• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2467-2471
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• 2012

Introduction: Although bleomycin/etoposide/cisplatinum (BEP) chemotherapy is established as the standard treatment for germ cell tumours, it requires significant experience in administration and toxicity management to maintain optimal dose intensity. A retrospective review of 30 patients was conducted at UKMMC to study treatment outcomes. Methods & Materials: Patients with GCTs and treated with at least two cycles of BEP chemotherapy between January 2003 and Oct 2009 were eligible for this study. Patients received 4-6 cycles of bleomycin 30,000IU IV D1, D8 & D15 and either etoposide $100mg/m^2$ IV D1-D5 and cisplatin $20mg/m^2$ IV D1-D5 (5 day BEP regimen) or etoposide $165mg/m^2$ D1-D3 and cisplatin $50mg/m^2$ D1-3 (3 day BEP regimen) every three weeks per cycle. All patients received prophylactic granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF) from days 6 to 10 of each cycle. The overall response rates, 2 year progression-free survival and overall survival of the whole cohort were assessed. Results: Thirty patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Non-seminomatous GCTs comprised 93.3% of cases and gonadal and mediastinal primary sites were the most common. Sixty percent were classified as IGCCCG poor risk disease. Median follow-up was 26.6 months. The overall response rate (CR+PR) was 70%. The two year PFS and OS were 70% and 66%. There was a significant difference in terms of the overall response rate (85% vs 40%, p = 0.03) and in PFS (94.7% vs 50%, p = 0.003) between gonadal and extragonadal primary sites. Conclusion: It is possible to achieve outcomes similar to those in international clinical trials with close monitoring and good supportive care of patients undergoing BEP chemotherapy. There is a strong argument for patients with IGCCCG poor prognosis disease to be treated in specialist tertiary centres to optimize treatment outcomes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.988-992
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• 2006

The ptsHI operon from Leuconostoc mesenteroides ssp. mesenteroides SY1 (L. mesenteroides SY1), a strain isolated from kimchi, was cloned and characterized. The ptsH open reading frame (ORF) was 273 bp in size, which can encode a protein of 90 amino acid residues with a molecular weight of 9,212 Da. The pfsI ORF was 1,719 bp in size, which was capable of encoding a protein of 572 amino acids with a molecular mass of 62,549 Da. ptsH and pfsI genes were transcribed as a single transcript of 2.0 kb in size regardless of carbon sources, supporting the operon structure. Although the deduced amino acid sequences of the HPr and EI were highly homologous with those of other Gram-positive bacteria, an additional amino acid (glutamine at the $3^{rd}$ amino acid) was present in HPr from L. mesenteroides SY1. Phosphorylation sites of HPr included the histidine residue ($16^{th}$) and serine residue ($47^{th}$). Mutant HPrs, in which each phosphorylation site was mutated into alanine, were obtained, and phosphorylation with HPr and mutated HPrs showed that HPr was phosphorylated at the serine residue ($47^{th}$) by HPr kinaseiphosphorylase (HPr K/P).

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.35 no.5B
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• pp.840-848
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• 2010

This paper proposes a proactive authentication scheme using credentials based on chameleon hashing in MIH environments. There is a proactive authentication structure defined by IEEE 802.21 Security Study Group for the link access in MIH environment. Both schemes based on EAP and on PKI can be applied to such structure, but the former has caused network traffic due to the complicated authentication procedure and the latter has complex structure for managing certificates. The proposed scheme performs the proactive authentication procedure only between a mobile node and a MIH Key Holder by using credentials based on chameleon hashing. Our scheme reduces the network traffic since authentication with the server is unnecessary in MIH environment and PKI structure is not required as well. In addition, the proposed scheme provides secure PFS and PBS features owing to the authenticated Diffie-Hellman key exchange of the chameleon-based credential.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.125-131
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• 2014

Purpose: We reviewed treatment outcomes and prognostic factors for patients with salivary ductal carcinoma (SDC) treated with surgery and postoperative radiotherapy from 2005 to 2012. Materials and Methods: A total of 16 patients were identified and 15 eligible patients were included in analysis. Median age was 61 years (range, 40 to 71 years) and 12 patients (80%) were men. Twelve patients (80%) had a tumor in the parotid gland, 9 (60%) had T3 or T4 disease, and 9 (60%) had positive nodal disease. All patients underwent surgery and postoperative radiotherapy. Postoperative radiotherapy was delivered using 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy or intensity-modulated radiotherapy. Locoregional failure-free survival (LRFFS), distant failure-free survival (DFFS), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Differences in survival based on risk factors were tested using a log-rank test. Results: Median total radiotherapy dose was 60 Gy (range, 52.5 to 63.6 Gy). Four patients received concurrent weekly chemotherapy with cisplatin. Among 10 patients who underwent surgery with neck dissection, 7 received modified radical neck dissection. With a median follow-up time of 38 months (range, 24 to 105 months), 4-year rates were 86% for LRFFS, 51% for DFFS, 46% for PFS, and 93% for OS. Local failure was observed in 2 patients (13%), and distant failure was observed in 7 (47%). The lung was the most common involved site of distant metastasis. Conclusion: Surgery and postoperative radiotherapy in SDC patients resulted in good local control, but high distant metastasis remained a major challenge.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.4759-4768
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• 2015

Background: Several studies have investigated predictive and prognostic biomarkers for patients treated with anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) agents in lung cancer. However, the conclusion is controversial. Materials and Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the associations of mutant K-ras, PIK3CA and PTEN deficiency with the efficacy of anti-EGFR agents in lung cancer. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR). The secondary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Results: A total of 61 studies were included in the final meta-analysis. The result showed that K-ras mutation was a good predictor for ORR (RR=0.42, 95%CI, 0.33-0.55, p=0.000) and an effective prognostic marker for OS (HR=1.37, 95%CI, 1.15-1.65, p=0.001) and PFS (HR=1.33, 95%CI, 1.05-1.69, p=0.019). However, PTEN deficiency or PIK3CA mutation did not show any significance predictive value for ORR (PTEN, RR=0.82, 95%CI, 0.56-1.19, p=0.286; PIK3CA, RR=1.08, 95%CI, 0.17-6.66, P=0.938). And PTEN deficiency or expression of PIK3CA did not show significance prognostic value for OS (PTEN, HR=0.88, 95%CI, 0.31-2.46,P=0.805; PIK3CA, HR=0.79, 95%CI: 0.23-2.68, P=0.706). Conclusions: Our meta-analysis showed that K-ras mutation may be an effective predictor in lung cancer patients treated with anti-EGFR agents. Whereas, the predictive and prognostic value of PTEN deficiency and PIK3CA mutation need to be further investigated.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.4165-4168
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• 2014

Background: The prognosis of primary glioblastoma (GBM) is poor. Approximately 2/3 of primary brain tumor diagnoses are GBM, of which 95% are primary lesions. In this study, we aimed to evaluate whether more sunlight exposure has an effect on survival of patients with primary GBM. Materials and Methods: A total of 111 patients with primary GBM were enrolled from Kayseri in inner Anatolia which has a cold climate (n: 40) and Mersin in Mediterranean region with a warm climate and more sunlight exposure (n: 71). The patients with primary GBM were divided into two groups as Kayseri and Mersin and compared for progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).Results: The PFS values were 7.0 and 4.7 months for Kayseri and Mersin groups, respectively (p=0.10) and the repsective OS values were 13.3 and 9.4 months (p=0.13). We did not found any significant difference regarding age, sex, comorbidity, smoking, surgery, resurgery, adjuvant chemoradiotherapy and palliative chemotherapy between the groups. Conclusions: We found that more sunlight exposure had no impact on prognosis of patients with primary GBM, adding inconsistency to the literature about the relationship between sunlight and GBM.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.108-123
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• 2003

The importance of environmental resources has been recognized over the world after Rio declaration(1992). so it is moved to monetarize environmental resources. The studies on the evaluation of nonmarket goods began also in the early 1990 in Korea. In practice the preliminary feasibility studies(PFS) are carried out since 1999 in case of major public investments projects. In PFS the Benefit-Cost analysis is practically used. which is considering the evaluation of environmental resources. But the methods for the evaluation have not been fixed up. In this study It is introduced to the theory and major methods for the evaluation of environmental resources. In the theory the evaluation is handled in aspect of demand function and supply function. The optimum level can be extracted from the two functions. In the method. travel cost method(TCM), hedonic price method(HPM) and contingent valuation method(CVM) are introduced according to the market structures.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.3827-3833
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• 2015

Background: Positive para-aortic lymph node (PALN) at diagnosis in cervical cancer patients confers an unfavorable prognosis. This study reviewed the outcomes of extended field radiotherapy (EFRT) and concurrent chemotherapy with extended field RT (CCEFRT) in patients with positive PALN at diagnosis. Materials and Methods: Medical records of 407 cervical cancer patients between 1st January 2002 to 31st December 2012 were reviewed. Some 32 cases with positive PALN were identified to have received definitive extended field radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy. Treatment outcomes, clinicopathological factors affecting survival and radiotherapy related acute and late effects were analyzed. Results: Totals of 13 and 19 patients underwent EFRT and CCEFRT respectively during the period of review. The median follow-up was 70 months. The 5-year overall survival (OS) was 40% for patients who underwent CCEFRT as compared to 18% for patients who had EFRT alone, with median survival sof 29 months and 13 months, respectively. The 5-years progression free survival (PFS) for patients who underwent CCEFRT was 32% and 18% for those who had EFRT. Median PFS were 18 months and 12 months, respectively. Overall treatment time (OTT) less than 8 weeks reduced risk of death by 81% (HR=0.19). Acute side effects were documented in 69.7% and 89.5% of patients who underwent EFRT and CCEFRT, respectively. Four patients (12.5%) developed radiotherapy late toxicity and there was no treatment-related death observed. Conclusions: CCEFRT is associated with higher 5-years OS and median OS compared to EFRT and with tolerable level of acute and late toxicities in selected patients with cervical cancer and PALN metastasis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6621-6626
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• 2015

Purpose: To evaluate effects of metformin on clinical outcome of non-diabetic patients with stage IV NSCLC. Materials and Methods: A prospective, randomized, open-label, controlled pilot study was conducted on patients with stage IV NSCLC with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status (ECOG PS) of 0-2, excluding patients with diabetes and lactic acidosis. Thirty chemo-$na\ddot{i}ve$, non-diabetic patients with stage IV NSCLC were enrolled. Fifteen patients received intravenous gemcitabine/cisplatin regimen alone (arm B) while fifteen patients received the same regimen plus daily oral metformin 500mg (arm A). The effect of metformin on chemotherapy-response rates, survival, and adverse events in these patients was evaluated. Results: Objective response rate (ORR) and median overall survival (OS) in arms A and B were 46.7% versus 13.3% respectively, p=0.109 and 12 months versus 6.5 months, respectively, p=0.119. Median progression free survival (PFS) in arms A and B was 5.5 months versus 5 months, p=0.062. No significant increase in toxicity was observed in arm A versus arm B. Percentage of patients who experienced nausea was significantly lower in arm A versus arm B, at 26.7% versus 66.7% respectively, p=0.028. Conclusions: Metformin administration reduced occurrence of chemotherapy induced-nausea. Non-statistically significant improvements in the ORR or OS were observed. Metformin had no effect on PFS.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.6221-6225
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• 2012

Background: To determine the frequency of HER-2 overexpression in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, and to explore the relationship between clinicopathological prognostic factors and their effects on survival, based on immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis. Materials and Methods: The study included 80 patients with a histologically proven diagnosis of CRC that received adjuvant FOLFOX-4 chemotherapy at our department between March 2006 and September 2010. Patient data were analyzed retrospectively. Results: The median follow-up period and age of the patients were 24 months and 59 years, respectively. In immunohistochemical staining, 3+ staining was found in 2 patients (2.5%) while 2+ was in 13 (16%). FISH for HER-2 was performed for all of these 15 patients; samples which were 3+ showed positivity but the ones with 2+ were negative. There was no significant correlation between HER-2 expression and age, gender, tumor localization, histological subtype, grade, lymphovascular and perineural invasion, or pTN stage (P>0.05), even when the patients with HER-2 overexpression were analyzed separately. There was also no significant relationship between progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), and HER-2 expression, gender, tumor localization, obstruction-perforation, bleeding, histological type, grade, lymphovascular and perineural invasion, or pT staging (P>0.05); however, there was a significant relationship between lymph node involvement, and PFS and OS (P<0.05). Conclusions: Evaluation of HER-2 overexpression in a more comprehensive, multi-center, prospective trial with standardized methods will be an appropriate approach.