Publications by authors named "Kazuo Oba"

Article Synopsis
  • A study examined the effectiveness of avelumab and pembrolizumab, treatments for metastatic urothelial carcinoma post-chemotherapy, focusing on factors predicting patient outcomes.
  • The research included 243 patients, analyzing characteristics and blood data to identify independent prognostic factors like performance status and specific blood markers.
  • Findings indicate a new risk score utilizing platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio and lactate dehydrogenase levels could effectively predict overall survival after starting immune checkpoint inhibitors, outperforming existing models.
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Article Synopsis
  • A study examined the effectiveness of avelumab maintenance therapy compared to pembrolizumab in patients with metastatic and unresectable urothelial carcinoma after 4 cycles of chemotherapy without disease progression.
  • Data from 243 patients treated between January 2017 and December 2022 was analyzed, with a focus on oncological outcomes and adverse events using a method called propensity score matching.
  • The findings indicated that both avelumab and pembrolizumab had similar progression-free survival rates, but avelumab required a lower rate of high-dose glucocorticoid treatment.
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Background/purpose: Recurrence of ampullary neoplasms after endoscopic papillectomy (EP) has not been well elucidated. This study aimed to clarify the predictive factors for recurrences after EP. We also aimed to investigate the retreatment of the recurrent lesions and their outcomes.

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Background: Pembrolizumab is effective in a limited number of patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma (UC). Therefore, we evaluated the prognostic value of clinical biomarkers following pembrolizumab treatment in patients with advanced UC.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 121 patients with platinum-refractory advanced UC who received pembrolizumab.

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Background: Nivolumab is a standard treatment for previously treated advanced renal-cell carcinoma. However, nivolumab is effective in only a limited number of patients; therefore, we evaluated the prognostic value of several biomarkers, including inflammation-based prognostic scores and changes in these scores following nivolumab treatment in Japanese patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 65 patients with previously treated metastatic renal-cell carcinoma and who received nivolumab.

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Objectives: To evaluate operative and oncological outcomes of laparoscopic adrenalectomy through a transperitoneal approach and retroperitoneal approach for large (>5 cm in diameter) pheochromocytomas.

Methods: We retrospectively compared the results of a transperitoneal approach with those of a retroperitoneal approach in 22 patients (mean age 57.5 years, range 38-76 years) with unilateral large pheochromocytomas (12 right, 10 left).

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Background: Patients with urinary bladder urothelial carcinoma (UC) with variant histology have features of more advanced disease and a likelihood of poorer survival than those with pure UC. We investigated the impact of variant histology on disease aggressiveness and clinical outcome after radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) in Japanese patients with upper tract UC (UTUC). Information on variant histology might guide appropriate patient selection for adjuvant therapy after RNU.

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Although Knudson's two-hit hypothesis with functional loss of a tumor suppressor gene has been widely accepted, accumulating evidence suggests that several genes are regulated by the quantity of their product in a dose-dependent manner (gene dosage effect). The study was designed to identify the influence of gene dosage effect of 8p22 on patient prognosis. With a median age of 71 years, 40 patients with prostate cancer (11 organ-confined, 13 capsular penetrating, and 16 nodal and/or distant metastatic) were followed for a median of 68.

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Little is known about the clinical significance at the frequent association of 3p loss with 5q gain/loss in conventional renal cell carcinoma (RCC). We analyzed the clinical significance of copy number gain and loss at 5q21 approximately q23 combined with allelic loss of 3p25 (including the VHL gene). Fifty RCCs were examined by dual-color fluorescence in situ hybridization with DNA probes for D3Z1 (3cen), cCI3-865 (3p25.

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To analyze the clinical significance of copy number gain and loss at chromosome region 5q21 approximately q23, 105 nonpapillary renal cell carcinomas (RCC) were examined by interphase cytogenetic analysis using the dual-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique. DNA probes for D5S23 (5p15.2), cCI5-243 (5q21.

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To investigate whether nonrandom aberrations of chromosomal numbers could predict tumor recurrence in patients with bladder cancer, archival urine cytology specimens (Giemsa-stained) from patients previously treated for transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder were studied retrospectively by fluorescence in situ hybridization. A total of 48 patients (pTis, 6; pTa, 2: pT1, 32; and pT2-4, 8) were consecutively enrolled in this study, and numerical aberrations of chromosomes 9 and 17 were investigated. Cytology was diagnosed as negative for malignancy in 18 patients and positive in 30 patients.

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