Immuno-chemotherapy of malignant lymphoma using OK-432, a streptococcal agent

Clinical trials of immuno-chemotherapy were conducted on malignant lymphoma patients. Patients during the period from 1972 through 1977 were allocated to two groups retrospectively according to the mode of treatment, i.e., chemotherapy alone (historical control group, 35 patients) and chemotherapy with OK-432 (treated group, 15 patients). Comparisons were made of the two groups, which were homogeneous with regard to induction chemotherapy, maintenance chemotherapy, stage and histologic type of disease. The treated group had a higher remission rate, and a longer remission duration and survival than the control groups, especially in patients with Hodgkin's disease but the difference was not statistically significant owing to the limited number of cases.</p

The Risk of Cytotoxic Chemotherapy-Related Exacerbation of Interstitial Lung Disease with Lung Cancer

IntroductionIt is unknown what type of interstitial lung disease (ILD) has high risk for chemotherapy-related exacerbation of ILD. We investigated the risk of exacerbation of ILD for patients with lung cancer with ILD.MethodsOne hundred nine patients with lung cancer with ILD treated with cytotoxic chemotherapy at Shizuoka Cancer Center between August 2002 and April 2010 were retrospectively reviewed.ResultsOn pretreatment computed tomography (CT) of the chest, 69 patients (63%) were identified with usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) pattern, and 40 patients (37%) had non-UIP pattern. Patients with UIP pattern developed cytotoxic chemotherapy-related exacerbation of ILD more frequently than those with non-UIP pattern (30 versus 8%, p = 0.005). The incidence of grade 5 pulmonary toxicities was 9% in patients with UIP pattern, compared with 3% in those with non-UIP pattern. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that age (<70 years) and CT pattern (UIP) were significant independent risk factors for cytotoxic chemotherapy-related exacerbation of ILD. In small cell lung cancer, overall survival (OS) from the start of first-line chemotherapy was significantly shorter in UIP pattern than non-UIP pattern (median OS: 9 versus 16 months, p = 0.0475), whereas there was no significant difference in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (median OS: 12 versus 9 months, p = 0.2529).ConclusionsOur results indicated that the incidence of exacerbation of ILD was significantly higher in patients with lung cancer with UIP pattern on CT findings than in those with non-UIP pattern. Therefore, great care is required when administering cytotoxic chemotherapy agents for patients with lung cancer with UIP pattern

Combination chemotherapy of advanced non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with adriamycin, vincristine, ifosfamide and prednisolone (AVIP): a preliminary report

Eighteen patients with advanced non-Hodgkin's lymphoma other than the diffuse histiocytic type were treated with a combination of adriamycin, vincristine, ifosfamide and prednisolone (AVIP). The objective response rate was 83% (15/18); 61% (11/18) achieved complete remission. The median duration of complete remission was 11 months ranging from 2 to 39+ months. Eleven of the 18 patients are still alive during the median follow-up time of 13 months. The median survival was 14+ months for complete responders, and 9.5 months for partial and nonresponders. A myelosuppressive toxicity was well tolerated. AVIP offers some hope as treatment of advanced non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.</p

A New Serum Biomarker Set to Detect Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease by Peptidome Technology

Background: Because dementia is an emerging problem in the world, biochemical markers of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and radio-isotopic analyses are helpful for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Although blood sample is more feasible and plausible than CSF or radiological biomarkers for screening potential AD, measurements of serum amyloid- β (Aβ), plasma tau, and serum antibodies for Aβ1 - 42 are not yet well established. Objective: We aimed to identify a new serum biomarker to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD in comparison to cognitively healthy control by a new peptidome technology. Methods: With only 1.5μl of serum, we examined a new target plate “BLOTCHIP®” plus a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS) to discriminate control (n = 100), MCI (n = 60), and AD (n = 99). In some subjects, cognitive Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were compared to positron emission tomography (PET) with Pittsburgh compound B (PiB) and the serum probability of dementia (SPD). The mother proteins of candidate serum peptides were examined in autopsied AD brains. Results: Apart from Aβ or tau, the present study discovered a new diagnostic 4-peptides-set biomarker for discriminating control, MCI, and AD with 87% of sensitivity and 65% of specificity between control and AD (***p  Conclusion: The present serum biomarker set provides a new, rapid, non-invasive, highly quantitative and low-cost clinical application for dementia screening, and also suggests an alternative pathomechanism of AD for neuroinflammation and neurovascular unit damage

Validation of MALDI-TOF MS devices in reanalysis of unidentified pathogenic bacteria detected in blood cultures

In hospital microbial laboratories, morphological and biochemical analyses are performed to identify pathogenic microbes;however, these procedures lack rapidity and accuracy. Recently, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has been clinically utilized, and is expected to enable rapid and accurate microbial identification. We aimed to validate two MALDI-TOF MS devices available in Japan: the VITEK-MS (BioMérieux) and the Microflex LT (Bruker Daltonics). Clinically isolated bacteria, 100 samples in all, detected in blood cultures but incompletely identified by conventional procedures, were reanalyzed using the two devices. The VITEK-MS and Microflex LT, respectively, identified 49% (49/100) and 80% (80/100) of the tested bacteria at the species level, as well as 96% (96/100) and 95% (95/100) at the genus level. Among those reidentified strains, 26% (26/100) at the species level and 88% (88/100) at the genus level were concordant with each other, though three strains were unmatched. Moreover, four bacterial strains were unable to be identified using the VITEK-MS, versus five using the Microflex LT. MALDI-TOF MS devices can provide more rapid and accurate bacterial identification than ever before;however, the characteristics of each system were slightly different;therefore, it is necessary to understand the difference in performance of MALDI-TOF MS models

On confluences of general hypergeometric systems

We extend the well-known results about the process of confluence for the Gauss hypergeometric differential equation to the case of general hypergeometric systems. We see that the process of confluence comes from the geometry of the set of regular elements of the Lie algebra of complex general linear group. As a consequence, we give a geometric and group-theoretic view on the process of confluence for classical special functions