Clinical features of germline BRCA1/2 or ATM pathogenic variant positive pancreatic cancer in Japan.

Background: There has been increasing interest into the role of germline BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants (gBRCA PV) and gATM PV and likely PV (PV and LPV; PV + LPV) in the carcinogenesis and treatment of pancreatic cancer (PC), but the clinical features have not been well described.

Methods: Patients with confirmed gBRCA PV and gATM PV + LPV PC treated at our hospital between April 2016 and December 2021, were retrospectively evaluated for clinical characteristics and outcomes.

Results: Twenty-two patients harbored gBRCA PV and three patients harbored gATM PV + LPV.

Pathologic complete response with pembrolizumab plus axitinib in metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Immunotherapy-based combinations have played a central role in the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma, and long-term survival of patients is expected. In this context, it is clear that a certain number of patients can achieve a complete response. However, the diagnosis of complete response is usually based on imaging, and there are few cases of pathological complete response.

Time to progression to castration-resistant prostate cancer after commencing combined androgen blockade for advanced hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.

Purpose: The aim of our retrospective study was to determine the time to progression to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) in prostate cancer patients who undergo combined androgen blockade (CAB), as well as their prognoses.

Materials And Methods: We examined the overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival rates, as well as the time to CRPC development, in 387 patients who were treated with CAB for prostate cancer. The disease-specific survival rate and time to CRPC were stratified by prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, Gleason score (GS), and presence of metastasis at diagnosis.

The effect of ultrapure dialysate on improving renal anemia.

Background: Renal anemia is a very serious problem in hemodialysis patients. In this regard, the investigation was focused on whether ultrapure dialysate could improve renal anemia and the mechanism of renal anemia.

Methods: Ultrapure dialysate was used over a 2 years period for 61 patients on maintenance hemodialysis.

A study of innate immunity in patients with end-stage renal disease: special reference to toll-like receptor-2 and -4 expression in peripheral blood monocytes of hemodialysis patients.

It was recently shown that toll-like receptors (TLR) play a critical role in innate immunity. However, no study has been conducted on TLR expression in hemodialysis (HD) patients. The present study was undertaken to examine innate immunity and the roles played by endotoxins (ET) contained in dialysate in HD patients, by analysis of TLR expression and reactivity.