RFA can be safely used for breast cancer and provides good local control and excellent cosmesis to patients with small breast cancers.

Anomalous subaortic left brachiocephalic vein (ASLBV) is a rare systemic venous anomaly. We review our experience with patients associated with ASLBV who underwent cardiac surgery at three institutions. From 1989 to 2009, the medical records of surgically treated patients with ASLBV were analyzed; the incidence of ASLBV, clinical characteristics, and associated anatomical findings were assessed. Fifteen patients had ASLBV. All ASLBVs coursed left lateral to the aortic arch, passed under the ascending aorta anterior to the central pulmonary artery, and joined the right brachiocephalic vein. Fourteen patients had congenital heart disease (CHD), and the remaining patient did not have cardiac anomalies. Its incidence was 0.57% (14 of 2,449) in patients with CHD and only 0.02% (1 of 4,805) in patients without CHD. In patients with CHD, 73.3% (11 of 15) of the patients had conotruncal cardiac anomalies such as tetralogy of Fallot, ventricular septal defect with pulmonary atresia, truncus arteriosus, and interruption of the aortic arch. Eight patients had aortic arch anomalies, including right aortic arch and cervical aortic arch. The deletion of chromosomal 22q11.2 was confirmed in two patients, and one patient was diagnosed with DiGeorge syndrome. ASLBV was clinically silent even without any surgical intervention. ASLBV is a very rare anomaly and is highly associated with conotruncal cardiac anomalies and aortic arch anomalies, including right aortic arch and cervical aortic arch. Preoperative diagnosis is important when any surgical interventions are intended, especially, in patients with conotruncal cardiac anomalies.

As coronary stenosis severity increased, graft flow increased, pulsatility index decreased, and proportion of patients with systolic reverse flow increased. In mild coronary artery stenosis, the chance of flow competition between the native coronary artery and the bypass graft increased.

To clarify the roles of integrin and extracellular matrix (ECM) in the process of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) brain metastasis, we established an in vivo model of brain metastasis of human NSCLC cell line EBC-1/original in athymic mice, and established highly brain metastatic subclone EBC-1/brain and highly bone metastatic subclone EBC-1/bone. Integrin expression of these subclones was evaluated by flow cytometry. In vitro cell attachment, migration and proliferation assays with ECMs were performed using these subclones. Expression of integrin α α α α3 subunit was higher in EBC-1/brain than in both EBC-1/original and EBC-1/ bone. In vitro cell attachment, migration, and proliferation assays revealed that EBC-1/brain had higher affinity and higher reactivity to laminin than EBC-1/original and EBC-1/bone. Blocking of integrin α α α α3β β β β1 significantly (P < ung cancer patients often suffer from brain metastasis. Indeed, clinical data in Japan show that more than half of metastatic brain tumors originates from lung cancer, 1) implying that most lung cancers have high potential for metastasis to brain.

The histoculture drug response assay appears to be applicable to non-small cell lung cancer for the prediction of responses to chemotherapy.