Publications by authors named "Yoshitaka Arase"
Aim: This study aimed to comprehensively assess the incidence of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) and the detection systems in place for patients with liver cancer undergoing treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), using a self-administered anonymous questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to gather crucial insights into the management of irAEs in these patients.
Methods: A self-administered anonymous questionnaire was sent to 456 liver disease collaborative base hospitals and cancer care coordination base hospitals in Japan.
Article Synopsis
- Amoebic dysentery is a serious disease in Japan, classified as Category 5, with around 1,000 annual cases, and about 10% are invasive strains.
- Most invasive cases show no symptoms, making them hard to detect, especially since a key blood test was discontinued in 2017.
- Proper diagnosis and treatment are crucial to avoid severe complications, such as ulceration and liver abscesses, which can occur with delayed care.
Background/objectives: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is critical in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It has become a key endpoint in the evaluation of new therapies, including atezolizumab + bevacizumab (Atezo + Bev) therapy.
Methods: This study explored the factors associated with treatment efficacy, treatment duration, and overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced HCC undergoing Atezo + Bev therapy.
Article Synopsis
- The study analyzed 107 patients undergoing balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration (BRTO) due to uncontrollable hepatic encephalopathy (HE) and assessed the impact of esophageal varices (EVs) on outcomes.
- Patients were divided into two groups based on the presence of EVs, and results showed that those with EVs had significantly shorter event-free survival and overall survival compared to those without EVs.
- The findings suggest that having EVs may indicate a higher risk of complications and mortality following the BRTO procedure in HE patients.
An Adult Case of Benign Recurrent Intrahepatic Cholestasis Due to Deficiency.
Tokai J Exp Clin Med
September 2024
Abnormalities in , which encodes an unconventional myosin Vb, not only cause microvillus inclusion disease but also cholestatic liver disease, including benign recurrent intrahepatic cholestasis (BRIC). However, -related cholestasis has not yet been reported in Japan. In this study, we present the case of a female patient in her thirties, who had developed jaundice, without diarrhea, in the first year after birth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwo cases of colorectal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma (cMALT) are presented and discussed with the reports from 1997 to the present. Helicobacter pylori ()-negative cases showed tumor resolution 2 months after eradication therapy. -positive cases were successfully eradicated and tumor resolution was confirmed 16 months later.
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- The concept of Metabolic Associated Fatty Liver Disease (MAFLD) was introduced, focusing on metabolic risk factors like obesity and diabetes, which affect patients' prognosis better than the previously used Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) criteria.
- A study involving 7,159 patients from Tokai University Hospital examined the impact of MAFLD versus NAFLD diagnostic criteria on disease progression and medication use over a 5-year period.
- Results showed that while 34.9% of participants had fatty liver, those diagnosed with MAFLD experienced a more considerable increase in starting new medications compared to those diagnosed only with NAFLD, indicating that MAFLD criteria could provide a clearer understanding of
A 55-year-old woman presented to her primary care physician with facial and lower leg edema. After being referred to our hospital because of hypothyroidism and hypokalemia on blood tests, she also had elevated adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and cortisol levels, but a dexamethasone suppression test showed no cortisol suppression. Ectopic ACTH syndrome due to pancreatic neuroendocrine carcinoma (PNEC) was suspected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although the combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab (ATZ + BEV) is a standard treatment for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), strategies for addressing treatment failure and prognostic factors of post-progression survival (PPS) remain unestablished.
Methods: We conducted a multicentre retrospective study to evaluate PPS following ATZ + BEV treatment in patients with advanced HCC. We classified the patients into three groups: BCLC stage B and BCLC stage C without or with new extrahepatic lesions (BCLCp-C1 and BCLCp-C2, respectively) at the time of progression.
Article Synopsis
- A 71-year-old woman had a submucosal lesion found during a colonoscopy, and imaging showed a 12-mm structure at the appendix's base.
- Initially, the lesion was not visible on a CT scan nine months later, but it did show signs of enlargement a year later, prompting further examinations like CS and EUS.
- The final diagnosis after the laparoscopic removal of the lesion was low-grade appendiceal mucinous neoplasm (LAMN), noted for the unique observation of the appendix shrinking and then re-expanding.
Objective: To investigate the association between body composition and prognosis in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma treated with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab.
Methods: This cohort study analysed 119 patients who received atezolizumab plus bevacizumab for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. We investigated the association between body composition and progression-free survival and overall survival.
Article Synopsis
- - The study investigates the effectiveness of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) in patients with decompensated cirrhosis who do not respond to tolvaptan, a medication for ascites.
- - A retrospective analysis was conducted on four patients treated with TIPS at Tokai University Hospital, all of whom had Child-Pugh class B liver cirrhosis, and the procedure was completed successfully without major complications.
- - Results showed a significant reduction in body weight and improvement in renal function after the TIPS procedure, suggesting it could be a viable treatment option for patients with tolvaptan-refractory ascites.
Article Synopsis
- Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) show promise for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but their link to immune-related adverse events (irAEs) and patient survival is not well-studied.
- This study analyzed 150 advanced HCC patients who received atezolizumab plus bevacizumab, comparing those who experienced irAEs to those who did not.
- Results indicated that patients with grade 1/2 irAEs had significantly better progression-free survival (273 days vs. 189 days) and overall survival compared to those without irAEs, indicating that these adverse events may correlate with improved survival outcomes.
Article Synopsis
- - Breast cancer is a common type of cancer in women and can spread to various parts of the body, with gastrointestinal tract metastasis being rare.
- - Invasive lobular carcinoma, a less common form of breast cancer, has a higher likelihood of metastasizing to the gastrointestinal tract compared to invasive ductal carcinoma.
- - The text discusses a rare case of invasive lobular carcinoma that extensively metastasized to the colonic mucosa and highlights the potential increase in rare metastatic diseases due to better survival rates from current treatments.
Article Synopsis
- The study compares the effectiveness of cell-free and concentrated ascites reinfusion therapy (CART) and large-volume paracentesis (LVP) with albumin infusion in treating refractory ascites (RA) in patients with cirrhosis.
- From June 2018 to March 2022, 25 patients were monitored for treatment outcomes, focusing on the number of paracenteses, drainage volume, and albumin use over 8 weeks.
- Results showed that while CART required fewer paracenteses and albumin infusions, there were no significant differences in overall treatment effectiveness, suggesting both therapies are equally beneficial for managing RA.
Aim: The association between thrombolytic therapy and the outcome in patients with portal vein thrombosis (PVT) remains controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the outcome in patients with PVT who received antithrombin III-based therapy.
Methods: This study was a retrospective, multicenter study to investigate the liver-related events and the survival rates in 240 patients with PVT who received the therapy.
The prevalence of hepatic cysts in the general population and their natural history are largely unknown. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and natural history of hepatic cysts by investigating health checkup participants. Ultrasonographic data of health checkup participants (n = 38,842) were retrospectively evaluated to calculate its prevalence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) was identified in 1989. In 2020, three decades after HCV identification, three researchers won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of this virus. In 1992, three years after the discovery, interferon (IFN) was launched as the first anti-HCV therapy in Japan; however, the efficacy of IFN therapy was far from acceptable due to severe adverse effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Lusutrombopag effectively increases platelet count in patients with severe thrombocytopenia. However, no multicenter studies analyzing the effects of Lusutrombopag on patients with mild thrombocytopenia (platelet count > 50 000/µL) have been performed. In this study, we aimed to clarify the efficacy of Lusutrombopag on these patients by unifying background factors by propensity score matching.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Data regarding the influence of patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing 3 (PNPLA3) polymorphism for patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) are scarce.
Objective: This study assesses the role of the PNPLA3 polymorphism for the development of LC and its complications by the findings of genetic examinations.
Methods: Patients with LC caused by virus (n = 157), alcohol (n = 104), nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) (n = 106), or autoimmune disease (n = 33) and without LC (n = 128) were enrolled.
Purpose: To assess the impact of clinical factors on the safety and efficacy of atezolizumab plus bevacizumab (ATZ + BV) treatment in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (u-HCC).
Method: Ninety-four u-HCC patients who were treated with ATZ + BV at multiple centers were enrolled. We defined Child-Pugh (CP)-A patients who received ATZ + BV treatment as a first line therapy as the 'meets the broad sense of the IMbrave150 criteria' group (B-IMbrave150-in, n = 46), and patients who received ATZ + BV treatment as a later line therapy or CP-B patients (regardless of whether ATZ + BV was a first line or later line therapy) as the B-IMbrave150-out group (n = 48).
Background: Many studies have investigated the prognosis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); however, most studies had a relatively short follow-up. To elucidate the long-term outcome of NAFLD, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD.
Methods: We re-evaluated 6080 patients who underwent liver biopsy from 1975 to 2012 and identified NAFLD patients without other etiologies.
Patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) undergoing molecular targeted therapy often experience non-negligible adverse events (AEs). Paradoxically, certain AEs are reportedly associated with a good prognosis. We aimed to identify factors predictive of treatment duration and overall survival (OS) in patients with HCC undergoing lenvatinib therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 71-year-old man was diagnosed with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He was negative for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), positive for antibodies against the hepatitis B surface and core, and negative for hepatitis B virus (HBV)-DNA before starting chemotherapy. A total of 13 months after the initiation of ibrutinib (a Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor), the patient's alanine aminotransferase levels suddenly increased to 427 U/L.
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