• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.98-103
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• 2014

Objectives: Advanced malignant melanoma (MM) has a poor prognosis, with an expected 2-year survival rate of 10 to 20%. It has long been recognized as an immunogenic tumor, and is worse for elderly patients. Many studies have suggested that herbal treatments improve immune functions, but few clinical studies have reported on this topic. Patients and History: We present two cases of female patients (72 and 77 years old, respectively) with advanced MM. The 72-year-old female patient was, at first, diagnosed with MM with multiple bone metastases. She received resection of the primary lesion, but refused further chemotherapy. The 77-year-old female patient was diagnosed with cutaneous MM of the left heel, with suspicion of sentinel node lymphadenopathy; however, she also refused any conventional treatment due to old age. Course of Therapy and Results: Both patients were exclusively treated with standardized allergen-removed Rhus verniciflua stokes (aRVS) extract combined with Bojungikki-tang (BT, Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi-Tang in Chinese or Hochu-ekki-to in Japanese). Both patients are still alive and doing well (Feb. 2014), demonstrating that the 72-year-old patient has lived for 27 months and the 77-year-old patient has lived for 31 months without disease progression since the aRVS and BT administration. Conclusion: We suggest that the combination of aRVS extract and BT could be a candidate for overcoming the cancer's immunoediting process especially for elderly MM patients intolerant of conventional treatment.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.201-207
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• 1999

Malignant tumors of the hand are very rare. Between 1989 and 1998, 17 patients with malignant tumors of the hand were evaluated for clinical features, prevalence, treatment and results. The mean age was 45 years and median duration of follow-up was 38 months. A painless mass was the most common symptom and the most common lesion was the digit. Fifteen cases of soft tissue and 2 cases of bone tumor were diagnosed. On pathology, soft tissue tumors were comprised of 8 cases of malignant melanoma, 2 cases of angiosarcoma and 1 case each of malignant fibrous histiocytoma, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor, extraskeletal chondrosarcoma, and squamous cell carcinoma. Bone tumors were metastatic tumors and each originated from the rectal cancer or lung cancer. Lymph node involvements were noted in 4 cases of malignant melanoma and 1 case of squamous cell carcinoma. Six cases of metacarpo-phalangeal joint disarticulation and 4 cases of phalanx amputation were performed. Wide excision, ray amputation and below-elbow amputation were also performed. Three cases expired due to metastasis and progression of the original lesion. Among the surviving 14 cases, a malignant melanoma had metastasis on the axillary lymph node and 13 cases showed no local recurrence or metastasis during the follow-up.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.107-111
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• 2013

Objective : We investigated the effectiveness of stereotactic gamma knife Radiosurgery (GKR) for radioresistant brain metastases with the impact upon histology. Methods : Between April 2004 and May 2011, a total of 23 patients underwent GKR for 67 metastatic brain tumors from 12 renal cell cancers, 5 sarcomas and 6 melanomas. The mean age was 56 years (range, 18 to 79 years). Most of the patients were classified as the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group recursive partitioning analysis class II (91.3%). The synchronous metastasis was found in 6 patients (26.1%) and metachronous metastasis in 17 patients (73.9%). We analyzed the local control rate, intracranial progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results : The mean tumor volume for GKR was 2.24 cc and the mean prescription dose was 19.4 Gy (range, 10 to 24) to the tumor margin. Out of metachronous metastases, the median duration to intracranial metastasis was 3.3 years in renal cell cancer (RCC), 2.4 years in melanoma and 1.1 years in sarcoma (p=0.012). The total local control rate was 89.6% during the mean 12.4 months follow-up. The six-month and one-year local control rate was 90.2% and 83% respectively. Depending on the pathology, the control rate of RCC was 95.7%, sarcoma 91.3% and melanoma 80.5% during the follow-up. The common cause of local failure was the tumor bleeding in melanoma. The median PFS and OS were 5.2 and 8.4 months in RCC patients, 6.5 and 9.8 months in sarcoma, and 3.8 and 5.1 months in melanoma. Conclusion : The GKR can be one of the effective management options for the intracranial metastatic tumors from the radioresistant tumors. The melanoma showed a poor local control rate compared to other pathologies because of the hemorrhage.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.527-535
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• 1996

Background : Cell adhesion molecules knave been Implicated In the various stages of tumor progression and metastasis. ICAM-1 plays a important roles in cell-cell interactions in inflammatory and immune response of several diseases. Recently, elevated levels of sICAM-1 in circulation was reported as association with liver metastasis in gastric, Colonic, gall bladder and pancreatic cancer, with reduced survival in malignant melanoma. This study was performed to measure the sICAM-1 in patients with lung cancer and to evaluate the relations between staging of lung cancer and level of sICAM-1. Methods : Serum sICAM-1 was measured in 36 patients with lung cancer according to the pathologic types and clinical staging before therapy and in 8 controls with ICAM-1 ELISA kit. Results : Serum sICAM-1 levels were elevated in patients with lung cancer except small cell type. Also progression and metastasis of lung cancer associated with elevation of sICAM-1 levels. Conclusion : These results suggest that higher levels of serum ICAM-1 reflect the progression and metastasis of lung cancer and it may be used as a marker with diagnostic and prognostic significance.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.413-419
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• 2012

The melanoma differentiation-associated gene-7 (MDA-7) protein, also known as interleukin-24 (IL-24), is a novel candidate of tumor suppressor that can induce apoptosis experimentally in a variety of human malignant cells. However, there have been few studies about its role in colorectal cancer. We performed immunohistochemical detection of MDA-7/IL-24 in 399 tissue samples from primary colorectal adenocarcinoma patients using a tissue microarray. Western blotting was then done to confirm the immunohistochemical observations. MDA-7/IL-24 immunoreactivity was observed in 116 (29.1%) of the 399 colorectal adenocarcinoma cases. Analysis of the MDA-7/IL-24 expression by Western blotting confirmed the immunohistochemical results. The tumors with a negative MDA-7/IL-24 expression more frequently showed poor differentiation (P=0004), lymph node metastasis (P=0.001), deep invasion (P=0.008) and high stage (P=0.001). A subset of colorectal adenocarcinoma revealed a decreased expression of MDA-7/IL-24, and this was associated with progressive pathologic features. These findings suggest that loss of MDA-7/IL-24 expression may play a role in tumor growth and progression of colorectal adenocarcinomas.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2010

Purpose: Chemokines are structurally related, small polypeptide signaling molecules that bind to and activate a family of transmembrane G protein-coupled receptors, the chemokine receptors. Recently, interaction between the chemokine receptor CXCR4 and its ligand, stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1 or CXCL12), has been found to play an important role in tumorigenicity, proliferation, metastasis and angiogenesis in many cancers such as lung cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, glioblastoma, pancreatic cancer and cholangiocarcinoma. Hence, the goal of this study is to identify the correlation of clinicopathological factors and the up-regulation of SDF-1 expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma. Material and methods: We studied the immunohistochemical staining of SDF-1, quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) of SDF-1 gene in 20 specimens of 20 patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. Results: 1. In the immunohistochemical study of poor differentiated and invasive oral squamous cell carcinoma, the high level staining of SDF-1 was observed. And the correlation between immunohistochemical SDF-1 expression and tumor nodes metastases (TNM) classification of specimens was significant.($x^2$ test, P < 0.05) 2. In the SDF-1 gene qRT-PCR analysis, SDF-1 expression was more in tumor tissue than in carcinoma in situ tissue. Paired-samples analysis determined the difference of SDF-1 mRNA expression level between the cancer tissue and the carcinoma in situ tissue.(Student's t-test, P < 0.05) Conclusion: These findings suggest that up-regulation of the SDF-1 may play a role in progression and invasion of oral squamous cell carcinoma.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.1470-1475
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• 1998

Two kinds of Korean rice-wine (Yakju) with different process and ingredients, and Japanese rice-wine (Sake) were chosen for this study, and throughly dried and solubilized in water or cell culture medium. In vitro cytotoxicity assays of the solubilized wine solids exhibited that maximum dilution factors for inhibition of B 16BL6 mouse melanoma cell growth were 16X for herbal medicine-added rice-wine (Korean rice-wine I) and typical Korean rice-wine (Korean rice-wine II), and 8X for Japanese rice-wine. Their cytotoxic effects on HRT18 human colon adenocarcinoma cells were even lower than those on B16BL6 cells. The morphology of the tumor cells were changed by addition of the solubilized wine solids. Inhibitory effect of the rice-wine on in vivo tumor growth and metastasis were monitored after implantation of B16BL6 cells into C57BL/6 mice with daily feeding the solubilized wine solids. Compared to non-fed control groups, B16BL6 tumor growth and metastasis to lung were clearly inhibited by feeding the wine solids, in order of Korean rice-wine I > Korean rice-wine II > Japanese rice-wine. The data of in vitro cytotoxicity and the cell shape changes indicate that the inhibitory effect of tumor progression may be attributed to tumor cell differentiation or immune stimulation induced by certain components in the rice-wine, rather than direct cytotoxicity of the components.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.824-835
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• 2019

In recent decades, oncolytic viruses (OVs) have extensively been investigated as a potential cancer drug. Oncolytic viruses have primarily the unique advantage in the fact that they can only infect and destroy cancer cells. Secondary, oncolytic viruses induce the activation of specific adaptive immunity which targets tumor-associated antigens that were hidden during the initial cancer progression. In 2015, one genetically modified oncolytic virus, talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC), was approved by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of melanoma. Currently, various oncolytic viruses are being investigated in clinical trials as monotherapy or in combination with preexistent cancer therapies like immunotherapy, radiotherapy or chemotherapy. The efficacy of oncolytic virotherapy relies on the balance between the induced anti-tumor immunity and the anti-viral response. Despite the revolutionary outcome, the development of oncolytic viruses for the treatment of cancer faces a number of obstacles such as delivery method, neutralizing antibodies and induction of antiviral immunity due to the complexity, variability and reactivity of tumors. Intratumoral administration has been successful reducing considerably solid tumors with no notable side effects unfortunately some tumors are not accessible (brain) and require a systemic administration of the oncolytic viruses. In order to overcome these hurdles, various strategies to enhance the efficacy of oncolytic viruses have been developed which include the insertion of transgenes or combination with immune-modulatory substances.