Gemcitabine (GEM) has been reported to be an active agent in pancreatic cancer. Single-agent gemcitabine is currently the chemotherapy standard, although response rate being modest. Therefore, studies over the past few years have focused on gemcitabine-based combination chemotherapy and recent applications have included the use of a fixed-dose rate regimen. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of a new regimen, a fix-dose rate infusion of low-dose GEM (FRI regimen), as compared with a standard infusion (SI regimen) in patients with pancreatic cancer. 27 patients were enrolled (12 patients were resectable and 15 patients were unresectable). This FRI regimen consisted of gemcitabine 300 mg/m2 i.v. 30 minutes once weekly (10 mg/m2/min). Among unresectable patients, partial response was observed each in one patient, while stable disease was seen in four and five patients (FRI versus SI), respectively. A CBR was achieved in three versus two patients. As side effects, grade 3 toxicities were not observed in patients treated with the FRI regimen. The median survival time was 10 months versus 8 months, and this survival difference is not statistical significant. In the adjuvant setting with GEM, 5 of 7 patients treated with the SI regimen discontinued the treatment within 3 cycles because of severe grade 3 or 4 toxicities in spite of dose reduction, while all patients with FRI regimen achieved the entire treatment. The median survival time and disease-free survival time were no significant difference between two groups. In conclusion, the FRI regimen is well tolerated and offers good palliation, as well as the SI regimen, in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Furthermore, in the adjuvant setting, the FRI regimen resulted in better clinical benefit on quality of life and fewer side effects than the SI regimen.
In the early 2000s, the main stream of endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) changed from a mechanical scanning method to electronic radial or linear scanning methods.Subsequently, useful applications in trans-abdominal ultrasonography came within reach of EUS.In particular, contrast-enhanced EUS (CE-EUS) and EUS-elastography became cutting-edge diagnostic modalities for pancreatic disorders.Each type of pancreatic disorder has characteristic hemodynamics.CE-EUS uses color Doppler flow imaging and harmonic imaging to classify pancreatic lesions.EUS-elastography can assess tissue hardness by measuring its elasticity.This parameter appears to correlate with the malignant potential of the lesions.Tissue elasticity studies can provide information on both its pattern and distribution.The former is the conventional method of morphological diagnosis, but it is restricted to observations made in a region of interest (ROI).The latter is an unbiased analysis that can be performed by image analysis software and is theoretically constant, regardless of the ROI.Though EUSfine needle aspiration (FNA) is also a very useful diagnostic tool, there are several limitations.Diagnostic EUS-FNA of pancreatic cystic lesions has marginal utility mainly due to low sensitivity.Therefore, in particular, endoscopists should keep this limitation in mind.
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In recent years, an increase of the senior citizen is regarded as social problem. Therefore, robots that assist them in an indoor environment are expected. Particularly, it is hard and dangerous works for elderly persons to carry heavy loads. Then, it is useful to develop the robot for such a job instead of them. In this research, the autonomous robot system is developed for desk transportation because the desk is frequently transported. In the developed system, the mobile robot which equipped with the jack moves under the desk, lifts up the bottom side with the jack, and transports it. In this strategy, if the robot can hold around the center of gravity of the desk, the one desk can be carried by one robot. This paper describes the details of developed robot and experimental results of automatic transportation of the desk.
Background: Local anesthetics often are used in rotator cuff tears as therapeutic tools, although some cases have reported that they have detrimental effects. Neurotropin (NTP) is used widely in Japan as a treatment for various chronic pain conditions and is shown to have protective effects on cartilage and nerve cells. In this study, we investigated the protective effect of NTP against lidocaine-induced cytotoxicity. Methods: Tenocytes from rotator cuff tendons were incubated with lidocaine, NTP, lidocaine with NTP, and a control medium. Cell viability was evaluated using the WST-8 assay. Cell apoptosis was detected via annexin V staining using flow cytometry. The expression of BCL-2 and cytochrome c, which are involved in the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis, was evaluated via Western blotting and immunohistochemical staining. Results: In the cell viability assay, lidocaine decreased cell viability in a dose-dependent manner, and NTP did not affect cell viability. Moreover, NTP significantly inhibited the cytotoxic effect of lidocaine. The flow cytometry analysis showed that lidocaine significantly induced apoptosis in tenocytes, and NTP considerably inhibited this lidocaine-induced apoptosis. Western blotting experiments showed that lidocaine decreased the protein expression of BCL-2, and that NTP conserved the expression of BCL-2, even when used with lidocaine. Immunohistochemical staining for cytochrome c showed that 0.1% lidocaine increased cytochrome c-positive cells, and NTP suppressed lidocaine-induced cytochrome c expression. Conclusions: NTP suppresses lidocaine-induced apoptosis of tenocytes by inhibiting the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. Intra-articular/ bursal injection of NTP with lidocaine could protect tenocytes in rotator cuff tendons against lidocaine-induced apoptosis.
An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.
An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.
