Combination therapy using 8 g oral curcumin daily with gemcitabine-based chemotherapy was safe and feasible in patients with pancreatic cancer and warrants further investigation into its efficacy.

Our study indicates that 18F-FDG uptake in lung cancer correlates well with the Glut-1, HK-II, and PCNA expression. For nonmalignant lesions, the presence of a higher inflammatory process correlated with 18F-FDG uptake.

These findings suggest that the UGT1A1*6 polymorphism is a potential predictor of severe neutropenia caused by irinotecan in Japanese cancer patients.

p21 expression was shown to be an independent prognostic factor in NSCLC.

AI proved to be an independent prognostic factor in NSCLC.

Purpose:The purpose is to assess clinical significance of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP-9 status, especially MMP-2 status, in stromal cells in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) because experimental studies have revealed that stromal MMP-2 plays important roles in progression of malignant tumors, but most clinical studies focused on tumoral MMP-2 expression, not stromal MMP-2 expression.Experimental Design: We conducted a retrospective study on MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression as evaluated immunohistochemically in a total of 218 consecutive patients with completely resected pathological stage I-IIIA, NSCLC.Results: Strong MMP-2 expression in tumor cells and stromal fibroblasts were documented in 54 (24.8%) and 132 (60.6%) patients, respectively. Strong MMP-2 expression in stromal fibroblasts was more frequently seen in squamous cell carcinoma (72.7%) than in adenocarcinoma (54.9%; P ‫؍‬ 0.016). Tumors showing strong MMP-2 expression in stromal fibroblasts showed a significantly higher intratumoral microvessel density (IMVD) than weak stromal MMP-2 tumors (mean intratumoral microvessel density, 50.9 versus 32.4, P ‫؍‬ 0.003). In addition, postoperative prognosis of strong stromal MMP-2 patients was significantly poorer than that of weak stromal MMP-2 patients (5-year survival rate, 77.5 versus 60.2%, P ‫؍‬ 0.032), and the prognostic significance was enhanced in squamous cell carcinoma patients but disappeared in adenocarcinoma patients. Multivariate analyses confirmed that strong stromal MMP-2 expression was a significant factor to predict a poor prognosis in squamous cell carcinoma patients, not in adenocarcinoma patients. In contrast, MMP-2 or MMP-9 status in tumor cells was not a significant prognostic factor.Conclusions: MMP-2 status in stromal fibroblasts, not in tumor cells, was a significant prognostic factor associated with angiogenesis in NSCLC.

Purpose: Nitroglycerin may improve the response to chemotherapy in advanced non^small cell lung cancer. The effects and mechanisms of nitroglycerin on the enhancement of chemosensitivity to docetaxel and carboplatin regimen (DCb) in patients with lung adenocarcinoma have not been reported. Experimental Design: Seventeen patients with operable lung adenocarcinoma and stable angina pectoris were selected to investigate the effects of nitroglycerin on immunoreactivity for hypoxia-inducible factor 1a (HIF-1a), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), P-glycoprotein (P-gp), the production of which is regulated by HIF-1, and p53 proteins in their resected tumor by semiquantitative immunohistochemical analyses. Eight of 17 patients were treated with nitroglycerin patches before operation, but 9 of 17 patients were not. Furthermore, to study the relationship between changes in plasmaVEGF levels by nitroglycerin treatment and response to DCb, 29 patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma were treated with nitroglycerin for 3 days before chemotherapy using DCb. Results: The rates of immunoreactive cells for HIF-1a, VEGF, and P-gp in tumor tissues treated with nitroglycerin were lower than those without nitroglycerin, but those for p53 were not different between those treated with and without nitroglycerin. Furthermore, the rates of immunoreactive cells for VEGF and P-gp proteins were significantly associated with those for HIF-1ain tumor tissue. The magnitude of decrease in plasma VEGF levels after treatment with nitroglycerin was significantly associated with response to DCb in patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma. Conclusions: Nitroglycerin treatment may improve response to DCb in patients with lung adenocarcinoma, partly through decreasingVEGF and P-gp production via reduction of HIF-1a.

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