Combined treatment with silibinin and either sorafenib or gefitinib enhances their growth-inhibiting effects in hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

Background/aims: Silibinin, the main component of silymarin, is used as a hepatoprotectant and exhibits anticancer effects against various cancer cells. This study evaluated the effects of a combination of silibinin with either gefitinib or sorafenib on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells.

Methods: Several different human HCC cell lines were used to test the growth-inhibiting effects and cell toxicity of silibinin both alone and in combination with either gefitinib or sorafenib.

Clinical outcomes of early gastric cancer with lymphovascular invasion or positive vertical resection margin after endoscopic submucosal dissection.

Background: In early gastric cancer (EGC) cases with lymphovascular invasion or positive vertical margins after endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), additional radical gastrectomy is performed on principle. However, an additional surgery is often difficult to consider if the surgical approach itself is challenging or the patient refuses surgery. In such cases, only close surveillance is performed without additional surgical procedures.

Effect of diabetes mellitus on outcomes of colorectal cancer.

Purpose: Many studies have revealed that diabetes mellitus (DM) increases a person's lifetime risk of colorectal cancer and that DM is associated with a worse outcome of colon cancer, but this association is controversial. In this study, we intended to examine the relationship between DM and the long-term outcomes of colorectal cancer.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 657 patients who underwent surgery due to colorectal cancer between 1997 and 2004 at Korea Cancer Center Hospital.

Polyuria and polydipsia in a patient with non-small-cell lung cancer.

Tumor metastasis to the pituitary gland has been infrequently reported, and this is probably because only a small proportion of these patients are symptomatic. Most of the symptoms of this malady are related to diabetes insipidus. A 78-year-old man was diagnosed 2 years previously with stage IIIA adenocarcinoma of the lung and treated with sequential chemoradiation therapy and later with whole-brain radiation therapy because of newly developed brain metastasis; he was then admitted to our hospital with symptoms of polydipsia and polyuria.