The first edition of ‘A Standardized Pathology Report for Gastric Cancer’ was initiated by the Gastrointestinal Pathology Study Group of the Korean Society of Pathologists and published 17 years ago. Since then, significant advances have been made in the pathologic diagnosis, molecular genetics, and management of gastric cancer (GC). To reflect those changes, a committee for publishing a second edition of the report was formed within the Gastrointestinal Pathology Study Group of the Korean Society of Pathologists. This second edition consists of two parts: standard data elements and conditional data elements. The standard data elements contain the basic pathologic findings and items necessary to predict the prognosis of GC patients, and they are adequate for routine surgical pathology service. Other diagnostic and prognostic factors relevant to adjuvant therapy, including molecular biomarkers, are classified as conditional data elements to allow each pathologist to selectively choose items appropriate to the environment in their institution. We trust that the standardized pathology report will be helpful for GC diagnosis and facilitate large-scale multidisciplinary collaborative studies.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer and a frequent cause of cancer-related deaths among women wordlwide. As therapeutic strategies for breast cancer have limitations, novel chemotherapeutic reagents and treatment strategies are needed. In this study, we investigated the anti-cancer effect of synthetic homoisoflavane derivatives of cremastranone on breast cancer cells. Homoisoflavane derivatives, SH-17059 and SH-19021, reduced cell proliferation through G2/M cell cycle arrest and induced caspase-independent cell death. These compounds increased heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and 5-aminolevulinic acid synthase 1 (ALAS1), suggesting downregulation of heme. They also induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and lipid peroxidation. Furthermore, they reduced expression of glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4). Therefore, we suggest that the SH-17059 and SH-19021 induced the caspase-independent cell death through the accumulation of iron from heme degradation, and the ferroptosis might be one of the potential candidates for caspase-independent cell death.

The first edition of ‘A Standardized Pathology Report for Gastric Cancer’ was initiated by the Gastrointestinal Pathology Study Group of the Korean Society of Pathologists and published 17 years ago. Since then, significant advances have been made in the pathologic diagnosis, molecular genetics, and management of gastric cancer (GC). To reflect those changes, a committee for publishing a second edition of the report was formed within the Gastrointestinal Pathology Study Group of the Korean Society of Pathologists. This second edition consists of two parts: standard data elements and conditional data elements.The standard data elements contain the basic pathologic findings and items necessary to predict the prognosis of GC patients, and they are adequate for routine surgical pathology service. Other diagnostic and prognostic factors relevant to adjuvant therapy, including molecular biomarkers, are classified as conditional data elements to allow each pathologist to selectively choose items appropriate to the environment in their institution. We trust that the standardized pathology report will be helpful for GC diagnosis and facilitate large-scale multidisciplinary collaborative studies.

Colorectal cancer is diagnosed as the third most prevalent cancer; thus, effective therapeutic agents are urgently required. In this study, we synthesized six homoisoflavane derivatives of cremastranone and investigated their cytotoxic effects on the human colorectal cancer cell lines HCT116 and LoVo. We further examined the related mechanisms of action using two of the potent compounds, SH-19027 and SHA-035. They substantially reduced the cell viability and proliferation in a dose-dependent manner. Treatment with SH-19027 and SHA-035 induced cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase and increased expression of p21 both of which are implicated in cell cycle control. In addition, the apoptotic cell population and apoptosis-associated marker expression were accordingly increased. These results suggest that the synthesized cremastranone derivatives have anticancer effects through the suppression of cell proliferation and induction of apoptosis. Therefore, the synthesized cremastranone derivatives could be applied as novel therapeutic agents against colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) has been increasingly reported worldwide in the past 10 years, which is an important infection control concern. Since the epidemiology and characteristics of these CPEs vary according to institutes, we aimed to characterize CPEs in a university hospital during the recent 4 years. METHODS: From October 2011 to September 2015, CPE isolates from clinical specimens and hospital surveillance cultures were collected. Carbapenem resistance was confirmed by disk diffusion method and Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) was determined by agar dilution method. Carbapenemase production was tested by double disk test using aminophenylboronic acid and dipicolic acid. PCR and sequence analysis were performed to detect bla(KPC), bla(IMP-1), bla(VIM-2), bla(NDM-1)-like genes and bla(OXA-48) gene. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were conducted for KPC-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates. RESULTS: Twenty-five isolates (11%) of CPE were identified among 222 carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriacae isolates during the study period. The most prevalent CPE was KPC-producing K. pneumonia and others were IMP-1, VIM-2, NDM-1 type and OXA-48 producing CPEs. Most of these CPEs showed resistance to carbapenems with variable MICs. The sequence types (STs) of KPC-producing K. pneumoniae were ST307 and ST11. The PFGE of ST11 and ST307 showed clonality in each group suggesting the possibility of in-hospital outbreak. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of CPE has been increasing. In our institute, KPC-producing K. pneumoniae was the most frequently isolated CPE in the recent 4 years. CPE including KPC producers can easily transfer their resistance. Therefore continuous monitoring and more intensified infection control for CPE should be considered.
Academies and Institutes ; Agar ; Carbapenems ; Diffusion ; Drug Resistance, Bacterial ; Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field ; Enterobacteriaceae* ; Epidemiology ; Infection Control ; Klebsiella pneumoniae ; Korea* ; Methods ; Molecular Epidemiology* ; Multilocus Sequence Typing ; Pneumonia ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prevalence ; Sequence Analysis

No abstract available.
Basal Ganglia Diseases/diagnostic imaging/drug therapy/*etiology ; Calcinosis/diagnostic imaging/drug therapy/*etiology ; Calcium/therapeutic use ; Dietary Supplements ; Female ; Humans ; Hypoparathyroidism/*complications/diagnosis/drug therapy ; Middle Aged ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Treatment Outcome ; Vitamin D/therapeutic use

BACKGROUND: Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection remains prevalent, and the emergence of antimicrobial resistance has made the treatment and control of gonorrhea more difficult. Therefore, it is important to compare isolation methods and transport media to overcome gonorrhea via epidemiologic understanding and to determine co-infection rates with other sexually transmitted diseases among primary-care hospitals. In this study, we determine the recovery rate of transferred specimens according to type of transport media and co-infection rate using PCR. METHODS: Genital specimens were collected at three primary-care hospitals from January 2010 to November 2012 using transgrow media and commercial BD transport media. Culture and multiplex PCR were conducted to isolate N. gonorrhoeae. RESULTS: Among 162 specimens, 57 (35.2%) isolates were recovered, and 146 (90.1%) specimens were positive for multiplex PCR. The recovery rate was 29.9% (78/261) using transgrow media and 19.2% (50/261) using BD transport media. The most common co-infected bacteria with N. gonorrhoeae was Chlamydia trachomatis (15.8%), followed by Mycoplasma hominis (6.2%) and M. genitalium (3.4%). CONCLUSION: Under general transport conditions, the rate of recovery of N. gonorrhoeae was as low as 19.2-29.9% depending on the type of transport media, suggesting that molecular diagnostic methods are required to detect the remaining 70% of gonorrhea-infected patients. Co-infection with other sexually transmitted diseases was not rare, and other tests for accurate additional antimicrobial regimens should also be considered.
Bacteria ; Chlamydia trachomatis ; Coinfection* ; Gonorrhea ; Humans ; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Mycoplasma hominis ; Neisseria gonorrhoeae* ; Pathology, Molecular ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prevalence* ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae has become a serious problem worldwide, and ceftriaxone non-susceptible isolates have been recently reported from Japan and Europe. In this study, we evaluated the antimicrobial susceptibilities and molecular epidemiological characteristics of isolates from Korea in 2013. METHODS: Sixty strains of N. gonorrhoeae were collected from Korean patients and prostitutes. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by the agar dilution and disk diffusion methods. N. gonorrhoeae multi-antigen sequence typing (NG-MAST) was performed in order to determine the molecular epidemiologic relatedness. RESULTS: All of isolates were non-susceptible to penicillin G and tetracycline, and the rate of ciprofloxacin-resistant isolates was 95% in 2013. The MICs of ceftriaxone were within the susceptible range for all isolates, but one isolate non-susceptible to cefixime (MIC=0.5 microg/mL) was encountered. The isolates with decreased susceptibility (MIC< or =0.12 microg/mL) to cefixime or ceftriaxone accounted for 10% and 14% of the isolates tested, respectively. In NG-MAST analysis, 40 different STs were encountered among the 59 isolates. Isolates that belonged to tbpB110 showed higher cefixime and ceftriaxone MICs (0.12-0.5 microg/mL) as well as cefixime resistance. CONCLUSION: Most of the N. gonorrhoeae isolates showed susceptibility to spectinomycin and cephalosporins. Due to the emergence of isolates that are non-susceptible to cefixime and the prevalence of isolates with the tbpB110 allele belonging to ST1407, which cause cefixime and ceftriaxone treatment failure in successful global clones of N. gonorrhoeae, a continuous nationwide antimicrobial surveillance program is required to monitor the emergence of cephalosporin resistance in N. gonorrhoeae.