BACKGROUND & AIMS Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Although hepatectomy and transplantation have significantly improved survival, there is no effective chemotherapeutic treatment for HCC and its prognosis remains poor. Sustained activation of telomerase is essential for the growth and progression of HCC, suggesting that telomerase is a rational ta...

This study compared the efficiency and safety of definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) using Paclitaxel plus Cisplatin (TP) versus S-1 plus Cisplatin (CS) in unresectable locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (LAESCC). Between January 2009 and December 2013, 203 LAESCC patients were retrospectively reviewed. We performed a propensity score matching analysis; 41 patients t...

Thromboxane A2 (TXA2) is produced in the lungs of patients suffering from acute lung injury (ALI). We assessed its contribution in disease progression using three different ALI mouse models. The administration of hydrochloric acid (HCl) or oleic acid (OA)+ lipopolysaccharide (LPS) caused tissue edema and neutrophil infiltration with TXA2 production in the lungs of the experimental mice. The adm...

The angiogenic factor, platelet-derived endothelial cell growth factor/thymidine phosphorylase (PD-ECGF/TP), stimulates the chemotaxis of endothelial cells and confers resistance to apoptosis induced by hypoxia. 2-Deoxy-D-ribose, a degradation product of thymidine generated by TP enzymatic activity, inhibits the upregulation of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) 1α, BNIP3 and caspase-3 induced by h...

In a clinical study with oral gemcitabine (2',2'-difluorodeoxycytidine, dFdC), 2',2'-difluorodeoxyuridine (dFdU) was extensively formed and accumulated after multiple oral dosing. Here, we have investigated the in vitro cytotoxicity, cellular uptake, efflux, biotransformation, and nucleic acid incorporation of dFdC and dFdU. Short-term and long-term cytotoxicity assays were used to assess the c...

BACKGROUND Chronic inflammation and oxidative stress play fundamental roles in the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Previously, we reported that myeloperoxidase (MPO), an aggressive oxidant-generating neutrophil enzyme, is associated with NASH severity in man. We now investigated the hypothesis that MPO contributes to the development and progression of NASH. METHODOLOGY L...

UNLABELLED The standard of care for glioblastoma (GB) is surgery followed by concurrent radiation therapy (RT) and temozolomide (TMZ) and then adjuvant TMZ. This regime is associated with increased survival but also increased occurrence of equivocal imaging findings, e.g., tumor progression (TP) versus treatment effect (TE), which is also referred to as pseudoprogression (PsP). Equivocal findin...