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We herein report a case of T4 esophageal carcinoma, which was resected after chemo-radiation therapy. In addition, the metachronous lung metastasis was also resected. A 59-year-old female with esophageal carcinoma, which invaded the left main bronchus, underwent chemo-radiation therapy (the combination of systemic chemotherapy of 5-FU/CDDP and external radiation therapy) from January 2004. After the therapy, although the imaging showed a downstaging of esophageal carcinoma, a severe esophageal stricture appeared with ingestion defective. So hyper-alimentation was performed. After the state of nutrition was improved, esophagectomy was performed on March 2004 without a complication. Histopathological study revealed that no viable cells remained. Nine months after esophagectomy, chest CT scan revealed that a solitary pulmonary tumor appeared in S6 of the right. The solitary tumor enlarged gradually. On August 2005, a surgical resection for the solitary pulmonary tumor was performed. Histopathologically, the lesion was compatible for metastasis from esophageal carcinoma. The patient is alive without recurrence more than 23 months after the last surgery.

We report a 45 years old right-handed woman who developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) after the operation for rupture of an ovarian cyst. One week after the onset of ARDS, she presented visual disturbance and Gerstmann syndrome. MRI T2-weighted images demonstrated abnormal high intensity lesions involving the gray and white matter of the occipital lobes bilaterally extending to the parietal lobes. Based on these findings, she was diagnosed as having posterior leukoencephalopathy syndrome (PLES). Her neurologic symptoms gradually improved, however, she started to complain of difficulty in grasping a cup placed on her peripheral visual fields. Neurological examination revealed no visual disturbance, weakness or cerebellar ataxia. She could easily reach objects presented in the central visual field, however, she could not grasp objects presented peripheral visual fields, while she was looking straight ahead. This disorder was observed both in the right and left visual field, whether she used the right hand or the left hand. We thought she had ataxie optique of Garcin. She was noted to have bilateral both direct and crossed ataxie optique. Ataxie optique is characterized by disturbance in reaching objects presented in the peripheral visual field. The underlying pathophysiologic mechanism is believed to be disconnection of the fibers between the primary visual area and the angular gyrus at the parietooccipital junction. Crossed ataxie optique consisting of difficulty in reaching objects presented in the contralateral visual field believed to be caused by disconnection of crossed pathways of the corpus callosum. Ataxie optique in our patient can be explained by disconnection of both direct and crossed fibers. Ataxie optique is sometimes unrecognized by the patient. Our patient suggests that ataxie optique may well be a symptom of PLES.

A feasibility study on high-dose therapy with autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (HDT/PBSCT) was performed in Japanese patients with multiple myeloma (MM). Twenty evaluable patients younger than 65 years old with stage II/III MM were enrolled in this study. Three courses of VAD were used as initial chemotherapy. High-dose etoposide or cyclophosphamide followed by G-CSF was used for PBSCH, and 1.2-89.3 (median 23.4) x 106/kg of CD34+ cells were collected. Single (11 patients) or tandem (9 patients) HDT with melphalan (MEL) 200 mg/m2 or MEL 140 mg/m2 plus TBI 10 Gy were performed. The incidence of grade 4 toxicity (COG) was 10% and treatment-related mortality was 5%. Complete response and tumor reduction of more than 75% were obtained in 4 (21%) and 16 (84%) out of 19 patients, respectively. The actuarial 3-year overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) after PBSCT/HDT were 65.6% and 22.0%, respectively. The median EFS duration was 18 months. These preliminary results indicated that HDT/PBSCT is feasible for Japanese MM patients. A prospective randomized clinical trial will be required to assess the efficacy.

We investigated the incidence of bone lesions in elderly cases of multiple myeloma (MM) and the course of those lesions, and also evaluated the relationships of skeletal symptoms with prognostic factors, and prognosis. The subjects were 146 patients, aged 65 years or more (median age 74, range 65-97 year), who were admitted to 11 institutions between January, 1988 and December, 1997. They consisted of 64 men and 82 women. The disease type was IgG type in 88 patients, IgA type in 37 patients, Bence-Jones (BJ) type in 17 patients, IgD type in three patients, and non-secretory type in one patient. Bone lesions in elderly MM patients were compared with those in 65 non-elderly MM patients. Skeletal symptoms were noted in 104 patients, and bone pain in 75 patients at the time of diagnosis. The bone lesions were evaluated as only osteolytic lesions in 26 patients, osteolytic lesions + osteoporosis in 23 patients, only osteoporosis in 2 patients and pathologic bone fractures in 53 patients. The occurrence rate of osteoporosis plus osteolytic lesion was higher in elderly patients (63.5%) than that in non-elderly patients (NE-MM group) (28.3%) (p < 0.0001). The bone lesions were most often observed in lumbar vertebrae (58.7%), cranial bone (56.7%), thoracic vertebrae (40.4%) and ribs (27.9%). The occurrence rate of bone lesion in lumbar vertebrae was higher in elderly patients (58.7%) than that in non-elderly patients (22.6%) (p < 0.0001). The life activities were limited in 71 patients because of the bone lesions. The relationship between the prognostic factors of MM and bone lesions was evaluated. There was a significant difference in the serum Ca level between patients with and without bone pain (P < 0.0001) and between those with and without pathologic bone fracture (P < 0.01). There was a significant difference in the appearance rate of plasma cells in the bone marrow between the patients with and without bone lesions (P < 0.05), between those with and without bone pain (P < 0.01), and between those with and without pathologic fracture (P < 0.05). There was a significant difference in the serum beta 2-microglobulin level between the patients with and without bone pain, and between those with and without pathologic fracture. There were no significant differences in survival times between elderly MM patients with and without bone lesions, bone pain and pathological bone fractures, while significant differences of survival times were found between non-elderly MM patients with and without bone lesions, bone pain and pathological bone fractures (P < 0.05, each). These data suggest that there are some differences in bone lesions between elderly and non-elderly MM patients.