Search

A 32-year-old woman was admitted to our department for hematuria and dysuria.Computed tomography (CT) and cystoscopy revealed a 2-cm pedunculated tumor with rich blood supply and a smooth surface in the bladder trigone. We performed a transurethral resection of bladder tumor. The pathologic diagnosis was alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS). CT, bone scintigraphy, positron emission tomography, and pelvic magnetic resonance imaging revealed no other lesions; thus, she was diagnosed as having a primary bladder ASPS. Postoperative follow-up with regular cystoscopies and CTs over 10 years have shown no local recurrence or metastasis.Primary ASPS of the bladder is exceedingly rare, and this case is the 8th case (the 2nd case in Japan) reported in literature.

One of the factors that is believed to contribute to Japanese longevity is their dietary life, which is unique and distinct from Westerners. However, there has been no study that examined whether Japanese food in itself is effective for health maintenance. Therefore, we investigated in rats whether Japanese food is beneficial to health maintenance compared with American food. As a result, we revealed that modern Japanese food is useful for health maintenance compared with modern American food. We subsequently investigated the health benefits of Japanese food from different eras. The menus of Japanese foods from 4 different years, 2005, 1990, 1975 and 1960 were prepared, cooked, and powderized. Each of the Japanese foods was provided to mice. We found that the Japanese food from 1975 exhibited health benefits with respect to the stages of growth, adolescence, maturity and old age. Furthermore, we focused on fish oil, which is one of the beneficial ingredients of Japanese food, and investigated the effect of its long-term intake on lifespan in mice. Surprisingly, long-term intake of large amounts of fish oil shortened the lifespan of these mice. By contrast, intake of small amounts of fish oil with antioxidants extended the lifespan. Moreover, while intake of large amounts of fish oil also shortened the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), intake of small amounts of fish oil extended the lifespan. Thus, it was suggested that even when foods have been reported to have health benefits, ingestion of large amounts of individual foods is undesirable for health maintenance.