The grade of malignancy of NE tumors was upgraded in the following order: TC, AC, LCNEC, and SCLC. No prognostic difference was noted between LCNEC and SCLC. The high-grade NE histology uniformly indicated poor prognosis regardless of its histologic type.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the level of expression of ATPbinding cassette (ABC) transporter proteins, and response to chemotherapy and prognosis in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Experimental Design: Expression of ABC transporter proteins, including P-glycoprotein, multidrug resistance protein (MRP) 1, MRP2, MRP3, and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP), was examined immunohistochemically in 72 formalin-fixed tumor samples from untreated stage IIIB or IV NSCLC patients. All of the patients received platinum-based chemotherapy. Response to chemotherapy, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival were compared in relation to expression of each of the ABC transporter proteins and clinicopathological factors.Results: Expression of P-glycoprotein, MRP1, and MRP3 was not significantly associated with response to chemotherapy or survival. MRP2 expression was associated with overall survival (P ‫؍‬ 0.002) but not with response to chemotherapy and PFS. By contrast, the response rate to chemotherapy of patients with BCRP-negative tumors was 44%, as opposed to 24% in patients with BCRP-positive tumors. Response rate was lower in BCRP-positive tumors, although this difference was not statistically significant (P ‫؍‬ 0.08). BCRP-positive patients had also shorter PFS (P ‫؍‬ 0.0003) and overall survival (P ‫؍‬ 0.004) than BCRP-negative patients. Multivariate analysis confirmed BCRP status as an independent variable related to PFS (P ‫؍‬ 0.001).Conclusions: Positive immunostaining for BCRP appears to be a predictor of survival in patients with advanced NSCLC. These findings indicate that BCRP may serve as a molecular target for reducing drug resistance to chemotherapy in advanced NSCLC patients.

The current study data indicate that patients with Stage I/II carcinoma of the tongue > 4 mm in thickness are at increased risk for subsequent cervical metastasis. Thus, conservative supraomohyoid neck dissection is indicated in patients with Stage I/II carcinoma of the tongue > 4 mm in thickness.

A surgical specimen was obtained from a patient (female, 73 years old) who was diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma (mixed subtypes) and underwent pulmonary lobe resection at the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Hokkaido University Hospital in 2015. The patient did not undergo any preoperative chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The resected lung cancer tissues (~1.0 cm 3 without necrosis) were put into ice-cold RPMI-1640 supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (HyClone, GE Healthcare), 0.1 mM non-essential amino acids (Gibco), 100 IU/ml penicillin and 100 μg/ml streptomycin (Gibco) and 0.03% glutamine (Gibco), and transported immediately to the lab. After the removal of blood clots, the sample was rinsed with sterile PBS and cut into small fragments (~1 mm 3

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BackgroundAlthough gangliocytic paraganglioma (GP) has generally been regarded as a neuroendocrine tumor, its origin remains unclear. We therefore aimed to investigate the details of this disease by carefully analyzing and extracting common features of the disease as presented in selected publications.MethodsWe searched for English and Japanese cases of GP using the PubMed and IgakuChuoZasshi databases on August 2010. We then extracted and sampled raw data from the selected publications and performed appropriate statistical analyses. Additionally, we evaluated the expression of hormone receptors based on our previously reported case.Results192 patients with GP were retrieved from the databases. Patient ages ranged from 15 y to 84 y (mean: 52.3 y). The gender ratio was 114:76 (male to female, 2 not reported). Maximum diameter of the tumors ranged from 5.5 mm to 100 mm (mean: 25.0 mm). The duodenum (90.1%, 173/192) was found to be the most common site of the disease. In 173 patients with duodenal GP, gastrointestinal bleeding (45.1%, 78/173) was found to be the most common symptom of the disease, followed by abdominal pain (42.8%, 74/173), and anemia (14.5%, 25/173). Rate of lymph node metastasis was 6.9% (12/173). Our statistical analysis indicated that significant differences were found for gender between GP within the submucosal layer and exceeding the submucosal layer. Furthermore, our immunohistochemical evaluation showed that both epithelioid and pancreatic islet cells showed positive reactivity for progesterone receptors.ConclusionsOur literature survey revealed that there were many more cases of GP exceeding the submucosal layer than were expected. Meanwhile, our statistical analyses and immunohistochemical evaluation supported the following two hypotheses. First, vertical growth of GP might be affected by progesterone exposure. Second, the origin of GP might be pancreatic islet cells. However, it is strongly suspected that our data have been affected by publication bias and to confirm these hypotheses, further investigation is required.

Noguchi type A and B tumors may well be in situ carcinomas, and frozen-section examination was highly accurate. Neither local recurrence nor distant metastases have been found to date. Limited resection initial results appear promising.

Extranodal marginal-zone B-cell lymphoma (MZBL) of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) arising in the thymus is rare, with the largest series in the literature including only three cases. In the present study, we investigated 15 cases of thymic MALT lymphoma to systematically characterize its clinical, histopathological, and molecular features. There was a marked female predilection (male:female ‫؍‬ 1:4), with a mean age of 55 years at diagnosis. There was a strong association with autoimmune disease, especially Sjögren's syndrome.