Sorafenib in Japanese Patients with Locally Advanced or Metastatic Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma and Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma.

Background: Therapeutic options for treating advanced or metastatic medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) and anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) are still limited in Japan, even though vandetanib for MTC and lenvatinib for MTC and ATC have been approved. Sorafenib is an oral multikinase inhibitor approved for the treatment of patients with radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). An uncontrolled, open-label, multicenter, single-arm, Phase 2 clinical study was conducted to evaluate the safety and efficacy of sorafenib in Japanese patients with MTC and ATC.

Antibody αPEP13h reacts with lymphangioleiomyomatosis cells in lung nodules.

Background: Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is characterized by the proliferation in the lung, axial lymphatics (eg, lymphangioleiomyomas), and kidney (eg, angiomyolipomas) of abnormal smooth muscle-like LAM cells, which express melanoma antigens such as Pmel17/gp100 and have dysfunctional tumor suppressor tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) genes TSC2 or TSC1. Histopathologic diagnosis of LAM in lung specimens is based on identification of the Pmel17 protein with the monoclonal antibody HMB-45.

Methods: We compared the sensitivity of HMB-45 to that of antipeptide antibody αPEP13h, which reacts with a C-terminal peptide of Pmel17.

Involvement of lymphatics in lymphangioleiomyomatosis.

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), a rare multisystem disease, occurs primarily in women, with cystic destruction of the lungs, abdominal tumors, and involvement of the axial lymphatics in the thorax and abdomen. To understand the pathogenesis of LAM, we initiated a longitudinal study of patients with LAM; over 500 patients have been enrolled. LAM results from the proliferation of a neoplastic cell (LAM cell), which has mutations in the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) genes, TSC1 or TSC2.

Helicobacter pylori infection-negative gastric cancer in Japanese hospital patients: incidence and pathological characteristics.

We used Helicobacter pylori sero-positivity and mucosal atrophy as detected by the serum pepsinogen method to identify H. pylori infection-negative gastric cancer patients with or without atrophy. One hundred and six of 748 (14.