Publications by authors named "Yoshimura Akihiro"

Adipose tissue and bacterial flora are involved in metabolism in the human body. However, the relationship between the two remains unclear. Recently, the presence of circulating bacterial DNAs has been reported.

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Background/aim: There is little evidence regarding the predictive value of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) kinetics in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer treated with an androgen receptor signaling inhibitor. This study investigated the correlation between PSA kinetics and prognosis in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer treated with enzalutamide.

Patients And Methods: We analyzed data from 103 patients who received enzalutamide as primary treatment for castration-resistant prostate cancer at our hospital, focusing on the associations between overall survival and PSA kinetics variables, such as maximal PSA response, PSA nadir, and time to PSA nadir.

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  • The study investigated the role of thyroid transcription factor 1 (TTF-1) as a predictor for treatment response in advanced non-squamous non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients undergoing chemotherapy or chemoimmunotherapy with specific levels of PD-L1 expression.
  • Out of 624 patients surveyed, 283 met the criteria, revealing that TTF-1 positivity was associated with significantly longer progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in those receiving chemotherapy, but not in the chemoimmunotherapy group.
  • The findings suggest that TTF-1 expression can help predict treatment effectiveness for chemotherapy, while its impact on chemoimmunotherapy remains unclear in patients with PD-L1 levels between
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  • Current screening tools for urothelial carcinoma (UC) are not effective, especially during early stages of the disease.
  • A study discovered that serum d-asparagine levels are significantly higher in UC patients, leading to the development of a new blood-based diagnostic equation combining d-asparagine levels and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR).
  • This new screening method shows promising results, with a high accuracy (AUC-ROC of 0.869), and significantly improves diagnosis when used alongside urinary tests.
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Sarcopenia assessed at a single time point is associated with the efficacy of immunotherapy, and we hypothesized that longitudinal changes in muscle mass may also be important. This retrospective study included patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received durvalumab treatment after concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) between January 2017 and April 2023. Muscle loss and sarcopenia were assessed based on the lumbar skeletal muscle area.

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  • - Recent studies indicate that immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) combination therapies may be effective for metastatic non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma (nccRCC), but there's a lack of comprehensive evidence regarding their efficacy and safety.
  • - A study of 44 patients showed that ICI combinations achieved an overall response rate of 36.3%, with median progression-free survival (PFS) at 8.8 months and overall survival (OS) at 23.9 months, although liver metastasis negatively impacted survival rates.
  • - The effectiveness of ICI combination therapy was similar for patients aged under 75 and those 75 and older, despite a higher rate of discontinuation due to side effects in the older group (45%
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Bone-modifying agents (BMA) are extensively used in treating patients with prostate cancer with bone metastases. However, this increases the risk of medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ). The safety of long-term BMA administration in clinical practice remains unclear.

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Background: Recent therapeutic strategies for KRAS-mutated cancers that inhibit the MAPK pathway have attracted considerable attention. The RAF/MEK clamp avutometinib (VS-6766/CH5126766/RO5126766/CKI27) is promising for patients with KRAS-mutated cancers. Although avutometinib monotherapy has shown clinical activity in patients with KRAS-mutated cancers, effective combination strategies will be important to develop.

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Although immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have gained approval for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), the response rate is still limited. Therefore, it is urgent to explore novel markers of responses to ICIs that can help assess clinical benefits. Recently, it has been noted that peripheral blood eosinophil counts are an independent factor correlated with clinical outcome of ICIs in some types of cancer.

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Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the most important microorganisms for the food industry, including Japanese sake, beer, wine, bread, and other products. For sake making, Kyokai sake yeast strains are considered one of the best sake yeast strains because these strains possess fermentation properties that are suitable for the quality of sake required. In recent years, the momentum for the development of unique sake, which is distinct from conventional sake, has grown, and there is now a demand to develop unique sake yeasts that have different sake making properties than Kyokai sake yeast strains.

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  • Second-line immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with ≤ 49% PD-L1 expression has limited effectiveness, and there is a need to understand predictors of its efficacy after platinum-based chemotherapy.
  • A study involving 54 advanced NSCLC patients in Japan found that those who did not experience disease progression after first-line chemotherapy had significantly better response rates and overall survival when treated with ICI monotherapy compared to those who had disease progression.
  • Maintaining a non-progressive disease status after chemotherapy emerged as a key independent prognostic factor for better outcomes with ICI therapy, along with a trend suggesting that a modified Glasgow Prognostic Score of 0 could correlate with longer survival.
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  • Immune checkpoint inhibitors like pembrolizumab are linked to immune-related adverse events (irAEs), which require careful management.
  • A 48-year-old man experienced relapsing cytokine release syndrome after receiving pembrolizumab and axitinib for kidney cancer, leading to severe complications like hypotension and poor oxygenation.
  • His condition improved with treatment (tocilizumab) and after a gradual reduction in corticosteroids, he maintained partial remission for 21 months, eventually undergoing a successful surgery with no need for further treatment 9 months later.
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Background: The long overall survival (OS) observed among patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with high programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in chemoimmunotherapy (CIT) groups in previous phase III trials suggests the limited efficacy of CIT among the subgroup with ≤49% PD-L1 expression on tumor cells. Hence, sequential treatment with first-line platinum-based chemotherapy followed by second-line immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment (SEQ) is an option. This study examined whether first-line CIT would provide better outcomes than SEQ in patients with advanced NSCLC with ≤49% PD-L1 expression.

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Background: Durvalumab consolidation after chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is a standard treatment for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, studies on immunological and nutritional markers to predict progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) are inadequate. Systemic inflammation causes cancer cachexia and negatively affects immunotherapy efficacy, which also reflects survival outcomes.

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Endobronchial metastasis (EBM) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is rare though HCC often metastasizes to the lungs. In this case report, a 74-year-old man with a history of HCC with chronic hepatitis C experienced hemoptysis and a dry cough. During immunotherapy for postoperative recurrent HCC, chest computed tomography (CT) revealed soft tissue shadows in the right upper and lower lobe bronchi, and we pathologically diagnosed as EBM of HCC using bronchoscopy.

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  • EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors are commonly used for treating advanced NSCLC with EGFR mutations, but some patients experience primary resistance to these treatments, which may be linked to AXL protein expression.
  • A study involving autopsy samples and a patient-derived cell line showed that AXL mRNA levels varied by metastatic site and were negatively correlated with the effectiveness of the therapy combining erlotinib and ramucirumab.
  • The combination of EGFR inhibitors with an AXL inhibitor significantly improved treatment outcomes by reducing cell viability and increasing cell death compared to traditional therapies, indicating AXL's role in treatment resistance.
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Background: Osimertinib is a standard treatment option for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, osimertinib monotherapy yields poor clinical outcomes in some patients, necessitating the development of novel treatment strategies. In addition, several studies have suggested that high programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression is associated with poor progression-free survival (PFS) for osimertinib monotherapy in patients with advanced NSCLC harboring EGFR mutations.

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A 55-year-old female presented to the hospital with a complaint of gross hematuria. Transurethral resection of bladder tumor was performed. The specimens pathologically showed signet ring cells and no urothelial carcinoma components.

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Background: Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor plus platinum-etoposide chemotherapy is used as a first-line treatment for extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC), regardless of age.

Objective: We examined the role of the Geriatric 8 (G8) screening tool for evaluating treatment outcomes in patients with ES-SCLC treated with PD-L1 inhibitor plus platinum-etoposide chemotherapy as first-line therapy.

Patients And Methods: Between September 2019 and October 2021, we prospectively evaluated patients with ES-SCLC treated with immunochemotherapy at ten institutions in Japan.

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Purpose: Growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) is one of the key cachexia-inducing factors. Clinical trials on therapies targeting GDF-15 for cancer and cancer cachexia are underway. While the role of circulating GDF-15 in cachexia has been clarified, the effects of GDF-15 expression within cancer cells remain to be fully elucidated.

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Introduction: Lung adenocarcinoma with negative TTF-1 expression is believed to be a poor prognostic factor for certain systemic treatments. Nevertheless, the impact of TTF-1 expression on combined chemoimmunotherapy remains unclear. We aimed to investigate the relationship between tumor TTF-1 expression and the efficacy of combined chemoimmunotherapy in patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma.

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EGFR mutations are strong predictive markers for EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) therapy in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Although NSCLC patients with sensitizing EGFR mutations have better prognoses, some patients exhibit worse prognoses. We hypothesized that various activities of kinases could be potential predictive biomarkers for EGFR-TKI treatment among NSCLC patients with sensitizing EGFR mutations.

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Background: Lung cancer patients face a high risk of thromboembolism (TE), which is considered to be a poor prognostic factor. However, the impact of symptomatic cerebral infarction (CI) and pulmonary embolism (PE) on the prognosis of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients is not fully understood.

Methods: We retrospectively identified 46 patients with advanced NSCLC who developed symptomatic CI or PE at five hospitals in Japan between January 2010 and December 2019.

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  • Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitors like lorlatinib often don't completely eliminate cancer cells in advanced ALK-rearranged non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) due to a subset of tumor cells developing adaptive resistance.
  • The study identified that the activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling contributes to this resistance, triggered by a specific growth factor via c-Jun activation.
  • Combining EGFR inhibitors with lorlatinib significantly reduces tumor regrowth in lab models, suggesting potential new treatment strategies for patients with ALK-rearranged lung cancer.
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Background: Current evidence indicates that immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have a limited efficacy in patients with lung cancer harboring epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations. However, there is a lack of data on the efficacy of ICIs after osimertinib treatment, and the predictors of ICI efficacy are unclear.

Methods: We retrospectively assessed consecutive patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC who received ICI-based therapy after osimertinib treatment at 10 institutions in Japan, between March 2016 and March 2021.

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