• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.64-73
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• 2002

FDG-PET has potential as an effective, non-invasive tool to measure tumor response to anticancer therapy. The changes in tumor FDG uptake may provide an early, sensitive guide to the clinical and subclinical response of tumors to cancer treatment, as well as functional assessment of residual viable tumor. This may allow the evaluation of subclinical response to anticancer drugs in early clinical trials and improvements in patients management. However, monitoring tumor responses with FDG-PET is still in its infancy. The methods of measurement of FDG uptake are currently diverse and timing with respect to anti cancer therapy variable. Therefore, there is a need for larger-scale trials along with standardized methodology and a collection of reproducibility data. The recent guideline from the European group seems to be the most comprehensive. In future, the combination of morphological and metabolic images may improve the quantitative nature of these measurements by relating tumor viability to total tumor mass. More data on sensitivity and specificity of FDG-PET technique are needed along with continued advancement of PET methodology.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.973-980
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• 2004

Phase I clinical trials are often pharmacologically oriented and usually attempt to find the best dose of drug to employ. However, other purposes like determination of sizes and types of side effects and toxicity and organ system involved are equally important. Estimation of treatment effects or side effects is usually ignored since it is usually based on too small sample, even though Phase II clinical trials would be designed based on the Phase I studies. Statistical methods for constructing the approximate confidence interval for population median in case of small sample are considered and an improved method is proposed. The proposed estimator is compared with current methods through simulation studies.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.71-77
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• 2009

Adenoviral vector(AdV) has been the most widely used viral vector for delivering an exogenous therapeutic gene to human. As of this date, more clinical trials utilize recombinant AdV to treat cancer and monogenic inherited disease as well as vaccine applications. However, the number of clinical trials had dropped markedly following the tragic death of a patient ongoing an AdV therapy for the treatment of an ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency(OTCD). This review is an attempt to provide the information on toxicity generated by AdVmediated gene transfer. It would serve as a sobering reality to researchers and clinicians exploring the use of AdV, as to the complications involved in human application.

• BMB Reports
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2021

Clinical trials have demonstrated that an increased number of effector cells, especially tumor-specific T cells, is positively linked with patients' prognosis. Although the discovery of checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs) has led to encouraging progress in cancer immunotherapy, the lack of either T cells or targets for CPIs is a limitation for patients with poor prognosis. Since interleukin (IL)-2 and IL-7 are cytokines that target many aspects of T-cell responses, they have been used to treat cancers. In this review, we focus on the basic biology of how these cytokines regulate T-cell response and on the clinical trials using the cytokines against cancer. Further, we introduce several recent studies that aim to improve cytokines' biological activities and find the strategy for combination with other therapeutics.

• Journal of mucopolysaccharidosis and rare diseases
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.39-41
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• 2021

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorder of hyperphagia leading to severe obesity, intellectual deficits, compulsivity, and other behavioral problems. PWS is caused by the inactivation of contiguous genes on chromosome 15q11-q13, which complicates the development of targeted, effective therapeutics. Various preclinical studies have been conducted by developing mouse models that exhibit phenotypes similar to PWS. Oxytocin deficiency in PWS is associated with hyperphagia with impaired satiety and, food-seeking and behavior disorders. Here, we summarize the oxytocin study of ingestion behavior tested in the PWS mouse model and published data from clinical trials that have evaluated treatment effectiveness on ingestion behavior and social dysfunction in patients with PWS.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2022

Kidney disease is becoming a global public health issue. Acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) have serious adverse health outcomes. However, there is no effective therapy to treat these diseases. Lactoferrin (LF), a multi-functional glycoprotein, is protective against various pathophysiological conditions in various disease models. LF shows protective effects against AKI and CKD. LF reduces markers related to inflammation, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and kidney fibrosis, and induces autophagy and mitochondrial biogenesis in the kidney. Although there are no clinical trials of LF to treat kidney disease, several clinical trials and studies on LF-based drug development are ongoing. In this review, we discussed the possible kidney protective mechanisms of LF, as well as the pharmacological and therapeutic advances. The evidence suggests that LF may become a potent pharmacological agent to treat kidney diseases.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.4.1-4.18
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• 2021

The global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still threatening human health, economy, and social life worldwide. As a counteraction for this devastating disease, a number of vaccines are being developed with unprecedented speed combined with new technologies. As COVID-19 vaccines are being developed in the absence of a licensed human coronavirus vaccine, there remain further questions regarding the long-term efficacy and safety of the vaccines, as well as immunological mechanisms in depth. This review article discusses the current status of COVID-19 vaccine development, mainly focusing on antigen design, clinical trials in later stages, and immunological considerations for further study.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.284-293
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• 2017

Thread embedding therapy is used increasingly for various disease including neck pain. However, the evidence of thread embedding therapy on neck pain and the assessment of their methodology are still limited. This study aimed to investigate the clinical research methodology using thread embedding therapy on neck pain. Thread embedding therapy is used increasingly for various disease including neck pain. However, the evidence of thread embedding therapy on neck pain and the assessment of their methodology are still limited. This study aimed to investigate the clinical research methodology using thread embedding therapy on neck pain. Total 31 studies were included in analysis. Thread embedding therapy usually was used once a week(32.3%), once per 10days(29.0%), once per two weeks (25.8%). The most common concurrent treatment used with thread embedding therapy was Chinese medicine. Among acupuncture points, EX-B2 (61.3%) was most commonly used, followed by GV14(45.2%), GB20(29.0%), GB21(22.6%). For control group, acupuncture were most commonly used(58.1%). All studies reported that the effect of thread embedding therapy was more effective compared to control group. and 11 studies reported side effects. Only 13 studies(41.9%) reported the appropriate randomization method, and the mean Jadad score of included studies was 1.52. Previous clinical trials included in this study showed the effect of thread embedding therapy for neck pain. However, the quality of the studies was not high. Further rigorous clinical trials are need to assess the effect of thread embedding therapy.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.43-56
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• 2014

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to review the trend of chinese clinical studies of herbal treatment for infertility caused by Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). Methods: We searched the clinical studies published from 1979 to 2013 through CAJ (Chinese Academic Journal) with keywords of "PCOS and 不孕" or "多囊卵 巢綜合證 and 不孕". We analyzed the intervention type of clinical studies. In addition, We researched randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published from 2009 to 2013, assessed the quality of RCTs using the Jadad Scale and reanalyzed the intervention type of RCTs. Results: One hundred and seventeen clinical studies were finally selected. Clinical studies of herbal treatment for infertility caused by PCOS increased remarkably after the 2000s in China. Combined herbal medicine and western medicine was used the most frequently. RCTs published from 2009 to 2013 were fifty. Average of Jadad score of RCTs was 1.2. Combined herbal medicine and western medicine was also the most frequently used as intervention in RCTs. Conclusions: Clinical studies on effect of combined herbal medicine and western medicine for infertility caused by PCOS were mostly published in China. But Quality of studies was generally low. Further research on effect of herbal treatment for infertility caused by PCOS is needed.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.97-105
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• 2022

Background: Percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic discectomy (PTED) has been widely used in the treatment of lumbar degenerative diseases. Epidural injection of steroids can reduce the incidence and duration of postoperative pain in a short period of time. Although steroids are widely believed to reduce the effect of surgical trauma, the observation indicators are not uniform, especially the long-term effects, so the problem remains controversial. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to evaluate the efficacy of epidural steroids following PTED. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Database from 1980 to June 2021 to identify randomized and non-randomized controlled trials comparing epidural steroids and saline alone following PTED. The primary outcomes included postoperative pain at least 6 months as assessed using a visual analogue scale (VAS) and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). The secondary outcomes included length of hospital stay and the time of return to work. Results: A total of 451 patients were included in three randomized and two non-randomized controlled trials. The primary outcomes, including VAS and ODI scores, did not differ significantly between epidural steroids following PTED and saline alone. There were no significant intergroup differences in length of hospital stay. Epidural steroids were shown to be superior in terms of the time to return to work (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Intraoperative epidural steroids did not provide significant benefits, leg pain control, improvement in ODI scores, and length of stay in the hospital, but it can enable the patient to return to work faster.