Publications by authors named "Ayako Ura"

Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the morphomolecular features of high-grade metastasized G3 neuroendocrine tumors (G3NETs) undergoing prolonged systemic treatments, revealing associations with rapid progression and transformation into NEC-like histology.
  • Out of 40 patients, 22% exhibited NEC-like characteristics such as high-grade atypia and a significant increase in Ki67, indicating aggressive tumor behavior compared to non-NEC-like G3NETs.
  • The presence of TP53 mutations was found in all NEC-like tumors, while they still retained some typical NET mutations, suggesting partial histological and genetic features despite their progression and transformation.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs) and identified five distinct subtypes based on the expression of transcription factors (TFs) and their correlation with histology, hormone production, and patient outcomes.
  • Subgroups A1 and A2 showed a strong association with certain growth patterns and hormone expressions, whereas subgroup B was specifically linked to insulin production, including all insulinomas.
  • The findings suggest that the different subtypes of PanNETs can be used to predict histological features, hormonal activity, and prognosis in patients, providing insights for better clinical management.
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Many pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs) fall into 2 major prognostic subtypes based on DAXX/ATRX-induced alternative lengthening of telomerase phenotype and alpha- and beta-cell-like epigenomic profiles. However, these PanNETs are still flanked by other PanNETs that do not fit into either subtype. Furthermore, despite advanced genotyping, PanNETs are generally not well-characterized in terms of their histologic and hormonal phenotypes.

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Mesonephric-like adenocarcinoma is a rare neoplasm of the uterine corpus and ovary. Unlike prototypical mesonephric adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix, which is considered of Wolffian origin, recent evidence suggests that mesonephric-like adenocarcinoma is a Mullerian tumor associated with endometriosis. We report here on a 48-year-old woman with a mixed carcinoma of the ovary that consisted of mesonephric-like adenocarcinoma, clear cell carcinoma, and endometrioid carcinoma, arising from an endometriotic cyst.

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Article Synopsis
  • There is currently limited understanding of how alterations in fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) affect bladder cancer (BLCA) and its tumor microenvironment (TME).
  • A study involving multi-omics analysis of BLCA tissues showed that aFGFR3 alterations are found in 44% of non-muscle invasive cases and 15% of muscle-invasive cases, affecting their immune response and tumor characteristics.
  • Notably, the LumP subtype in aFGFR3 cases responded significantly better to checkpoint inhibitors compared to their intact FGFR3 counterparts, suggesting that FGFR3 status influences treatment outcomes in bladder cancer.
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A limited number of patients with lung squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) benefit clinically from molecular targeted drugs because of a lack of targetable driver alterations. We aimed to understand the prevalence and clinical significance of lysine-specific demethylase 5D (KDM5D) copy number loss in SCC and explore its potential as a predictive biomarker for ataxia-telangiectasia and Rad3-related (ATR) inhibitor treatment. We evaluated KDM5D copy number loss in 173 surgically resected SCCs from male patients using fluorescence in situ hybridization.

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Objective: This study aims to elucidate the trajectory of quality of life (QoL) over a two-year period after radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy for head and neck cancer (HNC), addressing the gap in long-term QoL information.

Methods: Employing a prospective longitudinal observational design, we tracked 58 HNC patients who underwent radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy, analyzing their QoL using Short-Form 36-Item Health Survey version 2 (SF36v2), the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life (EORTC-QLQ-C30), and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life head and neck-35 (EORTC-QLQ-H&N35) questionnaires for two years post-discharge. The data underwent repeated measures analysis of variance.

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Based on the current World Health Organization classification criteria, five of 3895 consecutive cases of surgically resected primary lung carcinomas (0.13%) categorized as enteric-type were analyzed. Three cases completely comprised tumor cells that resemble colorectal adenocarcinoma, while the other two cases exhibited features of conventional adenocarcinomas admixed with enteric components.

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Subtypes of small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) are defined by the expression of ASCL1, NEUROD1, and POU2F3 markers. The aim of our study was to explore the extent to which the intratumoral heterogeneity of ASCL1, NEUROD1, and POU2F3 may lead to discrepancies in expression of these markers in surgical samples and their matched tissue microarray (TMA) and lymph node (LN) metastatic sites. METHODS AND RESULTS: The cohort included 77 patients with SCLC.

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Aims: A distinct subset of lung adenocarcinomas (LADs), arising from a series of peripheral lung cells defined as the terminal respiratory unit (TRU), is characterised by thyroid transcription factor 1 (TTF-1) expression. The clinical relevance of transcription factors (TFs) other than TTF-1 remains unknown in LAD and was explored in the present study.

Methods And Results: Seventy-one LAD samples were subjected to high-throughput transcriptome screening of LAD using cap analysis gene expression (CAGE) sequencing data; CAGE provides genome-wide expression levels of the transcription start sites (TSSs).

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Article Synopsis
  • Chemoradiation therapy (CRT) is being explored as a potential alternative to total cystectomy (TC) for localized bladder cancer, with pembrolizumab established as a standard treatment for metastatic cases.
  • A study analyzed survival outcomes of patients treated with pembrolizumab after CRT compared to those after TC, finding no significant difference in overall survival or response rates between the two groups.
  • Additionally, the analysis of tumor characteristics revealed no notable differences in PD-L1 profiles or CD274 expression levels between CRT-recurrent and CRT-naïve tumors, indicating that pembrolizumab's efficacy is consistent across treatment backgrounds.
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Epithelioid sarcoma (EpS) is a rare malignant neoplasm that accounts for < 1% of adult soft tissue sarcomas. Primary EpS of the bone is extremely rare and only a few cases have been reported to date. We report a case of primary distal-type EpS of the lumbar vertebra.

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We report here an extremely rare case of hepatic sclerosing hemangioma mimicking a biliary cystadenocarcinoma. A previously healthy 39-year-old woman was referred to our hospital because of a large tumor in the liver. Abdominal computed tomography revealed early peripheral ring enhancement in the arterial phase and slight internal heterogeneous enhancement in the delayed phase.

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Cervical leiomyosarcoma is known to be rare from the previous reviews of a large number of malignant cervical tumors. The patient was a 66-year-old woman with irregular vaginal bleeding. She underwent modified radical hysterectomy and bilateral salpingooophorectomy.

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