Patients with cervical adenocarcinoma (AC) and adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC) have a poorer prognosis than those with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Erb-b2 receptor tyrosine kinase 3 (HER3) is a member of the epidermal growth factor receptor family and its expression is associated with unfavorable prognosis in several cancer types, including SCC of the cervix. As there is limited information on the prognostic value of HER3 for AC and ASC of the cervix, the present study aimed to evaluate the expression of HER3 and its impact on post-operative recurrence in patients with AC and ASC of the cervix. This retrospective study included 39 patients with early-stage AC and ASC who underwent primary surgery between January 1997 and December 2017. Immunohistochemical staining for HER3 was performed on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded surgical specimens. The possible influence of HER3 expression on disease-free survival (DFS) was studied by using multivariate Cox regression with adjustment for established risk factors of post-operative recurrence. High expression of HER3 (HER3-high) was detected in 85.1% of cases of AC (23/27) and in 58.3% of cases of ASC (7/12). The median follow-up duration was 63.1 months and Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that the 5-year DFS rates of patients with AC and ASC of the cervix were 56.7% in patients with HER3-high and 77.8% in patients with HER3-low (log rank, P=0.20). On multivariate analysis, HER3-high [hazard ratio (HR)=6.32, 95% CI: 1.10-36.26, P=0.039), pelvic lymph node metastasis (HR=7.61, 95% CI: 2.07-28.00, P=0.002) and vascular invasion (HR=4.28, 95% CI: 1.12-16.31, P=0.033) were indicated to be independent predictors of DFS. To date, the present study is the most comprehensive analysis to evaluate the expression of HER3 in patients with early-stage AC and ASC of the cervix. The results suggested that HER3 overexpression may be an independent risk factor for post-operative recurrence. However, these results and the prognostic value of HER3 should be confirmed in a larger sample.
Nitrate in foods is important because of its role in the detinning of cans containing canned foods and in connection with the formation of nitrosoamines in processed foods.In this paper, convenient colorimetric and gas-chromatographic methods for the determination of nitrate in foods are presented.An aliquot of the test solution is mixed with sulfuric acid (3+1) and with an alcoholic solution of 2, 6-xylenol, and the mixture is left to stand for 25 minutes at 37°C. Nitration of 2, 6-xylenol occurs, and the nitroxylenol extract in chloroform can be used for colorimetry, after reextraction with M/5 borate buffer, or for FID-gas chromatography.It was found that 1) the absorption maximum of nitroxylenol in the buffer solution is 432nm, 2) the partition coefficent of nitroxylenol with borate buffer and chloroform depends on the pH of the buffer. Taking advantage of this, the pH of the extracting solution can be varied in accordance with the amount of nitrate in the test solution; pH 8.0 is suitable for less than 200μg per tube, pH 8.5 for less than 100μg and pH 9.0 for less than 30μg. It was shown that these methods are not interfered with by nitrite.
Background: In regard to myomectomy carried out using a laparoscope, there has been a recent transition from laparoscopic-assisted myomectomy (LAM) via a small incision to total laparoscopic myomectomy (LM). However, there are few reports documenting that LM is actually less invasive than LAM. Here, we compared the difference in invasiveness between LAM and LM. Method: We compared the data from 111 patients undergoing LAM and 85 patients undergoing LM at our hospital, after obtaining informed consent, between January 2009 and December 2012. We limited our analysis to patients in whom the specimen weight was 600 g or lower and excluded those who underwent simultaneous multiple organ surgery, such as surgical manipulation of the ovary. Variables for comparison were: the amount of blood loss, the operative time, the white blood cell count on postoperative day 1, the CRP level on postoperative day 3, and the postoperative maximum score on the VAS scale. Results: In the absence of any significant difference in the weight of the extracted specimens, the number of resected myomas was significantly larger in the LAM group. The intraoperative blood loss and the operative time were significantly lower and shorter, respectively, in the LAM group; however, the CRP level on postoperative day 3 and the postoperative maximum score on the VAS scale were significantly lower in the LM group. No significant difference was observed in the white blood cell count on postoperative day 1. Conclusion: These results suggest that LM is less invasive than LAM in the early postoperative stage.
HER3 (erbB3) signaling serves an important role in the development and chemoresistance of ovarian cancer, and is activated by chemotherapy. To evaluate the influence of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and other clinical factors on the expression of HER3, as well as to examine its role as a prognostic marker, the present study evaluated archived tissues from patients who underwent surgery for ovarian cancer between 2011 and 2018 at our hospital. Immunohistochemical staining for HER3 was performed using formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded surgical specimens and biopsy samples. In total, data from 111 patients with sufficient surgically resected tumor samples were extracted. A total of 28 patients with histology type high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) had specimens available from both pre-chemotherapy biopsies and post-chemotherapy surgery. High HER3 expression (HER3-high) was observed in 64 patients (58%), whereas low HER3 expression (HER3-low) was observed in 47 patients (42%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified neoadjuvant chemotherapy [odds ratio (OR), 7.49; 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.48-22.64; P<0.001) and non-HGSC histology (OR, 5.42; 95% CI, 1.99-14.78; P<0.001) as significant predictive factors for HER3-high. In pre-chemotherapy biopsy specimens, 15 patients were HER3-high and 13 were HER3-low. After chemotherapy, eight of 13 patients with HER3-low exhibited a change in status to HER3-high, with a trend toward poorer progression-free survival compared to that of patients whose status remained HER3-low. In conclusion, HER3 overexpression was revealed to be common among patients with ovarian cancer, especially in those with non-HGSC histology. In addition, HER3 expression may be promoted by chemotherapy. These findings suggested that patients with ovarian cancer are good candidates for emerging HER3-targeting therapies.
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