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We present the case of a 65-year-old Japanese man diagnosed with chronic empyema (without a bronchopleural fistula) that occurred 7 months after he underwent an extrapleural pneumonectomy for right malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Following thoracic drainage and irrigation for 1 month, we performed surgery by a thoracoscopic approach, in light of his general condition. We performed debridement and removal of the Gore-Tex polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) patch that had been used for the reconstruction of the diaphragm and the pericardium. The empyema had not relapsed when he died from recurrence of the MPM at 4 months after the thoracoscopic surgery. This patient's case suggests that thoracoscopic debridement and patch removal can be a therapeutic option for not only early-stage (exudative or fibrinopurulent) empyema but also late-stage (organized and chronic) empyema without a bronchopleural fistula, particularly for patients in poor general condition.

We present the case of a 77-year-old Japanese man diagnosed with lung squamous cell carcinoma with mediastinal lymph node metastasis. He was treated with induction chemoradiotherapy for T1bN2M0 stage IIIA disease. Considering his age, we selected S-1 as the chemotherapeutic drug. Observing an objective response with no severe adverse events, we performed a left upper lobectomy with sleeve resection of the pulmonary artery. No residual tumor cells were found in the resected specimens, and no critical complication was observed in the clinical course. This case suggests that induction chemoradiotherapy using S-1 combined with concurrent radiation followed by surgery can be a therapeutic option for elderly patients with locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

We examined the thermodynamic properties of 2',4'-bridged nucleic acid containing 1-isoquinolone as a nucleobase (QB) to recognize a C interruption in the homopurine strand of the target duplex for pyrimidine motif triplex formation at neutral pH. The triplex formation involving triplex-forming oligonucleotide with QB is highly sequence-selective to specifically recognize C:G target base pair rather than the other G:C, T:A, or A:T base pairs. QB.C:G triad gives significantly larger binding constant than T.C:G triad, which has been known to be the most stable combination in natural base.C:G triad. Our results certainly support the idea that QB could be a key nucleoside to recognize a C interruption in the homopurine strand of the target duplex with high binding affinity and selectivity, and reduce the restriction of target sequences for triplex formation.