Tetsuya Uchikawa

Relationship between morphological diversity and AgNORs or cathepsin B expression in colorectal cancers

The biological characteristics associated with the morphological diversity of colorectal cancers were investigated to elucidate the causes of this diversity. We examined the proliferative and infiltrating activity of tumor cells, indicated by the mean number of Ag nucleolar organizer region associated proteins (NORs) per nucleus (MNA) and the immunohistochemical response to cathepsin B(CB), in various morphological types of early and advanced colorectal cancers. We examined 73 colorectal cancers obtained by endoscopic and surgical resection. MNA values for sessile and flat-elevated cancers were greater than the values for pedunculate, subpedunculate, and flat-or-depressed early cancers (sessile,P<0.05). In advanced cancers invading the muscularis propria, protruding cancers showed significantly higher MNA values than small ulcerative cancers (P<0.01). CB expression increased significantly with the progression of colorectal cancers (P<0.01), but was not related to morphological diversity in early and advanced cancers. In both sessile and flat cancers, CB expression was higher in moderately differentiatiated than in well differentiated adenocarcinomas. These results indicate that, in colorectal cancers, protruding early cancers without stalks and protruding advanced cancers have higher proliferative activity than pedunculate or flat early cancers and small ulcerative advanced cancers, respectively, and that CB expression is not associated with morphological diversity, but with depth of invasion and histological differentiation.

Pulmonary resection for lung cancer in a patient on maintenance hemodialysis.

症例は63才の男性で, 57才時より慢性腎不全の診断で人工透析を受けていたが, 咳噺, 血痰が出現したので胸部レ線検査を受けたところ左上肺野に異常影を発見され, 肺癌と診断された.左肺上葉切除, 気管支形成術及び縦隔リンパ節郭清術が施行された.病理診断は中分化扁平上皮癌 (T2N2M0 Stage IIIA) であった.術後の経過は良好で化学療法施行後退院した.慢性腎不全に対し人工透析中に発見された肺癌切除例の経過と術前後の管理を中心に報告した.