Objective: To assess potential mechanisms responsible for the antitumor activities of the streptococcal preparation OK 432.Methods: C57BL/6 mice were transplanted subcutaneously with 5?10 5 B16 melanoma cells and treated with OK 432 (1KE/week?3) or saline (control) intraperitoneally 3 days after the inoculation and tumor size was measured biweekly. The effects of OK 432 on splenocyte cytokines (IL 2, IL 4, IL 6, IL 10, IL 12, IFN ?) production of tumor bearing mice were investigated both in vitro and in vivo. Results: OK 432 significantly inhibited B16 melanoma growth and lengthened the survival time of the mice as compared with control ( P

This systematic review aimed to assess the efficacy of the current approach to tissue traction during the endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) of superficial esophageal cancer, early gastric cancer, and colorectal neoplasms.We performed a systematic electronic literature search of articles published in PubMed and selected comparative studies to investigate the treatment outcomes of tractionassisted versus conventional ESD. Using the keywords, we retrieved 381 articles, including five eligible articles on the esophagus, 13 on the stomach, and 12 on the colorectum. A total of seven randomized controlled tri-als and 23 retrospective studies were identified. Clip line traction and submucosal tunneling were effective in re-ducing the procedural time during esophageal ESD. The efficacy of traction methods in gastric ESD varied in terms of the devices and strategies used depending on the le-sion location and degree of submucosal fibrosis. Several prospective and retrospective studies utilized traction de-vices without the need to reinsert the colonoscope. When pocket creation is included, the traction devices and methods effectively shorten the procedural time during colorectal ESD. Although the efficacy is dependent on the organ and tumor locations, several traction techniques have been demonstrated to be efficacious in facilitating ESD by maintaining satisfactory traction during dissection.