Clinical Evaluation of Immune Response in Patients with Lung Cancer

In patients with lung cancer, the immune response was observed with an analysis of various factors which mostly related to its prognosis. Its response was extremly depressed in the course of following surgery in advanced cases of stage III and IVas well as in unresectable cases for lung cancer, compared with those of stage I and II . Furthermore, it showed that the high levels of immune response were seen in those of long term survivors given OK-432 during follow-up period. It was obvious from this study that the use of OK-432 was suitable for activation of the immune reaction against host as one of the immunopotentiators. Meanwhile, from the immunological mechanism of view, the hyperactivity of immune response enable the patient to be free from recurrence of cancer for a long term following surgery, in contrast the low level of the immune response showed to be poor prognosis owing to early appearance of recurrence. Furthermore, the effectiveness in use of OK-432 was clinically presented in patients with malignant pleural effusion, which showed direct cytocidal action of OK-432 given intrapleurally with a 10 or 14 days interval

Potential application of measuring serum infliximab levels in rheumatoid arthritis management: A retrospective study based on KURAMA cohort data

Infliximab (IFX) therapy has considerably improved the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, some patients still do not respond adequately to IFX therapy, or the efficacy of the treatment diminishes over time. Although previous studies have reported a relationship between serum IFX levels and therapeutic efficacy, the potential applications of IFX therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) in clinical practice remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential applications of IFX TDM by analyzing a Japanese cohort database. Data were collected retrospectively from the Kyoto University Rheumatoid Arthritis Management Alliance cohort between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2018. Serum IFX levels were measured using a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometer. Out of the 311 RA patients that used IFX, 41 were eligible for the analysis. Serum IFX levels were significantly higher in responders than in non-responders. An optimal cut-off value was determined to be 0.32 μg/mL based on a receiver operating characteristic curve. At the IFX measurement point, a better therapeutic response was observed in the high IFX group (n = 32) than in the low IFX group (n = 9). Conversely, at the maximum effect point, when DAS28-ESR was the lowest between IFX introduction and measurement points, there were no differences in responder proportions between the low and high IFX groups. IFX primary ineffectiveness could be avoided with appropriate dose escalation without blood concentration measurement in clinical practice. In conclusion, IFX TDM could facilitate the identification of secondary non-responders and in turn, proper IFX use

Experimental Evaluation of Tumor Growth Rate Related to Age

The differences of the growth rate of MH 134 tumor inoculated in younger or older mice were experimentally investigated in this study. The age-related tumor growth rate were evaluated as the changes of a tumor size to food pad ratio respectively. In this study, a 6 weeks-old, a 9 weeks-old and a 20 weeks-old C3H/He mice were correctly selected and prepared according to age. From the aspect of age factor in tumorbearing host, MH 134 tumor growth rate as well as survival rate after inoculation of 2.5 x 104, 2.5 x 105 and 2.5 x 106 tumor cells were simulatenously investigated in each age groups. Interestingly enough, a depressed tumor growth rate was noted in older mice in comparison with those in younger mice, whereas survival rates showed almost the same between in younger and older mice groups. While as many as 2.5 x 106 of MH 134 tumor cells were inoculated, the differences in tumor growth rate between younger and older mice were apparently pronounced. The rapid tumor growth in young mice, furthermore, were definitely denoted. Meanwhile, the improvement of survival rate in older mice had not become manifest regardless of slow growth, as compared in the two age group. Age affected some aspect of inhibitory tumor growth, whereas this assumption was not consistent with prolongation of survival time. This results reported here ensured the differences of tumor growth rate in tumorbearing host concerning age. Needless to say, the reliability of tumor resection as a treatment against cancer has been substantiated even for the elderly patients in order to enable survival rate significantly improve

Limited Resection for Lung Cancer

Based on clinical as well as experimental studies, limited operation of choice was evaluated for the management of lung cancer. From clinical analysis of 39 cases who underwent limited lung resection, our clinical experiences indicated that this operative procedure would be feasible for a large tumors of approximately 4cm in diameter. However, the incidence of lymphnode metastasis is more likely to be high when applied to the tumors of more than 3cm in diameter. The favorable indication, therefore, is for the cancer less than 3cm in diameter. By careful evalution of 7 cases with postoperative recurrence, it has become obvious that either the degree of cell differentiation or the existence of lymph nodes metastasis strongly participate in its prognosis. According to hemodynamic studies immediately after surgery, limited resection of the lung is preferred to conventional radical lobectomy for patients with cardiovascular malfunction because it serves to eliminate a possible left ventricular failure after surgery. An experimental research also demonstrated favorably hemodynamic benifits of limited resection for reducing left ventricular overloading on coronary diseased heart which is experimentally prepared by either creation of stenosis of the main left coronary artery or ligation of the left descending coronary artery. The immune response in the lymphnodes to a tumor growth also was attested in C3H mice with use of MH 134 tumor inoculated, especially in relation to the time of tumor resection. The results of our experiments confirmed that tumor resection on the 7th and 10t

An Experimental Evaluation of Tracheal Blood Flow with Special Referrence to Operative Procedure of Tracheal Mobilization

Based on the study with special referrence to blood flow in the trachea, the factors influential on the operative procedure of tracheal mobilization were carefully evaluated to ensure optimal surgical results. It has already been assumed with an aid of microangiographic technique that the main trancheal blood flow comprise two routes, namely, adventitial and submucosal layers. The amount of blood flow in the trachea divided into individual two layers were measured by hydrogen clearance test with wire electrodes placed in either adventitial or submucosal layer. When employed the procedure of extensive mobilization of the trachea, the level of tracheal blood flow reduced in adventitial layer rather lthan in submucosal layer. Blood flow in submucosal layer, however, remain closely near the normal level, which is thought to compensate a decreased blood supply in the tracheal adventitia. Meanwhile, when proposed an excessive tension of more than 800g at the site of anastomosis, a decrease in submucosal blood flow has become manifest despite of a slight decrease in adventitial blood flow simultaneously. Greater emphasis has been focused upo

Experimental Evaluation of Tumor Inhibitory Effect of Induced Infection on Tumor Growth

To evaluate as to whether coexisting infection is helpful to achieve the tumor regression, the inhibitory effect was experimentally assessed from the view point of survival, the degrees of reticuloendothelial activation (Congo-red clearance test) and immune response (Jerne\u27 plaque forming cell test and macrophage migration inhibition test). A 3×107 to 2×108 of β-streptococcus inoculated in C3H mice of 6 week-old were prepared for producing a varying models of infection. As a control study, survival challenging for a 1X106 of Ehrlich tumor inoculation was surveyed. It averaged 16.6 days, whereas it increased when added infection. The most longest survival was 24.4 days when infection was provoked when a 3×107 β-streptococcus were inoculated subcutaneously 5 days prior to Ehrlich tumor cell implantation. Phagocytic activity in the recticuloendothelial system was found to be consequent of stimulation by the varying variety of infection. To assess the inhibitory effect of induced infection on tumor growth, a directly weighing method was applied for inoculated methylcholantrene tumor at interval of 5 days. It is proved that infection is more effective in depressing tumor growth. Furthermore, our experiment indicated that infection enabled the host to enhance the immune response to various antigen, which might be originated from the reticuloendothelial hyperactivity. As the result of this study, we concluded that a mild and long-standing infection might play a key role in inhibiting tumor growth to some extent