Ion current density profile of laser ablation plasma transported in multicusp magnetic field

Laser ion sources are capable of supplying ion beams with high current because a laser produced plasma has initially high number density same as that of solid. [1]..

Discordant Immune Marker Expression Between Preoperatively Biopsied and Matched Surgically Resected Specimens in Patients With Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression and tumor-associated immune cell (TAIC) density can be the biomarkers of survival outcome and for predicting the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), but whether single biopsy accurately reflects the values of these parameters in resected specimens is unclear. To clarify this, we evaluated the concordance of immune marker expression (PD-L1, PD-1, CD3, CD4, CD8, and CD68) between 39 paired biopsied and surgically resected specimens obtained from patients with OSCC at Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital between July 2011 and January 2016. Immune marker expression was assessed using immunohistochemistry. PD-L1 expression was consistent between the biopsied and surgically resected specimens in only 76.9% of cases. TAIC density was significantly lower in biopsied than in surgically resected specimens. There was considerable discordance in immune marker expression between biopsied and surgically resected specimens. We should take into consideration that PD-L1 positivity and TAIC density would be underestimated by single small biopsies compared to the estimations by surgically resected specimens

Aberrantly methylated genes in human papillary thyroid cancer and their association with BRAF/RAS mutation

Cancer arises through accumulation of epigenetic and genetic alteration. Aberrant promoter methylation is a common epigenetic mechanism of gene silencing in cancer cells. We here performed genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation of promoter regions by Infinium HumanMethylation27 BeadChip, using 14 clinical papillary thyroid cancer samples and 10 normal thyroid samples. Among the 14 papillary cancer cases, 11 showed frequent aberrant methylation, but the other three cases showed no aberrant methylation at all. Distribution of the hypermethylation among cancer samples was non-random, which implied existence of a subset of preferentially methylated papillary thyroid cancer. Among 25 frequently methylated genes, methylation status of six genes (HIST1H3J, POU4F2, SHOX2, PHKG2, TLX3, HOXA7) was validated quantitatively by pyrosequencing. Epigenetic silencing of these genes in methylated papillary thyroid cancer cell lines was confirmed by gene re-expression following treatment with 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine and trichostatin A, and detected by real-time RT-PCR. Methylation of these six genes was validated by analysis of additional 20 papillary thyroid cancer and 10 normal samples. Among the 34 cancer samples in total, 26 cancer samples with preferential methylation were significantly associated with mutation of BRAF/RAS oncogene (P = 0.04, Fisher's exact test). Thus, we identified new genes with frequent epigenetic hypermethylation in papillary thyroid cancer, two subsets of either preferentially methylated or hardly methylated papillary thyroid cancer, with a concomitant occurrence of oncogene mutation and gene methylation. These hypermethylated genes may constitute potential biomarkers for papillary thyroid cancer

Effectiveness of Anti-PD-1 Antibody Monotherapy for the Primary Malignant Melanoma of the Esophagus： A Case Report

Primary malignant melanoma of the esophagus（PMME）is extraordinarily rare with a high degree of malignancy and poor prognosis, and a standard therapy remains to be established. The anti-PD-1 antibody nivolumab is a promising agent for various cancers. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of PMME where a complete response was achieved using nivolumab. We report an 80-year-old woman who was diagnosed with PMME with bone metastasis and lymph node metastases. Although dacarbazine combined chemotherapy was performed and continued for six cycles, the primary tumor progressed and liver metastases appeared. The patient then received nivolumab monotherapy. After three cycles, nivolumab monotherapy for PMME resulted in a complete response as shown by positron emission tomography, computed tomography, and esophagogastroduodenoscopy. In our case, nivolumab exerted a curative effect on PMME, thus suggesting that nivolumab can be effective in the treatment of this rare disease

Clinical utility of the Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System for muscle-invasive bladder cancer between radiologists and urologists based on multiparametric MRI including 3D FSE T2-weighted acquisitions

Objectives: To investigate the clinical utility of the Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System (VI-RADS) by comparing its diagnostic performance for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) between radiologists and urologists based on multiparametric MRI, including three-dimensional (3D) fast spin-echo (FSE) T2-weighted acquisitions. Methods: This study included 66 treatment-naïve patients (60 men, 6 women; mean age 74.0 years) with pathologically proven bladder cancer who underwent multiparametric MRI, including 3D FSE T2-weighted imaging, before transurethral bladder tumour resection between January 2010 and November 2018. The MRI scans were categorised according to the five-point VI-RADS score by four independent readers (two board-certified radiologists and board-certified urologists each), blinded to the histopathological findings. The VI-RADS scores were compared with the postoperative histopathological diagnosis. Interobserver agreement was assessed using weighted kappa coefficients. ROC analysis and generalised estimating equations were used to evaluate the diagnostic performance. Results: Forty-nine (74.2%) and 17 (25.8%) tumours were confirmed to be non-MIBC and MIBC, respectively, based on pathological examination. The interobserver agreement was good-to-excellent between all pairs of readers (range, 0.73–0.91). The urologists’ sensitivity/specificity values for DCE-MRI VI-RADS scores were significantly lower than those of radiologists. No significant differences were observed for the overall VI-RADS score. The AUC for the overall VI-RADS score was 0.94, 0.92, 0.89, and 0.87 for radiologists 1 and 2 and urologists 1 and 2, respectively. Conclusions: The VI-RADS score, based on multiparametric MRI including 3D FSE T2-weighted acquisitions, can be useful for radiologists and urologists to determine the bladder cancer muscle invasion status preoperatively. Key Points: • VI-RADS (using multiparametric MRI including 3D FSE T2-weighted acquisitions) achieves good to excellent interobserver agreement and has similar diagnostic performance for detecting muscle invasion by both radiologists and urologists. • The diagnostic performance of the overall VI-RADS score is high for both radiologists and urologists, particularly due to the dominant effect of diffusion-weighted imaging on the overall VI-RADS score. • The sensitivity and specificity values of the T2WI VI-RADS scores for four readers in our study (using 3D FSE T2-weighted acquisitions) were similar (with slightly higher specificity values) to previously published results (using 2D FSE T2-weighted acquisitions)

A complete view of the genetic diversity of the Escherichia coli O-antigen biosynthesis gene cluster.

The O antigen constitutes the outermost part of the lipopolysaccharide layer in Gram-negative bacteria. The chemical composition and structure of the O antigen show high levels of variation even within a single species revealing itself as serological diversity. Here, we present a complete sequence set for the O-antigen biosynthesis gene clusters (O-AGCs) from all 184 recognized Escherichia coli O serogroups. By comparing these sequences, we identified 161 well-defined O-AGCs. Based on the wzx/wzy or wzm/wzt gene sequences, in addition to 145 singletons, 37 serogroups were placed into 16 groups. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis of all the E. coli O-serogroup reference strains revealed that the nearly one-quarter of the 184 serogroups were found in the ST10 lineage, which may have a unique genetic background allowing a more successful exchange of O-AGCs. Our data provide a complete view of the genetic diversity of O-AGCs in E. coli showing a stronger association between host phylogenetic lineage and O-serogroup diversification than previously recognized. These data will be a valuable basis for developing a systematic molecular O-typing scheme that will allow traditional typing approaches to be linked to genomic exploration of E. coli diversity

Diagnostic Value of the Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System in Bladder Urothelial Carcinoma with Variant Histology

The value of the Vesicle Imaging-Reporting and Data System (VI-RADS) in the diagnosis of muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) for urothelial carcinoma with variant histology (VUC) remains unknown. We retrospectively evaluated 360 consecutive patients with bladder cancer (255 pure urothelial carcinoma [PUC] and 69 VUC) who underwent multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging between 2011 and 2019. VI-RADS scores assigned by four readers were significantly higher for the VUC group than for the PUC group (p &lt; 0.05). In the cohort of 122 pair-matched patients, there was no significant difference in VI-RADS score distribution between the PUC and VUC groups for all readers (p &gt; 0.05). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for MIBC diagnosis via overall VI-RADS score was 0.93-0.94 for PUC and 0.89-0.92 for VUC, with no significant difference between the PUC and VUC groups (p = 0.32-0.60). These data suggests that VI-RADS scores achieved high diagnostic performance for detection of muscle invasion in both PUC and VUC. PATIENT SUMMARY: The Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System (VI-RADS) is a standardized system for reporting on detection of muscle-invasive bladder cancer via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Our study shows that VI-RADS is also highly accurate for diagnosis for different variants of muscle-invasive bladder cancer, with good inter-reader agreement.</p