Nivolumab-related severe thrombocytopenia in a patient with relapsed lung adenocarcinoma: a case report and review of the literature.

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy has changed the standard drug therapy for relapsed or advanced non-small cell lung cancer; its efficacy is well-recognized by pulmonary physicians, oncologists, and thoracic surgeons. Nivolumab, one of the anti-programmed cell death 1 antibodies, was the first immune checkpoint inhibitor to be approved and is used as a standard second-line regimen for patients with non-small cell lung cancer irrespective of the expression of programmed cell death ligand 1. Programmed cell death 1 antibodies have been generally confirmed to be less toxic than conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy, although unusual immune-related adverse events such as type I diabetes mellitus, adrenal failure, and myasthenia gravis may occur with a very low incidence.

Comparison of surgical outcomes after pneumonectomy and pulmonary function-preserving surgery for non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: According to previous reports, lobectomy with bronchoplasty or angioplasty is a more feasible surgery than pneumonectomy for central-type non-small cell lung cancer. However, few studies have compared both the short- and long-term outcomes between pneumonectomy and pulmonary function-preserving surgery.

Methods: From January 2004 to December 2015, 18 patients underwent pneumonectomy (Group PN) and 12 patients underwent pulmonary function-preserving surgery (group PS) at Fukushima Medical University Hospital.

A Case of Paraneoplastic Limbic Encephalitis in a Patient with Invasive Thymoma with Anti-Glutamate Receptor Antibody-Positive Cerebrospinal Fluid: A Case Report.

Background: Thymoma is known to cause autoimmune neuromuscular disease. However, anti-glutamate receptor antibody limbic encephalitis (LE) with thymoma is relatively rare.

Case Presentation: A 68-year-old woman was admitted with progressive memory impairment and personality change.

The efficacy of the Kampo medicine rikkunshito for chemotherapy-induced anorexia (RICH trial): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Cisplatin is a key drug in lung cancer therapy. However, cisplatin is also well known to induce gastrointestinal disorders, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, anorexia, and weight loss. These symptoms sometimes affect patients' quality of life and make continuation of chemotherapy difficult.

Clinical and pathological aspects of microscopic thymoma with myasthenia gravis and review of published reports.

Background: Microscopic thymomas, defined as epithelial proliferations smaller than 1 mm in diameter, characteristically occur in patients with myasthenia gravis without macroscopic thymic epithelial tumors. However, some clinical and pathological aspects of this entity are still unclear.

Methods: This retrospective study includes five consecutive patients who had undergone extended thymectomy for myasthenia gravis at our institution from April 2007 to March 2016 and in whom microscopic thymomas were diagnosed by histopathological examination of the resected specimens.

Efficacy and tolerability of nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel in combination with carboplatin as a late-phase chemotherapy for recurrent and advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: A multi-center study of the Fukushima lung cancer association group of surgeons.

The present retrospective multi-center study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-paclitaxel plus carboplatin as a second or late-phase chemotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A total of 25 patients with recurrent or advanced NSCLC who had received previous chemotherapy were treated with nab-paclitaxel (70-100 mg/m, intravenously) on days 1, 8 and 15 every 28 days with a carboplatin area under the concentration-time curve of 4-6 on day 1. The overall response rate, disease control rate, progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and toxicities were statistically evaluated.

Texture Analysis and Synthesis of Malignant and Benign Mediastinal Lymph Nodes in Patients with Lung Cancer on Computed Tomography.

Texture analysis of computed tomography (CT) imaging has been found useful to distinguish subtle differences, which are in- visible to human eyes, between malignant and benign tissues in cancer patients. This study implemented two complementary methods of texture analysis, known as the gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) and the experimental semivariogram (SV) with an aim to improve the predictive value of evaluating mediastinal lymph nodes in lung cancer. The GLCM was explored with the use of a rich set of its derived features, whereas the SV feature was extracted on real and synthesized CT samples of benign and malignant lymph nodes.

Bronchoscopic Investigation of Atypical Drug-induced Hypersensitivity Syndrome Showing Viral Lung Involvement.

We herein report a case of atypical drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome (DIHS) involving serological reactivation of cytomegalovirus induced by carbamazepine with pulmonary and skin manifestations. These lesions were not present on admission, but developed on virus reactivation as indicated by the presence of inclusion bodies and multinucleated giant cells in alveolar cells with CD8(+) T lymphocyte infiltration on a transbronchial lung biopsy. Although the precise mechanism of DIHS remains unknown, this case suggests the crucial role of viral reactivation in pulmonary lesions in DIHS.

FDG-PET in the evaluation of response to nivolumab in recurrent non-small-cell lung cancer.

Background: Nivolumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, is recently clinically applied to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment, and this causes T cell activation and T cell infiltration to tumor tissue through the blockade of the interaction between programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1). 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) sometimes shows false positive because of the recruitment of neutrophils, lymphocytes, and macrophages. To date, there is only one report except our case, which described the correlation between FDG-PET and nivolumab.

Recurrent Intrapulmonary Solitary Fibrous Tumor With Malignant Transformation.

Intrapulmonary solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) of the pleura; the so-called inverted pattern, which appears to grow into the lung parenchyma, is extremely rare. We experienced a 66-year-old woman with an intrapulmonary SFT that recurred locally with malignant transformation 2 years after wedge resection of the left upper lobe for the primary tumor. Subsequently, she underwent a lobectomy of the residual left upper lobe.

Clinical significance of expanded Foxp3⁺ Helios⁻ regulatory T cells in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

The functions of different regulatory T cell (Treg) types in cancer progression are unclear. Recently, expression of the transcription factor Helios was proposed as a marker for natural (non-induced) Tregs. The present study investigated the clinical significance of Helios expression in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Prognostic Impact of Hypoxia-Inducible miRNA-210 in Patients with Lung Adenocarcinoma.

Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of MicroRNA-210 (miR-210) expression in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods.

[Two cases of thymic carcinoid treated with octreotide long-acting repeatable].

Thymic carcinoid is a rare disease that accounts for 3.1% of thymic tumors and 1.8-6% of all carcinoid tumors in Japan.

Recent advances in immunotherapy for non-small-cell lung cancer.

Despite of recent development in the field of molecular targeted therapies, lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in the world. Remarkable progress has been made recently in immunotherapy for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with several modalities, concepts, and treatment settings being investigated. In vaccine development, large-scale clinical trials such as those with L-BLP25, belagenpumatucel-L, TG4010, and talactoferrin are already ongoing and some results have been reported.

An extremely elderly patient with lung cancer who underwent surgery.

We report the case of an extremely elderly patient with long-term survival after surgical resection for lung cancer. A 93-year-old man was evaluated for an abnormal density on chest radiography. Chest computed tomography (CT) showed a nodular density of 2.

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) against the Bcl-2 gene increases apoptosis in a canine melanoma cell line.

The effects of down-regulation of Bcl-2 expression, by small interfering RNA (siRNA) against the canine Bcl-2 genes, on apoptosis were investigated by transfecting MCM-N1 (canine malignant oral melanoma cell line) cells with siRNA using cationic liposomes. The siRNA against the canine Bcl-2 genes increased the number of apoptotic cells. In addition, sequence-specific down-regulation of Bcl-2 expression was measured by RT-PCR and western blot analysis.