[Long-term Survival Malignant Fibrous Histiocytoma of the Chest Wall by Postoperative Multidisciplinary Therapy;Report of a Case].

Malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH) of the chest wall is a rare tumor with poor prognosis. A 70-year-old male was admitted to our hospital because of chest pain and an abnormal shadow on the chest X-ray. He had a right chest wall tumor of 7 cm insize. The tumor was surgically removed completely and the diagnosis of pleomorphic MFH was established pathologically. After surgery, adjuvant radio-chemotherapy was performed. The patient has been followed up for 7 year with no evidence of reccurence.

[Localized Malignant Mesothelioma of the Pleura with Hemothorax].

Localized malignant mesothelioma of the pleura (LMM) is an extremely rare tumor. The biologic association between LMM and diffuse malignant mesothelioma of the pleura (DMM) remains unclear, and the standard treatment for LMM has not been established to date. We experienced a rare case of LMM. A 49-year-old male was admitted to our hospital because of dyspnea on effort and an abnormal shadow on the chest X-ray. He had a 7 cm pleural tumor with right hemothorax. The tumor was surgically removed completely and the diagnosis of LMM was established pathologically. After surgery, he underwent radio-chemotherapy. The patient has been followed up for 6 years with no evidence of reccurence.

[Anterior Mediastinal Bronchogenic Cyst Associated with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia ; Report of a Case].

We experienced a rare case of anterior mediastinal bronchogenic cyst. A 55-year-old female was admitted to our hospital because of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) and an abnormal shadow on the chest computed tomography. She had a 5.5 cm tumor at anterior mediastinum. The tumor was surgically removed completely by video assisted thoracoscopic surgery, and the diagnosis of bronchogenic cyst was established pathologically. After surgery, PSVT has disappeared.

Pigment epithelium-derived factor gene therapy inhibits human pancreatic cancer in mice.

PURPOSE: Pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), which has recently been shown to be the most potent inhibitor of angiogenesis in the mammalian eye, is also expressed in the pancreas. Previously, we have screened the expression of PEDF by immunohistochemical analysis and showed that low expression of PEDF is associated with increased risk of hepatic metastasis and short survival. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether PEDF gene is a potent tumor suppressor and a potential candidate for cancer gene therapy. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We investigated both in vitro and in vivo growth characteristics of human pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell lines that were stably transfected to overexpress human PEDF and therapeutic effects of lentivirus-based vectors expressing PEDF on tumor growth in murine s.c. tumor model. RESULTS: We discovered that cells secreted PEDF protein in the media and this exhibited strong inhibitory effects on proliferation and migration of human umbilical vein endothelial cells. The size of PEDF-overexpressing pancreatic adenocarcinoma tumors was significantly smaller than that of control tumors in s.c. tumor models. Moreover, the growth of PEDF-overexpressing pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells was significantly suppressed in comparison with control cells in peritoneal metastasis models. In gene transfer models, intratumoral injection of a lentivirus vector encoding PEDF (LV-PEDF) caused significant inhibition of tumor growth. The antitumor effect observed after treatment with LV-PEDF was associated with decreased microvessel density in tumors. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that PEDF may exert a biological effect on tumor angiogenesis and PEDF gene therapy may provide a new approach for treatment of pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Expression of pigment epithelium-derived factor decreases liver metastasis and correlates with favorable prognosis for patients with ductal pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) is expressed in several normal organs and identified as an inhibitor of neovascularization. In the present study, we screened the expression of PEDF immunohistochemically and investigated its correlation with clinicopathological features in patients who underwent surgery for ductal pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Of the 80 patients, 22 cases (27.5%) were positive for PEDF. A significant association was found between the PEDF expression and low microvessel density (P = 0.0003). No correlation was found between PEDF expression and age, gender, depth of invasion, tumor diameter, lymphatic invasion, venous, invasion or histopathological grading. The patients in pathological stage II had a significantly higher incidence of PEDF-positive expression than those in pathological stage III or IVA (P = 0.0418). PEDF immunoreactivity was inversely associated with liver metastasis (P = 0.0422). The survival of patients that were PEDF positive was significantly longer than that of those with negative expression (P = 0.0026). Multivariate analysis using the Cox regression model indicated that PEDF-positive expression was an independent favorable prognostic factor (risk ratio, 0.394; P = 0.0016). We conclude that PEDF expression suggests a more favorable prognosis than in patients whose carcinomas lack PEDF expression.

Large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma in the thymus.

Large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma in the thymus is a rare cancer that is more aggressive and leads to a poorer prognosis than other thymic epithelial tumors. A 67-year-old woman presented with an anterior mediastinal mass in the thymus. Histological examination after thymectomy revealed large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma in the thymus. Although the patient received postoperative chemotherapy and radiotherapy, a distant relapse was detected 6 months after the surgery. We reviewed nine cases of this rare cancer that have been reported in Japan. There is no evidence of to support postoperative therapy for large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma in the thymus. However, it is essential to accumulate and study these cases to understand this disease and prolong patient survival.

DRD2/DARPP-32 expression correlates with lymph node metastasis and tumor progression in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Dopamine receptors (DRs) are members of seven transmembrane domain trimeric guanosine 5'-triphosphate (GTP)-binding protein-coupled receptor family. Through dopamine receptor activation, dopamine plays a significant role in regulating gene expression, such as induced tumor cell migration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We investigated DRD1 and DRD2 expressions in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) for immunohistochemistry and analyzed differences between DRD1, DRD2, and DARPP-32 expressions of clinicopathological features in 122 patients with ESCC. RESULTS: DRD1 immunostaining correlated with the pathologic grade (P = 0.0127), and DRD2 immunostaining correlated with the pathologic stage (P = 0.0432) and pN classification (P = 0.0112). A significant correlation was found between DRD1 and DRD2 expression (P = 0.0292). However, no correlation was observed between DRD1/DRD2 expression and DARPP-32 expression (P = 0.4555 and 0.4774, respectively). No correlation was observed between the DRD1/DRD2 expression and patient prognosis. To find the cooperative role between DRD1, DRD2, and DARPP-32 expressions, patients were classified into the different groups. In the DRD2/DARPP-32 combination, the (+/-) group was significantly correlated with pathologic stage (P = 0.0006), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.0001), pT (P = 0.0287), and tumor size (P = 0.0202). Moreover, patients with this combination showed a lower survival rate compared with the other three groups (P = 0.0287). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that DRD2/DARPP-32 expression is associated with tumor progression and that DRD2/DARPP-32 expressions may help predict prognosis in patients with ESCC.