Isopentylamine is a novel defence compound induced by insect feeding in rice.

Plants produce a broad variety of defensive metabolites to protect themselves against herbivorous insects. Although polyamines have been implicated in various responses to abiotic and biotic stress, there have been no studies focused on amines in response to insect herbivory. By screening for bioactive amines, we identified isopentylamine as a novel type of herbivory-induced compound in rice leaves, which was derived from the amino acid leucine in stable isotope labelling experiments. Accumulation of isopentylamine increased during herbivory by the brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens, BPH) and the rice-feeding armyworm (Mythimna loreyi), as well as in response to treatment with the plant hormone, jasmonic acid. Likewise, isopentylamine accumulation was compromised in rice jasmonate biosynthesis mutants, hebiba and Osjar1. In bio-assays, BPH insects feeding on rice seedlings submerged in 50 mg/L isopentylamine solution had a higher mortality compared with BPH feeding on seedlings submerged in water. Notably, the rice leaves submerged in 50 mg/L solution showed the endogenous concentrations of isopentylamine similar to that induced by BPHs. These results suggest that isopentylamine functions as a new type of plant defence metabolite that is rapidly induced by herbivore attack and deters insect herbivores in rice.

Preoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging versus Intraoperative Frozen Section Diagnosis for Predicting the Deep Myometrial Invasion in Endometrial Cancer: Our Experience and Literature Review.

AIM: The present study was designed to directly compare the diagnostic performance of preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and intraoperative frozen section (FS) diagnoses in predicting deep myometrial invasion (MI) of endometrial cancer. METHODS: Using MRI findings and FS diagnoses, 194 patients with surgically staged endometrial cancer were evaluated for deep MI between 2006 and 2018. Definitive histological diagnosis of paraffin sections of excised tissues was used as the gold standard approach. RESULTS: Of 194 cases, 53 (27.3%) cases were finally diagnosed as having deep MI (≥50%). There was 82% total agreement between MRI and FS diagnoses in predicting deep MI, with a kappa value of 0.54 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.40-0.67, moderate agreement). The sensitivity of FS diagnosis (0.66, 95% CI = 0.52-0.78) for predicting deep MI was lower than that of MRI (0.77, 95% CI = 0.63-0.87; p = 0.21), while the specificity of FS (0.98, 95% CI = 0.93-0.99) was significantly higher than that of MRI (0.88, 95% CI = 0.81-0.93; p = 0.001). Overall, the accuracy of FS (0.89, 95% CI = 0.84-0.93) was higher than that of MRI (0.85, 95% CI = 0.79-0.90), although the difference did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.23). The accuracy (0.95, 95% CI = 0.90-0.97) was very high in cases with concordant MRI and FS results. CONCLUSIONS: MRI and FS showed different diagnostic characteristics for predicting deep MI, with a higher specificity observed for FS and the greatest accuracy obtained in concordant cases. Thus, our findings recommend the addition of FS diagnosis, either alone or in conjunction with MRI, to MI evaluation.

Ultrasound-based logistic regression model LR2 versus magnetic resonance imaging for discriminating between benign and malignant adnexal masses: a prospective study.

BACKGROUND: The diagnostic performances of the International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) ultrasound-based logistic regression model (LR2) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in discriminating between benign and malignant adnexal masses have not been directly compared in a single study. METHODS: Using the IOTA LR2 model and subjective interpretation of MRI findings by experienced radiologists, 265 consecutive patients with adnexal masses were preoperatively evaluated in two hospitals between February 2014 and December 2015. Definitive histological diagnosis of excised tissues was used as a gold standard. RESULTS: From the 265 study subjects, 54 (20.4%) tumors were histologically diagnosed as malignant (including 11 borderline and 3 metastatic tumors). Preoperative diagnoses of malignant tumors showed 91.7% total agreement between IOTA LR2 and MRI, with a kappa value of 0.77 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.68-0.86]. Sensitivity of IOTA LR2 (0.94, 95% CI, 0.85-0.98) for predicting malignant tumors was similar to that of MRI (0.96, 95% CI, 0.87-0.99; P = 0.99), whereas specificity of IOTA LR2 (0.98, 95% CI, 0.95-0.99) was significantly higher than that of MRI (0.91, 95% CI, 0.87-0.95; P = 0.002). Combined IOTA LR2 and MRI results gave the greatest sensitivity (1.00, 95% CI, 0.93-1.00) and had similar specificity (0.91, 95% CI, 0.86-0.94) to MRI. CONCLUSIONS: The IOTA LR2 model had a similar sensitivity to MRI for discriminating between benign and malignant tumors and a higher specificity compared with MRI. Our findings suggest that the IOTA LR2 model, either alone or in conjunction with MRI, should be included in preoperative evaluation of adnexal masses.

Clinical features of long-term survivors of recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer.

BACKGROUND: Although recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is generally regarded as an incurable disease, some patients survive more than 5 years after the first recurrence. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical features of patients with recurrent EOC who achieve long-term survival. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 164 patients with recurrent EOC and analyzed the clinical stage, histologic subtype, primary treatment, disease-free interval (DFI), recurrence site, secondary treatment, and overall survival from the time of the first recurrence (R-OS), using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. RESULTS: The median R-OS for all 164 patients was 25 months and the 5-year R-OS rate was 25.4 %. There were no significant differences in R-OS according to the disease stage. The median R-OS was significantly shorter in the 6-12-month DFI group (23 months) than in the ≥12-month DFI group (61 months) (p = 0.0002), while there was no significant difference between the 6-12 and 3-6-month DFI groups (20 months) (p = 0.161). Of the 164 patients, only 14 survived >5 years after the first recurrence. Most of them underwent surgery and/or radiotherapy in combination with chemotherapy and underwent >18 cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy throughout their treatments (median 22 cycles; range 4-44). CONCLUSIONS: If high sensitivity to platinum is maintained, patients with recurrent EOC may have prolonged survival following repeated platinum-based chemotherapy cycles. Moreover, their prognosis improves when chemotherapy is combined with secondary cytoreductive surgery and/or irradiation.

Adjuvant chemotherapy for stage I clear cell carcinoma of the ovary: an analysis of fully staged patients.

OBJECTIVE: Although postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy is generally recommended for early-stage ovarian cancer, it remains unclear whether adjuvant chemotherapy is also effective for clear cell carcinoma (CCC). METHODS: Seventy-three patients with stage I CCC of the ovary who had undergone complete surgical staging formed the study population (stage IA, 20 patients; stage IC, 53 patients). Survival and multivariate analyses were retrospectively performed to determine the effectiveness of postoperative chemotherapy in these patients. RESULTS: Of the total (73 patients), 30 patients received adjuvant chemotherapy (stage I C-positive), whereas 43 patients did not (stage I C-negative). The 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) and 5-year overall survival (OS) rates for the stage I C-positive group were 80.1% and 87.4% compared with 73.9% and 81.7% for the stage I C-negative group. The differences in survival between these groups were not significant (PFS: P = 0.610; OS: P = 0.557). Four of the patients with stage IA CCC underwent chemotherapy, whereas the remaining 16 patients received no additional therapy. No recurrence was observed in either group. Of the patients with stage IC CCC, 26 patients underwent chemotherapy (stage IC C-positive) and 27 received no additional therapy (stage IC C-negative). There was no statistical difference in PFS and OS between the stage IC C-positive and stage IC C-negative groups. Of the patients with stage IC without artificial rupture, the 5-year PFS rates of the C-positive and C-negative patients were 69.6% and 34.6%, respectively, but the 5-year OS rates were 75.0% and 70.0%, respectively (not significant). Multivariate analyses confirmed that the presence or absence of adjuvant chemotherapy was not a prognostic indicator. CONCLUSIONS: The current study was performed only in fully staged patients, suggesting that postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy is not necessary for stage IA CCC patients. For patients with stage IC CCC patients, adjuvant chemotherapy suppressed recurrence, but the effectiveness was insufficient in our limited study. Further studies are required to clarify this.

Early-onset primary peritoneal carcinoma from atypical cells after risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy for BRCA2 mutation carrier: a case report.

Risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO) in BRCA mutation carriers is performed to reduce carcinogenesis. It decreases the ovarian, tubal, and peritoneal cancer risk to 3.5-4.3% and breast cancer risk to 30-40%. According to a previous study, despite RRSO, 3.4% of patients develop breast cancer and 0.8% develop peritoneal cancer. However, the long-term risk of recurrence and appropriate treatment for patients with unsuspected neoplasia after RRSO are unclear. Case: A 61-year-old woman who had a BRCA2 mutation underwent RRSO. Her pelvic washing cytology showed atypical cells, and similar atypical cells were identified on her fimbria. She underwent strict surveillance. Elevated CA125 levels and increased ascites in the pelvic cavity were detected by routine surveillance at 18 months after RRSO. She underwent staging laparotomy and was diagnosed with primary peritoneal carcinoma stage IIIC. It is helpful to perform surveillance by transvaginal ultrasound and serum CA125 analyses in cases that require strict management. The appropriate intervention should be considered for cases in which atypical cells or non-invasive carcinoma are detected after RRSO.

Clinical significance of systematic retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy during interval debulking surgery in advanced ovarian cancer patients.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical significance of systematic retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy during interval debulking surgery (IDS) in advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 124 advanced EOC patients and analyzed the details of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT), IDS, postoperative treatment, and prognoses. RESULTS: Following IDS, 98 patients had no gross residual disease (NGRD), 15 had residual disease sized <1 cm (optimal), and 11 had residual disease sized ≥1 cm (suboptimal). Two-year overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 88.8% and 39.8% in the NGRD group, 40.0% and 13.3% in the optimal group (p<0.001 vs. NGRD for both), and 36.3% and 0% in the suboptimal group, respectively. Five-year OS and 2-year PFS rates were 62% and 56.1% in the lymph node-negative (LN-) group and 26.2% and 24.5% in the lymph node-positive (LN+) group (p=0.0033 and p=0.0024 vs. LN-, respectively). Furthermore, survival in the LN+ group, despite surgical removal of positive nodes, was the same as that in the unknown LN status group, in which lymphadenectomy was not performed (p=0.616 and p=0.895, respectively). Multivariate analysis identified gross residual tumor during IDS (hazard ratio, 3.68; 95% confidence interval, 1.31 to 10.33 vs. NGRD) as the only independent predictor of poor OS. CONCLUSION: NGRD after IDS improved prognosis in advanced EOC patients treated with NACT-IDS. However, while systematic retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy during IDS may predict outcome, it does not confer therapeutic benefits.