Differentiation between solitary fibrous tumors and schwannomas of the head and neck: an apparent diffusion coefficient histogram analysis.

Methods:: Our study included 5 patients with SFT and 18 patients with schwannoma in the head and neck region for whom pre-operative ADC images were obtained using either 1.5 or 3.0 T MRI system with two b-values.

Fast approximation for joint optimization of segmentation, shape, and location priors, and its application in gallbladder segmentation.

Purpose: This paper addresses joint optimization for segmentation and shape priors, including translation, to overcome inter-subject variability in the location of an organ. Because a simple extension of the previous exact optimization method is too computationally complex, we propose a fast approximation for optimization. The effectiveness of the proposed approximation is validated in the context of gallbladder segmentation from a non-contrast computed tomography (CT) volume.

Japanese phase II study of rituximab maintenance for untreated indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma with high tumor burden.

Recent large-scale randomized clinical trials in Europe and the US demonstrated that maintenance therapy with rituximab significantly improved the progression-free survival (PFS) in indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL) patients, especially those with follicular lymphoma (FL). However, rituximab maintenance has not been approved in Japan, because there are no clinical data supporting the benefit of rituximab maintenance in Japanese patients. Therefore, we conducted a single-arm, multicenter bridging study in previously untreated indolent B-NHL patients with high tumor burden.

Automated liver segmentation from a postmortem CT scan based on a statistical shape model.

Purpose: Automated liver segmentation from a postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) volume is a challenging problem owing to the large deformation and intensity changes caused by severe pathology and/or postmortem changes. This paper addresses this problem by a novel segmentation algorithm using a statistical shape model (SSM) for a postmortem liver.

Methods: The location and shape parameters of a liver are directly estimated from a given volume by the proposed SSM-guided expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm without any spatial standardization that might fail owing to the large deformation and intensity changes.

Joint optimization of segmentation and shape prior from level-set-based statistical shape model, and its application to the automated segmentation of abdominal organs.

The goal of this study is to provide a theoretical framework for accurately optimizing the segmentation energy considering all of the possible shapes generated from the level-set-based statistical shape model (SSM). The proposed algorithm solves the well-known open problem, in which a shape prior may not be optimal in terms of an objective functional that needs to be minimized during segmentation. The algorithm allows the selection of an optimal shape prior from among all possible shapes generated from an SSM by conducting a branch-and-bound search over an eigenshape space.

Semi-automated virtual unfolded view generation method of stomach from CT volumes.

CT image-based diagnosis of the stomach is developed as a new way of diagnostic method. A virtual unfolded (VU) view is suitable for displaying its wall. In this paper, we propose a semi-automated method for generating VU views of the stomach.

A conditional statistical shape model with integrated error estimation of the conditions; application to liver segmentation in non-contrast CT images.

This paper presents a novel conditional statistical shape model in which the condition can be relaxed instead of being treated as a hard constraint. The major contribution of this paper is the integration of an error model that estimates the reliability of the observed conditional features and subsequently relaxes the conditional statistical shape model accordingly. A three-step pipeline consisting of (1) conditional feature extraction from a maximum a posteriori estimation, (2) shape prior estimation through the novel level set based conditional statistical shape model with integrated error model and (3) subsequent graph cuts segmentation based on the estimated shape prior is applied to automatic liver segmentation from non-contrast abdominal CT volumes.

Statistical shape model of a liver for autopsy imaging.

Purpose: Modeling the postmortem liver for autopsy imaging is a challenging problem owing to the variation in organ deformation found in cadavers and limited availability of postmortem liver CT scans. An algorithm was developed to construct a statistical shape model (SSM) for the adult postmortem liver in autopsy imaging.

Methods: First, we investigated the relationship between SSMs obtained from in vivo liver CT scans and those from postmortem cases.

Phase II/III study of R-CHOP-21 versus R-CHOP-14 for untreated indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: JCOG 0203 trial.

Purpose: Rituximab with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) is one of the most effective front-line therapies to treat indolent B-cell lymphoma. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), which potentiates antibody-dependent rituximab cytotoxicity, is used to shorten CHOP intervals. To improve progression-free survival (PFS) in patients treated with R-CHOP as the primary end point, we conducted a phase III study.

Rituximab monotherapy with eight weekly infusions for relapsed or refractory patients with indolent B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma mostly pretreated with rituximab: a multicenter phase II study.

Information regarding rituximab monotherapy with eight weekly infusions for relapsed or refractory indolent B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL), in particular for patients pretreated with rituximab, is limited. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of eight doses of rituximab monotherapy, 52 patients with relapsed or refractory indolent B-NHL were enrolled in the present study. Forty of 45 eligible patients (89%) had follicular lymphoma and 24 (53%) were at intermediate or high risk group according to the Follicular Lymphoma International Prognostic Index.

A pilot study of architectural distortion detection in mammograms based on characteristics of line shadows.

Objective: We present herein a novel algorithm for architectural distortion detection that utilizes the point convergence index with the likelihood of lines (e.g., spiculations) relating to architectural distortion.

Automated pancreas segmentation from three-dimensional contrast-enhanced computed tomography.

Purpose: We propose an automated pancreas segmentation algorithm from contrast-enhanced multiphase computed tomography (CT) and verify its effectiveness in segmentation.

Methods: The algorithm is characterized by three unique ideas. First, a two-stage segmentation strategy with spatial standardization of pancreas was employed to reduce variations in the pancreas shape and location.

Phase I/II study of concurrent chemoradiotherapy for localized nasal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma: Japan Clinical Oncology Group Study JCOG0211.

Purpose: To explore a more effective treatment for localized nasal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma, we conducted a phase I/II study of concurrent chemoradiotherapy.

Patients And Methods: Treatments comprised concurrent radiotherapy (50 Gy) and 3 courses of dexamethasone, etoposide, ifosfamide, and carboplatin (DeVIC). Patients with a newly diagnosed stage IE or contiguous IIE disease with cervical node involvement and a performance status (PS) of 0 to 2 were eligible for enrollment.

Phase II study of oral fludarabine in combination with rituximab for relapsed indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Oral fludarabine is more convenient than intravenous fludarabine in an outpatient setting. To assess the efficacy and toxicity of oral fludarabine in combination with rituximab in patients with relapsed indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL), we conducted a multicenter phase II study. Patients with relapsed indolent B-NHL with two or fewer prior regimens and up to 16 doses of rituximab were eligible.

Comparison of diffusion-weighted images using short inversion time inversion recovery or chemical shift selective pulse as fat suppression in patients with breast cancer.

Purpose: Fat suppression is essential for diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in the body. However, the chemical shift selective (CHESS) pulse often fails to suppress fat signals in the breast. The purpose of this study was to compare DWI using CHESS and DWI using short inversion time inversion recovery (STIR) in terms of fat suppression and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value.

Phase I/II and pharmacokinetic study of cladribine with 2-h infusion in Japanese patients with relapsed indolent B-cell lymphoma mostly pretreated with rituximab.

We conducted a phase I/II study to investigate the toxicity, pharmacokinetics, and efficacy profiles of cladribine with 2-h intravenous infusion for five consecutive days every four weeks in Japanese patients with relapsed indolent B-cell lymphoma. This was a dose-escalation study to confirm the safety of the doses which have been recommended for Caucasian patients (phase I), and to further evaluate the efficacy and safety (phase II). In the phase I portion for nine patients, no dose-limiting toxicities were observed at levels 1 (0.

Digital bowel cleansing free colonic polyp detection method for fecal tagging CT colonography.

Rationale And Objectives: Fecal tagging computed tomographic colonography (ftCTC) reduces the discomfort and the inconvenience of patients associated with bowel cleansing procedures before CT scanning. In conventional colonic polyp detection techniques for ftCTC, a digital bowel cleansing (DBC) technique is applied to detect polyps in tagged fecal materials (TFM). However, DBC removes the surface of soft tissues and hampers polyp detection.

Japanese phase II study of 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan in patients with relapsed or refractory indolent B-cell lymphoma.

There is no data about the efficacy and safety of radioimmunotherapy with 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan in patients with relapsed or refractory indolent B-cell lymphoma pretreated with rituximab-containing chemotherapy. We focused on this in a Japanese phase II study. Radioimmunotherapy with 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan (11.

Medical image analysis of 3D CT images based on extension of Haralick texture features.

Purpose: A new approach to the segmentation of 3D CT images is proposed in an attempt to provide texture-based segmentation of organs or disease diagnosis. 3D extension of Haralick texture features was studied calculating co-occurrences of all voxels in a small cubic region around the voxel.

Results: For verification, the proposed method was tested on a set of abdominal 3D volumes of patients.

[Assessment for the image interpretation of 111In-ibritumomab tiuxetan in the phase II study of 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan in patients with relapsed or refractory indolent B-cell lymphoma].

Prior to the 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan (Y2B8) therapy, imaging is performed to verify the expected biodistribution of 111In-ibritumomab tiuxetan (In2B8). In order to determine the indication of radioimmunotherapy with Y2B8, the interpretation criteria for altered biodistribution of In2B8 was established. A phase II study of Y2B8 in patients with relapsed or refractory indolent B-cell lymphoma was performed in nine institutions in Japan.

Automated extraction of lymph nodes from 3-D abdominal CT images using 3-D minimum directional difference filter.

This paper presents a method for extracting lymph node regions from 3-D abdominal CT images using 3-D minimum directional difference filter. In the case of surgery of colonic cancer, resection of metastasis lesions is performed with resection of a primary lesion. Lymph nodes are main route of metastasis and are quite important for deciding resection area.

Detection of unsuspected distant metastases and/or regional nodes by FDG-PET [corrected] scan in apparent limited-disease small-cell lung cancer.

We retrospectively investigated the clinical usefulness of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) for evaluation of patients with limited-disease small-cell lung cancer (LD-SCLC) diagnosed by conventional staging procedures. Sixty-three patients received whole body FDG-PET scans after routine initial staging procedures. The findings of FDG-PET scans suggesting extensive-stage disease were confirmed by other imaging tests or by the patient's clinical course.

Detecting breast cancer with non-contrast MR imaging: combining diffusion-weighted and STIR imaging.

We combined diffusion-weighted (DWI) and short TI inversion recovery (STIR) imaging to evaluate the diagnostic capability of non-contrast magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to detect breast cancer. Seventy women patients underwent mammography and MR imaging with combined DWI (b factor: 1000) and STIR that revealed malignancy, and postoperative pathological examination confirmed breast cancer. Interpreted images were evaluated for sensitivity, false negative rate (FN), sensitivity by pT, and sensitivity by background density of the mammary gland.

Positron emission tomography with F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose in evaluating colorectal hepatic metastasis down-staged by chemotherapy.

Background: The efficacy of positron emission tomography with 18F fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG-PET) is obscure in evaluating viability or the extent of colorectal hepatic metastasis (CHM), down-staged by chemotherapy.

Patients And Methods: A retrospective lesion-by-lesion analysis was performed for seven consecutive patients, who had received rescue hepatectomy for initially unresectable CHM, in order to evaluate the correlation between results of imaging modalities and the corresponding pathology.

Results: The sensitivity and positive predictive value of the conventional modalities (CT and MRI) were 92% and 42%, respectively, while the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of FDG-PET were 58%, 100%, 100% and 75% respectively.