Medical students must have motivation to participate in medical care during clinical clerkships. How much interest students have in each department might be a factor in making them more active in clerkships. To make clerkships more effective, we performed a questionnaire survey to investigate the relationship between students' interest in each department and their eagerness in clinical clerkships and to investigate factors to increase their eagerness.
1) Questionnaires were distributed to 92 sixth-year medical students at the University of Tsukuba. The questionnaire consisted of 6-point Likert scales of 4 specific student attitudes in clerkships. We asked the same questions about clerkships at medical departments that each student found more or less interesting.
2) We asked the students to report anecdotes about when they were motivated to learn more in the clerkships. We grouped similar answers into categories.
3) The response rate was 94%. The students were more eager in departments they found more interesting than in departments they found less interesting.
4) Thirty-eight students reported a total of 56 anecdotes. Among the categories, questions or words of encouragement from patients were mentioned in 29 anecdotes, and devoted faculty members were mentioned in 9 anecdotes.
5) These results suggest that medical students' eagerness in clinical clerkships could be increased by deepening their interest in medical departments and by improving communication with patients and physicians.

Purpose: Patients with hematological malignancies are at an increased risk of severe infection with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, developing an adequate immune response after vaccination is difficult, especially in patients with lymphoid neoplasms. Since the long-term effects of the BNT162b2 vaccine are unclear, the humoral immune response 5 months after the two vaccinations in patients with hematological disorders was analyzed. Materials and Methods: Samples were collected from 96 patients vaccinated twice with BNT162b2 and treated with at least one line of an antitumor or immunosuppressive drug in our hospital from November 2021 to February 2022. Serum anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (anti-SARS-CoV-2) spike (S) antibody titers were analyzed. Patients were age- and sex-matched using propensity matching and compared with a healthy control group. Patients with serum anti-SARS-CoV-2 S antibodies were defined as ‘responder’ if >50 U/mL. The patients had B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL), multiple myeloma, chronic myeloid leukemia, etc. Results: Patients had significantly low antibody levels (median, 55.3 U/mL vs. 809.8 U/mL; p<0.001) and a significantly low response rate (p<0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that patients with B-NHL, aged >72 years, were associated with a low response to vaccination. There were no significant differences between patients with chronic myeloid leukemia and healthy controls. Conclusion Our study shows that patients with hematological disorders are at risk of developing severe COVID-19 infections because of low responsiveness to vaccination. Moreover, the rate of antibody positivity differed between the disease groups. Further studies are warranted to determine an appropriate preventive method for these patients, especially those with B-NHL.

Purpose: Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of axillary lymph nodes (AxLNs) is performed to diagnose nodal metastasis in patients with breast cancer. Although the sensitivity of ultrasound-guided FNAC for identifying AxLN metastasis is in the range of 36%–99%, whether sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) should be performed for neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) patients with negative FNAC results is uncertain. This study aimed to determine the role of FNAC before NAC in the evaluation and management of AxLN in early breast cancer patients. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 3,810 clinically node-negative (a lymph node with no clinical metastasis without FNAC or radiological suspicion of metastasis with negative FNAC results) patients with breast cancer who underwent SLNB between 2008 and 2019. We compared the positivity rate of sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) between patients who received and those who did not receive NAC with negative FNAC results or without FNAC and axillary recurrence rate in the neoadjuvant group with negative SLNB results. Results: In the non-neoadjuvant (primary surgery) group, the positivity rate of SLNs in patients with negative FNAC results was higher than that in patients without FNAC (33.2% vs. 12.9%; p < 0.001). However, the SLN positivity rate of patients with negative FNAC results (false-negative rate for FNAC) in the neoadjuvant group was lower than that in the primary surgery group (3.0% vs. 33.2%; p < 0.001). After a median follow-up of 3 years, one axillary nodal recurrence was observed, which was a case from the neoadjuvant non-FNAC group. None of the patients in the neoadjuvant group with negative FNAC results had axillary recurrence. Conclusion The false-negative rate for FNAC in the primary surgery group was high;however, SLNB was the proper axillary staging procedure for NAC patients who have clinically suspicious AxLN metastases on radiologic examination but negative FNAC results.

Purpose: Safely postponing the use of chemotherapy is important for quality of life maintenance in patients with hormone receptor-positive advanced breast cancer. In previous studies, a combination of cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 inhibitors (CDK4/6i) and fulvestrant prolonged the time to chemotherapy (TTC). In this study, we used real-world data to evaluate TTC in the context of CDK4/6i therapy. Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of women with estrogen receptorpositive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative advanced breast cancer treated at the Aichi Cancer Center Hospital. The patients were categorized into having received CDK4/6i therapy first (n = 41), second (n = 33), and none at all (n = 67). The change in TTC among the groups was examined. Results: The median follow-up time was 13.8, 27.5, and 30.3 months in the CDK4/6i (first), CDK4/6i (second), and non-CDK4/6i groups, respectively. The median progression-free survival (PFS) with first-line therapy for metastasis was 30.0, 11.9, and 13.0 months, respectively (CDK4/6i [first] vs. non-CDK4/6i; p = 0.018, CDK4/6i [second] vs. non-CDK4/6i;p = 0.383). The median TTC was not reached in the CDK4/6i (first) group, was 39.1 months in the CDK4/6i (second) group, and was 44.2 months in the non-CDK4/6i group (CDK4/6i [first] vs. non-CDK4/6i; p = 0.880; CDK4/6i [second] vs. non-CDK4/6i; p = 0.407). The nonCDK4/6i group with TTC ≥ 60 months included more cases of secondary endocrine therapy resistance (p = 0.017), no perioperative chemotherapy (p = 0.021), and a longer disease-free interval (p = 0.093). Conclusion Although PFS was significantly longer in the CDK4/6i (first) group than in the non-CDK4/6i group, TTC did not significantly differ among the three groups in real-world data. The non-CDK4/6i group showed a long TTC in patients with late recurrence and low risk at the primary lesion site, who benefited greatly from hormone monotherapy.

This study used a self-administered questionnaire to assess the likelihood of chiikiwaku medical student loan repayment and its associated factors. If chiikiwaku repayment is high, then it can have a negative effect on the chiikiwaku program, which was established to distribute doctors to outlying areas. A total of 112 students (37.8%) reported that the likelihood of repayment was "high" or "somewhat high." The factors statistically associated with repayment likelihood were female gender (odds ratio (OR) 3.2, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5-6.8), applying forchiikiwaku mainly due to the higher medical school acceptance rate (OR 2.9, 95%CI 1.2-6.8), private medical school (OR 10.3, 95%CI 2.6-40.3), and stress related to obligation or repayment (OR 2.4, 95%CI 1.3-4.3). The results suggest that to decrease the rate of loan repayment it is important to improve the process of selecting chiikiwaku students and to modify the chiikiwaku system to support students experiencing stress.

This study used a self-administered questionnaire to assess the likelihood of chiikiwaku medical student loan repayment and its associated factors. If chiikiwaku repayment is high, then it can have a negative effect on the chiikiwaku program, which was established to distribute doctors to outlying areas. A total of 112 students (37.8%) reported that the likelihood of repayment was "high" or "somewhat high." The factors statistically associated with repayment likelihood were female gender (odds ratio (OR) 3.2, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5-6.8), applying forchiikiwaku mainly due to the higher medical school acceptance rate (OR 2.9, 95%CI 1.2-6.8), private medical school (OR 10.3, 95%CI 2.6-40.3), and stress related to obligation or repayment (OR 2.4, 95%CI 1.3-4.3). The results suggest that to decrease the rate of loan repayment it is important to improve the process of selecting chiikiwaku students and to modify the chiikiwaku system to support students experiencing stress.