The association of laryngoceles with ventricular phonation

Laryngoceles represent dilatations of the laryngeal saccule that may extend internally into the airway, or externally through the thyrohyoid membrane. Unilateral laryngoceles are uncommon clinical entities and bilateral laryngoceles are rare. Certain activities like glass blowing and playing a wind instrument are associated with laryngocele development, as is laryngeal carcinoma in the ventricular area. This case describes development of bilateral laryngoceles in a patient who chronically uses ventricular phonation during speech. The pathogenesis involves repetitive elevation of intralaryngeal pressure during false vocal cord approximation, exposing the ventricles to abnormally high air pressures. The pathogenesis in this case, as well as in laryngoceles associated with occupational or anatomic risk factors, is discussed.     

Photothermal/Photodynamic Therapy with Immune‐Adjuvant Liposomal Complexes for Effective Gastric Cancer Therapy

A diagnosis and therapeutic strategy for gastric cancer is developed herein by combining thermosensitive liposomal (TSL)‐based photothermal/photodynamics therapy (PTT/PDT) with chemotherapy and adjuvant immunotherapy. IR820, a photothermal agent, paclitaxel (PTX), an antitumor drug, and imiquimod (R837), a Toll‐like‐receptor‐7 agonist, are coencapsulated into a TSL drug delivery system. These formed PTX‐R837‐IR820@TSL complexes exhibit excellent optical properties, good dispersibility, and stability. Under NIR light irradiation, the measurement of singlet oxygen production and thermal efficiency indicate promising potential of PTX‐R837‐IR820@TSL complexes for PTT and PDT. Confocal microscopy and small animal NIR imaging demonstrate tumor targeting ability of the liposomal complexes to gastric cancer cells. In vitro cell viability assays and in vivo animal experiments show prominent antitumor efficiency of PTX‐R837‐IR820@TSL complexes upon NIR light irradiation. This excellent therapeutic efficacy is attributed to the simultaneous chemotherapy and PTT/PDT. Furthermore, the liposomal complexes under NIR irradiation would ablate tumors to generate a pool of tumor‐associated antigens, which is able to promote strong antitumor immune responses in the presence of those R837‐containing liposomal complexes acted as adjuvant. These results indicate that the multifunctional liposomal complexes could realize a remarkable synergistic therapeutic outcome in gastric carcinoma.     

利用线性结构方程式模型分析胃癌患者生存质量的影响因素

本文应用因子分析和线性结构方程式模型分析和探讨胃癌患者生存质量的影响因素。结果表明癌症患者的生理状态对心理状态有显著影响 ,对癌症患者的生存质量有影响的因素有 :病情、存活时间、年龄、手术情况、性别、营养状况。     

支持向量机算法对鼻咽癌与正常鼻咽细胞株拉曼光谱分析

拉曼光谱技术在肿瘤与正常细胞株的鉴别方面有着广泛的应用。对一个已有的诊断模型进行可靠性验证是非常重要和有意义的工作。采用两种不同的支持向量机分类算法对鼻咽癌和正常鼻咽细胞株的拉曼光谱进行分析和识别,结果显示灵敏度和特异性均在90%以上,并且与已知的相关线性判别分析结果一致。结论表明,两种支持向量机算法都能较好地对细胞株进行鉴别,同时也表明拉曼光谱技术结合相关统计分类算法的方法可以实现对肿瘤细胞的准确鉴别,这一结果将进一步证实拉曼光谱可以作为鼻咽癌诊断的一种方式。     

Noninvasive Surface Detection of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

Previously Fourier transform infrared(FTIR) spectroscopy has been applied to detecting thyroid cancer during operations and to discriminating cervical metastatic ones from non-metastatic lymph nodes. This study explored the possibility of establishing a sensitive, accurate and noninvasive screen or diagnosis by preoperative FTIR spectroscopy. 111 patients undergone a thyroid operation and 50 healthy volunteers were enrolled in the study. The FTIR spectra were obtained by two mid-infrared optical fibers with an attenuated total reflectance(ATR) probe closely contacting the subjects' skin on the thyroid nodules. The FTIR spectra obtained from normal thyroid, nodular goiter(NG) and papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC) patients were compared. A Fisher's discriminant analysis was created based on these data. There were 41 PTC patients and 70 NG patients according to their histopathological examinations. A total of 23(of 39) parameters were statistically different among the three groups(P<0.05). The F₁₃₀₀ and F₁₀₈₀ parameters were significantly different between the three groups. In total, 9 out of 39 FTIR parameters were selected as independent factors by the Wilks' lambda stepwise discriminant analysis. The discrimination accuracy of papillary thyroid carcinoma in the three groups was 88.8%. Surface detection of PTC by FTIR spectroscopy is feasible. FTIR spectroscopy can be used for rapid and noninvasive PTC screen and auxiliary diagnosis.     

Labdane diterpenes with a new oxidation pattern from the marine pulmonate Trimusculus peruvianus

Four new labdane diterpenes, 1-4, with an unusual oxidation pattern have been isolated from the marine pulmonate Trimusculus peruvianus. The structure and stereochemistry of these compounds were determined by spectroscopic data and chemical transformations. The absolute stereochemistry of 4 was assigned by application of the modified Mosher method. These compounds exhibit in vitro moderate cytotoxic activity against human colon carcinoma cell lines.     

A Texture Combined Multispectral Magnetic Resonance Imaging Segmentation for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Tumor segmentation from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is important for volume estimation and visualization of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). In some cases, segmentation using the general multispectral (GM) method often obtained poor results due to the high false positives caused by complex anatomic structures and serious overlap in feature space. In this study, a texture combined multispectral fuzzy clustering (TCMFC) segmentation algorithm was proposed. A texture measure of T1-weighted (T1) MR image was introduced by calculating the two-order central statistical information of every pixel within a window after the window convolution operation. The texture measure and the intensities in T1 and contrast-enhanced T1 images formed the new 3-D feature vector for fuzzy clustering implemented by semi-supervised fuzzy c-means (SFCM). Testing showed that by reducing the false positives significantly, the TCMFC method achieved improved segmentation results, compared with the GM method.     

Synthese und Antitumoraktivität voncis-Dichloroplatin(II)-Komplexen mit Östradiolderivaten

Summary Estrogen-receptor binding moieties were introduced into Pt(II) complexes in order to facilitate the selective transport into cancer cells. Estradiol esters of 2,3-diaminopropionic acid and estradiol ethers of 1,2-diamino-2-methyl-3-(p-hydroxyphenyl)propane were attached to Pt(II) complexes. The antitumor activity of the compounds was tested towards the human mammary carcinoma cell lines MDA-MB 231 and MCF-7, respectively, and the estrogen-receptor binding affinity of the Pt(II) complexes was determined. The steroidal Pt(II) complexes gave a maximum growth inhibition of 80% and a maximum estrogen-receptor binding affinity of 5.18.

     

Expression of Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone and Its Receptor Splice Variants in Primary Human Endometrial Carcinomas: Novel Therapeutic Approaches

Antagonists of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) inhibit the growth of various tumors, including endometrial carcinomas (EC). However, tumoral receptors that mediate the antiproliferative effects of GHRH antagonists in human ECs have not been fully characterized. In this study, we investigated the expression of mRNA for GHRH and splice variants (SVs) of GHRH receptors (GHRH-R) in 39 human ECs and in 7 normal endometrial tissue samples using RT-PCR. Primers designed for the PCR amplification of mRNA for the full length GHRH-R and SVs were utilized. The PCR products were sequenced, and their specificity was confirmed. Nine ECs cancers (23%) expressed mRNA for SV1, three (7.7%) showed SV2 and eight (20.5%) revealed mRNA for SV4. The presence of SVs for GHRH-Rs could not be detected in any of the normal endometrial tissue specimens. The presence of specific, high affinity GHRH-Rs was also demonstrated in EC specimens using radioligand binding studies. Twenty-four of the investigated thirty-nine tumor samples (61.5%) and three of the seven corresponding normal endometrial tissues (42.9%) expressed mRNA for GHRH ligand. Our findings suggest the possible existence of an autocrine loop in EC based on GHRH and its tumoral SV receptors. The antiproliferative effects of GHRH antagonists on EC are likely to be exerted in part by the local SVs and GHRH system.     

Can preoperative diffusion-weighted MRI predict postoperative hepatic insufficiency after curative resection of HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma? A pilot study

Liver fibrosis determines the functional liver reserve. Several studies have reported that the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) can assess liver fibrosis. We investigated whether DW-MRI predicts postoperative hepatic insufficiency and liver fibrosis in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Twenty-six patients with HBV-related HCC who received preoperative DW-MRI on a 3-T MRI system were enrolled between July and December 2008. ADC values were measured twice by two observers. Three “b values” were used: 50, 400 and 800 s/mm². Postoperative hepatic insufficiency was defined as persistent hyperbilirubinemia (total bilirubin level >5 mg/dl for more than 5 days after surgery) or postoperative death without other causes. The mean age (21 men and 5 women) was 51.4 years. Three patients experienced postoperative hepatic insufficiency. liver stiffness measurement predicted postoperative hepatic insufficiency, advanced fibrosis (F3–4), and cirrhosis significantly [area under the receiving operator characteristic curve (AUROC)=0.942, 0.771 and 0.818, respectively, with P=.047, 0.048 and 0.006, respectively]; ADC values of DW-MRI, however, did not (AUROC=0.797, 0.648 and 0.491, respectively, with P=.100, 0.313 and 0.938, respectively). Reliability of ADC values between right and left hepatic lobes (ρ=0.868 and ρ=0.910 in the first and second measures of Observer A; ρ=0.865 and ρ=0.831 in the first and second measures of Observer B) was high and the intra- and interobserver reliability (ρ=0.958 in observer A and ρ=0.977 in observer B; ρ=0.929 in the first measure and ρ=0.978 in the second measure between the two observers) were high. All reliability was significant (P<.001). Our results suggest that DW-MRI on a 3-T MRI system is not suitable for predicting postoperative hepatic insufficiency, advanced liver fibrosis, and cirrhosis in patients with HBV-related HCC, despite significantly high reliability.