Despite its significant toxicity, this combined modality seemed to have curative potential even in cases of locally advanced carcinoma of the esophagus.

No abstract

Concurrent chemoradiotherapy using multidrug resistance-nonrelated agents and etoposide is a safe and effective treatment for localized nasal NK/T-cell lymphoma and warrants further investigation.

Definitive CRT for SCC of the esophagus is effective with substantial toxicities. Additional investigation to minimize the normal tissue toxicities is warranted.

No abstract

High CR proportion and survival proportion with mild toxicity suggest that this regimen could be considered as a candidate of new standard treatment to be compared with surgery in patients with Stage I ESCC.

In this report, we first cloned a cDNA for a protein that is highly expressed in mouse kidney and then isolated its counterparts in human, rat hamster, and guinea pig by polymerase chain reaction-based cloning. The cDNAs of the five species encoded polypeptides of 244 amino acids, which shared more than 85% identity with each other and showed high identity with a human sperm 34-kDa protein, P34H, as well as a murine lungspecific carbonyl reductase of the short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase superfamily. In particular, the human protein is identical to P34H, except for one amino acid substitution. The purified recombinant proteins of the five species were about 100-kDa homotetramers with NADPH-linked reductase activity for ␣-dicarbonyl compounds, catalyzed the oxidoreduction between xylitol and L-xylulose, and were inhibited competitively by nbutyric acid. Therefore, the proteins are designated as dicarbonyl/L-xylulose reductases (DCXRs). The substrate specificity and kinetic constants of DCXRs for dicarbonyl compounds and sugars are similar to those of mammalian diacetyl reductase and L-xylulose reductase, respectively, and the identity of the DCXRs with these two enzymes was demonstrated by their co-purification from hamster and guinea pig livers and by protein sequencing of the hepatic enzymes. Both DCXR and its mRNA are highly expressed in kidney and liver of human and rodent tissues, and the protein was localized primarily to the inner membranes of the proximal renal tubules in murine kidneys. The results imply that P34H and diacetyl reductase (EC 1.1.1.5) are identical to Lxylulose reductase (EC 1.1.1.10), which is involved in the uronate cycle of glucose metabolism, and the unique localization of the enzyme in kidney suggests that it has a role other than in general carbohydrate metabolism.

No abstract