• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.200-212
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• 2007

Purpose: To find objective validity of minimal acupuncture using a modified guide tube as a method to verify the effect of acupuncture. Methods: Subjects of this study were participants of a randomized clinical trial which was practiced to verify the effect of acupuncture on postmenopausal hot flash. There were 2 arms of treatment, one's for active acupuncture group(AG) with manipulation and De qi, the other's for minimal acupuncture group(MG) using a modified guide tube which was designed to give minimal stimulation to the patient. After 8 weeks' treatment followed by 4 weeks' observation, participants were asked to fill in self-report forms on their education, previous experiences of acupuncture, original idea on the efficacy of acupuncture and recognition of blinding. Results: 19 participants of 26 in AG and 19 of 26 in MG completed the self-report form. There was no difference between AG and MG in their education(p=0.5976, Fisher exact test) and previous experiences of acupuncture(p=0.9999, Fisher exact test). In their original ideas on the efficacy of acupuncture, most of AG and MG respondents have been thought that acupuncture is very effective or quite effective, and there was no difference between 2 groups(p=0.5065). 16 of 19 in AG and 14 of 19 in MG believed that they underwent more effective way, there was no statistical difference between 2 groups(p=0.6928, Fisher exact test). Participants believed in undergoing more effective way not because they recognized treatment method, but they were satisfied with the effectiveness of treatment retrospectively. Conclusion: As the result of this study, these authors suggest that minimal acupuncture using a modified guide tube is acceptable as a method to verify the effect of acupuncture in acupuncture-familiar Korean culture. Also further studies on the stimulation-specific effect of minimal acupuncture are demanded.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.21
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• pp.9487-9494
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• 2014

Background: The size of a hepatic neoplasm is critical for staging, prognosis and selection of appropriate treatment. Our study aimed to compare the radiological size of solid hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) masses on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with the pathological size in a Chinese population, and to elucidate discrepancies. Materials and Methods: A total of 178 consecutive patients diagnosed with HCC who underwent curative hepatic resection after enhanced MRI between July 2010 and October 2013 were retrospectively identified and analyzed. Pathological data of the whole removed tumors wereassessed and differences between radiological and pathological tumor size were identified. All patients were restaged using a modified Tumor-Node-Metastasis (TNM) staging system postoperatively according to the maximum diameter alteration. The lesions were classified as hypo-staged, iso-staged or hyper-staged for qualitative assessment. In the quantitative analysis, the relative pre and postoperative tumor size contrast ratio ($%{\Delta}size$) was also computed according to size intervals. In addition, the relationship between radiological and pathological tumor diameter variation and histologic grade was analyzed. Results: Pathological examination showed 85 (47.8%) patients were overestimated, 82 (46.1%) patients underestimated, while accurate measurement by MRI was found in 11 (6.2%) patients. Among the total subjects, 14 (7.9%) patients were hypo-staged and 15 (8.4%) were hyper-staged post-operatively. Accuracy of MRI for calculation and characterized staging was related to the lesion size, ranging from 83.1% to 87.4% (<2cm to ${\geq}5cm$, p=0.328) and from 62.5% to 89.1% (cT1 to cT4, p=0.006), respectively. Overall, MRI misjudged pathological size by 6.0 mm (p=0.588 ), and the greatest difference was observed in tumors <2cm (3.6 mm, $%{\Delta}size=16.9%$, p=0.028). No statistically significant difference was observed for moderately differentiated HCC (5.5mm, p=0.781). However, for well differentiated and poorly differentiated cases, radiographic tumor maximum diameter was significantly larger than the pathological maximum diameter by 3.15 mm and underestimated by 4.51 mm, respectively (p=0.034 and 0.020). Conclusions: A preoperative HCC tumor size measurement using MRI can provide relatively acceptable accuracy but may give rise to discrepancy in tumors in a certain size range or histologic grade. In pathological well differentiated subjects, the pathological tumor size was significantly overestimated, but underestimated in poorly differentiated HCC. The difference between radiological and pathological tumor size was greatest for tumors <2 cm. For some HCC patients, the size difference may have implications for the decision of resection, transplantation, ablation, or arterially directed therapy, and should be considered in staging or selecting the appropriate treatment tactics.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 2008

Uncooked powered diet (Saengshik) composed of grains, vegetables, mushrooms and fruits have various physiological functions including strong antioxidant and potent anticancer effects by many kinds of bioactive phytochemicals. The objective of present study was to identify the anticancer effects of vitamin C and saengshik on colon cancer induced by CT-26 cell line in BALB/c mice. As the result, the tumor volumes of vitamin C-mixed diet group (VC) showed no significant differences compared with control group (C) after subcutaneous injection of CT-26 cell lines. However saengshik group (S) showed a significant effect, inhibiting the growth of cancer by 56.2% ($4.8{\pm}9.0\;mm^3$), 48.1% ($80.8{\pm}60.0\;mm^3$), 43.2% ($135.2{\pm}117.2\;mm^3$), 55.5% ($233.6{\pm}248.2\;mm^3$), 69.2% ($304.6{\pm}442.5\;mm^3$) and 70.7% ($464.9{\pm}705.9\;mm^3$) respectively as compared with C group at an interval of 5 days after injection of the CT-26 cells into mice. Also the final tumor volume of S group exerted a significant differences as compared with one of C group (p<0.05). Especially in the case of S group (n=10), the tumors in 2 of 10 mice entirely disappeared at 25th day. Our results suggest that saengshik possess a strong inhibitory action against tumor growth induced by CT-26 colon cancer cell line in the mice. Further studies of saengshik are required to confirm the cancer prevention effect and possibility of adjuvant cancer therapy.