• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.1346-1353
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• 2023

Objectives: This long-term case report presents the case of an ovarian cancer patient with brain, cervical lymph node, and vertebral metastasis suppressed by traditional Korean medicine in combination with cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell-based immunotherapy. Methods: The patient received acupuncture, moxibustion, GunChil-go, Hangam-dan, and CIK cell-based immunotherapy. The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and tumor markers were used to evaluate the treatment effects. Results: Integrative cancer treatment suppressed the progression of cancer, and the patient achieved eight-year survival. The performance status improved, and the tumor marker level was maintained. Conclusions: We suggest that an integrative cancer treatment that includes traditional Korean medicine can be a meaningful treatment option for advanced ovarian cancer.

• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.23-36
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• 2020

Objective: This study was aimed to report the therapeutic effects of herbal medicine on chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). Methods: The prior studies were searched from the databases included PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, CNKi, CiNii, KISS, NDSL, KMBASE, and OASIS until September 2020. The main search keywords were chemotherapy, peripheral neuropathy, and herbal medicine, and only randomized controlled trials that analyzed the therapeutic efficacy of herbal medicine were included. The Cochrane's Risk of Bias was used for assessment of the risk of bias and the Review Manager 5.3 program was used for meta-analysis. Meta-analyses were grouped by the administration routes of herbal medicines (oral administration or topical use). Results: Nine studies with a total of 563 participants were included. Compared with usual care, the effective rate was higher in oral administrated herbal medicine (RR 1.67, 95% CI 1.25 to 2.23; p<0.001, I2=31%). In addition, topical herbal medicine showed an significantly higher effective rate than placebo (RR 2.20, 95% CI 1.52 to 3.18; p<0.001, I2=0%) and usual care (RR 2.24, 95% CI 1.74 to 2.89; p<0.001, I2=66%). There was no severe adverse effect in all participants. Conclusions: Herbal medicine appears to improve neuropathy caused by chemotherapy in cancer patients more than conventional therapy of CIPN. However, as there is heterogeneity between the included studies and a lack of blinding, further well-designed researches are more needed.

• The Korean journal of helicobacter and upper gastrointestinal research
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.150-156
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• 2018

Precision medicine stands for 4Ps - precise, preventive, participatory, and personal; in which "precision" is important because the current modern medicine starts from "trial and error," and "one does not fit all". Current targeted therapies for cancer have changed treatment approaches and led the precision medicine; however, clinical use of liquid biopsy, using blood or other liquid specimens to characterize circulating tumor cells (CTC) or tumor genes instead of biopsies of tumor tissues, still awaits availability of more information regarding non-invasive cancer detection and characterization, prediction of treatment response, monitoring the disease course and relapse possibilities, identification of mechanisms of drug resistance, and newer pathogenesis. In this review, we will introduce the basic concept of CTC, circulating cell free DNA, and exosomes and their possible application for gastric cancer relevant with Helicobacter pylori infection.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2021

Objectives: This pilot study aimed to evaluate the agreement between traditional face-to-face Korean medicine (KM) pattern identification and non-face-to-face KM pattern identification using the data from related questionnaires, tongue image, and pulse features in patients with cancer. Methods: From January to June 2020, 16 participants with a cancer diagnosis were recruited at the one Korean medicine hospital. Three experienced Korean medicine doctors independently diagnosed the participants whether they belong to the cold pattern or not, heat pattern or not, deficiency pattern or not, and excess pattern or not. Another researcher collected KM pattern related data using questionnaires including Cold-Heat Pattern Identification (CHPI), tongue image analysis system, and pulse analyzer. Collected KM pattern related data without participants' identifier was provided for the three Korean medicine doctors in random order, and non-face-to-face KM pattern identification was carried out. The kappa value between face-to-face and non-face-to-face pattern identification was calculated. Results: From the face-to-face pattern identification, there were 13/3 cold/non-cold pattern, 4/12 heat/non-heat pattern, 14/2 deficiency/non-deficiency pattern, and 0/16 excess/non-excess pattern participants. In cold/non-cold pattern, kappa value was 0.455 (sensitivity: 0.85, specificity: 0.67, accuracy: 0.81). In heat/non-heat pattern, the kappa value was 0.429 (sensitivity: 0.75, specificity: 0.72, accuracy: 0.75). The kappa value of deficiency/non-deficiency and excess/non-excess pattern was not calculated because of the few participants of non-deficiency, and excess pattern. Conclusions: The agreement between traditional face-to-face pattern identification and non-face-to-face pattern identification seems to be moderate. The non-face-to-face pattern identification using questionnaires, tongue, and pulse features may feasible for the large clinical study.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.9
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• pp.353-362
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to suggest a professional consensus on the topics that should be dealt with importantly in the movement program for the recovery of cancer patients in Korea. As a result of calculating the importance of the finalized movement program component, First, the opinions about the environment for the promotion of movement were suggested as pleasant facilities, natural lighting, rest room space, facilities aspect of environment friendly space, education about diseases, participation programs, health feedback, information handouts. Second, the opinions on the purpose of the movement program were suggested to promote prevention and early screening of cancer, education, sharing effective treatment methods of cancer patients, cognitive aspect and psychological support for accurate information transmission, stress relief, and improvement of quality of life. Third, the opinions on the consideration of the movement program suggested stress relieving, cancer patient's needs, correct information delivery, quality of life, and participation of cancer patients. Fourth, the problems of the movement program were presented with different physical characteristics, physical inconvenience, the patient side of passive participation, space narrowness and lack, space aspect of program exclusive space etc.

• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.11-24
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• 2023

Objectives: To report the improvement of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and pantalgia with integrative cancer treatment on adverse effects of chemotherapy in a breast cancer patient. Methods: A 63-year-old female patient who has been diagnosed with breast cancer got treated for 103 days with integrative cancer treatment including acupuncture, moxibustion, herbal medicine, physiotherapies, hand and foot bath to decrease side effects of chemotherapy. The patient was also treated Western immunotherapies like Thymosin, Viscum album. Paclitaxel, Carboplatin, Doxorubicin, Cyclophosphamide was applied and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy(CIPN), pantalgia and nausea occured. The efficacy of treatment was measured by a numeric rating scale(NRS) of symptoms, National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Event(NCI-CTCAE) and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group(ECOG) Performance Status Scale. Results: The NRS scroes for CIPN, pantalgia, nausea were improved. There was no adverse effects of 3 or higher assessed by the NCI-CTCAE. The ECOG grade improved from grade 2 to 1. Conclusions: This study suggests that integrative cancer treatment could improve CIPN, pantalgia after chemotherapy in breast cancer.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.723-729
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• 2019

Objective: This study was aimed at reporting on a patient with repeated recurrence of metastatic colorectal cancer treated with traditional Korean medicine (TKM) alone after operation and chemotherapy. Method: The patient with metastatic colorectal cancer received tumor resections four times and perioperative chemotherapy for repeated recurrence from February 2013 until March 2015. TKM, which included Gunchil-dan and Haeam-dan, was administered until June 2019 to prevent additional relapses. Results: After 49 months of TKM treatment, there was no tumor recurrence. A no evidence of disease (NED) state was maintained from March 2015 to June 2019. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) was shown for 49 months and overall survival (OS) for 78 months. Serious adverse events evaluated according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) Version 5.0 were not identified. This study suggested that TKM with herbal medicine including aRVS might prolong survival and inhibit recurrence of tumors in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.25-28
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• 2021

Purpose CA 72-4 is a tumor marker that uses two monoclonal antibodies, CC49 and B72.3, to measure tumor-related glycoprotein(TAG72) in the serum. CA 72-4 is used to diagnose stomach, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers, and is known to perform high specificity for stomach cancer. The purpose of this study is to re-evaluate the reference value provided by the manufacturer through revalidation of the reference value in CA 72-4. Furthermore this study was conducted to provide useful help when making a clinical diagnosis at gastric cancer center. Materials and Methods We selected 271 patients who had been to health care center in national cancer center for the month of November 2020. The gender of the subjects was 140 males and 131 females, and the age group was from 30s to 60s. The reagent used in the study was a CA 72-4 IRMA KIT (ISOTOPES, Hungary) and the results were measured using a Dream Gamma-10 gamma counter (Shinjin medics, Korea). Results Statistical analysis of the results of this study used Hoffmann's method and Bayesian's method, which are primarily used in setting reference value. As a result of measuring CA 72-4 of 271 patients, the mean value was 4.54 U/mL and the median value was 3.30 U/mL. 24 people who deviated from 3SD were excluded from the measured value, the mean calculated after that was 3.53 U/mL, median was 3.00 U/mL and SD was 1.89. The reference value calculated based on this results was set to 7.31 U/mL. Conclusion The reference value provided by the manufacturer is less than 4 U/mL. It is slightly different from the value calculated in this study, 7.31 U/mL, so it seems necessary to reset the reference value according to the laboratory environment. Currently, we are receiving inquiries about the reference value from the center for gastric cancer at National Cancer Center. If additional research is carried out along with this study, it will be possible to set more accurate reference value.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.48-54
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• 2021

Purpose In ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT, the absorption of ¹⁸F-FDG due to the activation of Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) greatly interferes with the discrimination of lymph node malignant metastasis. Warming the patient's body temperature before and after injection of ¹⁸F-FDG to prevent FDG absorption by BAT is a safe and non-pharmacological approach. The purpose of this study was to identify and select patients with a high potential for BAT activation in advance, and to investigate whether BAT can inhibit FDG absorption when the body temperature is raised for a short time by directly applying heat to the target patient. Materials and Methods Among the patients who underwent ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT at the National Cancer Center from January 2020 to December 2020, 825 female patients (415 in the thermal group, 410 in the non-thermal group) under 50 years old were included. The thermal group was administered heat for 10 minutes before injection of ¹⁸F-FDG. For statistical analysis, the Z test comparing the ratios between the two groups was used, and logistic regression analysis was performed to correct for important variables (BMI, outdoor temperature, blood sugar) according to the results of the previous retrospective study. Results Among 825 patients, 19 patients with BAT activated (Thermal group: 5(1.2%), Non-thermal group: 14(3.41%)) accounted for 2.3% of the total. As a result of performing the Z test to compare the ratios between the two groups, the activation of BAT in the thermal group was significantly decreased (P=0.034). In the univariate logistic regression analysis, the activation of BAT was also decreased in the thermal group (OR: 0.34, P<0.05). In the multivariate results, BAT activation increased in patients younger than 45 years old (OR: 4.46, P<0.05) and outdoor temperature less than 13.2 degrees (OR: 9.97, P<0.05). BAT activation tended to decrease in the thermal group, but there was no significant difference (OR: 0.37, P=0.066). Conclusion We confirmed that the activation of BAT tends to decrease by 62.5% in the group subjected to the thermal method, and it will be of great help in preventing FDG absorption of BAT more effectively in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.81-87
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• 2024

Purpose: CA 19-9 is the most widely used tumor marker for the diagnosis of digestive system tumor, especially pancreatic and biliary tract cancer. This study was conducted to improve the result value near reference range by comparing the reagents of CA 19-9 one step method and two step method. In addition, it was intended to establish a standard for selecting reagents. Material and Methods: 120 patients who visited the National Cancer Center in 2023 were selected as subjects for this study. The reagents used in the study were CA 19-9 IRMA kits (Shinjin, Korea) and three types of reagents were compared. Two step method reagent that is currently being used (A), one step method reagent (B) and two step method reagent improved by request (C) were compared and regression analysis was performed on their data. And we also performed recovery test, linearity test and hook effect test for each reagent. Result: There were 46 cases of reagent B in which the concentration value was lower than the result measured in reagent A that was previously used, and 77 cases of reagent C. As a result of regression analysis of reagents A, B, and C, the coefficients of determination of reagents A and B, reagents A and C, and reagents B and C were 0.653, 0.577, and 0.875. In the recovery rate test and the linearity test, the results of all reagents were good, and in the hook effect test, reagent B showed a hook effect at a low value. Conclusion: The improved reagent C appears to have been improved based on the concentration value of reagent B, which the manufacturer judged to be more stable at low concentrations. The hook effect in reagent B can be a fatal reason for disqualification when selecting reagents in general patient samples which high-concentration samples appear frequently. The first improved reagent C will be able to be used once it is confirmed that it has more stability for various concentration values.