Publications by authors named "Hiroaki Takagi"
Article Synopsis
- Pembrolizumab, nivolumab, and the combination therapies have emerged as first-line treatments for advanced esophageal cancer, although their efficacy on primary tumors was previously unclear.
- In a study of 23 patients experiencing esophageal dysphagia, significant improvement in swallowing was noted in 82.6%, with a median time to improvement of about 26 days.
- While 10 patients experienced immune-related adverse events, the treatments provided high response rates and prolonged survival, indicating promising effectiveness against primary tumors.
Article Synopsis
- * A retrospective study from December 2021 to June 2023 analyzed 106 AGC patients, focusing on those with severe peritoneal metastasis who received nivolumab plus mFOLFOX6, finding that 19.8% of patients had severe cases.
- * Results showed a median progression-free survival of 7.4 months and median overall survival of 10.7 months, with notable improvements in symptoms for a number of patients; however, some experienced significant
Risk factors of heavy uterine bleeding in patients with endometriosis and adenomyosis treated with dienogest.
Taiwan J Obstet Gynecol
November 2023
Article Synopsis
- Dienogest (DNG) is a progestin used to reduce pain from endometriosis and uterine adenomyosis, but it may cause irregular bleeding, leading to anemia and decreased quality of life.
- A study examined various risk factors for heavy bleeding in 80 Japanese patients on DNG, including clinical diagnoses, hormone levels, and uterine characteristics.
- Results indicated that patients with endometrioma had a lower risk of heavy bleeding, while those with uterine adenomyosis required careful monitoring for bleeding issues during DNG treatment.
Article Synopsis
- The study tested the effectiveness of liquid phenol-based chemical peeling therapy for treating cervical and vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN and VaIN) to avoid complications from surgical procedures.
- Out of 483 women, the therapy showed promising results with less than 2% of treated patients experiencing persistent disease compared to significantly higher rates in untreated patients.
- Factors like immune suppression, age (35-39 years), and high-grade lesions were linked to treatment resistance, but overall, no obstetric complications arose in pregnancies following the therapy.
Article Synopsis
- In eukaryotic cells, active Ras signaling plays a crucial role in cell movement by generating an asymmetric concentration of Ras-GTP on the membrane, which helps in forming protrusions called pseudopods.
- The study reveals that normal metabolism of sphingomyelin, a type of membrane lipid, is essential for this Ras excitability and, consequently, for effective cell motility and responsiveness to directional cues.
- Blocking sphingomyelin metabolism leads to defects in Ras signaling, decreased motility, and poor directional movement towards chemical attractants, suggesting that sphingomyelin creates a favorable environment for Ras activation and migration.
Objectives: We aimed to investigate the psychosocial factors for postpartum depression as indicated by a high score of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), including marital relationship and social support. Relevant factors for antenatal depression were also analyzed.
Methods: Thirty-five wife-and-husband pairs who visited University Hospital A for the wife's antenatal health check-up participated in a questionnaire survey using the Japanese version of the EPDS.
Article Synopsis
- - In a study of invasive cervical cancers (ICC), researchers reexamined 73 specimens previously identified for HPV presence, using advanced HPV genotyping methods to verify findings from earlier liquid-based cytology tests.
- - Results showed that 63 specimens contained a single HPV type, with HPV16 and HPV18 found in various cancer types, while 50% of initially HPV-negative samples tested positive upon further analysis.
- - The study highlighted the varying HPV types associated with different cancer histologies, supporting the need for HPV screening in detecting ICC and suggesting potential high-risk HPV types in Japan that may go undetected due to low viral loads.
The incidence of chromosomal abnormalities in twin pregnancies is not well-studied. In this retrospective study, we investigated the frequency of chromosomal abnormalities in twin pregnancies and compared the incidence of chromosomal abnormalities in dichorionic diamniotic (DD) and monochorionic diamniotic (MD) twins. We used data from 57 clinical facilities across Japan.
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- Fractal scaling is a key characteristic of how animals change behavior over time, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are still not well understood.
- The study focuses on the nematode C. elegans, which switches between swimming and resting, revealing that these behaviors follow scale-free patterns and exhibit long-range correlations.
- Researchers found that a specific protein, cyclic GMP dependent kinase (PKG), may play a role in regulating these complex behavior patterns, offering a new way to explore the molecular basis of fractal behavior.
Article Synopsis
- The study examined the prevalence of vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia (VAIN) among 648 women referred for abnormal cytology, finding a significant occurrence of VAIN alongside cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN).
- Out of the subjects, 17.5% were diagnosed with VAIN, with higher rates observed in older patients, and multiple HPV infections were found in nearly 43% of both VAIN and CIN cases.
- The research highlighted the predominance of specific HPV types in VAIN and CIN, indicating that the vagina may serve as a significant reservoir for different HPV strains.
The cell-division cycle (CDC) is driven by cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs). Mathematical models based on molecular networks, as revealed by molecular and genetic studies, have reproduced the oscillatory behavior of CDK activity. Thus, one basic system for representing the CDC is a biochemical oscillator (CDK oscillator).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo elucidate oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) types in Japan, HPV genotyping was performed in 1526 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and 371 invasive cervical cancer (ICC) patients with the novel Genosearch-31+5 HPV test. The HPV-positive rates were 89.3% and 90.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMalignant Transformation of an Ovarian Endometrioma during Endometriosis Treatment: A Case Report.
Case Rep Obstet Gynecol
September 2018
Dienogest (DNG) is considered to be effective against ovarian endometrioma (OMA). We report a rare case of OMA transformation to ovarian cancer during long-term endometriosis treatment with a periodic administration of a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (Gn-RH agonist) and DNG. The patient was a 41-year-old Japanese woman.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The incidence of endometrial adenocarcinoma of the uterine corpus has increased in Japan. This study aimed to clarify the relationships between this type of cancer and various data provided by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) accumulation in positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT).
Materials And Methods: The study cohort thus comprised 27 patients with endometrial adenocarcinoma who had undergone PET/CT examinations from April 2008 to March 2015.
Article Synopsis
- * A study involving 38 cervical cancer patients assessed the effectiveness of 18F-fluorodeoxy-glucose PET/CT by comparing the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) across different disease stages.
- * The results revealed significant differences in SUVmax between early-stage (≤I) and later-stage (≥II) cancers, suggesting that SUVmax could be a valuable indicator for prognosis and assessing the risk of disease recurrence.
Article Synopsis
- A 77-year-old patient was hospitalized due to melena and discovered to have two submucosal tumors (SMTs) in the stomach and jejunum through a CT scan.
- Double-balloon endoscopy indicated a defect on the jejunal SMT, which was linked to the gastrointestinal bleeding.
- After surgical removal, both tumors were identified as gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) with distinct mutations in the c-kit gene, indicating they arose from different origins, marking a rare case of multiple synchronous GISTs.
Introduction: Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) involving 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) is widely used for systemic cancer and recurrence diagnosis. However, the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant gynaecological tumours according to FDG accumulation is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the intensity of FDG uptake/metabolic activity for the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant gynaecological tumours.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo examine validity of the hybrid capture-2 and cobas 4800 HPV tests, 396 women including 188 women visiting for cancer screening, and 208 referral cases were examined with both HPV tests and the liquid-based cervical Pap test. Concordant results between the HPV assays were observed in 333 cases (coincident rates; 84.1%, kappa value; 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExtrapulmonary neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) is a rare disease, and there is no standard chemotherapy. A 73-year-old man was diagnosed with advanced gastric NEC. He received chemotherapy of irinotecan plus cisplatin, and amrubicin monotherapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfluenza virus motility is based on cooperation between two viral spike proteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA), and is a major determinant of virus infectivity. To translocate a virus particle on the cell surface, HA molecules exchange viral receptors and NA molecules accelerate the receptor exchange of HA. This type of virus motility was recently identified in influenza A virus (IAV).
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- A 74-year-old man with advanced gastric cancer was admitted to the hospital with liver impairment and multiple liver metastases.
- His initial chemotherapy with S-1 and cisplatin was stopped due to severe diarrhea and worsening liver function.
- After recovery from diarrhea, he was treated with capecitabine and oxaliplatin, resulting in improved jaundice and overall condition, showing a partial response that lasted for 15 months, indicating potential effectiveness for patients with similar conditions.
The modulation of spontaneous excitability in detrusor smooth muscle (DSM) upon the pharmacological activation of different populations of K(+) channels was investigated. Effects of distinct K(+) channel openers on spontaneous action potentials in DSM of the guinea-pig bladder were examined using intracellular microelectrode techniques. NS1619 (10μM), a large conductance Ca(2+)-activated K(+) (BK) channel opener, transiently increased action potential frequency and then prevented their generation without hyperpolarizing the membrane in a manner sensitive to iberiotoxin (IbTX, 100nM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhen surgery is selected to treat postoperative recurrent hilar cholangiocarcinoma in the intrapancreatic bile duct, attention should be paid to the following: 1 ) technical resectability of the lesion, 2) reconstruction, and 3) high risk of complications. Eight cases, including the present case, of pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) for postoperative recurrent hilar cholangiocarcinoma in the intrapancreatic bile duct have been reported thus far. In October 2009, a 73-year-old man noticed that his stools were gray and visited a physician.
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- Cell size significantly impacts cell cycle regulation, with studies showing that in embryos like Xenopus and Caenorhabditis elegans, the duration of the cell cycle increases in relation to the square of cell radius.
- A power law relationship between cell cycle duration and cell size was confirmed in C. elegans, revealing different categories of correlation strength based on their founder cell lineages.
- The relationship between nuclear size and cell size also followed a power law, suggesting that the coordination of cell cycle duration with cell size might be influenced by geometric constraints of the cell's internal structures.
Article Synopsis
- Researchers introduced a new fluorescent biosensor called Quenchbody, which detects antigens by removing the quenching effect on a linked fluorescent molecule in an antibody.
- They found that Fab fragments labeled at the heavy chain's N-terminal showed more effective quenching and antigen detection than those labeled differently, with improvements observed when using one or two dyes.
- This "Ultra-Quenchbody" method has potential applications in diagnosing various targets and even visualizing cell differentiation in real-time.