No abstract available.
Hypocalcemia*

No abstract available.
Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Nodule*

No abstract available.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Drug Therapy* ; Methotrexate*

No abstract available.
Fetus* ; Humans* ; Pituitary Gland*

Pheochromocytoma manifesting hypertensive episodes, is a catecholamine-secreting neoplasm, that arises from the chromaffin cells This clinical study was performed on 12 cases of pheocromocytoma treated surgically at the Department of Surgery of Chonnom National University from January 1988 to June 1995. The results are as follows: 1)The male to female ratio was 1:2. The prevalent ages were the fifth decades (33%) and third, forth decades (25%) 2)The most frequent clinical symptoms and signs were hypertention and palpitation (83.3%), followed by headache, dyspnea, faintness and chest discomfort. 3)41.7% of the patients presented clinical symptoms and signs less than 1 year of duration 4)The 24-hour urine VMA was elevated in 100% of 10 cases. metanephrine was elevated in 77.8% of 9 cases 5)Preoperative localization of tumor was easily acchieved by CT, US, MRI, 131-I MIBG scan, and angiography 6)The alpha-adrenergic blocker was used preoperatively in 9 cases to control hypertension 7)The tumor was located in the left adrenal gland in 6 cases (50%). right adrenal gland in 5 cases(41.7%), and the abdominal paraganglia in 1 case (8.3%) 8)In pathologic and clinical findings, 4 cases were malignant. Among them, 2 were recurred, mass excision was impossable in 1 case 9)post operative blood pressure was returned to normotensive level in 70%, post operative 24-hour urine VMA and metanephrine were found to be within normal levels and significantly decreased in the major of cases. In conclusion, CT,US and MRI have good diagnostic results in preoperative localization of pheochromocytoma.and it is safe to operate pheochromocytoma with compatible preoperative preparation. Also, it is important to closely follow up with recurring or metastasis in pathologically proven malignant pheochromocytoma.
3-Iodobenzylguanidine ; Adrenal Glands ; Angiography ; Blood Pressure ; Chromaffin Cells ; Dyspnea ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Headache ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Metanephrine ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Pheochromocytoma* ; Thorax

PURPOSE: A sufficient response rate and good compliance are both important for instituting chemotherapy to treat metastatic breast cancer. Effective oral chemotherapy regimens have long been studied to improve patients' compliance. 5'-Deoxy-5-fluorouridine (5'-DFUR) is a prodrug of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), which is known to be converted by thymidine phosphorylase (dThdPase). A recent preclinical study revealed that cyclophosphamide (CPA) upregulated dThdPase activity and especially in tumor cells. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of long-term administration of 5'-DFUR/CPA for the patients suffering with metastatic breast cancer. METHODS: Thirty four cases with metastatic breast cancer after curative surgery were enrolled in this study. All the patients had been previously exposed to standard chemotherapy such as CMF (CPA, methotrexate, and 5-FU) and CAF (CPA, doxorubicin, and 5-FU). All patients had distant metastasis such as in the bone, lung and liver. Daily treatment consisted of 5'-DFUR 800 mg and CPA 100 mg both were given orally. The treatment was continued for at least 24 weeks. RESULTS: The mean age was 49 years and the treatment period ranged from 24 to 60 weeks. The response rate was 35.3%, while it was 26.5% for the patients with stable disease. The mean time to tumor progression was 36 weeks. A significant decrease in pain occurred in twenty patients (69%) with bone metastasis. The frequent adverse effects were leukopenia (32.4%) and gastrointestinal symptoms (20.4%). There was significant correlation between the rate of side effects and the duration of medication (p=0.010). CONCLUSION: These findings show that oral administration of 5'-DFUR and CPA is well tolerated on an outpatient basis and it was proven to suppress tumor progression. So, an oral combination therapy with 5'-DFUR and CPA may be suitable for metastatic breast cancer.
Administration, Oral ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Compliance ; Cyclophosphamide* ; Doxorubicin ; Drug Therapy ; Drug Therapy, Combination* ; Fluorouracil ; Humans ; Leukopenia ; Liver ; Lung ; Methotrexate ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Outpatients ; Thymidine Phosphorylase

PURPOSE: To determine accurately the extent of the disease and risk of recurrence is important in enhancing the therapeutic success rate of breast cancer. Primary tumor state and axillary node invasion were some well known factors to predict the prognosis of breast cancer. However, some patients with early stage cancer developed systemic metastasis later despite of little possibility of recurrence based on some previously establised prognostic system. These results demand another approach to predict systemic metastases in patient without gross evidence of further recurrence. Micrometastases is a promising key to explain the recurrence in these patients and micrometastases in bone marrow could raised the ongoing recurrence in skeletal system which is the most frequent metastatic site in breast cancer. Therefore we tricd to determine the rate of micrometastasis in surgically resectable Korean breast cancer patients and the relationship with clinicopathological characteristics of the cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied bone marrow aspirate specimens from 38 patients with breast cancer who underwent curative resection at Chonnam University Hospital from January 1996 to February 1997. And reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to detect messenger RNA for cytokeratin 19 was performed. RESULTS: Metastases in bone marrow were detected in 8/38 patients (21.1%). No sta- tistically significant relationship existed between bone marrow metastasis and clinicopa- thological parameters for predicting prognosis that consisted of tumor state, lymph node invasion, histologic grade, steroid receptor, and c-erbB2 overexpression. In particular, bone marrow metastasis developed even from ductal carcinoma in situ. CONCLUSION: Bone marrow metastasis may be developed from the extremely early stage of breast cancer and we can not make the corelationship between the bone marrow metastasis and establised some prognostic factors. Based on these results, we recommand the evaluation of bone marrow metastasis in all breast cancer patients and require the close follow-up to allow more sensitive prediction of ongoing recurrence and higher curability.
Bone Marrow* ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating ; Humans ; Jeollanam-do ; Keratin-19 ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplasm Micrometastasis* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prognosis ; Receptors, Steroid ; Recurrence ; Reverse Transcription ; RNA, Messenger

Pheochromocytoma manifesting hypertensive episodes, is a catecholamine-secreting neoplasm, that arises from the chromaffin cells This clinical study was performed on 12 cases of pheocromocytoma treated surgically at the Department of Surgery of Chonnaom National University from January 1988 to June 1995. The results are as follows: 1) The male to female ratio was 1:2. The prevalent ages were the fifth decades (33%) and third, forth decades (25%). 2) The most frequent clinical symptoms and signs were hypertention and palpitation (83.3%), followed by headache, dyspnea, faintness and chest discomfort. 3) 41.7% of the patients presented clinical symptoms and signs less than 1 year of duration. 4) The 24-hour urine VMA was elevated in 100% of 10 cases. metanephrine was elevated in 77.8% of 9 cases. 5) Preoperative localization of tumor was easily acchieved by CT, US, MRI, 131-I MIBG scan, and angiography. 6) The alpha-adrenergic blocker was used preoperatively in 9 cases to control hypertension. 7) The tumor was located in the left adrenal gland in 6 cases (50%). right adrenal gland in 5 cases(41.7%), and the abdominal paraganglia in 1 case (8.3%). 8) In pathologic and clinical findings, 4 cases were malignant. Among them, 2 were recurred, mass excision was impossable in 1 case. 9) post operative blood pressure was returned to normotensive level in 70%, post operative 24- hour urine VMA and metanephrine were found to be within normal levels and significantly decreased in the major of cases. In conclusion, CT,US and MRI have good diagnostic results in preoperative localization of pheochromocytoma.and it is safe to operate pheochromocytoma with compatible preoperative preparation. Also, it is important to closely follow up with recurring or metastasis in pathologically proven malignant pheochromocytoma.
3-Iodobenzylguanidine ; Adrenal Glands ; Angiography ; Blood Pressure ; Chromaffin Cells ; Clinical Study ; Dyspnea ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Headache ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Metanephrine ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Pheochromocytoma* ; Thorax

Pheochromocytoma manifesting hypertensive episodes, is a catecholamine-secreting neoplasm, that arises from the chromaffin cells This clinical study was performed on 12 cases of pheocromocytoma treated surgically at the Department of Surgery of Chonnaom National University from January 1988 to June 1995. The results are as follows: 1) The male to female ratio was 1:2. The prevalent ages were the fifth decades (33%) and third, forth decades (25%). 2) The most frequent clinical symptoms and signs were hypertention and palpitation (83.3%), followed by headache, dyspnea, faintness and chest discomfort. 3) 41.7% of the patients presented clinical symptoms and signs less than 1 year of duration. 4) The 24-hour urine VMA was elevated in 100% of 10 cases. metanephrine was elevated in 77.8% of 9 cases. 5) Preoperative localization of tumor was easily acchieved by CT, US, MRI, 131-I MIBG scan, and angiography. 6) The alpha-adrenergic blocker was used preoperatively in 9 cases to control hypertension. 7) The tumor was located in the left adrenal gland in 6 cases (50%). right adrenal gland in 5 cases(41.7%), and the abdominal paraganglia in 1 case (8.3%). 8) In pathologic and clinical findings, 4 cases were malignant. Among them, 2 were recurred, mass excision was impossable in 1 case. 9) post operative blood pressure was returned to normotensive level in 70%, post operative 24- hour urine VMA and metanephrine were found to be within normal levels and significantly decreased in the major of cases. In conclusion, CT,US and MRI have good diagnostic results in preoperative localization of pheochromocytoma.and it is safe to operate pheochromocytoma with compatible preoperative preparation. Also, it is important to closely follow up with recurring or metastasis in pathologically proven malignant pheochromocytoma.
3-Iodobenzylguanidine ; Adrenal Glands ; Angiography ; Blood Pressure ; Chromaffin Cells ; Clinical Study ; Dyspnea ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Headache ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Metanephrine ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Pheochromocytoma* ; Thorax

PURPOSE: the most important biological behavior of breast cancer is its invasive potential and many efforts was made to reveal the factors related with the invasiveness of breast cancer cells. Some researchers reported that intermediate filament biology could represent an emerging and exciting field in tumor biology with respect to tumor aggressiveness and invasiveness. There are some experimental evidences that co-expression of vimentin, a interfilament marker indicative of mesenchymal lineage, and cytokeratin interfilaments can be correlated with invasiveness and metastatic deposits. So, we tried to determine the role of intermediate filaments such as cytokeratins and vimentin with respect of bone marrow micrometastases. METHODS: Expression of cytokeratins 8, 18, 19 and viementin were immunohistochemically evaluated. Detection of bone marrow micrometastases was preformed through RT-PCR targeting mRNA of cytokeratin 19. In order to compare the study group by the expression extent of cytokeratins, the case expressing 50% or more of observed cells was classified into the case with high expression and the case expressing 49% or less was classified into the case with low expression. RESULTS: The only cytokeratin of high expression representing the risk of bone marrow micrometastases was cytokeratin 8. Vimentin expression by itself did not show any significance indicating bone marrow micrometastases. However, The cases possesing cytokeratin 8, 18, and 19 expression, altogether 75% or more showed a significantly high risk to bone marrow micrometastases. In that cases, addition of vimentin expression allowed a more higher possibility of bone marrow micrometastases. CONCLUSION: A high expression of cytokeratin 8 among cytokeratins was related with bone marrow metastases. However, vimentin expression by itself did not show any realtionship with bone marrow metastases. So, a further study is needed in order to reveal the role of vimentin expression in progression and metastases of breast cancer.
Biology ; Bone Marrow ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Intermediate Filaments ; Keratin-19 ; Keratin-8 ; Keratins ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Neoplasm Micrometastasis ; RNA, Messenger ; Vimentin*