Complete response to multidisciplinary therapy in a patient with primary gastric choriocarcinoma.

Primary gastric choriocarcinoma is a rapidly growing neoplasm with an average survival of several months in untreated patients. Gastrectomy with lymph node dissection followed by chemotherapy is the treatment of choice. Regimens used for gastric adenocarcinoma are usually selected.

Hypercobalaminemia induced by an energy drink after total gastrectomy: a case report.

We encountered a case of hypercobalaminemia induced by oral intake of an energy drink after total gastrectomy. The patient was referred to our hospital due to findings suspicious for gastric cancer on screening. A 20 mm type 0-IIc lesion was detected in the gastric subcardia on esophagogastroduodenoscopy.

Serious intestinal bleeding from vascular ectasia secondary to portal thrombosis after living-related liver transplantation in a child.

Serious intestinal bleeding from vascular ectasia secondary to extrahepatic portal thrombosis is much less frequent than variceal bleeding, and its treatment is not clearly defined. We describe a 4-year-old girl with repeated intestinal bleeding from vascular ectasia, without any varix, with late extrahepatic portal vein thrombosis (PVT) and late hepatic artery thrombosis (HAT) after living-related liver transplantation. The bleeding stopped after simple splenectomy.

Effects of anti-inflammatory cytokine agent (FR167653) and serine protease inhibitor on warm ischemia-reperfusion injury of the liver graft.

Background: The shortage of donors has become a serious problem. Some institutes have tried to use grafts retrieved from non-heart-beating donors (NHBDs), but the results have not been satisfactory. This study clarifies the effects of nafamostat mesilate (NM), a strong serine protease inhibitor, and FR167653, a suppressant of both tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-1beta release, on warm ischemia-reperfusion injury and establishes the procurement of the grafts for a successful liver transplant using uncontrolled NHBDs.

Giant hepatic metastasis from gastrointestinal stromal tumor of the rectum 12 years after surgery.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors are non-epithelial neoplasms that arise from the gastrointestinal tract. Their variable cytologic atypia makes it difficult to predict their prognosis. We report a case of right hepatectomy for a giant metastasis detected 12 years after the surgical treatment of a rectal neoplasm, histologically demonstrated as a low-grade leiomyosarcoma initially, having morphological and immunohistochemical features of low malignancy.

Portal vein pressure is the key for successful liver transplantation of an extremely small graft in the pig model.

In partial-liver transplantation, the use of small grafts sometimes results in graft failure, usually caused by portal hypertension after transplantation (Tx). Portal hypertension after Tx can be decreased with a porto-caval shunt (PCS). The purpose of this study is to clarify the effect of the PCS on extremely reduced-size liver Tx.

The safety of the donor operation in living-donor liver transplantation: an analysis of 45 donors.

We retrospectively assessed the safety of the donor operation, based on parameters such as blood loss, blood transfusion, operation time, duration of hospitalization, and complications. Forty-five pediatric and adult recipients underwent living-donor liver transplantation (LDLTx) in Tohoku University Hospital from July 1991 to October 2000. Donor operations were classified into three groups.

Tube cholangio-jejunal bypass in unresectable hepatic hilar carcinoma for a better quality of life.

A 76-year-old male patient with jaundice was diagnosed as having hepatic hilar cholangiocarcinoma. The patient underwent percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage of the left and the right intrahepatic bile duct. He could not have a percutaneous transhepatic endoprosthesis placed because it was impossible to pass the guidewire through the stenotic portion of the lesion.

Successful liver transplantation from agonal non-heart-beating donors in pigs.

An effective way to overcome shortage of donors in liver transplantation (LTx) is to consider such from non-heart-beating donors (NHBDs). We investigated how a liver graft should be treated before and/or after procurement for successful LTx from an NHBD. Porcine LTx was performed with FR167653 (FR), a dual inhibitor of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), and/or prostaglandin E(1) (PG).

An association of Bcl-2 phosphorylation and Bax localization with their functions after hyperthermia and paclitaxel treatment.

Apoptosis is induced by many kinds of therapy-related inducers, such as hyperthermia and chemotherapeutic agents. However, differences in apoptotic pathways between these inducers remain unclear, although knowing the differences is important to map out a therapeutic strategy. Therefore, we focused on the localization and phosphorylation of Bcl-2 and Bax, key mediators of the apoptotic pathway, after hyperthermia and paclitaxel treatment of PC-10 squamous cell carcinoma cells that excessively expressed Bcl-2 and Bax in the cytoplasm.