Publications by authors named "Iwagami Y"

This report by Maki and colleagues with accompanying surgical video introduces a less invasive surgical option for managing right atrial tumor thrombus in hepatocellular carcinoma, avoiding sternotomy. This approach might reduce operative time, blood loss, and hospital stay, suggesting improved safety and faster recovery compared with conventional methods with sternotomy.

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The efficacy of preoperative treatment for pancreatic cancer (PC) has been reported in randomized controlled trials, but the optimal regimen and the appropriateness of combining radiotherapy remain controversial. Therefore, predicting the efficacy of preoperative treatment using biomarkers and determining whether to combine chemotherapy or radiotherapy based on the biology of individual tumors could help personalize treatment and maximize therapeutic outcomes. In this study, a microRNA (miRNA) microarray analysis was performed using peripheral blood plasma exosomes from 10 PC patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, leading to the identification of miR-6855-5p as a candidate miRNA.

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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a high recurrence rate even after radical resection because of subclinical tumors. To manage them, a reliable biomarker that can indicate the presence of subclinical tumors and predict their chemosensitivity is required. This study aimed to identify a miRNA as a biomarker that can be used to individualize postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy using postoperative peripheral blood samples.

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Background/objectives: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in chemosensitivity through their biological activities in various malignancies, including pancreatic cancer (PC). However, single-miRNA models offer limited predictability of treatment response. We investigated whether a multiple-miRNA prediction model optimized via machine learning could improve treatment response prediction.

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Background: Whether radiation should be added to neoadjuvant treatment remains controversial, and liquid biopsy has not been reported to predict radioresistance in pancreatic cancer (PC). We aimed to identify microRNAs (miRNAs) governing radioresistance in PC by utilizing peripheral plasma exosome samples and to verify their usefulness as biomarkers.

Methods: miRNA microarray analysis was conducted using pretreatment peripheral plasma exosomes from 10 patients with PC receiving neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NACRT) in the discovery cohort.

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Background: The suitability of radical surgery for very elderly pancreatic cancer (PC) patients remains controversial due to concerns about postoperative functional reserve. Inflammatory-nutritional status may help identify elderly patients at risk of compromised postoperative treatment tolerance.

Methods: This retrospective analysis included 121 patients over eighty who were diagnosed with PC in 2010-2019, 40 of whom underwent radical surgery.

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Background And Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of aberrant right hepatic artery (A-RHA) involvement in patients with pancreatic cancer (PC).

Methods: This study enrolled 474 patients who underwent upfront pancreatectomy or neoadjuvant treatment for resectable (R) or borderline resectable (BR) PC from four institutions. The patients were divided into three groups: A-RHA involvement group (n = 12), patients who had sole A-RHA involvement without major arterial involvement; BR-A group (n = 104), patients who had major arterial involvement; R/BR-PV group (n = 358), others.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how tumor recurrence in pancreatic cancer varies by location (liver vs. lung) and the role of tumor markers in these differences.
  • Patients with liver recurrences showed increased levels of tumor markers CA19-9 and CEA significantly earlier (6 months) compared to lung recurrences, which only showed heightened CA19-9 levels 3 months before.
  • The findings suggest that monitoring tumor markers post-surgery is crucial for understanding and tailoring treatment based on the site of recurrence, highlighting the biological differences in pancreatic cancer.
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  • Signal recognition particles (SRPs), particularly SRP9, play a crucial role in cellular protein transport, and high SRP9 expression is associated with poorer survival in tumor patients, yet its specific role in pancreatic cancer prognosis has not been well-explored.
  • The study found that in some pancreatic cancer cases, SRP9 was predominantly located in the nucleus, and patients with over 50% of SRP9 translocation to the nucleus experienced significantly better recurrence-free survival compared to those with less translocation.
  • Further experiments indicated that factors like amino acid deficiency influenced SRP9 localization, and multiple splicing variants of SRP9 displayed nuclear translocation, highlighting the importance of its N-terminal regions in relation to cancer signaling
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Chronic inflammation of the pancreas is considered to be one of the causes of pancreatic cancer. However, the diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis (CP) is very difficult in the pancreas, where biopsies are difficult to perform. The prevalence of CP is estimated to be many times more common than in patients with actual symptomatic CP.

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Nocardia is a gram-positive bacillus with the microscopic appearance of branching hyphae and is mainly distributed in the soil. Nocardiosis more frequently occurs in immunosuppressed patients. Since nocardiosis has a high mortality rate, immediate diagnosis and treatment are needed.

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  • Anti-FGFR treatment shows promise for cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) patients with specific FGFR alterations, suggesting a potential new treatment avenue.*
  • This study investigated the effectiveness of combining gemcitabine (GEM) with pemigatinib in three types of CCA cells, with a focus on those with FGFR2 mutations.*
  • Results indicated that the combination therapy produced a synergistic effect in one specific CCA cell line (CCLP-1) but not in others, hinting at a targeted approach for chemo-naïve patients with activated FGF pathways.*
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  • Islet transplantation (ITx) is a promising treatment for type 1 diabetes (T1DM), but many recipients lose insulin independence within three years due to early graft loss, necessitating multiple donor organs.
  • The study found that skeletal myoblast cells can support islet function by promoting angiogenesis (formation of new blood vessels) and helping maintain the islet cells' ability to secrete insulin through cytokine release and JAK-STAT signaling activation.
  • In tests on diabetic mice, islets transplanted with myoblast cells resulted in lower blood glucose levels and increased insulin production compared to islets alone, suggesting that using myoblast cells in ITx could improve outcomes for diabetes patients.
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Background: Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a progressive disease characterized by pancreatic fibrosis for which effective treatment options are lacking. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown potential for fibrosis treatment but face limitations in clinical application. The high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) fragment mobilizes MSCs from bone marrow into the blood and has emerged as a promising therapeutic agent for tissue regeneration in various pathological conditions.

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Aim: The number of elderly patients with liver cancer is increasing with the aging society. The Geriatric Prognostic Scoring System is useful in predicting the postoperative prognosis for elderly patients with gastrointestinal cancer. The aim of the present study was to assess the predictive ability of the geriatric prognostic scoring system for postoperative survival in elderly patients with liver cancer.

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Background: Cell-derived sheets are of global interest for regenerative therapy. Transplanting a sheet for abdominal organs requires a device for laparoscopic delivery to minimize invasiveness. Here, using a porcine model, we aimed to confirm the feasibility of a device developed to deliver sheets to the thoracic cavity in a laparoscopic transplantation procedure.

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Background: The optimal neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) regimen for patients with localized pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains uncertain. This trial aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of two neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) regimens, gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel (GA) and gemcitabine plus S-1 (GS), in patients with resectable/borderline-resectable (R/BR) PDAC.

Patients And Methods: Treatment-naïve patients with R/BR-PDAC were enrolled and randomly allocated.

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Background: High skeletal muscle mass might be a prognostic factor for patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC); however, the underlying reason is unclear. We hypothesized that myokines, which are cytokines secreted by the skeletal muscle, function as suppressors of PDAC. We specifically examined irisin, a myokine, which plays a critical role in the modulation of metabolism, to clarify the anticancer mechanisms.

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Tumor endothelial cells (TECs), which are thought to be structurally and functionally different from normal endothelial cells (NECs), are increasingly attracting attention as a therapeutic target in hypervascular malignancies. Although colorectal liver metastasis (CRLM) tumors are hypovascular, inhibitors of angiogenesis are a key drug in multidisciplinary therapy, and TECs might be involved in the development and progression of cancer. Here, we analyzed the function of TEC in the CRLM tumor microenvironment.

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To describe nursing practices for financial toxicity management based on nurses' perceptions. A survey was conducted with 615 oncology nurses in Japan, focusing on nurses' perspectives on the importance of financial toxicity, nursing practices to manage financial toxicity and factors inhibiting its management. A total of 521 participated, of whom 266 respondents (51.

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Background: Appropriate re-evaluation after neoadjuvant treatment (NAT) is important for optimal treatment selection. Nonetheless, determining the operative eligibility of patients with a modest radiologic response remains controversial. This study aimed to assess the prognostic significance of biologic factors for patients showing a modest radiologic response to NAT and investigate the tumor markers (TMs), CA19-9 alone, DUPAN-II alone, and their combination, to create an index that combines these sialyl-Lewis antigen-related TMs associated with treatment outcomes.

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Aim: Tumor Ki-67 expression reflects prognosis and cancer grade, and biopsy-based preoperative assessment of Ki-67 expression is key to treatment. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values obtained with this imaging may noninvasively predict Ki-67 by reflecting tumor cell density and limited water molecule movement from irregular alignment. This study aimed to investigate the ability of ADC values to predict Ki-67 expression in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC).

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