Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

BACKGROUND: Bone marrow metastasis is very uncommon in breast cancer. Cancer patients showing a dramatic response to chemotherapy with full recovery are very rare. CASE REPORT: This is a case report of a 62-year-old woman who underwent partial mastectomy six years previously. The patient presented with increased fatigue and her hemoglobin level was 6.7 g/dl. Pathological examination of a bone marrow biopsy showed metastasis from breast cancer. Systemic therapy was initiated with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide and pancytopenia was steadily improved. However, 15 months later, she felt severe fatigue again. Eribulin was administered and the patient showed sufficient recovery. She had two bone marrow metastases that caused pancytopenia including severe anemia. However, she survived twice with chemotherapy. CONCLUSION: Bone marrow metastasis of breast cancer is life-threatening; however, chemotherapy may significantly improve survival.

DOI： 10.21873/anticanres.15099

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

We report the case of a 71-year-old woman with acute hepatitis C infection and persistent viremia since 2 years. Her clinical course was characterized by general fatigue and prolonged jaundice with unusually high serum bilirubin levels. Liver histology showed lymphocyte infiltration, marked fibrosis, and severe cholestasis in the periportal zone, findings mimicking fibrosing cholestatic hepatitis (FCH). Fibrosing cholestatic hepatitis is a life-threatening form of recurrent hepatitis C infection that typically occurs in immunosuppressed patients. Here we report the rare case of an immunocompetent patient who developed this condition.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

BACKGROUND: Myeloid cell leukemia-1 (Mcl-1) is an anti-apoptotic protein that regulates apoptosis sensitivity in a variety of cell types. Here we evaluate the roles of Mcl-1 in chemotherapy-associated apoptosis in gastric cancer cells. In addition, our study examined whether Mcl-1 contributed to apoptosis resistance in so-called cancer stem cell (CSC)-like populations in gastric cancer. METHODS: Seven gastric cancer cell lines were used. The expression of Mcl-1 was assessed by either real-time polymerase chain reaction or Western blot analysis. Apoptosis was quantitated by morphological observation and caspase activity measurement. Adenovirus-mediated RNA interference (RNAi) technology was used to knockdown the expression of Mcl-1. The release of cytochrome c was evaluated by subcellular fractionation and immunoblot analysis. To identify and isolate the CSC-like populations, we used the CSC-associated cell surface marker CD44 and flow cytometry. RESULTS: Six out of the 7 gastric cancer cell lines overexpressed Mcl-1 protein. These Mcl-1-expressing cell lines were relatively resistant to chemotherapeutic agents such as 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and cisplatin (CDDP). Depletion of Mcl-1 protein by RNAi technology effectively sensitized the cells to anticancer drug-induced mitochondrial cytochrome c release, caspase activation, and apoptosis. In addition, vast amounts of Mcl-1 mRNA were expressed in CD44-positive CSC-like cells. Mcl-1 suppression enhanced the apoptosis in CD44-positive cells to a level equivalent to that in CD44-negative cells, suggesting that Mcl-1 mediates chemotherapy resistance in CSC-like populations. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that Mcl-1 mediates the resistance to apoptosis in gastric cancer cells by blocking the mitochondrial pathway of cell death. Mcl-1 depletion appears to be an attractive strategy to overcome chemotherapy resistance in gastric cancer cells.

DOI： 10.1007/s10120-012-0153-6

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BACKGROUND: Although previous studies indicate that gastrointestinal (GI) cancer may originate from cells recruited from bone marrow (BM) in mice, whether similar phenomena occur in humans is controversial. In the current study, we evaluated two female patients who developed colonic adenocarcinoma more than 10 years after gender-mismatched BM transplantation, and followingly underwent successful endoscopic mucosal resection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis was used to determine whether the tumours contained donor-derived BM cells. RESULTS: Approximately 1.2% of the tumour cells contained Y-chromosome-positive signals, and a comparable percentage of normal colonic epithelial cells close to the tumour also contained Y-chromosome-positive signals. CONCLUSION: These results do not support the concept that GI cancer can originate from BM-derived cells.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

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Language：English   Publisher：(一社)日本癌治療学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：(一社)日本癌治療学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：(NPO)日本緩和医療学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：(一社)日本臨床腫瘍薬学会  

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Language：English   Publisher：(一社)日本癌治療学会  

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