• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.157-169
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• 2023

Gracilaria Verrucosa (GV), a seaweed used in traditional Korean medicine, was studied for its effects on MI-induced heart failure in rats. MI is caused by a blocked coronary artery, leading to severe cardiac dysfunction. The study used a rat model to assess cardiac changes over time and evaluate the impact of GV on heart failure. Ischemia was induced through LAD ligation surgery, and the extent of ischemic area was measured as a prognostic factor. GV extract administration significantly improved cardiac morphology and reduced cardiac weight compared to the MI group. GV treatment also improved cardiac function, as evidenced by positive effects on chamber dilation during MI-induced heart failure. Parameters such as ejection fraction (EF) and fractional shortening (FS) were measured. The MI group showed decreased EF and FS compared to the sham group, while these parameters improved in the GV group. GV treatment also reduced levels of LDH, CPK, and CK-MB in the serum, indicating reduced myocardial damage. Histological analysis revealed that GV treatment attenuated cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis, with reduced collagen deposition in the myocardium. Immunohistochemistry analysis showed suppressed expression of TGF-β1 and collagen 1, involved in fibrosis. In conclusion, GV showed potential in improving cardiac function in a rat model of MI-induced heart failure. It alleviated myocardial damage, attenuated cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis, and suppressed fibrotic markers. Further studies are needed to explore its clinical efficacy and underlying mechanisms in cardiac diseases beyond animal models.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.152-160
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• 2004

Objective : Recently, an increasing portion of cancer patients use various therapies of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) including traditional oriental medicine, which is believed to improve the consequence of cancer according to clinical experience and laboratory data. But the clinical-based systemic statistic validity of these therapies is lacking, so this study was aimed to validate the traditional oriental therapies (TOT) for terminally ill cancer patients. Patients and methods : This retrospective study was performed on 273 patients who were diagnosed with terminally ill cancer in Korea and treated with TOT in the oriental hospital of Daejeon University, from March 1997 to June 2003. We examined the median duration of the terminal period and the correlations between 9 factors and survival of terminally ill cancer patients. Results : During the study period, we could confirm 142 patients' death (52.01%) in 273 subjects. The median length of survival in terminally ill cancer patients was 16 weeks (95%CI 14.0∼20.0) and 40.15% (95%CI 40.07∼40.22) of patients had survived more than 24 weeks. According to Cox's proportional hazard model including gender, age, conventional therapies (chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery), performance status and clinical symptoms as independent variables, history of conventional therapies (RR 0.581, 95%CI 0.381∼0.885), higher performance status (RR 1,855, 95%CI 1.454∼2.366) and absence of ascites and pleural effusion (RR 1.631, 95%CI 1.047∼2.538) showed independent prognostic value of survival. Conclusion : Our findings suggest that TOT offer potential benefits for cancer patients at the terminal stage.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.449-456
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• 2013

Background: Tumor recurrence is the most common cause of treatment failure, even after complete resection of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this study, we investigated the prognosis of patients with early recurrence in order to identify independent risk factors related to early recurrence. Methods: Between February 1995 and December 2012, 242 patients who underwent surgical resection for stage I NSCLC at Dong-A University Hospital were reviewed. The factors predicting overall survival (OS) and early recurrence were investigated. We also investigated the relationship between the patterns and period of recurrence and clinicopathological factors. Results: For patients with stage IA and IB NSCLC, the 5-year OS rate was 75.7% and 57.3% (p=0.006), respectively. A multivariate Cox proportional hazards model demonstrated that gender (p=0.004), comorbidity number (p=0.038), resection type (p=0.002), and tumor size (p=0.022) were the statistically significant predictors of OS. Moreover, the multivariate analysis revealed that smoking history (p=0.023) and histologic grade (p=0.012) were the independent predictors of early recurrence. Additionally, only histologic grade (poor differentiation) was found to be significantly associated with a higher frequency of distant metastasis; there was no relationship between the patterns and period of recurrence and clinicopathological factors. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that smoking history and histologic grade were independent prognostic factors for early recurrence within two years in patients with early-stage NSCLC. Patients with these predictive factors may be good candidates for adjuvant therapy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.19
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• pp.8483-8488
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• 2014

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second most common cause of cancer-induced mortalities in Iranian women, following gastric carcinoma. The survival of these patients depends on several factors, which are very important to identify in order to understand the natural history of the disease. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, 313 consecutive women with pathologically-proven diagnosis of breast cancer who had been treated during a seven-year period (January 2006 until March 2014) at Towhid hospital, Sanandaj city, Kurdistan province of Iran, were recruited. The Kaplan-Meier method was used for data analysis, and finally those factors that showed significant association on univariate analysis were entered in a Cox regression model. Results: the mean age of patients was $46.10{\pm}10.81$ years. Based on Kaplan-Meier method median of survival time was 81 months and 5 year survival rate was $75%{\pm}0.43$. Tumor metastasis (HR=9.06, p=0.0001), relapse (HR=3.20, p=0.001), clinical stage of cancer (HR=2.30, p=0.03) and place of metastasis (p=0.0001) had significant associations with the survival rate variation. Patients with tumor metastasis had the lowest five-year survival rate (37%)and among them patients who had brain metastasis were in the worst condition (5 year survival rate= $11%{\pm}0.10$). Conclusions: Our findings support the observation that those women with higher stages of breast malignancies (especially with metastatic cancer) have less chance of surviving the disease. Furthermore, screening programs and early detection of breast cancer may help to increase the survival of those women who are at risk of breast cancer.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.489-499
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• 2009

In an effort to examine the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS ver. 4.3) to the initial meteorological input data, detailed observational data of NOAA satellite SST (Sea Surface Temperature) was employed. The NOAA satellite SST which is currently provided daily as a seven-day mean value with resolution of 0.1 $^{\circ}$ grid spacing was used instead of the climatologically derived monthly mean SST using in RAMS. In addition, the RAMS SST data must be changed new one because it was constructed in 1993. For more realistic initial meteorological fields, the NOAA satellite SST was incorporated into the RAMS-preprocess package named ISentropic Analysis package (ISAN). When the NOAA SST data was imposed to the initial condition of prognostic RAMS model, the resultant performance of near surface atmospheric fields was discussed and compared with that of default option of SST. We got the good results that the new SST data was made in a standard RAMS format and showed the detailed variation of SST. As the modeling grid became smaller, the SST differences of the NOAA SST run and the RAMS SST43 (default) run in diurnal variation were very minor but this research can apply to further study for the realistic SST situation and the development in predicting regional atmospheric field which imply the regional circulation due to differential surface heating between sea and land or climatological phenomenon.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.79 no.4
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• pp.274-281
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• 2016

Background: Factors associated with the prognosis of patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is relatively unknown, than of those with non-small cell lung cancer. This study was undertaken to identify the prognostic factors of SCLC. Methods: The medical records of 333 patients diagnosed with SCLC at tertiary hospital from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were categorized by age (${\leq}65$ years vs. >65 years) and by extent of disease (limited disease [LD] vs extensive disease [ED]). Overall survival and progression free survival rates were determined. Factors associated with prognosis were calculated using Cox's proportional hazard regression model. Results: Most baseline characteristics were similar in the LD and ED groups. Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status (PS), first chemotherapy regimen, and prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) differed significantly in patients with LD and ED. Mean ECOG PS was significantly lower (p<0.001), first-line chemotherapy with etoposide-cisplatin was more frequent than with etoposide-carboplatin (p<0.001), and PCI was performed more frequently (p=0.019) in LD-SCLC than in ED-SCLC. Prognosis in the LD group was better in younger (${\leq}65$ years) than in older (>65 years) patients, but prognosis in the ED group was unrelated to age. Conclusion: This study showed that overall survival (OS) was significantly improved in younger than in older patients with LD-SCLC. Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that age, PCI and the sum of cycles were significant predictors of OS in patients with LD-SCLC. However, prognosis in the ED group was unrelated to age.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.921-928
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• 2007

The objective of this work is the air quality modeling according to the scenarios of emission on complex terrain. The prognostic meteorological fields and air quality field over complex areas of Seoul, Korea are generated by the PSU/NCAR mesoscale model (MM5) and the Third Generation Community Multi-scale Air Quality Modeling System (Models - 3/CMAQ), respectively. The emission source was driven from the Clean Air Policy Support System of the Korea National institute of Environmental Research (CAPSS), which is a 1 km x 1 km grid in South Korea during 2003. In comparison of air quality fields, the simulated averaged $PM_{10},\;NO_2,\;and\;O_3$ concentration on complex terrain in control case were decreased as compared with base case. Particularly $PM_{10}$ revealed most substantial localized differences by $(18{\sim}24{\mu}g/m^3)$. The reduction rate of $PM_{10},\;NO_2,\;and\;O_3$ is respectively 18.88, 13.34 and 4.17%.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.299-305
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• 2009

Purpose: Recently, the incidence of malignant melanoma has been steadily increasing. Malignant melanoma is already known to have poorer prognosis than other primary skin cancers. Despite the poor prognosis, it is relatively less known to the public so that a number of patients visit hospital carrying advanced stage tumor. Yet, extensive study about malignant melanoma is currently insufficient, and specific guidelines and statistical figures in Korea are almost inexistent. Therefore, authors reviewed patients with malignant melanoma who have visited our hospital for last 14 years. Methods: Between January 1994 and January 2008, 62 patients were diagnosed with malignant melanoma at our hospital. A retrospective study was performed with data from patients' charts and biopsy results. Annual incidence, mean age of onset, gender, tumor location, tumor thickness, pathologic ulceration, clinicopathologic subtype, and clinical AJCC stage were evaluated. Analysis of factors associated with survival were performed using the Cox proportional hazard model. Kaplan - Meier method was used to generate survival curves. Results: Clinicopathologic features of 62 patients (32 male, 30 female) with average age of 57 years were evaluated. Most lesions were found in lower limb, and the most common subtype was acral lentiginous melanoma. We could also find that age, tumor thickness, and clinical stage were the only significant prognostic factors. Conclusion: Clinicopathologic features of malignant melanoma were analyzed in this study, but the result is not ready to be generalized because the number of cases is too small. Further study must be performed to report clinical guidelines for prognosis and treatment for malignant melanoma patients in Korea.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2639-2642
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• 2012

Background: The patterns of gastric cancer recurrence vary across societies. We designed the current study in an attempt to evaluate and reveal the outbreak of the recurrence patterns of gastric cancer and also prediction of time to recurrence and its effected factors in Iran. Materials and Methods: This research was performed from March 2003 to February 2007. Demographic characteristics, clinical and pathological diagnosis and classification including pathologic stage, tumor grade, tumor site and tumor size in of patients with GC recurrent were collected from patients' data files. To evaluate of factors affected on the relapse of the GC patients, gender, age at diagnosis, treatment type and Hgb were included in the research. Data were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier and logistic regression models. Results: After treatment, 82 patients suffered recurrence, 42, 33 and 17 by the ends of first, second and third years. The mean ( SD) and median ( IQR) time to recurrence in patients with GC were 25.5 (20.6-30.1) and 21.5 (15.6-27.1) months, respectively. The results of multivariate analysis logistic regression showed that only pathologic stage, tumor grade and tumor site significantly affected the recurrence. Conclusions: We found that pathologic stage, tumor grade and tumor site significantly affect on the recurrence of GC which has a high positive prognostic value and might be functional for better follow-up and selecting the patients at risk. We also showed time to recurrence to be an important factor for follow-up of patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2583-2586
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• 2012

Aim: There is increasing evidence that ERCC1 and XPD have roles in response to chemotherapy among patients with NSCLC, but the results are conflicting. Therefore, we conducted the present prospective study in a Chinese population. Methods: A total of 632 primary NSCLC patients were included, followed-up from May 2006 to May 2011. Polymorphisms were detected by real time PCR with TaqMan probse, using genomic DNA extracted from peripheral blood samples. The Cox regression model was used to analyze the hazard ratios (HR) for ERCC1 and XPD. Results: The median time of follow-up was 31.6 months. Our results showed the ERCC1 118 T/T(HR=1.65, 95% CI=1.17-2.43) and XPD 751 Gln/Gln genotypes (HR=1.52, 95%CI=1.04-2.08) were associated with an increased risk of death from NSCLC. Moreover, the ERCC118 T allele and XPD 751 Gln allele genotypes had a more higher risk of death from NSCLC among both ex-smokers and current smokers. Conclusion: In summary, ERCC1 and XPD gene polymorphisms might provide better prognostic predictive information for NSCLC patients in Chinese populations, with smoking possibly interacting with the genotypes.