• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.310-319
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• 2015

Purpose: Follicular lymphoma (FL) is an indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that is highly sensitive to radiotherapy (RT). However, the effectiveness of RT has not been well established. We reviewed our experiences to assess the role of RT for FL and analyze treatment results. Materials and Methods: Retrospective analysis was done on 29 patients who received first RT between January 2003 and August 2013. Of 23 early stage (stage I, II) patients, 16 received RT alone, four received chemotherapy followed by RT, two received RT postoperatively, and one received salvage RT for relapse after resection. Six advanced-stage (stage III, IV) patients received RT after chemotherapy: two received consolidation RT, three received salvage RT for residual lesions, and one received RT for progressive sites. Median RT dose was 30.6 Gy (range, 21.6 to 48.6 Gy). Median follow-up duration was 62 months (range, 6 to 141 months). Results: All patients showed complete response in the radiation field. Eight outfield relapses were reported. Seven patients received salvage treatment (three chemotherapy, four RT). Four patients showed excellent responses, especially to RT. Estimated 5-year and 10-year relapse-free survivals were 72% and 60%. In the RT-alone group, 5-year relapse-free survival was 74.5%. All advanced-stage patients were disease-free with 100% 5-year overall survival. Disease-specific death was noted in only one patient; four others died of other unrelated causes. No significant toxicity was reported. Conclusion: RT resulted in excellent treatment outcomes for all FL stages when used as a primary treatment modality for early stage or salvage-treatment modality for advanced-stage disease.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.54-59
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• 2019

Yellow mealworms (Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus) are very promising insects for the food and feed industry. Because mealworms are in the spotlight as an alternative protein source in the future, it is necessary to develop efficient rearing techniques for mass production. To evaluate the effects of brewer's yeast (BY) on the growth of mealworms, Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus, the mealworms were fed with wheat bran (WB) diets containing different levels of BY (0, 10, 30, 50, and 70%). Larval survival, larval weight, development time, pupal weight and eclosion rate were monitored for 12 weeks. The results showed that mealworms fed on the diets containing 30% and 50% of BY have significantly higher weight gain, specific growth rate and daily weight gain, and lower larval duration than fed the control diet (100% WB) and other BY diets (10% and 70% BY). Larval survival on the diets containing 30% and 50% of BY was higher than on control diet. Pupal weight and eclosion rate were not significantly different among all diets. In conclusion, we suggest feeding the diet containing 30% of brewer's yeast with wheat bran in order to increase the production of mealworms.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.241-248
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• 2017

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of extended-field radiation therapy for patients with thoracic superficial esophageal cancer (SEC). Materials and Methods: From May 2007 to October 2016, a total of 24 patients with thoracic SEC (T1a and T1b) who underwent definitive radiotherapy and were analyzed retrospectively. The median total radiotherapy dose was 64 Gy (range, 54 to 66 Gy) in conventional fractionation. All 24 patients received radiotherapy to whole thoracic esophagus and 23 patients received elective nodal irradiation. The supraclavicular lymph nodes, the celiac lymph nodes, and both of those nodal areas were included in 11, 3, and 9 patients, respectively. Results: The median follow-up duration was 28.7 months (range 7.9 to 108.0 months). The 3-year overall survival, local control, and progression-free survival rates were 95.2%, 89.7%, and 78.7%, respectively. There were 5 patients (20.8%) with progression of disease, 2 local failures (8.3%) and 3 (12.5%) regional failures. Three patients also experienced distant metastasis and had died of disease progression. There were no treatment-related toxicities of grade 3 or higher. Conclusion: Definitive extended-field radiotherapy for thoracic SEC showed durable disease control rates in medically inoperable and endoscopically unfit patients. Even extended-field radiotherapy with elective nodal irradiation was safe without grade 3 or 4 toxicities.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.151-155
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• 1985

Female BALB/c mice weighing 18~20g were immunized by three injections of $1{\times}10^6$ Naegleria iowleri trophozoites intraperitoneally at the interval of one week 6 times for the pregnant mice and 3 times for the offspring mice. One week after immunization the mice were challenged intranasally with N. fcwleri trophozoites $5{\times}10^4$ under secobarbital anesthesia. Experimental primary amoebic meningoencephalitis developed between day 7 and 16 after infection. All mice were dead due to amoebic meningoencephalitis in all experimental groups except in the offspring born to non-immune mothers. Mean of survival time, which is the duration of survival of mice from infection to death, was delayed in the groups of mice born to immune mothers, immune mice born to immune mothers. Active or passive protective immunity against N. fowleri infection was demonstrated in the ismunized mice and mice born to immune mothers. But the effectiveness of immunization was greatly impaired in terms of mortality in the immune mice born to immune mothers when N. fowulsri was infected intranasally.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.11-23
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• 1990

Systemic chemotherapy is usually regarded as the standard treatment for palliation in patients with recurrent or metastatic cancer who have failed the definite local treatment with surgery and/or radiotherapy. Recently, with the introduction of more active chemotherapeutic agents and combinations, systemic chemotherapy is being increasingly used before or after local therapy in patients with previously untreated locally advanced head and neck cancer. The most active agents for the head and neck caner are methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), cisplatin and bleomycin. The overall response rates to each of these four drugs are 15-30% expecially when used as first line therapy. But most of these responses are partial with a mean duration of 3-5 months. Various combinations with methotrexate, 5-FU, cisplatin, and bleomycin have been tried with overall response rates of 50-90%, and 10-20% of complete responses. The introduction of chemotherapy prior to local therapy, induction chemotherapy, has been investigated with improved survivals in patients with complete response, especially pathologic, though improvement in overall survival has not been proved yet after the induction chemotherapy. Other therapeutic modalities, such as 'Sandwich' chemotherapy between surgery and radiotherapy, concomittent chemo-radiotherapy and post local treatment adjuvant chemotherapy have been pursued with some hopeful results but these trials should be compared with prospective randomized Phase III trials. To increase the response rates and enhance the survival, important work still remains; 1. Identification of better prognostic factors, 2. Improvement in staging, 3. Development of more active and safter chemotherapeutic agents, 4. Identification of the proper sequence for the addition of chemotherapy to multimodality treatment, and 5. Testing the value of such chemotherapy in locally advanced cancer patients.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.56 no.8
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• pp.343-350
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• 2013

Purpose: Despite the established role of imatinib (IM) in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in adults, there are few reports on its efficacy in children. In this study, we compared the outcomes of children with CML before and after the advent of IM-based treatment. Methods: The study cohort consisted of 52 patients treated for CML at the Department of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea from January 1995 to October 2010. Patients were divided and analyzed according to the preImatinib group (pre-IMG) and imatinib group (IMG). Results: Median age at diagnosis for the overall cohort (pre-IMG, n=27; IMG, n=25) was 9 years, with a median follow-up duration of survivors of 84 months. Except for 5 patients in the IMG, all were diagnosed in chronic phase (CP). The overall survival (OS) of patients diagnosed in CP was 45.7% and 89.7% for pre-IMG and IMG, respectively (P=0.025). The OS of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) recipients in the 2 groups was similar, but the OS of patients diagnosed in CP who did not receive HSCT was superior in IMG (91.7% vs. 16.7%, P=0.014). Of the 12 patients in IMG who remained on IM without HSCT, 2 showed disease progression, compared to 11 of 12 in pre-IMG. No difference was observed in the progression free survival (PFS) of matched donor HSCT recipients and IM-based treatment recipients. Conclusion: Similar PFS of patients treated with IM and those who received matched donor HSCT underscore the potential of IM as effective first-line treatment in childhood CML.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.58 no.5
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• pp.426-431
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• 2015

Objective : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of continuous low-dose temozolomide (TMZ) chemotherapy for recurrent and TMZ-refractory glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and to study the relationship between its efficacy and microvessel density within the tumor. Methods : Thirty patients who had recurrent GBM following Stupp's regimen received TMZ daily at $50mg/m^2/day$ until tumor progression between 2007 and 2013. The median duration of continuous low-dose TMZ administration was 8 weeks (range, 2-64). Results : The median progression-free survival (PFS) of continuous low-dose TMZ therapy was 2 months (range, 0.5-16). At 6 months, PFS was 20%. The median overall survival (OS) from the start of this therapy to death was 6 months (95% CI : 5.1-6.9). Microvessel density of recurrent tumor tissues obtained by reoperation of 17 patients was $22.7{\pm}24.1/mm^2$ (mean${\pm}$standard deviation), and this was lower than that of the initial tumor ($61.4{\pm}32.7/mm^2$) (p-value=0.001). It suggests that standard TMZ-chemoradiotherapy reduces the microvessel density within GBM and that recurrences develop in tumor cells with low metabolic burden. The efficacy of continuous low-dose TMZ could not be expected in recurrent GBM cells in poor angiogenic environments. Conclusion : The efficacy of continuous low-dose TMZ chemotherapy is marginal. This study suggests the need to develop further treatment strategies for recurrent and TMZ-refractory GBM.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.57-61
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• 1975

A study was designed to clarify the influence of the hippocampus upon tolerance by electric shock. Forty-eight male rats were used, of which 14 rats had their hippocampal tissue on both sides removed through an opening in the parieto-occipital cortex (hippocampal group), 17 rats received damage to the parieto-occipital cortex only (cortical control group), and 17 rats served as normal control animals. After 24 hours' fasting with water ad libitum, each animal was restrained on a plate with added electric shock (4 mA A.C., 1.5 sec in a duration, and once per minute in average) to the tail for the last 24 hours without food and water. The mortality in each animal group and the mean survival time of the dead animal during the repitition of electric shock were calculated. Results obtained were as follows: 1. The mortality was lower significantly in the hippocampal group than in the two control groups. 2. The mean survival time of the dead animal was longer insignificantly in the hippocampal group than in the two control groups. The inference from the above results is that the hippocampus exerts a inhibitory influence upon tolerance by electric shock.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.157-164
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• 2016

Background: Heart-lung transplantation (HLT) has provided hope to patients with end-stage lung disease and irreversible heart dysfunction. We reviewed the clinical outcomes of 10 patients who underwent heart-lung transplantation at Asan Medical Center. Methods: Between July 2010 and August 2014, a total of 11 patients underwent HLT at Asan Medical Center. After excluding one patient who underwent concomitant liver transplantation, 10 patients were enrolled in our study. We reviewed the demographics of the donors and the recipients' baseline information, survival rate, cause of death, and postoperative complications. All patients underwent follow-up, with a mean duration of $26.1{\pm}16.7months$. Results: Early death occurred in two patients (20%) due to septic shock. Late death occurred in three patients (38%) due to bronchiolitis obliterans (n=2) and septic shock (n=1), although these patients survived for 22, 28, and 42 months, respectively. The actuarial survival rates at one year, two years, and three years after HLT were 80%, 67%, and 53%, respectively. Conclusion: HLT is a procedure that is rarely performed in Korea, even in medical centers with large heart and lung transplant programs. In order to achieve acceptable clinical outcomes, it is critical to carefully choose the donor and the recipient and to be certain that all aspects of the transplant procedure are planned in advance with the greatest care.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.451-457
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• 2014

Background: The balance of the risks and the benefits of cardiac surgery in the elderly remains a major concern. We evaluated the early and mid-term clinical results of patients aged over 75 years who underwent major cardiovascular surgery. Methods: Two hundred and fifty-one consecutive patients, who underwent cardiac surgery at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital between July 2003 and June 2011, were included in this study (mean age, $78.7{\pm}3.4$ years; male:female=130:121). Elective surgery was performed in 112 patients, urgent in 90, and emergency in 49. Results: Early mortality was 12.7% (32/251). Follow-up completion was 100%, and the mean follow-up duration was $2.8{\pm}2.2$ years. Late mortality was 24.2% (53/219). There were 283 readmissions in a total of 109 patients after discharge. However, the reason for readmission was related more to non-cardiac factors (71.3%) than to cardiac factors. The overall survival estimates were 79.2% at the 1-year follow-up and 58.4% at the 5-year follow-up. Patients who underwent elective surgery had a lower early mortality rate (elective, 4.5%; urgent, 13.3%; emergency, 30.6%) and better overall survival rate than those that underwent urgent or emergency surgery (p<0.001). Conclusion: The timing of cardiac surgery was found to be an independent risk factor for early and late mortality. Thus, earlier referral and intervention may improve operative results. Further, comprehensive coordinated postoperative care is needed for other comorbid problems in aged patients.