Real-world outcomes of patients with renal cell carcinoma, surgically treated at regional hospitals, based on a prospective long-term survey of the pre-robotic era.

Purpose: Renal cancer surgery is frequently performed in small regional hospitals in Japan. This study evaluated the outcomes of renal cancer surgery, comparing results from the pre-robotic surgery era with those obtained with robotic surgery.

Methods: This prospective cohort study was conducted on patients who underwent renal cancer surgery between 2008 and 2013 at 14 hospitals, comprising 13 regional hospitals and a university hospital, registered in the Tohoku Urological Evidence-Based Medicine Study Group.

Persistent collapse of biomass in Amazonian forest edges following deforestation leads to unaccounted carbon losses.

Deforestation is the primary driver of carbon losses in tropical forests, but it does not operate alone. Forest fragmentation, a resulting feature of the deforestation process, promotes indirect carbon losses induced by edge effect. This process is not implicitly considered by policies for reducing carbon emissions in the tropics.

Bacterial EndoMS/NucS acts as a clamp-mediated mismatch endonuclease to prevent asymmetric accumulation of replication errors.

Mismatch repair (MMR) systems based on MutS eliminate mismatches originating from replication errors. Despite extensive conservation of mutS homologues throughout the three domains of life, Actinobacteria and some archaea do not have genes homologous to mutS. Here, we report that EndoMS/NucS of Corynebacterium glutamicum is the mismatch-specific endonuclease that functions cooperatively with a sliding clamp.

Intravesical seeding of upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma cells during nephroureterectomy: an exploratory analysis from the THPMG trial.

Objective: The Pirarubicin Monotherapy Study Group trial was a randomized Phase II study that evaluated the efficacy of intravesical instillation of pirarubicin in the prevention of bladder recurrence after nephroureterectomy for upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma. This study conducted further analysis of the Pirarubicin Monotherapy Study Group cohort, focusing on intravesical seeding of cancer cells.

Methods: Using the data from the Pirarubicin Monotherapy Study Group trial, bladder recurrence-free survival rates and factors associated with bladder recurrence in the control group were analyzed.

Prospective randomized phase II trial of a single early intravesical instillation of pirarubicin (THP) in the prevention of bladder recurrence after nephroureterectomy for upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma: the THP Monotherapy Study Group Trial.

Purpose: We evaluated the efficacy of a single early intravesical instillation of pirarubicin (THP) in the prevention of bladder recurrence after nephroureterectomy for upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UUT-UC).

Patients And Methods: From December 2005 to November 2008, 77 patients clinically diagnosed with UUT-UC from 11 institutions participating in the Tohoku Urological Evidence-Based Medicine Study Group were preoperatively enrolled in this study. Patients were randomly assigned to receive or not receive a single instillation of THP (30 mg in 30 mL of saline) into the bladder within 48 hours after nephroureterectomy.

Pseudolymphomatous folliculitis on the nose.

Pseudolymphomatous folliculitis (PLF), which sometimes mimicks cutaneous lymphoma, is a rare manifestation of cutaneous pseudolymphoma and cutaneous lymphoid hyperplasia. We describe a 57-year-old Japanese woman with PLF on the nose that resembled cutaneous lymphoma clinically. The biopsy specimen revealed dense lymphocytes, especially CD1a+ cells, infiltrated around the hair follicles.

Wildfires in bamboo-dominated Amazonian forest: impacts on above-ground biomass and biodiversity.

Fire has become an increasingly important disturbance event in south-western Amazonia. We conducted the first assessment of the ecological impacts of these wildfires in 2008, sampling forest structure and biodiversity along twelve 500 m transects in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, Acre, Brazil. Six transects were placed in unburned forests and six were in forests that burned during a series of forest fires that occurred from August to October 2005.

Impact of nocturia on disease-specific quality of life for men with localized prostate cancer.

Objectives: We assessed the impact of nocturia on the general and disease-specific health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for men with localized prostate cancer.

Materials And Methods: A total of 620 men with prostate cancer were enrolled to our study. All of the subjects completed the questionnaires before primary treatment.

Long-term quality of life following primary treatment in men with clinical stage T3 prostate cancer.

Objectives: We evaluated the changes of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) during the 5 years after radical prostatectomy (RP) or external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) for clinical stage T3 prostate cancer (cT3PC).

Patients And Methods: A total of 750 patients who underwent RP (n = 575) or EBRT (n = 175) participated in our longitudinal outcomes study. Of these patients, 48 RP patients (8%) and 63 EBRT patients (36%) presented with cT3PC and were included in this analysis.

Five-year follow-up of health-related quality of life after intensity-modulated radiation therapy for prostate cancer.

Objective: We evaluated health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with localized prostate cancer who underwent intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) or three-field conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT).

Methods: A total of 97 patients underwent 3DCRT and 36 underwent IMRT for localized prostate cancer between 2002 and 2004. We measured the general and disease-specific HRQOL with the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Health Survey and University of California, Los Angeles Prostate Cancer Index, respectively.

Functional expression of heme oxygenase-1 in human differentiated epidermis and its regulation by cytokines.

Although heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is induced in keratinocytes after UV radiation, HO-1 expression during normal epidermal differentiation has not yet been reported. We showed by real-time PCR, western blotting, and ELISA that HO-1 mRNA and protein expression by cultured normal human keratinocytes was upregulated during epidermal differentiation induced by a high-calcium medium. Immunohistochemical staining and in situ hybridization showed the graduated expression of HO-1 in the upper epidermis, which was accompanied by suprabasal HO-1 mRNA expression, and the accumulation of bilirubin (BR) in the stratum corneum.

[Quality of life following endocrine therapy for advanced prostate cancer: a comparative study between LH-RH agonist 1-month depot and 3-month depot].

Purpose: There were few studies which reported the longitudinal quality of life (QOL) for Japanese men who received endocrine therapy for advanced or metastatic prostate cancer. A pilot randomized trial was conducted to assess QOL and the incidence of hot flash following endocrine therapy using luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH) agonist goserelin acetate 1-month or 3-month depot alone in patients with advanced or metastatic prostate cancer.

Material And Methods: A total of 28 patients with advanced or metastatic prostate cancer who received LH-RH analogue goserelin acetate depot alone for 12 months were randomized (1:1) to two different formulations.

Metastatic renal cell carcinoma to right ventricle without vena caval involvement.

Cardiac metastases from renal cell carcinoma without vena caval involvement are extremely rare. We report 49-year-old man who presented symptoms of heart failure and thrombocytopenia. Computed tomography and echocardiography revealed a left renal tumor and a right ventricular mass without vena caval involvement.

Prostaglandin D2 induces heme oxygenase-1 in human retinal pigment epithelial cells.

The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) constitutes the blood-retinal barrier, whose function is impaired in various pathological conditions, including cerebral malaria, a lethal complication of Plasmodium falciparum infection. Prostaglandin (PG) D(2) is abundantly produced in the brain to regulate sleep responses. Moreover, PGD(2) is a potential factor derived from intra-erythrocyte falciparum parasites.

Psychological distress in Japanese men with localized prostate cancer.

Objective: To investigate: (i) the level of psychological distress; and (ii) the relationships between the level of psychological distress and general or disease-specific HRQOL of Japanese men with localized prostate cancer following surgery or radiotherapy.

Patients And Methods: The study was a retrospective cross-sectional survey of 253 men with localized prostate cancer treated with radical prostatectomy and 87 with external beam radiotherapy were collected. The measures used four questionnaires including: (i) the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Health Survey; (ii) The University of California, Los Angeles Prostate Cancer Index; (iii) International Prostate Symptom Score; and (iv) Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

Health-related quality of life after intensity modulated radiation therapy for localized prostate cancer: comparison with conventional and conformal radiotherapy.

Objective: No previous studies have reported the longitudinal health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). We compared HRQOL after IMRT with that after conventional and after conformal radiation therapy (XRT).

Methods: A total of 110 patients underwent XRT (34 patients underwent conventional radiation therapy and 76 underwent conformal radiation therapy) and 30 underwent IMRT for clinically localized prostate cancer between 2000 and 2002.

Health related quality of life in Japanese men after radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy for localized prostate cancer.

Background: We performed a retrospective survey of general and disease specific health-related quality of life (HRQOL) after radical prostatectomy (RP) and external beam radiotherapy (XRT) in Japanese men.

Methods: A total of 186 patients underwent RP and 78 underwent XRT for clinically localized prostate cancer between 2000 and 2002. We measured the general and disease specific HRQOL with the MOS 36-Item Health Survey and the University of California, Los Angeles Prostate Cancer Index, respectively.

[Two cases of ectopic prostatic tissue in the prostatic urethra].

Two cases of ectopic prostatic tissue or adenomatous polyps with prostatic type epithelium in the prostatic urethra were reported. They were 30-and 33-year-old males suffering from gross-hematuria and from urethral pain on urination with terminal gross-hematuria. Endoscopic examination revealed papillary lesions from the dilated orifice of the prostatic utricle.

[Investigation of factors affecting the progression of polycystic kidney disease and effects of percutaneous reduction of cystic size].

Factors affecting the progression of autosomal dominant adult type polycystic kidney disease were analysed in 27 cases. The patients ages ranged from 10 to 74 (mean 44) years old and the serum creatinine values were within the normal limits except two cases, in which the values were 2.4 mg/dl and 2.