IL-18 was discovered as a proinflammatoty cytokine,stimulates natural killer and T cells and enhances Th1/Th2 immune response, and plays a central role in inflammation and immune response.. Immune-stimulating effects of IL-18 as a adjuvent agent against cancer,have antineoplastic properi-ties. However, Higher expression or secretion level of IL- 18 is detected in the blood of the majority of cancer pa-tients with poor prongnosis. IL-18 has also been associated with cancer progression and immune escape,is able to induce angiogenesis, metastasis. The dual effects of IL-18 in cancer need to be investigated further.

Objective To know the risk factors of indoor environment associated with childhood asthmas. Methods Using 1∶1 matched case-control study design,140 cases and 140 age-sex-matched controls from the Affiliated Hospital of Ningxia Medical University were investigated for the indoor environment risk factors,from July 2004 to May 2008. Conditional Logistic regression model was used for data analysis. Results It was revealed in univariate and multivariate conditional Logistic regression analysis that there was significant correlation between using coal for cooking,newly indoor decoration,raising pets and the childhood asthma with odds ratios of 1.67,6.46 and 3.06 respectively(P

Objective To evaluate the diagnosis and therapy of solid pseudopapillary tumor of the pancreas (SPTP).Methods From January 2006 to October 2011,the clinicopathological data of 24 SPTP patients diagnosed and surgically treated at Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital were analyzed retrospectively.Results There were 22 women and 2 men,the median age was 27.5 years old,with a range from 12 to 51 years.The most common tumor localization were at the head of the pancreas ( 11 patients,45.7％ ),followed by the body (5 patients,20.8％ ),the tail (4 patients,16.7％ ),the body and the tail (3 patients,12.5％ ) and the neck (one patient,4.2％ ).Clinical symptoms were nonspecific and the preoperative diagnosis of SPTP depended on imaging study such as ultrasonography,CT and MR.All patients were treated surgically and the correct diagnosis was made according to pathology after surgery.In a follow-up ranging from 2 to 55 months( median 27.2 months),23 cases were alive with no evidence of disease recurrence,one patient was alive with tumor recurrence.Conclusions SPTP was a less common neoplasm with low-grade malignancy,occurring mainly in young women.Complete tumor resection results in satisfactory prognosis.

Autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) is a rare form of chronic pancreatitis which is closely related with abnormal autoimmune.To some extent,it is too difficult to identify the diagnosis between AIP and pancreatic cancer.The treatment includes hormone therapy and surgery.In this article,based on accumulating the experience in the diagnosis and treatment of AIP cases for many years and reviewing the related literatures,we evaluate its type,the etiology and the clinical presentations,as well as summarize the typical characteristics of pathology,radiology and serology.

Objective To evaluate the semi-quantitative parameters of dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE MRI) with double echo in the diagnosis of breast tumors.Methods Thirty eight patients suspected of breast tumour underwent DCE MRI with double echo examination by using 3.0 T whole-body MR scanner with a sixteen-channel phased-array breast coil.Semi-quantitation of both pharmacokinetic and perfusion parameters were performed including peak enhancement ratio (PER),time from contrast agent arrive to peak enhancement (Tmax),and maximum signal intensity loss (MSIL).The mean PER,Tmax and MSIL of the breast cancer,fibroma and other benign lesions were calculated.One-way ANOVA and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis were used to compare the differences between malignant and benign lesions.Results The mean PER,Tmax and MSIL of the lesions were as follows:0.61 ± 0.09,(164.9 ± 20.5) s,and 0.31 ± 0.03 for breast cancers (n =20) ; 0.46 ± 0.07,(183.2 ± 13.7) s,and 0.17± 0.03 for fibromas (n =10) ; 0.23 ± 0.06,(139.4 ± 23.6) s,and 0.24 ± 0.07 other benign lesions (n =8),respectively.There were significant differences among 3 groups in all semi-quantitative parameters (F =4.319,4.154,4.752,respectively.P ＜ 0.05).The areas under the ROC curve of PER,Tmax and MSIL for the diagnosis of malignant lesions were 0.513,0.794 and 0.769,respectively.The sensitivity of PER,Tmax,and MSIL were 60.0％,80.0％ and 62.5％ and the specificity were,62.5％,75.0％ and 90.0％,respectively,with the maximum Youden'index as cut off value.When combining the 3 semi-quantitative parameters,the sensitivity,specificity and accuracy for differential diagnosis of breast tumors were 95.0％ (19/20),83.3％ (15/18),and 89.4％ (34/38),respectively.Conclusion The semi-quantitation of pharmacokinetic parameters (PER,Tmax) and perfusion data (MSIL) can be simultaneously estimated in a dynamic contrast enhanced MRI with double echo in breast lesions.The Accuracy for differential diagnosis of breast tumors can be improved when judge by combination of PER,Tmax and MSIL.

Objective To evaluate negative lymph node count (NLNC) in prediction of prognosis of T3 gastric cancer after radical resection.Method 214 T3 patients of radical gastrectomy with complete clinical and follow-up data between Jan 2003 to Dec 2007 were enrolled.Survival was determined by the Kaplan-Metier method and univariate analysis was done by Log-rank test,Multivariate analysis was performed using the COX proportional hazard regression model.-2loglikelihood value and the hazard ratio (HR) value were used to compared the value of number of lymph node-negative (NLNC) staging and pN staging and lymph node metastasis rate (MLR) in gastric cancer prognosis evaluation.Results Univariate analysis showed that,pN stage (x2 =31.664),MLR stage (x2 =34.123),tumor size (x2 =5.025),type of differentiation (x2 =5.993),Borrmann classification (x2 =5.401),NLNC stage (x2 =37.256) were related to survival (P ＜ 0.05).COX multivariate analysis showed that-2loglikelihood of pN staging is 1 336.761,HR value is 1.464,-2loglikelihood value of MRL staging is 1 335.821,HR value is 1.441.-2loglikelihood value of NLNC staging is 1 326.902,HR value is 1.725.The N0 and N1 staging prognosis in different NLNC staging was significant (P =0.008,P =0.014).Conclusions Sufficient number of negative lymph node prolongs survival and reduces the risk of early recurrence in advanced gastric cancer.

Objective To investigate the correlation between thrombocytosis and the progress of gastric cancer. Methods The clinical data of 276 gastric cancer patients who had been admitted to Tianjin Cancer Hospital from August 2002 to January 2004 were retrospectively analyzed. Of all patients, 75 were with thrombocy-tosis and 201 were with normal level of platelet. Data were analyzed by chi-square test, and the prognostie factors for gastric cancer were analyzed by Cox regression model. The accumulative survival was determined by Kaplan-Meier method, and the difference in survival between patients with and without thrombocytosis was analyzed by Log-rank test. Results The 1-, 3-, 5-year survival rates of gastric cancer patients with normal level of platelet were 82.4%, 50.5% and 41.9%, and the 1-, 3-, 5-year survival rates of gastric cancer patients with thrombocy-tosis were 74.7%, 37.3% and 25.3%. There was a significant difference in 5-year survival rates between patients with or without thrombocytosis (χ~2= 7.358, P<0.05). Thrombocytosis was correlated with the depth of invasion, distal metastasis, TNM staging and the tumor size (χ~2=6.946, 5.625, 14. 925, 4.028, P<0.05). The result of multivariate analysis indicated that the content of platelet was not the independent factor of good prog-nosis in gastric cancer. Conclusions There is a close relationship between thromboeytosis and clinieopathological factors of gastric cancer. Thrombocytosis may be used as a reference indicator for the prognosis of gastric cancer.

Objective To analyze the risk factors of liver metastasis from gastric cancer. Methods The clinical data of 225 patients with liver metastasis from gastric cancer who had been admitted to our hospital from January 1996 to December 2001 were retrospectively analyzed. Synchronous liver metastasis was observed in 123 patients and metachronous liver metastasis in 102 patients. The risk factors of liver metastasis from gastric cancer were evaluated. Results The gender of patients, location and size of gastric cancer foci, differentiation and invasion depth of gastric cancer, Lanren classification, lymph node metastasis and lymph node metastasis in region Ⅷ, vascular invasion, extrahepatic metastasis, ascites and peritoneal metastasis were the significant factors associated with liver metastasis from gastric cancer (X2 = 43.560-263. 907, P<0.05). All the factors except the size of gastric cancer foci, extrahepatic metastasis and ascites were found to be the significant factors associated with different types of liver metastasis from gastric cancer (X2 = 6.673-26. 555, P < 0.05 ). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the gender of patients, lymph node metastasis and peritoneal metastasis were the factors that determined the types of liver metastasis from gastric cancer. Conclusion The gender of patients, lymph node metastasis and peritoneal metastasis are the important factors to evaluate the occurrence of different types of liver metastasis from gastric cancer.

Objective To investigate the radiological features of granulomatous mastitis (GM) in dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) and DWI and to differentiate it from the breast cancer in diagnose.Methods Forty five cases of GM and 64 cases of breast cancer confirmed by surgical histopathology or biopsy were retrospectively analyzed in the study.All of the patients were examined preoperatively by DCE-MRI and DWI.Including lesion type,location,enhancement pattern,nipple retraction,supplying arteries,skin thickening and axillary adenopathy in the two groups were evaluated and analyzed by using x2 test.One-way ANOVA was employed to compare the ADC values between the abscess area of GM and non-abscess area,and the difference among the breast cancer lesion area.Dynamic enhancement MR pharmacokinetic parameters were used to measure including early-phase enhancement rate (EER),peak enhancement ratio(Emax),and time to peak ehhancement(Tmax).The statistical differences of EER,Emax and Tmax between the two groups were calculated by using Wilcoxon test.Results In 45 cases of GM,DCE MR images showed nonmass-like lesions (43 patients) and mass-like lesions (2 patients); the nipple involved(16 patients) and segment involved (29 patients);rim-like with heterogeneous enhancement (40 patients) and heterogeneous enhancement (5 patients); nipple retraction (24 patients) supplying arteries dilatation (42 patients),skin thickening (29 patients),and axillary adenopathy (17 patients).Corresponding to the radiological features above,in the 64 breast cancer cases,it showed 54,10,5,59,30,34,16,51,12 and 20,respectively.There were statistical significance between GM and breast cancer in lesion type,location,enhancement pattern,and nipple retraction (x2=67.574,13.075,20.297,20.398 and 23.510,respectively,all P＜0.01).But no differences were existed between 2 groups in supplying arteries and axillary adenopathy(x2=3.928 and 0.502,P＞0.05).EER,Emax and Tmaxin GM were 146.58％,191.13％,195.00 s in GM and 118.13％,159.43％,183.33 s in breast cancer,respectively.Significant statistic differences between GM and breast cancer were found in EER and Emax(Z values were-2.271 and-2.948,P＜0.01).But it did not show significant difference in Tmax (Z =-0.548,P＞0.05).The ADC values of GM on abscess area,non-abscess area,and breast cancer lesion area were (8.0±2.6) × 10-3,(11.3± 1.7) × 10-3 and (8.2± 1.1) × 10-3mm2/s,respectively.There were significant differences in the groups (F=52.167,P＜0.01).Conclusions The characteristic of radiological findings can be found in GM by using advanced MR imaging techniques.DCE-MRI combined with DWI is useful in the differential diagnosis between GM and breast cancer.

Objective Summarize the experience in the surgical treatment of multiple original colon cancer in aged patients. Methods The retrospective analysis was performed in the 46 cases of multiple original colon cancer in aged patients in our hospital from August 1955 to May 2000. Results The 46 cases of multiple original colon cancer in aged patients account for 7.6% (46/608) of the total cases of colon cancer in patients in the same period. There were 26 cases of the male and 20 cases of the female. 30 cases were colon cancer with tumors from other organs. "The different time cancer" could be found 31 years later. The follow-up rate was 100%. The survival rates for 3,5,10,15,20 years were 71.1%(27/38), 63.6%(21/33), 43.3%(13/30), 28.6%(8/28) and 16.0%(4/25) respectively. In this study, we found that the survival rate of the group was higher than that of the aged patients suffering colon cancer in the same period of time. Conclusions The number of multiple original colon cancer in aged patients has been increased in the decade. The incidence was 43.5% (20/46) in the study. With the development of society, both doctors and patients have improved their knowledge about multiple original carcinomas in aged patients. The positive rate of early diagnosis was promoted to a high level, especially in the monitor and treatment of per operation. Choosing the energetic operation, we will acquire the better therapeutic efficacy for treatment of multiple original cancer in aged patients.