Development of a fully automated chemiluminescence immunoassay for urine monomeric laminin-γ2 as a promising diagnostic tool of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.

Background: Monomeric laminin-γ2 in urine is a potential biomarker for bladder cancer. However, the current detection system uses an antibody that cannot discriminate between monomeric laminin-γ2 and the heterotrimeric γ2 chain of laminin-332, which may cause false-positive reactions. The present study aimed to develop a fully automated chemiluminescence immunoassay system using a specific monoclonal antibody against monomeric laminin-γ2.

Urinary laminin-γ2 is a novel biomarker of non-muscle invasive urothelial carcinoma.

Lack of appropriate biomarkers has hampered early detection of urothelial cancer (UC), therefore, development of biomarkers for its diagnosis at earlier stages is of importance. Laminin-332 (Ln-332, formerly Ln-5), a component of basement membranes, consists of Ln-α3, Ln-β3, and Ln-γ2 polypeptides. However, monomeric Ln-γ2 alone is frequently expressed in malignant neoplasms.

IgG4-related disease of the paratestis in a patient with Wells syndrome: a case report.

Background: We report a case of a 33-year-old man who presented with immunoglobulin (Ig)G4-related disease (IgG4-RD) forming a pseudotumor in the left paratesticular region during oral administration of corticosteroid for Wells syndrome, which involves cellulitis with eosinophilia.

Case Presentation: The patient was introduced to our institution from a private hospital with a 3-month history of asymptomatic left scrotal mass. A 5-cm diameter nodule was palpable in the left scrotum.

Novel combination therapy with imiquimod and sorafenib for renal cell carcinoma.

Objectives: To investigate whether the combination of the imidazoquinoline immune response modifier, imiquimod, and the multitargeted tyrosine-kinase inhibitor, sorafenib, inhibits the growth of renal cell carcinoma in mice.

Methods: Female BALB/c mice were implanted subcutaneously with 2 × 10(5) RENCA mouse kidney cancer cells, and were treated with transcutaneously applied cream containing imiquimod and oral administrations of sorafenib beginning 5 days after implantation of the cells. Tumor incidence and burden were determined at 28 days after initiation of therapy.

[First experiences of laparoscopic radical cystectomy].

Purpose: We determined whether laparoscopic radical cystectomy (LRC) was useful for the patients with bladder cancer.

Materials And Methods: We investigated the surgical outcome of LRC in the initial 30 patients with bladder cancer.

Results: Mean patients age was 68 (54-81) years old.

Expression of angiogenesis-related gene profiles and development of resistance to tyrosine-kinase inhibitor in advanced renal cell carcinoma: characterization of sorafenib-resistant cells derived from a cutaneous metastasis.

Objectives: To investigate the potential mechanism of development of resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitor in renal cell carcinoma.

Methods: A primary culture of renal cell carcinoma cells (KMRM-S2) was established from an advanced renal cell carcinoma patient with cutaneous metastasis, who had not responded to sorafenib. A total of 84 human angiogenesis-related genes were compared between cutaneous metastasis and the primary tumor by real time polymerase chain reaction.

[The current clinical status of kidney cancers in patients with the VHL disease in Japan: a nationwide epidemiological survey].

Purpose: To understand the current clinical features of kidney cancers in patients with von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease in Japan.

Subject And Result: We performed a nationwide epidemiological survey of patients with VHL disease using the epidemiology program for incurable disease by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The content of the survey included age of onset of VHL disease, sex, residential area, treatment modalities, kidney function, ECOG performance status, and prognosis.

SNRPE is involved in cell proliferation and progression of high-grade prostate cancer through the regulation of androgen receptor expression.

Clinically high-grade prostate cancers (PC) with high Gleason scores of 8-10 exhibit rapid growth and are more likely to spread beyond the prostate. These cancer types demonstrate a poor response to androgen deprivation therapy and eventually acquire a castration-resistant phenotype. To identify novel molecular cancer drug targets, we previously analyzed the gene expression profiles of high-grade PC using a cDNA microarray combined with laser microbeam microdissection and found a number of genes that are transactivated in high-grade PC.

Comparison between intravesical and oral administration of 5-aminolevulinic acid in the clinical benefit of photodynamic diagnosis for nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer.

Background: This study was undertaken to evaluate the clinical value of photodynamic diagnosis (PDD) with intravesical and oral instillation of 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) (ALA-PDD), and transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) guided by ALA-PDD (PDD-TURBT) for nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer.

Methods: Of all 210 cases, 75 underwent PDD with intravesically applied ALA, and 135 cases underwent PDD with orally applied ALA. Diagnostic accuracy was evaluated by comparing the level on images of ALA-induced fluorescence with the pathological result.

[Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor producing squamous cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis: a case report].

We report a case of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF)-producing squamous cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis. A 71‒year-old woman presented with gross hematuria and leucocytosis of 21,300/mm3 (neutrophil : 86%) in the peripheral blood, but with no focus of infection. Right renal pelvic mass was found at a nearby hospital and she was referred to our hospital for examination and treatment.

Pathobiological influence of a radiofrequency ablation system.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to optimize the least invasive technique of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for the degenerated renal parenchyma and to develop a novel RFA system.

Materials And Methods: Tissue temperature and pathological degeneration were investigated at regular time intervals and distances from the RFA needle electrode in the renal parenchyma of the pig kidney. We also examined whether interruption of the renal artery or irrigation in the renal pelvis had an influence on the therapeutic effects.

[Clinical experience with transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TUR-Bt) guided by photodynamic diagnosis (PDD)].

Purpose: To report our clinical experience regarding transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TUR-Bt) guided by photodynamic diagnosis (PDD) with intravesical instillations of 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) and to assess the usefulness of the therapeutic method.

Materials And Methods: TUR-Bt guided by PDD was performed in 57 patients of which 47 were men and 10 women with a median age of 74.3 years (range 45-90), 36 were primary cases and 21 were recurrent cases with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.

Regulation of 5-aminolevulinic acid-mediated protoporphyrin IX accumulation in human urothelial carcinomas.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to clarify the regulatory mechanism of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) synthesis mediated by 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) in human urothelial carcinoma (UC), leading to improved accuracy in photodynamic diagnosis and therapy using ALA.

Experimental Design: PpIX accumulation in cultured UC cells after incubation for 1-5 h with 0.5-5 mM ALA was analyzed by fluorescence analysis using fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry technique.

[Successful response of reccurent adult wilms' tumor to multiagent chemotherapy].

We report a case of successful response of lung metastases of reccurent adult Wilms' tumor by multiagent chemotherapy. The patient was a 19-year-old woman who had undergone left radical nephrectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy (actinomycin D, vincristine) for stageadult Wilms' tumor when she was 16 years old. Coputed tomography (CT) revealed multiple lung metastases (right parietal pleura, left S10, right S10).

[Experience in the treatment of eight cases of Fournier's gangrene].

Fournier's gangrene is a rare disease of rapidly progressive necrotising fasciitis of the genital, perineal and perianal regions and leads to sepsis and death. We report 8 cases of Fournier's gangrene treated at our hospital and affiliated hospitals from 1997 to 2007. There were seven males and one female in the series, and the age range was 23-89 years (mean age 56.

Hsp27 knockdown using nucleotide-based therapies inhibit tumor growth and enhance chemotherapy in human bladder cancer cells.

Heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27) is a cytoprotective chaperone that is phosphoactivated during cell stress that prevents aggregation and/or regulate activity and degradation of certain client proteins. Recent evidence suggests that Hsp27 may be involved in tumor progression and the development of treatment resistance in various tumors, including bladder cancer. The purpose of this study was to examine, both in vitro and in vivo, the effects of overexpression of Hsp27 and, correspondingly, the down-regulation of Hsp27 using small interfering (si) RNA and OGX-427, a second-generation antisense oligonucleotide targeting Hsp27.

[Clinical experience with intravesical instillations of 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) for the photodynamic diagnosis using fluorescence cystoscopy for bladder cancer].

Purpose: To report our clinical experience with intravesical instillations of 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) for the photodynamic diagnosis of bladder cancer and to assess any side-effects of the diagnostic method.

Materials And Methods: Photodynamic diagnosis was performed in 18 patients of which 14 were men and 4 women with a median age of 71 years (range 44-84), 7 were primary cases and 11 were recurrent cases with bladder cancer. Two to two and half hours prior to endoscopy 1.

[Conservative therapy by percutaneous radiofrequency ablation of renal cell carcinomas--therapeutic experiments of four patients with seven renal tumors--].

We report 7 renal cell carcinomas in 4 patients treated by percutaneous image-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA). The mean age of the patients was 59 years (male: 2, female: 2). All 4 were imperative cases.

Genetic changes in localized prostate cancer of Japanese patients shown by comparative genomic hybridization.

To search for additional amplification and deletion sites that may serve as a starting point for the discovery of new oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes, 30 Japanese localized prostate cancers were analyzed by comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) in this study. CGH was used to search for changes in DNA sequence copy-number in a series of 30 primary prostate adenocarcinomas, consisting of 22 cases of pT2N0 (organ confined; without capsular invasion) and 8 cases of pT3N0 (with capsular invasion), removed by radical prostatectomy. CGH revealed that the shortest regions of overlap (SRO) of gains in pT2N0 were at 8q22.

Levels of angiogenesis and expression of angiogenesis-related genes are prognostic for organ-specific metastasis of renal cell carcinoma.

Background: To identify organ-specific, metastasis-related factors that can be used to predict the development and location of metastasis of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (CRCC), the authors assessed the angiogenesis and the expression of angiogenesis-related genes in primary and metastatic tumors.

Methods: They evaluated intratumoral microvessel density (MVD) by immunohistochemical staining, assessed the expression of angiogenesis-related genes by mRNA in situ hybridization, and determined the clinicopathologic characteristics of 92 archival specimens of primary and metastatic CRCCs from 54 patients. All 38 metastatic tumor specimens were resected from 24 patients.

[Partial nephrectomy using microwave tissue coagulator--application for laparoscopic operation].

We report our clinical findings on 12 tumors (11 patients) successfully resected by partial nephrectomy with a microwave tissue coagulator (MTC) without renal pedicle clamping, including laparoscopic operation in 4 patients. All patients presented with a renal tumor detected incidentally by ultrasonography or computed tomography. The mean size of renal tumor was 1.

Recent advances in ideas on the molecular pathology and clinical aspects of Von Hippel-Lindau disease.

Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease is an autosomal dominant disorder that is associated with various tumors and cysts in the central nervous system (CNS) and visceral organs. Inactivation of the VHL tumor-suppressor protein and subsequent loss of function in the VHL, and Elongin BC (VBC) complex result in dysfunction in the ubiquitination of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), which is an important step in the development of angiogenic tumors. The most frequent disorders in VHL disease are hemangioblastoma in the CNS and retina, pheochromocytoma in the adrenal gland, renal cell carcinoma, and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor.

Analysis of gene-expression profiles in testicular seminomas using a genome-wide cDNA microarray.

To identify new diagnostic markers for testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs), including seminomas, as well as potential targets of new drugs for treating the disease, we compared gene-expression profiles of cancer cells from 13 seminomas with normal human testis using laser-capture microdissection and a cDNA microarray representing 23,040 genes. We identified 347 genes that were commonly up-regulated in seminoma cells. The functions of 227 were known to some extent; the remaining 120 included 55 ESTs.

Detection of genetic alterations in advanced prostate cancer by comparative genomic hybridization.

In this study, we examined nine cases of advanced Japanese prostate cancer by comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) to detect chromosomal imbalances across the entire genome and to identify several new regions likely to contain genes important to the development and progression of this disease. These cases had been previously examined for numerical chromosomal aberrations by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). By CGH, the following regions were found to be over-represented (gains), with fluorescence ratio values higher than the threshold: 4p, 6p, 8q, 11q, 12q, 15q, 16p, 17q, 20, and 21 (>4 cases); underrepresentation (losses) involved: 1q, 4q, 5q, 6q, 13q, 14q, and 22 (>4 cases).

The prognostic value of angiogenesis and metastasis-related genes for progression of transitional cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis and ureter.

Purpose: We reported previously that angiogenesis evaluated by intratumor microvessel density (MVD), expression of such angiogenic factors as vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), and the matrix metalloproteinase-9:E-cadherin ratio (M:E ratio) could identify patients with advanced transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder for whom chemotherapy and cystectomy will be unsuccessful. In the present study, we evaluated the significance of the M:E ratio as a predictor for prognosis for patients with TCC in the upper urinary tract (TCC-UUT).

Experimental Design: We evaluated MVD by immunohistochemistry and the expression of angiogenic and metastasis-related factors by in situ hybridization in 55 nephroureterectomy specimens from patients who received no neoadjuvant therapy.