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Background: There are few reports on the associations between lymph node (LN) status, determined by preoperative 18F‐fluorodeoxyglucose‐positron emission tomography (FDG‐PET), and prognosis in patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) who underwent esophagectomy post‐neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT). Additionally, details on the diagnostic performance of LN metastasis determination based on pathological examination versus FDG‐PET have not been reported. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the associations among LN status using FDG‐PET, LN status based on pathological examination, and prognosis in patients with locally advanced ESCC who underwent esophagectomy post‐NCT. Methods: We reviewed the data of 124 consecutive patients with ESCC who underwent esophagectomy with R0 resection post‐NCT between December 2008 and August 2022 and were evaluated pre‐ and post‐NCT using FDG‐PET. The associations among LN status using FDG‐PET, LN status based on pathological examination, and prognosis were assessed. Results: Station‐by‐station analysis of PET‐positive LNs pre‐ and post‐NCT correlated significantly with pathological LN metastases (sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy pre‐ and post‐NCT: 51.6%, 96.0%, and 92.1%; and 28.2%, 99.5%, and 93.1%, respectively; both p < 0.0001). Using univariate and multivariate analyses, LN status determined using PET post‐NCT was a significant independent predictor of both recurrence‐free survival and overall survival. Conclusion: The LN status assessed using FDG‐PET post‐NCT was significantly associated with the pathological LN status and prognosis in patients with ESCC who underwent esophagectomy post‐NCT. Therefore, FDG‐PET is a useful diagnostic tool for preoperatively predicting pathological LN metastasis and survival in these patients and could provide valuable information for selecting individualized treatment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pathological lymph node metastasis (LNM) following multimodal therapy is an important indicator of poor prognosis in patients with esophageal cancer. However, a significant number of patients without LNM are still at high risk for recurrence. Methods: We assessed prognostic factors in 143 patients without pathological LNM who were diagnosed with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) or chemoradiotherapy (NACRT), followed by surgery. Results: Using univariate and multivariate analyses of recurrence‐free survival, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.17, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.12–4.23, and p = 0.02) and neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR) (HR: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.04–1.43, and p = 0.02) were significant independent covariates. Furthermore, pretherapeutic LNM (HR: 1.94, 95% CI: 1.003–3.76, and p = 0.049), NACRT (HR: 3.29, 95% CI: 1.30–8.33, and p = 0.01), poorly differentiated tumors (HR: 2.52, 95% CI: 1.28–4.98, and p = 0.01), and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) (HR: 2.78, 95% CI: 1.27–6.09, and p = 0.01) were also significant independent covariates. The recurrence rates among patients with 0/1, 2, 3, and 4/5 poor prognostic factors were significantly different (5.0%, 25.0%, 35.7%, and 53.8%, respectively; p = 0.001); the survival rates were stratified among these prognostic groups. Conclusions: Pretherapeutic CEA and NLR levels, pretherapeutic LNM, NACRT, poorly differentiated tumors, and LVI were significantly correlated with survivals in patients without pathological LNM after neoadjuvant therapy and surgery. Postoperative therapy should be considered in patients with ESCC with several indicators of recurrence, even in those without pathological LNM who underwent surgery following neoadjuvant therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overwork-related cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases (CCVDs), and mental disorders, including suicide (OCCMS) is a major problem worldwide. In Japan, OCCMS is known as Karoshi (death from overwork), which has become a social problem since the 1980s, and various countermeasures have been implemented to combat it. This study details the status of workers' compensation for OCCMS in Japan from FY2010 to FY2020 and outlines efforts to prevent OCCMS. During the study period, 2,928 and 5,099 cases of CCVDs, and mental disorders including suicide, respectively, were approved for workers' compensation. The number of cases per million employees was remarkably high for the transport and postal services by industry and in transport or machine operation workers by occupation. Policies since 2014 have included stress check measures for promoting worker self-check, prevention of harassment and promotion of gender fairness in the workplace, and regulation of overtime work. Meanwhile, the Research Center for Overwork-Related Disorders of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Japan, has conducted a wide range of research, including analysis of workers' compensation cases and public service accidents, surveys, experiments, and on-site interventions, on the effects of long working hours and interwork intervals. Although national statistics demonstrate an expansion of the working population and a decrease in working hours, continued efforts are required to realize workplaces that are comfortable to work in. Research on current conditions and countermeasures by industry and occupation, the prevalence of the interwork interval schedule, and measures for accommodating diverse work styles are immediate challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effects of foreign return-oriented shareholders and domestic relational shareholders of Japanese companies on the earnings management behavior of their invested firms when stock option pay is adopted. We theorize that foreign shareholders seek short-term returns and do not engage in close monitoring due to an information disadvantage while domestic shareholders prevent managerial behavior that distorts information disclosure. Our findings show that managers of firms that use stock option pay engage in earnings management to increase their private financial benefits and meet capital markets' expectations, which allows them to enhance their own reputation. However, this managerial behavior is contingent on the firm's ownership structure. Our results show that while foreign shareholders enhance the positive impact of stock options on earning management, domestic shareholders and affiliated directors mitigate this positive effect. Our empirical analyses support the argument that ownership heterogeneity is a key determinant of managerial propensity to engage in earnings management when Japanese firms adopt stock option pay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key role of board directors is to govern corporate strategy. While prior research has provided insights into board roles and activities regarding board governance, the underlying capabilities required to govern effectively remain understudied. This article explores and explicates a capability-based view of board actions in which the specific capabilities that enable boards to govern strategic activities are identified. We specifically examine the conceptual foundations and different types of board capabilities, drawing on illustrative cases as well as information from interviews with board directors in the United States, Asia, and Europe. We then discuss several future research directions that can enrich our understanding of the effects of board capabilities on board governance. This article introduces a fine-grained perspective on board governance that examines the individual director, interpersonal, and board levels. By highlighting the need to build the foundation of governance capabilities at multiple levels, we extend our understanding of the compositional challenges for boards and their governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boards of directors play a central role in governing corporate strategic change. We systematically review corporate governance research on strategic change published over the past 40 years, differentiating between strategic change types and board characteristics. We identify three developments: a focus on specific strategic change types, board composition and structure, and North American listed firms as a dominant study context. Yet, our analysis of the literature shows that research on board governance of interrelated strategic changes, on different board roles and behaviour, and on the governance of strategic changes across different contexts remains underdeveloped. To address these research gaps, we suggest three future research avenues: (1) examining how boards govern interrelated changes in a strategic change portfolio and its evolution over time; (2) studying the mediating relationship between board governance (particularly different board roles and behaviour), strategic changes, and corresponding outcomes; and (3) gaining a better understanding of the role of context in board governance of interrelated strategic changes. We contribute to corporate governance research by developing a framework that synthesizes extant research on the relationships between different board governance variables and strategic change types, highlights important research gaps, and outlines several future research directions to address these gaps. Our framework and literature overview serve as analytical tools to examine whether boards are well‐designed and prepared to govern multiple and interrelated strategic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective response and disease control rates were 20.3% and 47.5%, respectively. The LMRs before, and 14 and 28 days after nivolumab initiation were significantly higher in patients with complete response (CR)/partial response (PR)/stable disease (SD) than those with progressive disease (PD). The NLRs at 14 and 28 days after nivolumab initiation were significantly lower in patients with CR/PR/SD than with PD. The optimal cutoffs for these parameters significantly discriminated patients with CR/PR/SD and PD. Univariate and multivariate analyses identified pretreatment NLRs as a significant independent factor for progression-free and overall survival (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.19, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07– 1.32, and HR 1.23, 95% CI: 1.11– 1.37, respectively; p ≤ 0.001 for both). Conclusion: The pretreatment LMRs, and NLR and LMR at 14 and 28 days after starting nivolumab monotherapy were significantly associated with the clinical therapeutic effect. The pretreatment NLR was significantly associated with patients' survival. These blood cell parameters before and during the early days of nivolumab monotherapy can help to identify patients with ESCC who would most likely benefit from nivolumab monotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]