• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.29-32
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• 2014

Background and Objective: Lung cancer is one of the malignant diseases which most seriously threat humansurvival and development. This study aimed to assess osteopontin (OPN) expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and any relationship with clinicopathological features. Methods: Immunohistochemistry was used to determine OPN expression and microvascular density (MVD) in 120 cases of NSCLC also undergoing clinical assessment. Results: Moderately positive expression of OPN was found in 34.6% (41/120) and strong expression in 47.5% (57/120) of the NSCLCs; OPN expression in carcinomas was higher than in pericarcinoma tissues (P<0.05). While no obvious association was observed with NSCLC patient age, gender, maximum diameter of the tumor and pathological type, OPN expression was more commonly detected in poorly differentiated carcinoma tissue and lymph node metastasis as well as at advanced clinical stage (P<0.05); OPN expression in cancer tissue was positively correlated with MVD (r = 0.839, P = 0.000). Conclusion: OPN plays an important role in promoting tumor angiogenesis and progress of NSCLCs and has the possibility to become the new target for therapy.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.191-198
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• 1998

Objectives: We performed an immunohistochemical study to examine the place of neovascularization in the tumorigenic process of follicular thyroid carcinoma and to determine whether tumor angiogenic activity in follicular carcinoma plays a role in tumor aggression. Materials & Methods: We studied 63 follicular thyroid carcinomas and compared with 22 follicular adenomas. The areas of capsular invasion, vascular invasion and cellular atypism of the tumor were confimed on H & E stains. The paraffin embedded tissues were stained by the use of monoclonal antibodies against Ag CD34. Microvesseles were counted in the area of highest vascular density at 200 times magnification. The microvessel densities(MVD) were analized in relation to histologic type and location of the tumors. Results: There were 59 minimal invasive types and 4 widely invasive types of carcinoma. In the histologic specimens of carcinomas, capsular invasion was identified in all the cases, vascular invasion in 46 and cellular atypism in 24. Mean values of the MVDs of the minimal invasive carcinomas, the widely invasive carcinomas and the adenomas were $263.8{\pm}69.2,\;256.l{\pm}49.3\;and\;241.5{\pm}159.4$, respectively and there was no significant difference between each group. In follicular carcinomas, there was a regional difference of the MVDs. The areas of tumor showing cellular atypism and adjacent to or penetrating the capsule, in which represents the tumorigenic process of carcinoma, had a higher rate of vascularization, than other areas of the tumor(p<0.05). However, these features were not noted in the follicular adenomas. Conclusion: Although there was no significant difference of the MVD between follicular carcinomas and adenomas, there was a regional difference of the MVD within the carcinomas and the values were significantly higher in the more malignant areas, as indicated by cellular atypism and capsular invasion. Therefore, tumor angiogenic activity measured by MVD may play a role in tumor aggression in follicular thyroid carcinoma.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.105-111
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• 1997

From 1988 to 1997, we experienced 11 cases of glomus tumor in fingers(10 cases) and toe(1 case). All patients were female, and showed typical pain, tenderness, and cold sensitivity of the lesions. The locations were subungal in nine cases and in pulp from distal phalangeal bone in two cases. Three patients had histories of one or two failed previous operations, and two patients had another glomus tumor in their bodies. All except one had satisfactory results subjectively and without complications. One patient was operated by the excision of the tumor including germinal matrix and surrounding tissues of nail bed, and had a nail deformity in follow-up. The glomus tumor is not malignant to recur or metastasize in the case of complete excision. However, the surgeon should be alert not to injure or repair the nail bed meticulously after the excision of the tumor to prevent a late deformity of nail.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.256-262
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• 2019

Extensive tumor resection accompanied by radiotherapy and chemotherapy is the standard of care for malignant gliomas. However, there is a significant obstacle to the complete resection of the tumor due to the difficulty of distinguishing tumor and normal brain tissue with a conventional surgical microscope. Recently, multiple studies have shown the possibility of fluorescence-guided surgery in malignant gliomas. The most used fluorescence dyes for brain tumor surgery are 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) and indocyanine green (ICG). In this paper, a new fluorescence guided operation system, which can detect both 5-ALA and ICG fluorescent images simultaneously, is presented. This operation system consists of light emitting diodes (LEDs) which emits 410 nm and 740 nm wavelengths. We have performed experiments on rats in order to verify the operation of the newly developed operation system. Oral administration and imaging were performed to observe the fluorescence of 5-ALA and ICG fluorescence in rats. When LEDs at wavelengths of 410 nm and 740 nm were irradiated on rats, 628 nm wavelength with a violet fluorescence color and 825 nm wavelength with a red fluorescence color were expressed in 5-ALA and ICG fluorescent material, respectively, thus we were able to distinguish the tumor tissues easily. Previously, due to the poor resolution of the conventional surgical microscope and the fact that the color of the vein is similar to that of the tumor, the tumor resection margin was not easy to observe, thus increasing the likelihood for cancer recurrence. However, when the tumor is observed through the fluorescence guided operation system, it is possible to easily distinguish the color with the naked eye and it can be completely removed. Therefore, it is expected that surgical removal of cancerous tumors will be possible and surgical applications and surgical microscopes for cancer tumor removal surgery will be promising in the future.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.16
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• pp.6685-6689
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• 2014

Background: Alterations in gene expression levels or mutations of tyrosine kinases are detected in some human cancers. In this study, we examined whether serine threonine tyrosine kinase 1 (STYK1)/novel oncogene with kinase domain (NOK) is overexpressed in patients with colorectal cancer. We also examined the clinical relevance of STYK1/NOK expression in cancer tissues. Materials and Methods: In tumor samples of patients with colorectal cancer and their matched non-cancerous samples, STYK1/NOK messenger RNA (mRNA) expression was analyzed by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Associations between the expression levels of STYK1/NOK and clinicopathological characteristics of colorectal cancer were also assessed using Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Results: Upregulation of STYK1/NOK was found in cancer tissues even at early stage of colorectal cancer compared to normal adjacent tissues. The optimal cutoff point of 0.198 the STYK1/NOK expression showed 0.78 sensitivity and 0.75 specificity for diagnosis. Overexpressed STYK1/NOK was correlated with tumor size but had no association with other clinicopathological characteristics of colorectal cancer. Conclusions: These results indicate that STYK1/NOK mRNA is widely expressed in the patients with colorectal cancer and suggest that inhibition of this molecule could potentially serve as a novel therapeutic target.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8461-8465
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• 2016

Gastric cancer (GC) as the fourth most common cause of malignancies shows high rate of morbidity appropriating the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Developmental pluripotency associated-2 (DPPA2), cancer-testis antigen (CT100), is commonly expressed only in the human germ line and pluripotent embryonic cells but it is also present in a significant subset of malignant tumors. To investigate whether or not DPPA2 expression is recalled in GC, our aim in this study was to elucidate DPPA2 protein expression in gastric cancer. Fifty five GC tumor and their related margin normal tissues were recruited to evaluate DPPA2 protein expression and its probable associations with different clinicopathological features of the patients. DPPA2 was overexpressed in GC cases compared with normal tissues (P < .005). While DPPA2 expression was detected in all GC samples, its high expression was found in 23 of 55 tumor tissues (41.8%). Interestingly, 50 of 55 normal samples (90.9%) were negative for DPPA2 protein expression and remained 5 samples showed very low expression of DPPA2. DPPA2 protein expression in GC was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis (p = 0.012). The clinical relevance of DPPA2 in GC illustrated that high level expression of this protein was associated with lymph node metastasis supporting this hypothesis that alteration in DPPA2 was associated with aggressiveness of gastric cancer and may be an early event in progression of the disease. DPPA2 may be introduced as a new marker for invasive and metastatic GCs.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8247-8252
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• 2016

Background: The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) degrades a variety of proteins which attach to specific signals. The ubiquitination pathway facilitates degradation of damaged proteins and regulates growth and stress responses. This pathway is altered in various cancers, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and breast cancer. Recently it has been reported that expression of newly characterized human genes, UBE2Q1 and UBE2Q2, putative members of ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme family (E2), has been also changed in colorectal cancer. Epigenetics is one of the fastest-growing areas of science and nowadays has become a central issue in biological studies of diseases. According to the lack of information about the role of epigenetic changes on gene expression profiling of UBE2Q1 and UBE2Q2, and the presence of CpG islands in the promoter of these two human genes, we decided to evaluate the promoter methylation status of these genes as a first step. Materials and Methods: The promoter methylation status of UBE2Q1 and UBE2Q2 was studied by methylation-specific PCR (MSP) in tumor samples of 60 colorectal cancer patients compared to adjacent normal tissues and 20 non-malignant controls. The frequency of the methylation for each gene was analyzed by chi-square method. Results: MSP results revealed that UBE2Q2 gene promoter were more unmethylated, while a higher level of methylated allele was observed for UBE2Q1 in tumor tissues compared to the adjacent normal tissues and the non malignant controls. Conclusions: UBE2Q1 and UBE2Q2 genes show different methylation profiles in CRC cases.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1887-1890
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• 2016

Breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death among women in the whole world. MiR- 34a and let-7a are well known tumor suppressors that participate in the regulation of apoptosis, invasion and other cellular functions. In this study, expression of miR-34a, let-7a and apoptosis pathway genes such as Bcl-2, Caspase-3 and P53 were evaluated using quantitative real-time PCR in 45 paired samples of normal margin and tumor tissue collected from breast cancer patient at advanced stage (3-4). MiR-34a, let-7a, caspase-3 and P53 expression are reduced and Bcl-2 expression is increased within tumoral tissues in comparison with normal margin tissues. P53 expression directly or indirectly was correlated with miR-34a, let-7a, Bcl-2 and caspase-3 expression. In This study we found that MiR-34a and let-7a expression are reduced in the tumoral tissues. Down-regulation of these two molecules correlated with expression of genes associated with apoptosis. These results suggest that due to the correlation of miR-34a and let-7a with apoptotic and anti-apoptotic pathways these molecules could participate as regulators in advanced clinical stages of breast cancer and should be considered as markers for diagnosis, prognostic assessment and targeted therapy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1053-1057
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• 2012

Objective: Identifying cancer-related genes or proteins is critical in preventing and controlling colorectal cancer (CRC). This study was to investigate the clinicopathological and prognostic value of activating transcription factor 1 (ATF1) in CRC. Methods: Protein expression of ATF1 was detected using immunohistochemistry in 66 CRC tissues. Clinicopathological association of ATF1 in CRC was analyzed with chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. The prognostic value of ATF1 in CRC is estimated using the Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression models. Results: The ATF1 protein expression was significantly lower in tumor tissues than corresponding normal tissues (51.5% and 71.1%, respectively, P = 0.038). No correlation was found between ATF1 expression and the investigated clinicopathological parameters, including gender, age, depth of invasion, lymph node status, metastasis, pathological stage, vascular tumoral emboli, peritumoral deposits, chemotherapy and original tumor site (all with P > 0.05). Patients with higher ATF1 expression levels have a significantly higher survival rate than that with lower expression (P = 0.026 for overall survival, P = 0.008 for progress free survival). Multivariate Cox regression model revealed that ATF1 expression and depth of invasion were the predictors of the overall survival (P = 0.008 and P = 0.028) and progress free survival (P = 0.002 and P = 0.005) in CRC. Conclusions: Higher ATF1 expression is a predictor of a favorable outcome for the overall survival and progress free survival in CRC.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.16 no.2 s.30
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• pp.365-385
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• 1995

In order to prove the antitumor effect of Wekyungtang(WKT) that was originated in Bigeubchunkeumyobang(備急千金要方), Wekyungtang with Houttuyniae Herba(WKT-I) and Wekyungtang with Oldenlandiae diffusae Herba(WKT-II) experimentally, the studies were done, We evaluated the cytotoxic activity against B16- Fo as well as the synergistic effects with anticancer drugs such as cyclophophamide (CPM), cisplatin(CPT) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in vitro and measured body weight, survival time, hematological changes, changes of tissues in G57BL／6 implanted with B16-Fo. The results were obtained as follows: 1. In vitro cytotoxic effect against B16-Fo was shown in all groups as compared with control group, but the concentrations showing inhibitory growth rate below 55% of control was recognized in all concentrations of Wekyungtang(WKT) against B16-Fo and also concentration of $10^4$g／ml above in all group with cyclophophamide (CPM), concentration of $10^3$g／ml in Wekyungtang(WKT-l) with cisplatin(CPT) in synergistic effect, 2. In vivo body and tumor weight were significantly suppressed in all groups as compared with control group 3. The number of platelet, WBC, RBC were significantly increased in all groups, platelet aggregation was significantly increased in WKT-I and WKT-II as compared with control group. 4. In changes of tissues heavy infiltration oh cancer was shown in portal vein, pulmonary tissue, vein, peribronchiole, aveoli, while WKT-I was effective in antihepatic metastasis and WKT-II in pulmonary matastasis. From above results it was concluded that wekyungtang(WKT), wekyungtang with Houttuyniae Herba(WKT-I) and wekyungtang with Oldenlandiae diffusae Herba(WKT -II) had antitumor effect, and also wekyungtang combined with Houttuyniae Herba or Oldenlandiae diffusae Herba were more effective than wekyungtang only and also cyclophophamide (CPM), cisplatin(CPT) showed the more synergistic effect which suggests the necessity of continuous study on the mechanism of antitumor action of Houttuyniae Herba or Oldenlandiae diffusae Herba.