Publications by authors named "Funahashi K"

Purpose: Basophils play a crucial role in immunoglobulin E-mediated allergic reactions and parasitic infections. Recently, a low basophil count was reported to be a poor prognostic indicator in patients with malignant tumors. This study aimed to investigate the cut-off value to evaluate the clinicopathological and prognostic significance of the basophil count in patients with gastric cancer.

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  • Utilizing fluorine substitution can enhance the properties of materials, leading to the development of highly functional copolymers.
  • A novel copolymer was created from [1.1.1]propellane and perfluoro(propyl vinyl ether) (PPVE) with distinct alternating sequences, forming an amorphous spin-coated film.
  • The copolymer film demonstrated an extremely low surface free energy, even lower than that of polytetrafluoroethylene, due to the random orientation of the fluorine units cancelling out C-F dipole moments.
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  • Study aimed to assess the impact of intraoperative lavage cytology on patient outcomes in colorectal cancer surgeries, specifically focusing on stages II-III.
  • Out of 1378 patients, lavage revealed positive cytology in only 54 cases, with significant differences in 5-year relapse-free survival and overall survival rates between positive and negative cytology in stage II patients.
  • The findings indicate that negative cytology correlates with better outcomes and highlights the effectiveness of lavage cytology in predicting peritoneal recurrence in these cancer patients.
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Background: Although accurate preoperative diagnosis of lymph node metastasis is essential for optimizing treatment strategies for low rectal cancer, the accuracy of present diagnostic modalities has room for improvement.

Objective: The study aimed to establish a high-precision diagnostic method for lymph node metastasis of low rectal cancer using artificial intelligence.

Design: A retrospective observational study.

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  • * This study involved 163 HCC patients who underwent liver resection, revealing that low preoperative s-CK levels (below 91 U/l) correlated with worse overall and recurrence-free survival rates.
  • * The analysis indicated that low s-CK acts as an independent risk factor for poor survival outcomes, particularly in male patients, suggesting it could serve as a valuable prognostic biomarker for HCC.
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Objectives: We aimed to identify risk factors for postoperative recurrence (PR) after Altemeier's and Delorme's procedures for full-thickness rectal prolapse (FTRP).

Methods: We enrolled 127 patients who underwent Altemeier's and Delorme's procedures for FTRP between April 2008 and September 2021. We divided the 127 patients into recurrence and non-recurrence groups and conducted univariate and multivariate analyses.

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BACKGROUND Although recurrence after surgery for esophagogastric junction (EGJ) adenocarcinoma frequently develops in the mediastinal and para-aortic lymph nodes (LN), distant LN recurrence in the mesocolon is rare. We report a rare case of ileocecal LN metastasis in the ascending mesocolon after radical surgery for an EGJ adenocarcinoma. CASE REPORT We performed subtotal esophagectomy with mediastinal and para-gastric LN dissection in a patient with an advanced EGJ adenocarcinoma.

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Objectives The current carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125) cutoff value demonstrated high specificity but low sensitivity. Therefore, we used new cutoff values to evaluate the clinical impact of perioperative CA125 in gastric cancer. Methods This study retrospectively analyzed 525 patients with gastric cancer (349 males and 176 females), of whom 445 patients underwent R0 resection and 80 patients underwent R1/R2 resection between 2011 and 2020.

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Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the clinicopathological and prognostic significance of preoperative serum creatine kinase (CK) levels in colorectal cancer.

Methods: This study analyzed 1169 patients with colorectal cancer at stages 0 (n = 35), I (n = 301), II (n = 456), III (n = 339), and IV (n = 38). The CK cut-off value was 52 U/L to predict recurrence based on receiver operative characteristics curve.

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Midkine (MK) is a soluble cytokine, and its serum levels strongly correspond to protein expression levels in tumors. The present study aimed to clarify the clinicopathological and prognostic significance of serum MK (s-MK) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Serum samples were obtained before surgery from 123 patients with HCC who had undergone surgery between January 2012 and December 2020.

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Purpose: To investigate the accuracy of laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG), a noninvasive method for the quantitative evaluation of blood flow using mean blur rate (MBR) as a blood flow parameter in the assessment of bowel blood perfusion compared to indocyanine green fluorescence angiography (ICG-FA).

Methods: We enrolled 46 patients who underwent left-sided colorectal surgery. LSFG and ICG-FA were applied to assess blood bowel perfusion, with MBR and luminance as parameters, respectively.

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Biosimilar(BS)drugs have recently been introduced owing to concerns with healthcare economics. In this report, we present a case in which a patient discontinued bevacizumab treatment following an allergic reaction to a BS formulation of bevacizumab but was able to safely continue treatment by switching to an original bevacizumab formulation in the late-line setting. The patient was a 66-year-old man diagnosed with unresectable colorectal cancer with synchronous multiple liver metastases.

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A 27-year-old man was referred to our hospital for a detailed examination of abdominal distention, bloody stool, anorectal pain, and weight loss. A colonoscopy revealed a circumferential type 2 tumor at 9 cm from the anal verge which was diagnosed as an adenocarcinoma based on biopsy. Contrast-enhanced CT of the abdomen showed an elevated perineal lipid concentration in the rectum(Ra)which was suspicious for clinical T4a stage, and simultaneous S7/8 liver metastasis.

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Background/purpose: To investigate the safety of laparoscopic liver resections (LLRs) for high-risk patients (HRs) with preoperative comorbidities affecting the heart, lungs, kidneys, glucose tolerance, and central nervous system.

Methods: This retrospective study included 585 patients who had undergone total hepatectomies from 2006 to 2020. Among them, 239 patients underwent LLRs, and 349 underwent open liver resections (OLRs).

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Aim: To establish a new Japanese classification of synchronous peritoneal metastases from colorectal cancer.

Methods: This multi-institutional, prospective, observational study enrolled patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer with synchronous peritoneal metastases. Overall survival rates were compared according to the various models using objective indicators.

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Objectives: We evaluated the continuity and effectiveness of oral appliances (OAs) for treating obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in a psychiatric sleep clinic, specifically focusing on mild cases and those with psychiatric comorbidity.

Methods: We retrospectively examined the medical records of 106 OSA patients treated with OA. Survival analysis was performed to assess the discontinuation of OA use.

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  • Hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery (HALS) has emerged as a useful option in laparoscopic liver resection (LLR), but the factors influencing conversion to HALS are not well understood.
  • A study analyzed data from patients undergoing LLR from 2011 to 2020, revealing that conversion to HALS occurred in 11.2% of cases, mainly due to failure to progress during surgery and other complications.
  • The analysis identified that tumors located in segments 7 or 8 are significant predictors for conversion to HALS, which showed comparable outcomes to pure LLR in terms of blood loss, operation time, hospital stay, and severe complications.
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Introduction: Methotrexate (MTX) is an anchor drug in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Frailty is the intermediate condition between being healthy and disabled, and can lead to negative health outcomes. Adverse events (AEs) due to RA drugs are expected to be higher in frail patients.

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Background: Preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for patients with rectal cancer is not yet established in Japan. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of preoperative CRT with S-1, a fixed-dose combination of tegafur, gimeracil, and oteracil potassium.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a prospective, interventional, non-randomized single-center study.

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Objectives: To assess the usefulness and onset of nocebo effects after switching from the original etanercept (ETN) to a biosimilar (BS) in routine clinical practice at rheumatology clinics in Japan (13 sites).

Methods: A total of 165 patients (87.0% women, age = 57.

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  • - A 70-year-old woman diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic tail carcinoma developed Sister Mary Joseph's nodule (SMJN) after undergoing chemotherapy treatment, resulting in deteriorating health and severe anemia.
  • - The patient experienced significant symptoms including bleeding from the umbilical tumor, which impaired her daily activities and required multiple blood transfusions.
  • - A surgical resection of the SMJN was performed to alleviate bleeding and improve quality of life, leading to a successful recovery; however, she passed away 59 days post-surgery, yet lived without pain or bleeding until then.
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Purpose: The lactate dehydrogenase-to-albumin ratio (LAR) has been reported as a potential prognostic biomarker in various cancers; however, only a few pieces of information have been reported on esophageal cancer. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of preoperative LAR in patients with esophageal cancer.

Methods: This study included 236 patients (193 men and 43 women; mean age of 66 years [range, 41-83 years]) with esophageal cancer who underwent curative surgery between September 2008 and March 2020.

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Background And Aim: The rate of ulcerative colitis (UC)-related colorectal cancer (colitis-associated carcinoma) is increasing. Estrogen receptor (ER) beta expression has been studied separately in patients with sporadic colorectal cancer and those with colitis-associated carcinoma. However, no study has compared the expression in both of these cancer types.

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Jumonji domain-containing 6 (JMJD6) protein has been reported to be upregulated in different cancer cells; however, to the best of our knowledge, no report has analyzed serum anti-JMJD6 antibodies (s-JMJD6-Abs) in patients with cancer. Therefore, the present study evaluated the clinical significance of s-JMJD6-Abs in patients with colorectal cancer. Preoperative serum samples were analyzed from 167 patients with colorectal cancer who underwent radical surgery between April 2007 and May 2012.

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