[Reported use of thalidomide in multiple myeloma: presentation of problems in the Thaled® outpatient department].

Background: Thalidomide was approved in Japan for multiple myeloma treatment in October 2008. A program called the Thalidomide Education and Risk Management System (TERMS®) was established to help ensure that every effort is made to use the drug safely.

Purpose: We report the use of thalidomide to treat multiple myeloma, and describe problems arising in the Thaled® outpatient department.

Adherence to the standard dose of imatinib, rather than dose adjustment based on its plasma concentration, is critical to achieve a deep molecular response in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.

The correlation between imatinib (IM) trough plasma concentration (Cmin) and clinical response was assessed in patients with chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia. The Cmin correlated with neither the achievement of complete cytogenetic response (977 vs. 993 ng/ml, P = 0.

[Prediction of treatment efficacy by the M-protein reduction rate after the first cycle of VAD therapy for multiple myeloma].

In recent years, novel drugs for multiple myeloma such as bortezomib and thalidomide have been shown to be effective. However, in Japan, these drugs are indicated only for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. There are no established criteria for the definition of refractory cases, and it is often difficult to determine when treatment methods should be changed for those cases.

Ex vivo simulation of the action of antileukemia drugs by measuring apoptosis-related mRNA in blood.

Background: In conventional bioassays, isolated cells are suspended in culture media, incubated in vitro for several days, and then characterized with respect to any cellular changes. In developing new molecular tests under physiological ex vivo conditions, we quantified the production of mRNAs for p21 and PUMA (p53 up-regulated modulator of apoptosis), which are involved in cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, respectively.

Methods: We stimulated human whole blood with a chemotherapeutic drug (cytarabine, daunorubicin, mitoxantrone, aclarubicin, etoposide, or idarubicin) for 4 h and then quantified mRNA by assessing mRNA recovery and cDNA-synthesis efficiency in each sample.

ALK+, CD30-, CD20- large B-cell lymphoma containing anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) fused to clathrin heavy chain gene (CLTC).

Pathological features and genomic basis of a rare case of ALK(+), CD30(-), CD20(-) large B-cell lymphoma were analyzed. A 36-year-old Japanese female was admitted because of lumbago and constitutional symptoms. Physical examination and laboratory tests showed anemia (hemoglobin, 7.

p53 mutations and tetraploids under r- and K-selection.

Cotransfection of rat embryo fibroblasts with c-myc and activated H-ras oncogenes is one experimental model of the multistep oncogenesis associated with p53 mutations and aneuploidy. Using the model, we found that selection processes, e.g.