• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.19
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• pp.8451-8454
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• 2014

Objectives: Epidemiological studies have shown that molecular mechanisms underlying the development of lung cancers differ between smokers and unsmokers. Aberrant promoter methylation in some tumor suppressor genes is frequent in lung tumors from smokers but rare in those from non-smokers. Recently, many studies have investigated the association between cigarette smoking and RASSF1A gene promoter hypermethylation in lung cancer patients, but a unanimous conclusion could not be reached. We therefore performed this meta-analysis to derive a more precise estimation of any association. Study Design: An electronic search of PubMed and Chinese Biomedicine databases was conducted to select studies. A total of 19 case-control studies were chosen, and odds ratios (ORs) with confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess the strength of associations. Results: The case-control studies covered 2, 287 lung cancer patients: 63.4%(1449) of the patients were smokers, 36.6% (838) were unsmokers. The overall results suggested that smokers with lung cancer had a 1.297-fold (95% CI: 1.066~1.580, p=0.010, p=0.087) higher risk for RASSF1A gene hypermethylation than the non-smokers. In the stratified analysis, an increased risk of RASSF1A gene hypermethylation in smokers than in non-smokers was found in Asian (OR=1.481, 95%CI: 1.179~1.861, p=0.001, p=0.186). Conclusions: This meta-analysis supports the idea that RASSF1A gene hypermethylation is associated with cigarette smoking-induced lung cancer.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.627-632
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• 2002

Intramedullary spinal cord metastasis (ISCM) has rarely been reported in patients with carcinomas. In about half the ISCM reported the primary origins are lung cancer, with small cell lung cancer responsible for almost all reported cases. Thus, ISCM from small cell lung cancer is relatively well documented, but ISCM from non-small cell lung cancer is rarely diagnosed prior to the patients' demise, so very little data about such patients is available. Spine MRI is the most sensitive technique for diagnosing ISCM. ISCM are now being encountered with increasing frequency due to the increasing survival rates of lung cancer patients, and the development of new imaging technique. We reported a case of an ISCM from non-small cell lung cancer with a brief review of the literature.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4241-4244
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• 2012

The lung adenocarcinoma is considered more aggressive than other types of non-small cell lung cancer. As metabolites of tryptophan degradation along the kynurenine pathway, including kynurenic acid, have been shown to induce immunosuppression and facilitate escape of tumor cells from immune surveillance, a hypothesis was set up that differences in biological behavior between types of lung cancer may be associated with altered activity of the kynurenine metabolic pathway. The aim of the study was to determine kynurenic acid levels in the serum of patients with bronchial adenocarcinoma for comparison with other types of non-small cell lung cancer. A total of 227 patients with non-small cell lung cancer were enrolled in the study, including 71 with adenocarcinoma and 96 with squamous cell carcinoma. Serum kynurenic acid concentration was determined with use of high performance liquid chromatography and fluorometry. The level of kynurenic acid in the serum of patients with adenocarcinoma was significantly higher than in those with squamous cell lung cancer ($107.1{\pm}62.8$ pmol/ml; 95%CI: 92.4 to 132.3 pmol/ml versus $82.1{\pm}47.6$ pmol/ml; 95%CI: 78.5 to 91.2 pmol/ml, respectively; p = 0.027). Differences between other histological types of lung cancer were insignificant. We conclude that increased activity of kynurenine metabolic pathway manifested by elevated serum kynurenic acid level may be one of the factors associated with clinically distinct biological behavior of adenocarcinoma, in particular high invasiveness and rapid progression.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.2875-2878
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• 2014

Background: Lung cancer is one of the commonest and most lethal cancers throughout the world. The majority of the patients present at advance stage and are not suitable for curative intent treatment. Even among patients with localized disease, there has been underutilization of curative treatment modalities. The aim of this study was to analyze the radical treatment utilization rates in patients with non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated at our centre. Materials and Methods: We analyzed case records of 104 patients with a pathologically confirmed diagnosis of NSCLC having stage 1-3B disease who were treated at our centre over last 3 years, to assess the utilization of curative treatment modalities i.e. surgery or radical radiotherapy. Results: The median age of this cohort was 58 years. Out of 104 patients only 33 (31.7%) received curative intent treatment, 14 undergoing curative resection and 19 receiving radical doses of radiotherapy. The baseline characteristics of both the groups (with or without radical treatment) were not different. Major factors associated with underutilization with curative treatment were progressive disease or loss of follow up after chemotherapy and inappropriate use of TKI and/or palliative radiotherapy in patients with stage 1-3B disease. Patients who did not receive radical treatment had inferior PFS and OS than those who received radical treatment. Conclusions: In our practice we observed gross underutilization of curative intent treatment modalities in patients with NSCLCs which is associated with inferior survival.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.206-211
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• 1980

One hundred and thirteen patients underwent diagnostic fiberoptic bronchoscopy to exclude the presence of the lung cancer at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Kyungpook National University Hospital from January 1979, to July 1980. Sixty five cases of these patients were studied for passible lung cancer by bronchoscopic examination. Patients varied in age from 24 to 75 years, with the highest concentration lying in the sixth decade (49%). male was predominated with sex ratio of 6.3 : 1. Forth three (75.4%) of 57 cases impressed as definitive, and 8(14.5%) of 55 cases impressed as negatibe lung cancer were subsequently proved to have had lung cancer. Positive bronchoscopic biopsy was found in 10 of 14 lung cancers which were situated in the left main bronchus and in 11 of 13 neoplasms involving the right upper lobe bronchus. epidermoid cell carcinomas were most frequent(82.4%). Bronchial biopsy detected 34(79%) of 43 hilar cancers and 1.3(59%) 22 periphera neoplasms, in those patients who had fiberoptic bronchoscopic examinations. In the present series of 65 cases, the lesion was so far advanced when first seen that it was considered inoperable in 31 (47.7%) and operable 34(52.3%), 19(55.9%) of these refusing surgery. fifteen were explored of whom 12(80%) were resectable.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.2541-2544
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• 2013

Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the serum neuron-specific enolase (NSE) levels in patients with prostate cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma, lung cancer and peripheral nerve tumors. Materials and Methods: NSE levels were determined by ELISA in the sera of 100 prostate cancer, 47 Hodgkin lymphoma, 35 lung cancer and 35 peripheral nerve tumor patients and also in 132 healthy controls. Results: The median levels of serum NSE were elevated in patients with lung cancer (p=0.018) and peripheral nerve tumors (p=0.008). NSE levels in prostate cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma patients were higher than the controls but there was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05). Conclusions: We conclude that NSE may be applied in routine to gain insight about the clinical statuses of various cancer patients, but more studies are needed to determine the organ specificity.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 2015

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the the efficacy of oral glutamine (GLN) in prevention of acute radiation-induced esophagitis in patients with lung cancer and determine the predictive role of clinical and dosimetric parameters. Materials and Methods: Thirty-two patients diagnosed with lung cancer were studied prospectively. Sixteen patients (50%) received prophylactic powdered GLN orally in doses of 10g/8h. Patients were treated 2 Gy per fraction daily, 5 days a week. We evaluated the grading of esophagitis daily at the end of each fraction of each treatment day until a cumulative dose of 50 Gy was reached. The primary end point was radiation-induced esophagitis. Results: All patients tolerated GLN well. Toxicity grade, weight loss, serum cytokine levels and esophageal transit times exhibited statistically significant improvement in the GLN receiving group. GLN suppressed the inflammation related to the disease and treatment and reduced toxicity with statistical significance. Conclusions: This study suggests a benefical role of oral GLN use in prevention and/or delay of radiation-induced esophagitis, in terms of esophageal transit time and serum immunological parameters, as well as weight loss.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.15
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• pp.6369-6374
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• 2014

Lung cancer (LC) is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide, predominantly due to the difficulty of early diagnosis and its high metastatic potential. Recently, increasing evidence suggests that circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are responsible for cancer metastatic relapse, and CTCs have attracted interest in cancer metastasis detection and quantification. In present study, we collected blood samples from 67 patients with bone metastasis, and 30 patients without such metastasis, and searched for CTCs. Then the association of CTC numbers with bone metastasis and other clinico-pothological variants was analyzed. Results demonstrated that when 5 or 1 was taken as a threshhold for the CTC number, there were significantly higher positivity of CTCs in the bone metastasis group than in the non-metastasis group. While the increase in CTC number was not significantly associated with any other clinicopathological factor, including age, gender, pathological type, intrapulmonary metastasis and lymph node metastasis, the CTC number in patients with positivity of the last above mentioned variants was obviously higher than in patients with negativity of the two variants. Taken together, the CTC number appears to be significantly associated with the bone metastasis from lung cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1617-1620
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• 2014

Background: Evidence shows direct link of HER2 to increased glycolysis and over production of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). HER2 overexpression, high LDH and low glucose pleural levels are associated with poor prognosis in lung cancer. Here, their relationships were investigated. Materials and Methods: HER2 positivity was studied using immunohistochemistry in non-small cell lung cancer. Glucose and LDH levels were measured using commercial colorimetric kits. Results: Of 42 patients (29 adenocarcinoma and 13 squamous cell carcinoma), 28 (66.7%) were HER2-negative, 14 (33.3%) were HER2- positive, including 9 (21.4%) weakly stained (1+) and 5 (11.9%) moderately stained (2+) samples. The relationship between HER2 and glucose and LDH levels were tested in 20 newly diagnosed lung cancer patients who had simultaneous pleural and serum samples. Pleural and serum LDH levels were increased, and pleural glucose levels were decreased with the scale of HER2 positivity, and that the difference in glucose levels between HER2-negative group and HER2-positive patients scored at 2+ reached statistical significance (p=0.02). This latter group all had pleural glucose levels below 40 mg/dl. Conclusions: For the first time, we showed a significant association between low pleural glucose level and overexpression of HER2 in lung cancer. Further investigations are warranted to disclose the association of HER2 with low pleural glucose levels in other populations, with a larger sample size, in malignant pleural effusions caused by other types of cancer, and finally to assess employment as a screening tool for finding HER2-positive cases of lung cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.13
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• pp.5233-5237
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• 2014

Epigenetic modifications of tumour suppressor genes are involved in all kinds of human cancer. Aberrant promoter methylation is also considered to play an essential role in development of lung cancer, but the pathogenesis remains unclear.We collected the data of 112 subjects, including 56 diagnosed patients with lung cancer and 56 controls without cancer. Methylation of the FHIT, RASSF1A and RAR-${\beta}$ genes in DNA from all samples and the corresponding gene methylation status were assessed using the methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR, MSP). The results showed that the total frequency of separate gene methylation was significantly higher in lung cancer compared with controls (33.9-85.7 vs 0 %) (p<0.01).Similar outcomes were obtained from the aberrant methylation of combinations of any two or three genes (p<0.01). There was a tendency that the frequency of combinations of any two or three genes was higher in stage I+II than that in stage III+IV with lung cancer. However, no significant difference was found across various clinical stages and clinic pathological gradings of lung cancer (p>0.05).These observations suggest that there is a significant association of promoter methylation of individual genes with lung cancer risk, and that aberrant methylation of combination of any two or three genes may be associated with clinical stage in lung cancer patients and involved in the initiation of lung cancer tumorigenesis. Methylation of FHIT, RASSF1A and $RAR{\beta}$ genes may be related to progression of lung oncogenesis.