Tsunehisa Nomura

The Expression of Monocyte Chemotactic Protein-1 in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Is Correlated with Lymph Node Metastasis and Tumor Recurrence

BACKGROUND Monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) is a chemokine ligand that has been associated with aggressive behavior in breast and prostate cancer. The present study was performed to determine if there is a relationship between the expression of MCP-1 in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and factors indicative of aggressive behavior in this disease. METHODS The subjects of this study were 115 patients with PTC. MCP-1 expression was determined using a semiquantitative scoring system for immunohistochemical staining of MCP-1 in resected PTC samples. There were four levels of immunohistochemical staining intensity, and the population of cells that positively stained for MCP-1 was graded at four levels. The scores for the intensity of immunohistochemical staining for MCP-1 and for the percentage of cells that stained for MCP-1 were used to generate a range from 0 to 9 for scoring MCP-1 expression. RESULTS Positive staining for MCP-1 was observed in the cytoplasm of PTC cells and stroma cells in 79.2% of the specimens. Expression levels of MCP-1 in PTC cells were positively correlated with tumor size (p < 0.05) and lymph node involvement (p < 0.05). In addition, the expression of MCP-1 in PTC cells level was an independent predictive factor for recurrence of PTC in an analysis that included age, sex, tumor size, extrathyroidal infiltration, and lymph node involvement (p < 0.005). CONCLUSIONS MCP-1 expression in PTC may stimulate the aggressive behavior of this tumor or it may be a marker for aggressive behavior. Previous reports with non-thyroid tumor cells favor the hypothesis that MCP-1 expression promotes aggressive behavior in PTC.

Additive antitumor effect of concurrent treatment of 4-hydroxy tamoxifen with 5-fluorouracil but not with doxorubicin in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer cells.

PurposeThe sequential addition of tamoxifen (TAM) to chemotherapy seems superior to its concurrent addition in patients with breast cancer. This study was conducted to clarify the hypothesis that there are differential interactions among TAM and chemotherapeutic agents.MethodsEstrogen receptor (ER)-α-positive or -negative breast cancer cells were treated with 4-hydroxy TAM (4OHT), 5-fluorouracil (FU) and/or doxorubicin (Dox). Changes in the expression levels of genes related to sensitivity and resistance to TAM, 5-FU or Dox were tested.ResultsConcurrent treatment of 4OHT with 5-FU but not with Dox additively inhibited the growth of ER-α-positive cells. 5-FU did not change the expression levels of any tested genes related to either sensitivity or resistance to TAM. Although Dox did not change the expression levels of any genes related to the sensitivity to TAM, Dox significantly increased the expression levels of some genes related to TAM resistance, Eph A-2, ER-β, Fos and vascular endothelial growth factor. 4OHT significantly decreased thymidilate synthase (TS) activity.ConclusionsAlthough the antitumor effect of concurrent 4OHT and 5-FU was additive, that of concurrent 4OHT and Dox was less than additive in ER-α-positive cells. The increased expression of genes related to TAM resistance by Dox might be responsible for the interaction. Decreased TS activity by 4OHT might increase the antitumor activity of 5-FU. These findings may provide a preclinical rationale for concurrent use with 5-FU and TAM.

Retrospective Analysis of Predictive Factors for Recurrence After Curatively Resected Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

PurposeThis retrospective study analyzes the predictive factors after curative surgery for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).MethodsWe analyzed 386 patients who underwent a curative operation for PTC in our hospital between 1977 and 1997, subject to the inclusion criteria.ResultsAccording to univariate analysis, pathological lateral cervical lymph node involvement (P < 0.0001), dedifferentiation of the tumor (P < 0.002), male sex (P < 0.0001), a large tumor (P < 0.005), and an age of over 50 years (P < 0.05) were significant factors. Cox’s proportional hazard model showed that a man (P < 0.05), aged over 50 years (P < 0.05), who had a large primary tumor (P < 0.05) with dedifferentiation (P < 0.05), and pathological lateral cervical lymph node metastasis (P < 0.005) was more likely to have recurrence of PTC.ConclusionsDetermining whether lymph node metastasis exists could be useful for predicting recurrence in patients who have undergone curative resection of PTC.

The Japanese Breast Cancer Society clinical practice guidelines for epidemiology and prevention of breast cancer, 2015 edition.

• In the section entitled ‘‘Risk factors for breast cancer’’ in the 2013 edition, a decrease in breast cancer risk due to obesity in premenopausal women was determined to be probable. However, a large-scale pooled analysis in Japanese women reported in 2014 showed a significant increase in breast cancer risk in premenopausal women with a high body mass index. Due to this report, the description has been changed to ‘‘obesity may increase the risk of breast cancer in premenopausal women’’ in the 2015 edition. Body mass in Asian women might have opposite effects on breast cancer compared to that in Western women. • In the section entitled ‘‘Risk assessment and chemoprevention’’, 2 CQs have been added on risk assessment using information on single-nucleotide polymorphisms, and on breast density and the risk of breast cancer.

Impact of modifiable lifestyle factors on outcomes after breast cancer diagnosis: the Setouchi Breast Cancer Cohort Study

The primary purpose of this large cohort study is to investigate the effects on breast cancer outcomes of modifiable lifestyle factors after breast cancer diagnosis. These factors include physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity and weight gain after diagnosis, alternative medicine and dietary factors. Women diagnosed with Stage 0 to III breast cancer are eligible for participation to this study. Lifestyle, use of alternative medicine, psychosocial factors, reproductive factors and health-related quality of life will be assessed using a questionnaire at the time of breast cancer diagnosis (baseline), and 1, 2, 3 and 5 years after diagnosis. Clinical information and breast cancer outcomes will be obtained from a breast cancer database. The primary endpoint will be disease-free survival. Secondary endpoints are overall survival, health-related quality of life, breast cancer-related symptoms and adverse events. Patient recruitment commenced in February 2013. Enrollment of 2000 breast cancer patients is planned during the 5-year recruitment period. The concept of the study is described in this article.

Correction: Preparation of a novel antiserum to aromatase with high affinity and specificity: Its clinicopathological significance on breast cancer tissue

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177439.].

New diagnostic method for breast cancer based on clinical mammographic data and its clinical validation.

BackgroundRecently, the numbers of patients with breast cancer have increased rapidly in Japan, and about 40,000 people contract the disease annually today. Therefore, secondary prevention by breast cancer screening has become an important issue. Presently, mammography is used frequently for the diagnosis of breast cancer, but the reading of mammograms is difficult, and physicians must attend training classes specified by the Central Committee on Quality Control of Mammographic Screening and obtain a license to perform screening. Assessment categories are used for the evaluation of mammograms. Although they provide a scale for the diagnosis of breast cancer, the interpretation of mammograms is dependent on the physician’s subjective judgment, and the advent of an objective evaluation method is awaited.MethodsWe scored the size, shape, density, margin, border, and internal structure of mammographic images and evaluated the relationships of these scores with lesion categorization.ResultsSince lesions could not be categorized by the analysis of any single item of mammographic images, the items were paired, and a new diagnostic system for breast cancer was prepared. When this system was applied, the diagnostic accuracy was very satisfactory, with a sensitivity of 100% (37/37) and a specificity of 92.9% (65/70) for category 5; 83.6% (51/61) and 97.8% (45/46), respectively, for category 4; and 88.9% (8/9) and 94.9% (93/98), respectively, for category 3.ConclusionIn this study, findings concerning the margin and internal structure were important for the discrimination of category 5, and those concerning the size, shape, and density made major contributions to the discrimination of category 3.

Diagnostic System of Breast Cancer based on Imaging Data of Mammography using Fuzzy Logic

The number of patients with breast cancer is recently increasing in Japan. It is very important to find the patients quickly with accuracy. In this paper, we deal with the imaging data of the mammography of 40 patients concerning with the breast cancer and analyze the clinical finding. We synthesize the diagnostic system of beast cancer based on evaluation of findings of the mammography using the Fuzzy inference. From the application of this system to clinical cases, it was suggested that this system was effective to judge whether mass or benign.