Development of Lasing Silica Microsphere for High-Speed DNA Molecular Detection.

Laser and molecular detection techniques that have been used to overcome the limitations of fluorescent DNA labeling have presented new challenges. To address some of these challenges, we developed a DNA laser that uses a solid-state silica microsphere as a ring resonator and a site for DNA-binding reactions, as well as a platform to detect and sequence target DNA molecules. We detected target DNA using laser emission from a DNA-labeling dye and a developed solid-state silica microsphere ring resonator.

Clinicopathological Differences between Right and Left Colorectal Cancer by Sex.

: Until now, studies on colorectal cancer (CRC) have focused on clinicopathological characteristics based on location without considering sex differences. However, as men and women have fundamentally different physiological characteristics, research results in the clinical field are limited. We aimed to elucidate the differences in the clinicopathological characteristics between right-sided CRC (RCC) and left-sided CRC (LCC) according to sex.

A Method to Reduce Tension Differences in Pull/Push Manipulation for a Robot in Fluorescence Emission-Guided Surgical Microscopy.

Motivation: A fluorescence emission-guided microscope used to monitor the outcome of cancer removal surgery is highly effective when employing a manipulator to motorize and switch the observation direction. It is necessary to minimize the alignment of looper tension between the stands for pull/push to change the direction of the manipulator and reduce the error rate caused by tension differences. This paper presents a method to minimize the error rate of looper tension between the stands.

Design of a Miniature Observation Robot for Light Emitting Diode Irradiation and Indocyanine Green Fluorescence-emission Guided Lymph Node Monitoring in Operating Rooms.

Motivation: Typical surgical microscopes used for fluorescence-based lymph node detection experience limitations such as weight and restricted adjustability of the integrated light emitting diode (LED) and camera. This restricts the capture of detailed images of specific regions within the lesion.

Research Goal: This study proposes a miniature observation robot design that offers adjustable working distance (WD) and rotational radius, along with zoom-in/zoom-out functionality.

Can Triclosan-Coated Sutures Reduce the Incidence of Surgical Site Infections and Intra-Abdominal Infection: A Double-Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial.

Surgical site infections (SSIs) are the most common nosocomial infections suffered by surgical patients. They increase medical costs and prolong hospital stay. With respect to gastrointestinal surgery, SSIs are reported to have an incidence of up to 30%, and they frequently cause morbidity.

Deep 3D attention CLSTM U-Net based automated liver segmentation and volumetry for the liver transplantation in abdominal CT volumes.

In living-donor liver transplantation, the safety of the donor is critical. In addition, accurately measuring the liver volume is significant as the amount that can be resected from living donors is limited. In this paper, we propose an automated segmentation and volume estimation method for the liver in computed tomography imaging based on a deep learning-based segmentation network.

Effect of stent graft fixation types on pararenal aortic diameter and renal function after endovascular aortic repair.

Background: This study aims to identify pararenal aortic diameter changes following endovascular aortic repair and to investigate the effects of suprarenal fixation on renal function.

Methods: Between May 2006 and January 2019, a total of 168 patients (135 males, 33 females; mean age: 75.2±8.

Mutational Characterization of Colorectal Cancer from Korean Patients with Targeted Sequencing.

Effective treatment of colorectal cancer could benefit from understanding molecular characteristics including mutation profiles of important genes. This study aimed to explore the molecular characteristics of colorectal cancer based on next generation sequencing. The mutational characteristics by targeted next generation sequencing in 172 colorectal tumor samples from Korean patients were evaluated to explore their associations with clinical features.

Bevacizumab and anexelekto inhibitor, TP-0903 inhibits TGF-β1-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition of colon cancer cells.

The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) is reported to be increasing nowadays, with a large proportion of newly diagnosed CRC patients being affected by metastasis. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important event in the development of metastasis of CRC. In this study, we investigated whether the anticancer drug bevacizumab and anexelekto inhibitor, TP-0903, regulate EMT of colon cancer cells induced by transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-β1).

Changes in Clinical Features and Demographics in Donors After Brain Death Over the Past 20 Years: A Single-Center Experience in the Republic of Korea.

Objectives: We investigated clinical characteristics and demographics of brain death in patients from a single center in Korea to identify possible changes in organ procurement by comparing early and late periods.

Materials And Methods: Potential donors diagnosed as brain dead and who had provided organ donation consent from May 2000 to May 2020 were considered. Donors were divided into 2 categories: early period (2000-2010) and late period (2011-2020).

CRISPR screens identify a novel combination treatment targeting BCL-X and WNT signaling for KRAS/BRAF-mutated colorectal cancers.

Metastatic or recurrent colorectal cancer (CRC) patients require systemic chemotherapy, but the therapeutic options of targeted agents remain limited. CRC patients with KRAS or BRAF gene mutations exhibit a worse prognosis and are resistant to anti-EGFR treatment. Previous studies have shown that the expression of anti-apoptotic protein BCL-X is increased in CRC patients with KRAS/BRAF mutations, suggesting BCL-X as a therapeutic target for this subgroup.

Outcomes of Surgical and Nonsurgical Treatment for Colorectal Cancer in Nonagenarian Patients.

Purpose: This study is aimed to evaluate the clinical outcomes of surgical treatment for nonagenarian patients with colorectal cancer.

Methods: This retrospective single-center study included patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer at the age of ≥90 years between 2004 and 2018. Patient demographics were compared between the operation and nonoperation groups (NOG).

Targeting antioxidant enzymes enhances the therapeutic efficacy of the BCL-X inhibitor ABT-263 in KRAS-mutant colorectal cancers.

Cancer chemotherapeutic drugs exert cytotoxic effects by modulating intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. However, whether ROS modulates the efficacy of targeted therapeutics remains poorly understood. Previously, we reported that upregulation of the anti-apoptotic protein, BCL-X, by KRAS activating mutations was a potential target for KRAS-mutant colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment.

Chemotherapeutic effects of MEK kinase inhibitor and BRAF kinase inhibitor on mutated human colon cancer cell lines with different microsatellite instability.

We analyzed responsiveness of KRAS-mutated CRC cell lines with distinctive MSI status against mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK) inhibitor (selumetinib; AZD) and/or B-raf proto-oncogene (BRAF) kinase inhibitor (vemurafenib; PLX). The viability of MSI-high (MSI-H) KRAS-mutated LS174T cells treated with AZD or PLX was 24.5 ± 0.

Clinical Impact of PD-L1 Expression for Survival in Curatively Resected Colon Cancer.

Background: Programmed death 1 (PD-1) and its ligand PD-L1 play a key dysfunction of T lymphocytes. The purpose of this study was to assess and compare the prognostic role of tumor- TILs and its relationship with PD-L1 expression in stage II and III colon cancer.

Methods: Immunohistochemisty was used to assess the densities of CD8, CD4, and FOXP3 cells, and PD-L1 expression in intraepithelial tumor site from 58 stage II and III colon cancers.

Tetraruthenium Polyoxometalate as an Atom-Efficient Bifunctional Oxygen Evolution Reaction/Oxygen Reduction Reaction Catalyst and Its Application in Seawater Batteries.

Although development and utilization of efficient catalysts with earth-abundant and cheap elements are desired, precious noble metal-based catalysts are still widely used and studied due to the urgent need to address energy and environmental issues. Polyoxometalates (POMs) can be excellent candidates in this context. In this study, we found that oxo-bridged tetraruthenium polyoxometalate (RuPOM) exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity for both oxygen evolution and reduction reactions (OER and ORR) with minimal use of noble metal elements and can be used for the development of efficient seawater batteries (SWBs).

Systematic mutation analysis in rare colorectal cancer presenting ovarian metastases.

Although colorectal cancer is one of the most lethal cancer types in the world, its metastasis to the ovary is rare, compared to metastasis to other organs. Consequently, the genomic basis for colon-to-ovary metastasis remains unstudied, due to limited available patients, and thus there have been no attempts to construct individual-specific networks. Due to its rarity, the small sample size makes common mutations difficult to find.

Proteomic Analysis of Primary Colon Cancer and Synchronous Solitary Liver Metastasis.

Background/aim: Colon cancer is prone to distant metastases to other sites and the risk of recurrence is relatively high. Therefore, the identification of liver metastasis-related factors is important for the diagnosis or treatment of colon cancer. The aim of this study was to identify the metastasis-related factors that are differentially expressed in synchronous solitary liver metastasis compared to primary colon cancer.

Self-Regulated Smectic Emulsion with Switchable Lasing Application.

A structurally reversible smectic liquid crystal (LC) emulsion made of semifluorinated rod-type molecules in silicon oil, which is controlled by simple heating and cooling, is presented. Without adding any kind of additives, such as surfactants, polymers or emulsifiers, and without using any special tools, such as microfluidics or gas bubbling, the LC molecules spontaneously form monodisperse spherical and myelin-like structures upon cooling from the isotropic temperature. The LC emulsion can easily trap guest materials, providing a platform for repeatable and reliable switchable emulsification.

Early experience with Watson for oncology in Korean patients with colorectal cancer.

Background: Watson for oncology (WFO) is a cognitive computing system providing decision support. We evaluated the concordance rates between the treatment options determined by WFO and those determined by a multidisciplinary team (MDT).

Methods: We reviewed the medical charts of patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer who visited the MDT at a single tertiary medical center from November 2016 to April 2017.

Genomic landscape of synchronous tubulovillous adenoma and multiple non-familial colon cancers from a single patient.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death. We analyzed genomic of non-familial tubulovillous adenoma (TVA) and two synchronous malignant colorectal adenocarcinomas from a single patient. The number of somatic mutations was higher in the tumor sample (especially, AV 50 cm adenocarcinoma sample) than TVA sample, and also the allele frequency of mutation was higher on colon adenocarcinoma samples than TVA.

Unstable Genome and Transcriptome Dynamics during Tumor Metastasis Contribute to Therapeutic Heterogeneity in Colorectal Cancers.

Purpose: Genomic and transcriptomic alterations during metastasis are considered to affect clinical outcome of colorectal cancers, but detailed clinical implications of metastatic alterations are not fully uncovered. We aimed to investigate the effect of metastatic evolution on treatment outcome, and identify genomic and transcriptomic alterations associated with drug responsiveness.

Experimental Design: We developed and analyzed patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models from 35 patients with colorectal cancer including 5 patients with multiple organ metastases (MOMs).

Assessing Concordance With Watson for Oncology, a Cognitive Computing Decision Support System for Colon Cancer Treatment in Korea.

Purpose: IBM Watson for Oncology (WFO) is a clinical decision-support computing system that provides oncologists with evidence-based treatment recommendations for a variety of cancer diagnoses. The evidence-based supported treatment recommendations are presented in three categories: Recommended, representing the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) preferred approach; For Consideration, evidence-based alternative treatments; and Not Recommended, alternative therapies that may be unacceptable. We examined the absolute concordance of treatment options with that of the recommendations of a multidisciplinary team of oncologists from Gachon University, Gil Medical Centre, Incheon, South Korea.