Multiple primary cancers in the stomach and another organ: frequency and the effects on prognosis

Cases of multiple primary cancer (MPC) with gastric cancer were collected from 66 hospitals by questionnaires sent to 114 hospitals and institutions in Japan. Four hundred forty-five out of 22,163 gastric cancer patients who were operated on between 1966 and 1970 and had at least 10-year follow-up data were registered as having more than one cancer. The overall frequency was 2.0%. In 137 patients the MPCs were synchronous in 125 the MPC appeared after gastrectomy and 186 patients had a previous cancer before the diagnosis of gastric cancer. The most frequent association was cancer in the alimentary tract (53%), followed by uterus, breast and others in that order. In the patients with gastric cancer, the relative risk of a second cancer seemed to be twice as high as the incidence of cancer in the general population, especially in alimentary organs (four times as high) and in thyroid (nine times). Second malignancies were the first cause of death, except for recurrence or metastasis of the initial gastric cancer, and the importance of a follow-up system for cancer patients was indicated.

[Effect of intravenous administration of FT-207 for gastric cancer]

FT-207, 800mg per day, was administered intravenously 2 hours per day for 6 days to 15 patients with gastric cancer. By chemical assay, FT-207 and 5-FU concentrations in the blood and tissues were determined. The FT-207 levels in cancerous tissue, metastatic lymph nodes and normal gastric mucosa were almost equal. The mean 5-FU level in cancerous lesions was 0.110 +/- 0.075mcg/g, and was 0.124 +/- 0.080mcg/g in lymph nodes, and 0.043 +/- 0.021mcg/g in normal mucosa. This showed that 5-FU levels were significantly higher in tumors and lymph nodes than in normal mucosa. (p less than 0.05, p less than 0.01 respectively). The mean blood level of 5-FU was low at 4 hours after FT-207 infusion. In conclusion, intravenous drip administration of FT-207 was considered to be effective for gastric cancer because of the high tumor affinity of 5-FU.

Prognostic factors in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Part II: Multivariate analysis. Children's Cancer and Leukemia Study Group

The pretreatment characteristics of 158 children with previously untreated acute lymphoblastic leukemia diagnosed April 1972 to June 1978 were analyzed for their ability to predict prognosis. The children were treated according to therapeutic protocols 721, 745 and 765, by members of the Japanese Children's Cancer and Leukemia Study Group. Multivariate analysis was performed to determined the relationship between the characteristics and duration of survival of the patients. The following characteristics were analyzed: initial white blood cell (WBC) count, age at diagnosis, initial hemoglobin level, initial platelet count, sex, organomegaly, and treatment regimen that was provided. By using multivariate techniques, factors were found which the independently and significantly predict the length of survival. These factors were initial WBC count (r0 = 0.2908), age at diagnosis (r0 = 0.2982), and treatment regimen (r0 = 0.2488). Using the major prognostic factors of age at diagnosis and initial WBC count, a formula to predict the survival time was established. According to the initial WBC count and age at diagnosis, we classified all cases of childhood ALL as standard risk and high risk.

Prognostic factors in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Part I: Univariate analysis. Children's Cancer and Leukemia Study Group

The pretreatment characteristics of 158 children with previously untreated acute lymphoblastic leukemia diagnosed April 1972 to June 1978 were analyzed for their ability to predict prognosis. The children were treated according to therapeutic protocols 721, 745 and 765, by members of the Japanese Children's Cancer and Leukemia Study Group. A univariate analysis was performed to determine the relationship between the characteristics and the duration of the patients' survival. The following characteristics were analyzed: initial white blood cell (WBC) count, age at diagnosis, initial hemoglobin level, initial platelet count, sex, organomegaly, and treatment regimen that was provided. Favorable prognosis was exhibited only by those patients with initial WBC counts of less than 50,000/mm3, with age at onset between 2 and 6 years, without splenomegaly, and with hemoglobin levels between 5 and 10 g/dl. The most significant contributions among the various individual prognostic factors were initial WBC count (p less than 0.001) and the age at diagnosis (p less than 0.01).

[Evaluation of immune status in gastric cancer using Su-Ps skin test]

Immunotherapy for gastric cancer has been adopted by any institutes recently. However, immunoparameters which exactly express patients' immune status have not been determined. In this study, the Su-Ps skin test was tried to evaluate whether or not this reaction could become a usable immunoparameter. Conclusions were as follows: 1) Late-stage patients showed a significantly weak response in the Su-Ps skin test compared to early-stage patients when examined preoperatively. 2) Su-Ps skin reaction became stronger after gastrectomy in early-stage patients, while the contrary result was observed in late-stage patients. 3) Postoperative Su-Ps skin tests showed a stronger response than preoperative tests regardless of the patients' stage, when patients received OK-432 treatment. The Su-Ps skin test reaction seemed to be well-correlated with the patients' immune status as above, so that this test can be chosen for evaluation of immunotherapy.

[Retention of three different luting cements (author's transl)]

Employing zinc phosphate, polycarboxylate and glass ionomer cements, effect of cement layer thickness on retention of crowns at their axial wall was investigated. Stainless steel preparations and occlusally perforated crowns having taper angles of 2.9 and 5.7 degrees were cemented, regulating the thickness at the axial wall from 5 to 60 mu. These dies were stored in a 100% relative humidity atmosphere at room temperature or in distilled water. After 48 hr, retention was measured, applying the load vertically to occlusal preparation surface through a plunger (Fig. 1). Due to the inclusion of unreacted powder particles in the set structure of all three cements, evidence of a critical value was always shown in the cement thickness-retention relationship (Figs. 2, 3 and 4). When the cement thickness was reduced below the critical value, the retention increased remarkably and was not affected by the environment. Above the critical value, however, the retention of these cements was relatively small and affected considerably by the environment. By water immersion, the increase in the retention was found for the two polyacrylate, but not for the zinc phosphate. Correlation between retention and mechanical strengths of the three cements in the respective environments was indefinite.