[Three cases of patients in their eighties who received anti-EGFR antibody mono-therapy as first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer].

We report three cases of patients in their eighties who received anti-EGFR antibody mono-therapy as first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer. CASE 1: An 86-year-old woman who received cetuximab after a colostomy for unresectable rectal cancer with synchronous liver and lung metastases. Serum levels of CEA and CA19-9 showed a significant decrease at 2 months, after which they showed a gradual increase.

[The efficacy of cetuximab for metastatic colorectal cancer].

Cetuximab (Erbitux) is a targeted therapy that used to treat metastatic colorectal cancer. It is classified as a "monoclonal antibody" and "signal transduction inhibitor" by binding to epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR). We report 6 patients who responded well to cetuximab out of 8 patients with recurrent/advanced colorectal cancer who have received the drug at our hospital since November 2008.

[Multimodal therapy for juvenile advanced rectal carcinoma].

A 37-year-old male with locally advanced rectal carcinoma and liver metastasis was treated by multimodal therapy. Since he had severe anemia and perineal abscess, sigmoid colostomy was constructed. After his general condition was recovered, the patient received systemic chemotherapy with mFOLFOX6 (6 courses) and whole pelvic irradiation (40 Gy).

[A case of abdominal wall metastases detected after 2 years and 5 months from gastric cancer operation].

A 68-year-old woman underwent distal gastrectomy for gastric cancer in February 2003. The Histological type was poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, and the final finding was T3 (se, INF gamma, ly1, v0), pN1, sH0, sP0, pCY0; fStage IIIA. Two years and 5 months after the operation, a painless tumor was noticed on the upper abdomen.

High expression of two genes selected by iAFLP: a new prognostic factor of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.

To detect patients with poor prognosis among those with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer, who generally show good prognosis, we analyzed gene expression profiles of 35 ER-positive tumors by using a high through-put RT-PCR technique, iAFLP. High expression of six genes out of 7,508 was related to poor prognosis in this group. From these six genes, NFE2L2 and TIAL1 were selected as genes associated with poor prognosis by means of a validation study with another set of 56 ER-positive breast cancers.

Loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 16p and 18q in anaplastic thyroid carcinoma.

The aim of this study was to clarify the genetic alterations in anaplastic transformation of the thyroid cancer. A total of 17 thyroid cancers including 7 anaplastic and 10 papillary cancers were analyzed for loss of heterozygosity (LOH) on chromosome 16p and 18q. All the samples from anaplastic cancer showed LOH at one or more loci out of ten markers on 16p, and only two showed one LOH at two loci out of five markers on 18q.