[A case of sigmoid carcinoma successfully treated with endoscopic topical infusion of OK-432 and UFT oral treatment]

A 78-year-old man had a tumor of Borrmann type II affecting about one third the circumference of sigmoid colon, which was diagnosed as well-differentiated adenocarcinoma from biopsy. Although surgical intervention was recommended and the radical operation seemed possible from preoperative examination, the patient first refused it. Of necessity, systemic administration (s.c) and single endoscopic topical infusion of OK-432 and oral treatment of UFT were performed for 1 month. Since the patient agreed to receive an operation later, sigmoidectomy and lymph node dissection (R 2) were performed, resulting in the disappearance of tumor cells histologically. One week before endoscopic infusion, oral UFT and subcutaneous OK-432 were initiated. Although no macroscopic change was found during the topical infusion as compared with the time of first examination, the bulging disappeared, showing a polypoid change and IIc-like findings after 3 weeks. The operation was performed after an additional week, after which a benign tumor was found macroscopically and the disappearance of tumor cells histologically. Although many reports have dealt with the effect of endoscopic treatment for gastric carcinoma, there have been fewer reports describing the endoscopic treatment performed in patients with colon carcinoma, making it difficult to evaluate its therapeutic effect. However, this endoscopic therapy was suggested to be capable of becoming a useful treatment for inoperable colon carcinoma from the present case, whereas chemotherapy was found to have almost no effect on colon carcinoma in general.

[A case of a perforated duodenal ulcer coincident with a gastric carcinoma]

A 44-year-old male patient under treatment for a duodenal ulcer for the past 9 years visited our clinic because of a sudden pain in the epigastric region. He was diagnosed as having a perforated duodenal ulcer, so an emergency laparotomy was performed. In this operation, the coexistence of a gastric carcinoma was clarified, and a subtotal gastrectomy with an R2 dissection was done at the same time. The coexistent gastric carcinoma was localized to a size of 20 x 12 mm within the gastric proper mucosa. The infiltrated range of the cancer was as wide as 120 x 80 mm, extending to the proper tunica muscularis. This case was seen as manifesting a relative early stage of scirrhous carcinoma.

[The effect of splenectomy in immature mice]

Overwhelming postsplenectomy infection in childhood has been investigated extensively, both clinically and experimentally. The immunological change after splenectomy in immature mice is reported in this paper. The studies were carried out in 3-week-old immature mice and in 10-week-old mature mice groups. The immunological change after splenectomy in immature mice were as follows. One week after splenectomy, cellular immunity decreased, so that the phagocytosis of macrophages and the function of granulocytes were decreased. Three weeks after splenectomy, cellular immunity and the function of granulocytes improved but the phagocytosis of macrophages was still at the low level. Cellular immunity, the function of granulocytes and the phagocytosis of macrophages were within normal range 5 weeks after splenectomy. Several previous reports have demonstrated a lower IgM concentration. Tuftsin deficiency and activity decreased in opsonization after splenectomy. We showed the more primitive responses than cellular immunity are also depressed in this paper, that is, splenectomy in immature mice resulted in decrease in the phagocytosis of macrophages and dysfunction of granulocytes.

Sonotubometric measurement of the eustachian tube function by means of band noise. A clinical view of the acoustic measurement of the eustachian tube

The Eustachian tube is well known as an organ serving the ventilation and drainage of the tympanic cavity and mastoid. Ventilation is carried out by the opening and closing of the Eustachian tube accompanying swallowing movements. Until now there has been no instrument to quantify these motor activities of the tube necessary for its function as a ventilator. The author developed a generally applicable sonotubometer Model WIO-01 with the help of Siemens Hearing Institute K.K. for automatic measurement of the aforesaid tubal function with the use of 7 kHz full-octave band noise. In a sonotubometric trial with 32 adult female subjects, the duration of patency of the Eustachian tube was 288.5 +/- 1.38.5 ms, and the amplitude eliciting response was 16.4 +/- 8.3 dB. The positive response rate was 89.1%. In 89 children aged 4-12 years, a positive response was detected in 117 ears (61.9%). The mean duration of patency was 337.7 +/- 154.4 ms, and the amplitude 16.3 +/- 7.2 dB. It is physiological to have tubal opening and closing during natural swallowing. It is therefore important to understand the tubal function when dealing with tympanoplasty and diseases caused by tubal dysfunction.

Inhibition of leukocyte migration in agar by soluble extract from a human ovarian carcinoma cell line

A soluble membrane extract was prepared by a hypotonic extraction method from a cultured cell line, CKS, derived from serous cystadenocarcinoma of the ovary. The leukocyte migration inhibition assay in agar was used to determine the cell-mediated immune response with this extract in patients with ovarian carcinoma in comparison with patients with other benign or malignant tumors and normal healthy subjects. With 100 micrograms protein/ml of the extract, leukocytes from 15/25 patients with ovarian carcinoma showed positive response, whereas 5/30 patients with benign tumors, 2/23 patients with non-ovarian carcinomas, and 0/13 normal healthy controls did so. These findings suggested that the soluble membrane extract from the CKS cells specifically inhibited migration of leukocytes from patients with ovarian carcinoma. There was a tendency that the stage III or IV patients responded to the extract more frequently than the stage I patients irrespective of histological type of ovarian carcinoma. The migration inhibition assay with a basic encephalitogenic protein (100 micrograms protein/ml) from bovine brain was performed simultaneously with the ovarian cancer extract. One of 20 patients with ovarian carcinoma, 1/29 patients with benign tumors, 1/22 patients with non-ovarian carcinomas, and 0/13 normal healthy controls responded positively. Therefore, cross-reactivity between the basic protein and tumor-associated antigens could not be demonstrated in the present study.