• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2001

Purpose : This study was peformed to evaluate the cosmetic outcome of conservative treatment for early breast cancer and to analyze the factors influencing cosmetic outcome. Materials and Methods : From February 1992 through January 1997, 120 patients with early breast cancer were treated with conservative surgery and postoperative radiotherapy. The types of conservative surgery were quadrantectomy and axillary node dissection for 108 patients $(90\%)$ and lumpectomy or excisional biopsy for 10 patients $(8.3\%)$. Forty six patients $(38\%)$ received adjuvant chemotherapy (CMF or CAF). Cosmetic result evaluation was carried out between 16 and 74 months (median, 33 months) after surgery. The cosmetic results were classified into four categories, i.e., excellent, good, fair, and poor. The appearances of the patients' breasts were also analyzed for symmetry using the differences in distances from the sternal notch to right and left nipples. A logistic regression analysis was performed to identify independent variables influencing the cosmetic outcome. Results : Cosmetic score was excellent or good in $76\%$ (91/120), fair in $19\%$ (23/120) and poor in $5\%$ (6/120) of the patients. Univariate analysis showed that tumor size (T1 versus T2) (p=0.04), axillary node status (N0 versus N1) (p=0.0002), extent of surgery (quadrantectomy versus lumpectomy or excisional biopsy) (p=0.02), axillary node irradiation (p=0.0005) and chemotherapy (p=0.0001) affected cosmetic score. Multivariate analysis revealed that extent of surgery (p=0.04) and chemotherapy (p=0.0002) were significant factors. For breast symmetry, univariate analysis confirmed exactly the same factors as above. Multivariate analysis revealed that tumor size (p=0.003) and lymph node status (p=0.007) affected breast symmetry. Conclusion : Conservative surgery and postoperative radiotherapy resulted in excellent or good cosmetic outcome in a large portion of the patients. Better cosmetic results were achieved generally in the group of patients with smaller tumor size, without axillary node metastasis and treated with less extensive surgery without chemotherapy.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.763-773
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• 1996

Background : Behçet's syndrome is a chronic multisystemic disease affecting many organs such as skin, mucosa, eye, joint, central nervous system and blood vessels. Lung involvement occurs in 5% of Behçet's syndrome and is thought to be due to the pulmonary vasculitis leading to thromboembolism, aneurysm and arteriobronchial fistula. Pulmonary vasculitis in Behçet's syndrome is a unique clinical feature, differing from other vasculitis affecting the lung and is one of the major causes of death. Therefore, we examined the incidence, the clinical features, the radioloic findings and the clinical courses of the lung involvement in Behçet's syndrome. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records and radiologic studies of 10 cases of the lung involvement in Behçet's syndrome diagnosed at Yongdong Severance Hospital and Severance Hospital from 1986 to 1995. We analysed the clinical features, the radiological findings, the treatment modalities and the clinical courses. Results: 1) The incidence of the lung involvement in Behçet's syndrome was 2%(10/487). The male to female ratio was 8 : 2 and the mean age was 34 years. The presenting symptom was hemoptysis in 5 of 10 cases, and massive hemoptysis was noted in 2 cases. Other pulmonary symptoms were cough(6/10), dyspnea(4/10), and chest pain(2/10). Other manifestations were oral ulcers(10/10), genital ulcers(9/10), skin lesions(7/10), and eye lesions(6/10). 2) The laboratory findings were nonspecific. The posteroanterior views of chest radiographies showed multiple infiltrates(6/10), nodular or mass-like opacities(4/10), or normal findings(2/10). The chest CT scans showed multifocal consolidations(6/8), and aneurysms of the pulmonary aneries(4/8). The pulmonary angiographies were performed in 3 cases, and showed pulmonary artery aneurysms in 2 cases. The ventilation-perfusion scans in 2 cases of normal chest x-ray showed multiple mismatched findings. 3) The patients were treated with combination therapy consisting of corticosteroids, cyclophosphamide, and colchicine or anticoagulant agents. Surgical resection was performed in one case with a huge aneurysm. 4) We have followed up nine of ten cases. Three cases are well-being with medical therapy, two cases are severely disabled now and four cases died due to massive hemoptysis, massive pulmonary embolism, or sepsis. Conclusion : Pulmonary vasculitis is a main feature of the lung involvement of Behçet's syndrome, causing hemorrhage, aneurysmal formation, and/or thromboemboism. The lung involvement of Behçet's syndrome is uncommon but is one of the most serious prognostic factors of the disease. Therefore, an aggressive diagnostic work-up for early detection and proper treatment are recommended to improve the clinical course and the survival.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4373-4378
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• 2012

Introduction: Hypercalcemia is mainly caused by bone resorption due to either secretion of cytokines including parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) or bone metastases. However, hypercalcemia may occur in patients with or without bone metastases. The present study aimed to describe the effect of chemotherapy treatment, regimens and doses on calcium levels among breast and lung cancer patients with hypercalcemia. Methods: We carried a review of medical records of breast and lung cancer patients hospitalized in years 2003 and 2009 at Penang General Hospital, a public tertiary care center in Penang Island, north of Malaysia. Patients with hypercalcemia (defined as a calcium level above 10.5 mg/dl) at the time of cancer diagnosis or during cancer treatment had their medical history abstracted, including presence of metastasis, chemotherapy types and doses, calcium levels throughout cancer treatment, and other co-morbidity. The mean calcium levels at first hospitalization before chemotherapy were compared with calcium levels at the end of or at the latest chemotherapy treatment. Statistical analysis was conducted using the Chi-square test for categorical data, logistic regression test for categorical variables, and Spearman correlation test, linear regression and the paired sample t tests for continuous data. Results: Of a total 1,023 of breast cancer and 814 lung cancer patients identified, 292 had hypercalcemia at first hospitalization or during cancer treatment (174 breast and 118 lung cancer patients). About a quarter of these patients had advanced stage cancers: 26.4% had mild hypercalcemia (10.5-11.9 mg/dl), 55.5% had moderate (12-12.9 mg/dl), and 18.2% severe hypercalcemia (13-13.9; 14-16 mg/dl). Chemotherapy lowered calcium levels significantly both in breast and lung cancer patients with hypercalcemia; in particular with chemotherapy type 5-flurouracil+epirubicin+cyclophosphamide (FEC) for breast cancer, and gemcitabine+cisplatin in lung cancer. Conclusion: Chemotherapy decreases calcium levels in breast and lung cancer cases with hypercalcemia at cancer diagnosis, probably by reducing PTHrP levels.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.257-267
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• 2017

Purpose: Pulmonary toxicities, including infectious pneumonia (IP) and idiopathic pneumonia syndrome (IPS), are serious side effects of total body irradiation (TBI) used for myeloablative conditioning. This study aimed to evaluate clinical factors associated with IP and IPS following TBI. Materials and Methods: Fifty-eight patients with hematologic malignancies who underwent TBI before allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation between 2005 and 2014 were reviewed. Most patients (91%) received 12 Gy in 1.5 Gy fractions twice a day. Pulmonary toxicities were diagnosed based on either radiographic evidence or reduced pulmonary function, and were subdivided into IP and IPS based on the presence or absence of concurrent infection. Results: Pulmonary toxicities developed in 36 patients (62%); 16 (28%) had IP and 20 (34%) had IPS. IP was significantly associated with increased treatment-related mortality (p = 0.028) and decreased survival (p = 0.039). Multivariate analysis revealed that the risk of developing IPS was significantly higher in patients who received stem cells from a matched unrelated donor than from a matched sibling donor (p = 0.021; hazard ratio [HR] = 12.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.46-110.30). Combining other conditioning agents with cyclophosphamide produced a higher tendency to develop IP (p = 0.064; HR = 6.19; 95% CI, 0.90-42.56). Conclusion: IP and IPS involve different risk factors and distinct pathogeneses that should be considered when planning treatments before and after TBI.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.84-90
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• 1995

To evaluate the role of radiation and chemotherapy after limb-saving operation in the management of soft tissue sarcoma, the authors analysed retrospectively 33 patients treated in department of Orthoaepdic Surgery and Radiation Therapy, Catholic University Medical College, in terms of survival rate, local recurrence rate and prognostic factors. There were 16 males and 17 females. The age distribution ranged from 16 to 81 years with mean age of 48. The follow-up period ranged from 2 to 10 years with average of 5.5 years. The histologic diagnoses were 9 liposarcoma(27.2%), 8 malignant fibrohistiocytoma(24.2%), 7 unclassifiable(21.2%), 3 rhabdomyosarcoma(9.1%), 2 malignant schwannoma, 2 synovral sarcoma, and 2 fibrosarcoma(6.1%) in orders. While marginal and intralesional margins were gained in 24 patients(72.7%), wide and radical margins were obtained only in 9 patients(27.3%). On postoperative 3 weeks, local irradiation of 5000-7000 cGy was delivered to all patients by shrinking field technique for 5-8 weeks. Of 33 patients, 16(45.5%) patients were received adjuvant chemotherapy in combination of adriamycin, cyclophosphamide & vicristine, or VP16 & ifosfamide based on histologic type and obtained surgical margin. The survival rates by direct method at 2 years and 5 years were 58% and 37% respectively. Local recurrences occured in 15 patients(45.5%) at average 16 months after operation. Survival rates at 2 years and 5 years were 37% and 22% in case of intralesional and manginal excision, 75% and 47% in case of wide and radical excision respectively with statistical significance(p<0.05). They were 25% and 17% in the presence of local recurrence, 67% and 42% in the absence of local recurrence respectively with statistical significance(p<0.05). Even though there was no statistical correlation between survival rate and tumor size(p>0.05), the authors considered tumor size as a significant prognostic factors as well as surgical margin and the presence of local recurrence.

• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.101-116
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• 2012

Objectives : This study aims to analyze the papers of the east-west medical combined treatment and suggest the research direction. Methods : 183 research papers were collected by using 25 keywords including combination(in korean words, 병용), collaborative practice(in korean words, 협진) in Korean Medical Database(KMbase) and Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System(OASIS). We analysed the type of studies, the kind of diseases, the treatment method, the kind of herbs and drugs in frequent use, and the result of research. Results : Among the analysed 183 papers, clinical studies are 89 cases and experimental studies are 94. 5 cases of clinical studies are Randomized Controlled Trial(RCT). The cancer(50 papers) and diseases of the circulatory system(25 papers) occupied mostly in treatment studies. Because Combined treatment was actively progressed in oriental medicine, treatment was mainly applied the combined oriental medical treatment with herbs and western drugs. In herbal medicine, Mahwangyounpae-tang(麻黃潤肺湯) and Eunkyo-San(銀翹散) were frequently used in the papers. In western drugs, Cyclophosphamide, Cisplatin, and Mitomycin C were frequently used in the papers. 154 papers introduced the treatment effect, 14 papers announced the safety, and 4 papers mentioned the side effect. Conclusions : We suggested several future research direction as follows. Clinical studies based on experiment studies must be more activated and many RCT shoud be shown. Experimental group in clinical studies should be clearly separated to confirm the treatment method is effective or isn't effective. Studies about the side effect must be expanded, and every study should be confirmed both the treatment effect and safety.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.75-89
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• 1992

The development of multi drug-resistant tumor cell population is a major problem in the chemotherapy of human cancer. These cells are often cross resistant to unrelated drugs and the precise mechanisms of multidrug resistant phenotype of tumor cells has not been fully elucidated. Cisplatin resistant tumor cell(SNU-1/$Cis_5$) was induced from human stomach cancer cell line(SNU-1) in vitro. Growth profiles of survival cells were observed during 5 days by thiazolyl blue (MTT) assay. To investigate the cross resistance of various anticancer drugs in SNU-1 and SNU-1/$Cis_5$, We compared the value of $IC_{50}$ - drug concentration at 50% survival of control and gained relative resistances (RR). The RR for SNU-1/$Cis_5$ were as follows; vinblastine, > 43.0 ; epirubicin, 22.9 ; dactinomycin, 16.0 ; etoposide, 15.0 ; vincristine, 9.2 ; adriamycin, 5.7 ; aclarubicin, 5.3. But 5-fluorouracil, methotrexate, daunorubicin have not cross resistance with cisplatin. Resistant inhibition values of $10{\mu}M$ verapamil for SNU-1/$Cis_5$ were as follows; vincristine, 13.1 ; epirubicin, 10.0 ; etoposide, 6.3 ; vinblastine, 4.4 ; dactinomycin, 3.6 ; daunorubicin, 2.4. Membrane proteins of 51,400 and 81,300 daltons were identified by radioiodination with SDS-PAGE, which might represented the drug resistance.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.1044-1050
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• 2014

Since there is no consensus about the most reliable assays to detect invasive aspergillosis from samples obtained by minimally invasive or noninvasive methods, we compared the efficacy of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for galactomannan (GM) detection and quantitative real-time PCR assay (qRT-PCR) for the diagnosis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis. Neutropenic, male Sprague-Dawley rats (specific pathogen free; 8 weeks old; weight, $200{\pm}20g$) were immunosuppressed with cyclophosphamide and infected with Aspergillus fumigatus intratracheally. Tissue and whole blood samples were harvested on days 1, 3, 5, and 7 post-infection and examined with GM ELISA and qRT-PCR. The A. fumigatus DNA detection sequence was detected in the following number of samples from 12 immunosuppressed, infected rats examined on the scheduled days: day 1 (0/12), day 3 (0/12), day 5 (6/12), and day 7 (8/12) post-infection. The sensitivity and specificity of the qRT-PCR assay was 29.2% and 100%, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis indicated a Ct (cycle threshold) cut-off value of 15.35, and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.627. The GM assay detected antigen in sera obtained on day 1 (5/12), day 3 (9/12), day 5 (12/12), and day 7 (12/12) post-infection, and thus had a sensitivity of 79.2% and a specificity of 100%. The ROC of the GM assay indicated that the optimal Ct cut-off value was 1.40 (AUC, 0.919). The GM assay was more sensitive than the qRT-PCR assay in diagnosing invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in rats.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.23
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• pp.10263-10266
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• 2015

Background: The risk of febrile neutropaenia (FN) and treatment related death (TRD) with first line palliative chemotherapy for de novo metastatic breast cancer (MBC) remains unknown outside of a clinical trial setting despite its widespread usage. This study aimed to determine rates in a large cohort of patients treated in the University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC). Materials and Methods: Patients who were treated with first line palliative chemotherapy for de novo MBC from 2002-2011 in UMMC were identified from the UMMC Breast Cancer Registry. Information collected included patient demographics, histopathological features, treatment received, including the different chemotherapy regimens, and presence of FN and TRD. FN was defined as an oral temperature > $38.5^{\circ}C$ or two consecutive readings of > $38.0^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours and an absolute neutrophil count < $0.5{\times}10^9/L$, or expected to fall below $0.5{\times}10^9/L$ (de Naurois et al, 2010). TRD was defined as death occurring during or within 30 days of the last chemotherapy treatment, as a consequence of the chemotherapy treatment. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS version 18.0 software. Survival probabilities were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and differences in survival compared using log-rank test. Results: Between $1^{st}$ January 2002 and $31^{st}$ December 2011, 424 patients with MBC were treated in UMMC. A total of 186 out of 221 patients with de novo MBC who received first line palliative chemotherapy were analyzed. The mean age of patients in this study was 49.5 years (range 24 to 74 years). Biologically, ER status was negative in 54.4% of patients and Her-2 status was positive in 31.1%. A 5-flourouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide (FEC) chemotherapy regimen was chosen for 86.6% of the cases. Most patients had multiple metastatic sites (58.6%). The main result of this study showed a FN rate of 5.9% and TRD rate of 3.2%. The median survival (MS) for the entire cohort was 19 months. For those with multiple metastatic sites, liver only, lung only, bone only and brain only metastatic sites, the MS was 18, 24, 19, 24 and 8 months respectively (p-value= 0.319). Conclusions: In conclusion, we surmise that FEC is a safe regimen with acceptable FN and TRD rates for de novo MBC.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.272-278
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• 1999

The primary lymphoma in the lung is very rare. Moot of the primary pulmonary lymphomas, which represent 3-4 % of extra-nodal lymphomas, are low-grade B-cell lymphoma. The low-grade B-cell lymphomas progress slowly and the prognosis of these are more favorable than that of the nodal lymphomas. However, high-grade forms progress rapidly with more severe course. The diagnosis of primary pulmonary lymphomas generally relies on the histopathologic findings of lung specimens obtained by surgical excision of the lesions or open-lung biopsy. Recently, less aggressive biopsies(transbronchial, transthoracic) and/or immunocyto-chemical, immunochemical and gene rearrangement studies on materials obtained by bronchoalveolar lavage have been used occasionally. The treatment of the primary pulmonary lymphomas has not been precisely codified. Several clinical data suggest that limited surgery or non-aggressive chemotherapy can provide long-term survival in patients with such slowly developing neoplasm, and demonstrated the need for the development of noninvasive diagnootic methods. In this study, we report a case of high-grade B-cell lymphoma of the lung which was treated with combination chemotherapy.