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Background and Purpose. Traditional medicine (TM) has been widely used in China (including the Taiwan region), Korea, and Japan. The purposes of this paper are to summarize the basic data on TM systems in these three countries and to compare them in terms of overall policy, education, and insurance. Methods. Government websites, national statistics, and authoritative papers from each country were fully searched. Further data were gathered by TM experts from each country. Results. China and Korea showed similar patterns in TM systems, whereas Japan showed different patterns. In China and Korea, TM was practiced in a dual system with conventional medicine (C M), and TM education was 6-year training programs on average for TM doctors, and acupuncture, moxibustion, and cupping were completely insured. Whereas, C M was dominant in Japan, and TM was practiced by each health care worker who has received different TMeducation respectively, and main TM therapies were partially insured. Conclusions. TM was developed similarly or somewhat differently based on differences in cultural background and national policies in East Asia.We cautiously propose that this study could contribute to the development of TM and also be used for reference in complementary and alternative medicine systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) and metabolic tumor volume (MTV) of the primary tumor on 18F-FDG PET/CT scan in early stage non-small cell cancer (NSCLC) patients without lymph node (LN) metastasis. In the experiment, eighty NSCLC patients pathologically staged as T1N0 or T2N0 were included (M:F=50:30; mean age, 64.8 years). All patients had preoperative 18F-FDG PET/CT scan and curative surgery. FDG uptake in the primary tumor was measured by SUVmax and MTV with various SUV threshold values. SUVmax, MTV of the primary tumor, age, tumor size, histology and differentiation grade were analyzed for association with disease- free survival (DFS). The experimental results showed that the histology types included adenocarcinoma (n=58), squamous cell carcinoma (n=20), and others (n=2); Twenty-two (27.5%) of the 80 patients had a recurrence during follow-up at a median time of 29.1 months; The median SUVmax was 5.26, and the median MTV2.5 was 2.2 cm³. Univariate analysis showed higher SUVmax (>4), greater MTV (MTV2.5 >4 cm³), and non-squamous histology were significantly associated with shorter period DFS (p=0.001, p=0.030 and p<0.001). In multivariate analysis, higher SUVmax (p=0.004) and adenocarcinoma histology (p=0.005) were associated with shorter DFS. Therefore, high SUVmax (>4) of the primary tumor on preoperative 18F-FDG PET/CT scan is an independent prognostic factor of shorter DFS in early stage of NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Incidental 18-Fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG) uptake in the ribs is a relatively common finding on positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) images of cancer patients. This study examined the role of 18F-FDG PET/CT in differentiating between benign lesions and metastases on the ribs. Methods: This study included 264 lesions in 172 PET/CT cases with underlying malignancy showing newly developed indeterminate 18F-FDG rib uptake between June 2009 and May 2010. Patients with more than five FDG rib uptakes or hematologic malignancy were excluded. Malignancy was confirmed either histologically or by imaging studies, and clinical follow-up with serial images was at least 6 months. The maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of the rib lesion was recorded. The FDG uptake patterns (focal or segmental; discrete or non-discrete) and CT findings (evidence of fracture, soft tissue lesions, osteoblastic and/or osteolytic lesions) were recorded. Results: There were 206 benign lesions and 58 metastases. The SUVmax was significantly higher in the metastatic group (3.0±1.8) than in the benign group (2.5±1.1),(P=.014).Forthe differential diagnosis between benign and metastatic lesions, the best SUVmax cut-off was determined to be 2.4. Significant indicators for metastasis were a segmental FDG uptake pattern (OR=10.262,95% CI 4.151 -25.371), presence of an osteoblastic/-lytic lesion (OR= 22.903,95% CI 10.468 to 50.108) and the absence of fractures on CT (OR=291.629, 95% CI 39.09-2175.666). Conclusion: SUVmax alone is not sufficient to differentiate benign and metastatic rib lesions in cancer patients. The diagnostic accuracy can be further increased when findings of the CT part of PET/CT are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]