• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.76 no.5
• /
• pp.211-217
• /
• 2014

Malignant pleural effusions (MPEs) are the second leading cause of exudative pleural effusions after parapneumonic effusions. In the vast majority of cases, a MPE signifies incurable disease associated with high morbidity and mortality. Considerable advances have been made for the diagnosis of MPEs, through the development of improved methods in the specialized cytological and imaging studies. The cytological or histological confirmation of malignant cells is currently important in establishing a diagnosis. Furthermore, despite major advancements in cancer treatment for the past two decades, management of MPE remains palliative. This article presents a comprehensive review of the medical approaches for diagnosis and management of MPE.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
• /
• v.29 no.12
• /
• pp.1067-1073
• /
• 2006

Cisplatin, a platinum coordinated complex, is a widely used antineoplastic agent for the treatment of metastatic tumors of the testis, metastatic ovarian tumors, lung cancer, advanced bladder cancer and many other solid tumors. The cytotoxic action of the drug is often thought to be associated with its ability to bind DNA to form cisplatin-DNA adducts. The development of resistance to cisplatin during treatment is common and constitutes a major obstacle to the cure of sensitive tumors. Although to understand the clinically relevant mechanisms of resistance, many studies have been aimed at clarifying the biochemical/molecular alterations of cisplatin-resistance cells, these studies did not conclusively identify the basis of cellular resistance to cisplatin. In this review, cisplatin resistance was discussed in terms of the relevant transporters, such as copper transporters (CTRs), organic cation transporters (OCTs) and multi-drug resistance related transporters (MDRs). These transporters seem to be contributed to cisplatin resistance through the reduction of drug accumulation in the cell. Better understanding the mechanism of cisplatin resistance associated with transporters will provide the useful informations for overcoming the cisplatin resistance.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.1196-1199
• /
• 2006

Tripterygium regelii SPRAGUE is distributed in Korea and Northern China. This extract has been used as a herb medicine, especially antiparasitic, anti-inflammatory and detoxifying agent in East asia. During our research to develop new antitumor agents from natural products, Dichlorornethane (CH$_2$Cl$_2$) extract of Tripterygium regelii SPRAGUE (DTR) showed the potent apoptotic effects in A-549 lung cancer, HeLa-3 cervical cancer, SKMEL-2 melanoma cells in a dose-dependent manner. in order to purify major compounds from DTR, column chromatography was carried out gradually. Silica gel and RP-18 column chromatography for active fractions led to the isolation of a compound. The compound determined by 1 H-NMR was turned out to De Celastrol known to have antitumor activity.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.211-217
• /
• 2005

Objectives : Terminal stage cancer patient from primary hepatocellular carcinoma metastasized into lungs was administered with cultivated wild ginseng herbal acupuncture for 5 months and observed progression. Methods : Cultivated wild ginseng herbal acupuncture was administered 5 times a week at about 150cc dosage per week. Dynamic CT was taken and interpreted at a university hospital. Results : Above patient was diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma and received one procedure of lobectomy and three procedures of TACE, but because of metastasis, chance of improvement was very obscure. Intensive treatment of cultivated wild ginseng herbal acupuncture five times a week for five months in association with moxibustion was done on the patient. Near elimination of the cancer cells metastasized into lungs were confirmed in terms of radiological impression through dynamic CT. Conclusion: From the results obtained in this study, cultivated wild ginseng herbal acupuncture can be an effective measure against terminal stage cancer. But this is a single case study and lack of extensive follow-up must be compensated by further researches.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.458-460
• /
• 1996

Percutaneous transthoracic fine needle biopsy is a popular technique in the diagnosis ot'pulmonary and pleural diseases and its complication rate is very low. One of the rarest but potential complications is that of implantation of malignant cells along the needle tract and subsequent development of a chest wall mass . We experienced a case of chest wall implantation of lung cancer after percutaneous transthoracic fine needle biopsy. The patient was a 59 year old female who had undergone right upper lobectomy for squamous cell carcinoma of the lung (T,N,Mo). 6 months after operation, a loculated mass was palpated at the right posterior .chest wall where the percutaneous transthoracic fine needle biopsy had been performed before operation. We carried out wide excision of this mass and confirmed squamous cell carcinoma histopathologically.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.64-67
• /
• 2016

We report on a 64-year-old man with leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) from an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated adenocarcinoma of the lung. He was treated with paclitaxel, cisplatin. After completion of chemotherapy, he complained of headache, nausea, and vomiting. EGFR-mutated tumor cells were identified from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Second-line therapy with gefitinib, methotrexate was started. After receiving gefitinib for 4 weeks, he had no more headaches or vomiting. Eleven months after initiation of gefitinib, he developed headache and nausea. Chest computed tomography showed aggravation of bone metastasis. Third-line therapy was started with gemcitabine and carboplatin. Two weeks later, he experienced disorientation. After a fourth relapse within the central nervous system, the therapy was switched to erlotinib and significant improvement of LM was achieved. This case shows that LM can be diagnosed by detecting EGFR mutation in CSF and EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors are effective for LM from EGFR mutant non-small cell lung cancer.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.756-765
• /
• 1997

Background : To study the prognosis of patients with lung cancer, many investigators have reported the methods to detect cell proliferation in tissues including PCNA, thymidine autoradiography, flow cytometry and Ki-67. PCNA, also known as cyclin, is a cell related nuclear protein with 36KD intranuclear polypeptide that is maximally elevated in S phase of proliferating cells. In this study, PCNA was identified by paraffin-embedding tissue using immunohistochemistry which has an advantage of simplicity and maintenance of tissue architecture. The variation of PCNA expression is known to be related with proliferating fraction, histologic type, anatomic(TNM) stage, degree of cell differentiation, S-phase fraction and survival rate. We analyzed the correlation between PCNA expression and S-phase fraction, survival. Method : To investigate expression of PCNA in primary lung cancer, we used immunohistochemical stain to paraffin-embedded sections of 57 resected primary non-small cell lung cancer specimen and the results were analyzed according to the cell type, cell differentiation, TNM stage, S-phase fraction and survival. Results : PCNA expression was divided into five group according to degree of staging(-, +, ++, +++, ++++). Squamous cell type showed high positivity than in adenocarcinoma. Nonsignificant difference related to TNM stage was noticed. Nonsignificant difference related to degree of cell differentiation was noticed. S-phase fraction was increased with advance of PCNA positivity, but it could not reach the statistic significance. The 2 year survival rate and median survival time were -50% 13 months, +75% 41.3 months, ++73% 33.6 months, +++67% 29.0 months, ++++25% 9 months with statistic significance (P<0.05, Kaplan-Meier, generalized Wilcox). Conclusion : From this study, PCNA expression was high positive in squamous cell cancer. And, there was no relationship between PCNA positivity and TNM stage, cellular differentiation or S-phase fraction. But, the patients with high positive PCNA staining showed poor survival rate than the patients with lower positive PCNA staining (p<0.05). It was concluded that PCNA immunostaining is a simple and useful method for survival prediction in paraffin embedded tissue of non-small cell lung cancer.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.47 no.6
• /
• pp.797-806
• /
• 1999

Background: About 20% of small cell lung cancer(SCLC) patients have bone marrow(EM) metastasis at the time of diagnosis and the remaining patients are also considered with micrometastasis. In an attempt to detect EM micrometastasis, we used cytokeratin(CK)-20 as a molecular marker, which is specific for epithelial cells. Method: A sensitive RT-PCR assay was used to compare CK-20 expression both in SCLC cell line H209 and normal leukocyte and to evaluate EM aspirates of 28 SCLC patients. Result: H209 cell line showed CK-20 expression but normal leukocyte did not, suggesting CK-20 expression is lung tissue-specific. Of 28 patients(11 limited disease, 17 extensive disease), only 2(1/11, 1/17) samples tested revealed positive signal for CK-20. Two patients with CK-20 expression had EM metastasis or multiple bone involvement during follow-up. Conclusion: Although circulating tumor cells were detected in EM of small portion of patients with bone metastasis, CK-20 doesn't seem to be a reliable marker for the detection of micrometastasis in SCLC. This study emphasizes that identification of more specific marker for micrometastsis is mandatory prior to clinical application.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.215-221
• /
• 1997

In an effort to screen new selective antitumor agents from the broth of soil microorganism, cytotoxicity oriented screening was performed against tumor cells and 3 compounds (Compound 1, 2 and 3) were isolated from Sreptomyces parvullus ISP 5048 and their chemical structures were determined. Among these compounds, Compound 2 showed the highest cytotoxicity against P388Dl and L1210. While the $IC_{50}$/ values of compound 2 against P388Dl and L1210 were 0.073$\mu$g/ml and 0.07$\mu$g/ml, respectively, and the $IC_{50}$/ value of Compound 3 was 0.17$\mu$g/ml against human lung cancer cells, A549, the cytotoxicity of Compound 2 and 3 against normal cell line, Vero E6 cell was about 4- and 8-fold lower than that of adriamycin. Based on the chemical analysis data, Compound 3 was octacosamicine A, a known antibiotic, which was reported by Dobasih et al. (1988). Taken together the results demonstrated that Compound 2 and Compound 3 has the possibility to be developed as antitumor agent because of its potent cytotoxicity as well as high selectivity against various cancer cell lines.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.70-76
• /
• 2010

The single-stranded large circular (LC)-sense DNA were utilized as probes for DNA chip experiments. The microarray experiment using LC-sense DNA probes found differentially expressed genes in A549 cells as compared to WI38VA13 cells, and microarray data were well-correlated with data acquired from quantitative real-time RT-PCR. A 5K LC-sense DNA microarray was prepared, and the repeated experiments and dye swap test showed consistent expression patterns. Subsequent functional analysis using LC-antisense library of overexpressed genes identified several genes involved in A549 cell growth. These experiments demonstrated proper feature of LC-sense molecules as probe DNA for microarray and the potential utility of the combination of LC-sense microarray and antisense libraries for an effective functional validation of genes.