Aspergillosis refers to an infection with any species from the genus Aspergillus. Pleural aspergillosis is an uncommon disease with less than 30 cases having been reported in the literature since 1958. The etiologic factors for this aspergillosis are preexisting pulmonary tuberculosis, bronchopleural fistula, pleural drainage, and a lung resection. Surgical removal of the aspergillus-infected pleura is the main treatment for managing this disease. We have experienced two cases of pleural aspergillosis as a complication of a preexisting chronic empyema. The chest radiographs showed a pyopneumothorax with cavitation and the chest computed tomographic scans revealed a loculated pyopneumothorax with cavity formation suggesting a bronchopleural fistula. A grossly purulent fluid was extracted by thoracentesis, and Aspergillus fumigatus was grown from a fungus culture of the fluid. A decortication, wedge resection with a pleurectomy and a pleuropneumonectomy were performed. The postoperative course was satisfactory and the patients have been in good condition up to now. Pleural aspergillosis is a very rare and potentially life-threatening disease. However, good result without significant complication were obtained by treatment with systemic antifungal agents and surgical removal.
Antifungal Agents ; Aspergillosis* ; Aspergillus ; Aspergillus fumigatus ; Drainage ; Empyema ; Fistula ; Fungi ; Humans ; Lung ; Pleura ; Radiography, Thoracic ; Thorax ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary

Over the past decade, several kinase inhibitors have been approved based on their clinical benefit in cancer patients. Unfortunately, in many cases, patients develop resistance to these agents via secondary mutations and alternative mechanisms. To date, several major mechanisms of acquired resistance, such as secondary mutation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene, amplification of the MET gene and overexpression of hepatocyte growth factor, have been reported. This review describes the recent findings on the mechanisms of primary and acquired resistance to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors and acquired resistance to anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitors, primarily focusing on non-small cell lung carcinoma.
Drug Resistance* ; Epidermal Growth Factor* ; Hepatocyte Growth Factor ; Humans ; Lung ; Lymphoma* ; Phosphotransferases* ; Protein Kinase Inhibitors ; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases ; Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor*

Over the last decade, intense interest has been focused on discovery of biomarkers and their clinical uses. Lung cancer biomarker discovery has particular eminence in this field due to its anticipated critical role in risk stratification, early detection, treatment selection, prognostication, and monitoring for recurrence of cancer. Significant progress has been made in our understanding of the steps involved in lung carcinogenesis and in development of novel technologies for biomarker discovery. The most active areas of research have been in promoter hypermethylation, proteomics, and genomics. Many investigators have adopted panels of serum biomarkers in an attempt to increase sensitivity. Markers for identification of lung cancer patients who may benefit from targeted therapy have been developed more rapidly. Development of targeted lung cancer therapy has engendered interest in markers for identification of optimal candidates for these therapies. Despite extensive study to date, few have turned out to be useful in the clinic. Even those used in the clinic do not show enough sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility for general use. All biomarkers identified so far must be validated in larger clinical cohorts.
Biomarkers ; Cohort Studies ; Genomics ; Humans ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Proteomics ; Recurrence ; Research Personnel ; Sensitivity and Specificity

No abstract available.
Pleural Diseases*

Parenchymal pulmonary endometriosis has unique symptoms such as hemoptysis, dyspnea and chest pain in associated with menstruation. We experienced a case of parenchymal pulmonary endometriosis with the complaints of catamenial hemoptysis. Bronchoalveolar lavage(BAL) was performed when catamenial hemoptysis occurred. The BAL fluid showed many erythrocytes, hemosiderin-laden macrophages, and sheets of endometrial stromal cells.
Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid* ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage* ; Chest Pain ; Dyspnea ; Endometriosis* ; Erythrocytes ; Female ; Hemoptysis ; Macrophages ; Menstruation ; Stromal Cells

BACKGROUND: Angiogenesis plays a critical role in human tumor growth and metastasis. Microvessel count, as a measure of tumor angiogenesis, has been significantly correlated with invasive and metastatic patterns in breast, prostate and cutaneous carcinomas. Materials and METHODS: Fifty patients with curatively resected non-small cell lung cancer were evaluated. Tumor tissues embedded in paraffin block were stained by anti CD 31 (PECAM, platelet endothelial cellular adhesion molecule) using immunohistochemical method to assess microvessel count. Microvessels were counted in the most active areas of neovascularization(microscopy, 200×). RESULTS: 1) Mean microvessel count was 47.1 ± 17.7(per 200×field) in total 50 cases. 2) Mean microvessel count of adenocarcinoma (54.4±19.9) was significantly higher than that of squamous cancer(43.9±16.2)(p<0.05), but there were no relationship between microvessel count and TNM stages. 3) Median survival time, 2-year and 5-year survival rates of the low microvascular group(microvessel count<45, 22cases) were 61 months, 80% and 40%, respectively, and those of the high microvascular group(microvessel count ≥ 45, 28 cases) were 46 months, 75% and 12%, respectively. As results, prognosis of low microvascular group is statistically significantly superior to that of the high microvascular group(p=0.0162, Kaplan-Meier, log-rank). CONCLUSION: Angiogenesis assessed by microvessel count can be used as one of the significant prognostic factors in non-small cell lung cancer.
Adenocarcinoma ; Blood Platelets ; Breast ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung* ; Humans ; Microvessels ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Paraffin ; Prognosis ; Prostate ; Survival Rate

BACKGROUND: Angiogenesis is an essential component of tumor growth and metastasis, and the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the most important angiogenic factors. Several solid tumors produce substantial amounts of VEGF, which stimulates proliferation and the migration of ednothelial cells, therby inducing neovasculization by a paracrine mechanism. To evaluate the prognostic roles of angiogenesis and VEGF expression in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, the relationship between VEGF expression in tumor tissues, the clinicopathologic features and the overall survival rate were analysed. METHODS: Sixty-nine resected primary non-small cell lung cancer specimens were evaluated. The pareffinembedded tumor tissues were stained by anti-VEGF polyclonal antibodies using an immunohistochemical method to assess VEGF expression. RESULTS: In Forty-one patients (59%), the VEGF antigen was expressed weakly in their tumor tissue, whereas in twenty-eight patients (41%) the VEGF antigen was expressed strongly. The median survival time of the weak VEGF expression group was 24 months, and that of the strong VEGF expression group was 19 months. The three year-survival rates were 35%, 33%, respectively. The survival difference between both groups was not statistically significnat. CONCLUSION: Although results were not statistically significant, the strong expression group tended to poorer prognosis than weak expression group.
Angiogenesis Inducing Agents ; Antibodies ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung* ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Prognosis ; Survival Rate ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A

Tuberculosis is a common chronic infectious disease, although the spleen is an uncommon organ to harbor tubercle bacilli. Immunocompromised subjects are primarily prone to miliary tuberculosis and in them the spleen is invaded by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Spleen tuberculosis is manifested commonly as a miliary form. The basic pathology is granulomatous inflammation. The CT finding of splenic tuberculosis are multiple, well-defined, roung or ovoid, low-density masses. Lymphadenopathy in the abdomen and mediastinum and pleural effusion can be found. We report two cases with tuberculosis of the spleen proved by computed tomography and histologic identification. One paitient did not improve following antituberculous medication, so splenectomy was performed. The other patient has been treated with antituberculous medication.
Abdomen ; Communicable Diseases ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Lymphatic Diseases ; Mediastinum ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; Pathology ; Pleural Effusion ; Spleen* ; Splenectomy ; Tuberculosis* ; Tuberculosis, Miliary ; Tuberculosis, Splenic

BACKGROUND: To study the prognosis of patients with lung cancer, many investigators have reported the methods to detect cell proliferation in tissues including PCNA, thymidine autoradiography, flow cytometry and Ki-67. PCNA, also known as cyclin, is a cell related nuclear protein with 36KD intranuclear polypeptide that is maximally elevated in S phase of proliferating cells. In this study, PCNA was identified by paraffin-embedding tissue using immunohistochemistry which has an advantage of simplicity and maintenance of tissue architecture. The variation of PCNA expression is known to be related with proliferating fraction, histologic type, anatomic(TNM) stage, degree of cell differentiation, S-phase fraction and survival rate. We analyzed the correlation between PCNA expression and S-phase fraction, survival. METHODS: To investigate expression of PCNA in primary lung cancer, we used immunohistochemical stain to paraffin-embedded sections of 57 resected primary non-small cell lung cancer specimen and the results were analyzed according to the cell type, cell differentiation, TNM stage, S-phase fraction and survival. RESULTS: PCNA expression was dMded into five group according to degree of staging(-, +, ++, +++,++++). Squamous cell type showed high positivity than in adenocarcinoma. Nonsignificant difference related to TNM stage was noticed. Nonsignificant difference related to degree of cell differentiation was noticed. S-phase fraction was increased wit advance of PCNA positivity, but t could not reach the statistic significance. The 2 year survival rate and median survival time were -50% 13 months, +75% 41.3 months, ++73% 33.6 months, +++67% 29.0 months, ++++25% 9 months with statistic significance (P<0.05, Kaplan-Meier, generalized Wilcox). CONCLUSION: From this study. PCNA expression was high positive n squamous cell cancer. And, there was no relationship between PCNA positivity and TNM stage, cellular differentiation or S-phase fraction. But, the patients with high positive PCNA staining showed poor survival rate than the patients with lower positive PCNA. It was concluded that PCNA immunostaining is a simple and useful method for survival prediction in paraffin embedded tissue of non-small cell lung cancer.
Adenocarcinoma ; Autoradiography ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung* ; Cell Differentiation ; Cell Proliferation ; Cyclins ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Lung Neoplasms ; Neoplasms, Squamous Cell ; Nuclear Proteins ; Paraffin ; Prognosis ; Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen* ; Research Personnel ; S Phase ; Survival Rate* ; Thymidine

Recently, methionyl-hGH was produced in the E. coil K-12, W3110 by recombinant DNA technology in Korea. In this paper, the clinical efficacy and immunogenicity of this GH were studied in 43 patients with growth hormone deficency.The subjects of this study were aged 4.3-18.5 years and each patient received GH 0.5-0.71U/kg week subcutaneously, 6-7 times a week for 1 year. During treatment, height, body weight and bone age were checked. Blood count, urinalysis, blood chemistry and thyroid hormonal concentrations were checked before and every 3 months. The measurement of IGF-1 was performed and assay of antibody against hGH was performed before and every 6 months.The height velocities significantly increased from 3.7+-3.0 cm/year to 11.0+-4.2 cm/year and 9.9+-3.2 cm/year at 6 and 12 months after GH therapy, respectively. The Height SDS were significantly improved after GH therapy with increasing ratio of bone age to chronological age from 0.60+-0.19 at pretreatment to 0.68+-0.16 at 6 month, 0.69+-0.16 at 12 month of therapy. The plasma IGF-1 levels significantly increased during treatment. Three out of 35 patients(8.3%) showed antibody against hGH after 1 year of treatment. Thoughout study, we could not observe any remarkable side effect with GH treatment.These results indicate that this E. coli derived methionyl recombinant growth hormone is effective in improving the index of linear growth in the children with growth hormone deficiency without significant side effect.
Body Height ; Chemistry ; Child ; DNA, Recombinant ; Growth Hormone ; Human Growth Hormone ; Humans ; Insulin-Like Growth Factor I ; Korea ; Plasma ; Thyroid Gland ; Treatment Outcome ; Urinalysis