPs and evaluate the efficacy and effects of rBCG. @*Materials and Methods@#We constructed rBCG strains expressing Streptococcal inhibitor of complement (Sic), which confers resistance to human α-defensin-1 and cathelicidin, and d-alanyl carrier protein ligase (dltA), which confers resistance to cationic AMPs. Sic and dltA were separately cloned into the pMV306 plasmid and introduced into BCG via electroporation. The efficacy of the Sic and dltA gene electroporation into BCG was evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The internalization rates and anticancer effects of the rBCG strains containing Sic (rBCG-Sic) and dltA (rBCG-dltA) was evaluated by the orthotopic bladder cancer mouse model. @*Results@#The cycle quantification (Cq) values of rBCG-Sic (y=-4.8823x+13.645, R2=0.9996) and rBCG-dltA (y=-5.438x+11.641, R2=0.9995) were inverse correlations to the amount of Sic and dltA genes dose dependently. The mean introduction proportions of Sic and dltA genes into BCG by electroporation were 22.2%, 27.5% and showed constant efficacy. In the orthotopic bladder cancer mouse model, the relative internalization number of rBCG-Sic, and rBCG-dltA into bladder cell in mouse bladder were higher than that of BCG and the tumor volume at rBCG-Sic were lower than at BCG and rBCG-dltA at 11, 14 and 18 days. @*Conclusions@#Our results showed that constructed rBCG-Sic and rBCG-dltA by electroporation and the rBCG-Sic and rBCG-dltA can effectively escape BCG-stimulated AMPs, and significantly improved immunotherapeutic tools to treat bladder cancer in orthotopic bladder cancer mouse model.

Persistent Erectile Dysfunction after Discontinuation of 5-Alpha Reductase Inhibitor Therapy in Rats Depending on the Duration of Treatment

PURPOSE: The current study is aimed to assess whether a longer duration of 5α-reductase inhibitor (5α-RI) exposure was associated with higher rate of permanent erectile dysfunction (ED) in a rat model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Male Sprague-Dawley rats (n=76) were assigned to five groups: (i) normal control group; (ii) dutasteride (0.5 mg/rat/d) for 4-weeks group; (iii) dutasteride for 4-weeks plus 2-weeks of resting group; (iv) dutasteride for 8-weeks group; and (v) dutasteride for 8-weeks plus 2-weeks of resting group. In vivo erectile responses to electrical stimulation, and changes of fibrotic factors and smooth muscle/collagen contents in the corpus cavernosum were evaluated in each group. RESULTS: Dutasteride administration for 4 and 8 weeks significantly decreased erectile parameters compared with the control group. Reduced erectile responses were recovered during 2 weeks of drug-free time in the 4-week treatment group, but were not in the 8-week group. Protein levels of fibrosis-related factors transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1, TGF-β2, and p-Smad/Smad (Smad 2/3) in the corpus cavernosum showed no significant change after 4 weeks of dutasteride oral administration, but were enhanced after 8 weeks. Dutasteride markedly decreased smooth muscle content and increased collagen after 4 and 8 weeks of use, but no nuclear size changes; however, neither group showed significant improvement in the smooth muscle to collagen ratio after the rest period. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that recovery from ED depended on the duration of medication, and administration of dutasteride for more than 8-weeks in rats could result in irreversible ED even after discontinuation of medication.

The Effects of Emotional Labor and Job Involvement on Turnover Intention of Nurses in Long-term Care Hospitals / 한국직업건강간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the influencing factors on turnover intention of nurses in long-term care hospitals. METHODS: Data were collected from 210 nurses in 11 long-term care hospitals in B city. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and Stepwise multiple regression. RESULTS: Turnover intention was significantly correlated with emotional labor(r=.35, p<.001) and job involvement (r=-.38, p<.001). In a multiple regression, emotional labor (beta=.31, p<.001), age (beta=-.27, p<.001), job satisfaction (beta=.24, p<.001), job involvement (beta=-.23, p<.001), and number of patients assigned(beta=.14, p=.009) were associated with turnover intention. These factors attributed to 41.2% of the total variance in turnover intention. CONCLUSION: Considering the results of this study, proactive educational and/or human resource management interventions need to be developed especially for those younger nurses in order to reduce emotional labor as well as to promote job satisfaction and job involvement of nurses in long-term care hospitals.