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Purpose: To clarify the current use of unapproved and unproven cancer treatment (UUCT) among the bereaved families of patients with cancer who died in palliative care units, the financial burden and psychological experiences of the families, and the relationship between patients in palliative care who used UUCT and communication with their physicians'., Methods: This study was conducted as part of a cross-sectional, anonymous nationwide survey of the bereaved family members of cancer patients who died in palliative care unit in Japan., Results: Questionnaires were sent to 1,039 bereaved family members, and responses were received from 661 (64%). Of these, 558 were included in the study after excluding the 103 who did not complete the questionnaire. A total of 7.3% (41 of 558) of patients received UUCT. Of these, 34% (14 of 41) of patients were informed that the treatment was in the research phase, and 49% (20 of 41) were informed that the efficacy of the treatment was unknown. Regarding expectations for UUCT, 61% (25/41) expected to be cured, and 80% (33/41) expected it to slow disease progression. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) was associated with receiving UUCT (p = 0.024), and patients who could discuss CAM with their doctors tended to receive UUCT (p = 0.054)., Conclusion: Patients in palliative care unit who expect to cure tended to receive UUCT. These results highlight the challenge of telling patients that UUCT is ineffective and informing them of their prognosis and severe medical conditions., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethical approval: Ethical approval for the study was granted by the ethics committee of Tohoku University Hospital and all participating institutions (2017–2-236–1). Ethics accordance: Our study was conducted in accordance with the Henschilki Declaration. Consent to participate: The return of the questionnaires was considered as informed consent for this study. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

We investigated the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage induced by laser filamentation, which was generated by focusing femtosecond near-infrared Ti:Sapphire laser light in water at several repetition rates ranging from 1000 Hz to 10 Hz. Using plasmid DNA (pUC19), the single-strand break, double-strand break, nucleobase lesions, and the fragmented DNA were analyzed and quantified by agarose gel electrophoresis. Additionally, the H 2 O 2 concentration after irradiation was determined. We observed that (1) the DNA damage per laser shot and (2) the enzyme-sensitive base lesions per total DNA damage decreased as the laser repetition rate increased. Furthermore, (3) extraordinarily short DNA fragments were likely to be produced, compared with those produced using X-rays, and (4) most OH radicals could be eliminated by recombination to generate H 2 O 2 , preventing them from damaging the DNA. The Monte-Carlo simulation of the strand break formation implies that the observed dependency of strand break efficiency on the laser repetition rate is mainly due to diffusion of DNA molecules. These findings quantitatively and qualitatively revealed that an intense laser pulse induces a specific DNA damage profile that is not induced by X-rays, a sparsely ionizing radiation source., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Tonsillar focal diseases (TFDs) are defined as "diseases caused by organic and/or functional damage in organs distant from tonsil, and the disease outcome is improved by tonsillectomy." Although several reports and reviews have shown the efficacy of tonsillectomy for TFDs, no guidelines for the clinical management of the diagnosis and treatment of TFDs have been reported. Therefore, the Society of Stomato-pharyngology established a committee to guide the clinical management of patients with TFDs, and the original guide was published in May 2023. This article summarizes the English version of the manuscript. We hope that the concept of TFDs will spread worldwide, and that one as many patients with TFDs will benefit from tonsillectomy., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None of the authors has any financial support or other benefits from commercial sources for the work, nor any other financial interests that any of the authors may have, which could create a potential conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest with regard to the work., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Optogenetics is an attractive synthetic biology tool for controlling the metabolic flux distribution. Here, we demonstrated optogenetic flux ratio control of glycolytic pathways consisting of the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas (EMP), pentose phosphate (PP), and Entner-Doudoroff (ED) pathways by illuminating multicolor lights using blue light-responsive EL222 and green/red light-responsive CcaSR in Escherichia coli. EL222 forms a dimer and binds to a particular DNA sequence under blue light; therefore, target gene expression can be reduced or induced by inserting a recognition sequence into its promoter regions. First, a flux ratio between the PP and ED pathways was controlled by blue light using EL222. After blocking the EMP pathway, the EL222-recognition sequence was inserted between the -35 and -10 regions of gnd to repress the PP flux and was also inserted upstream of the -35 region of edd to induce ED flux. After adjusting light intensity, the PP:ED flux ratios were 60:39% and 29:70% under dark and blue light conditions, respectively. Finally, a CcaSR-based pgi expression system was implemented to control the flux ratio between the EMP and PP + ED pathways by illuminating green/red light. The EMP:PP:ED flux ratios were 80:9:11%, 14:35:51%, and 33:5:62% under green, red, and red and blue light, respectively., (© 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: Caudal-related homeobox transcription factor 2 (CDX2) is expressed in intestinal epithelial cells. CDX2 is a very sensitive marker for the identification of small and large intestine tumors, which is expressed in 85.7-100% of colorectal cancer (CRC) cases., Case Report: A 61-year-old female had been suffering from left shoulder pain for one month. Computed tomography showed osteolytic masses extending to the vertebral arch in the C5, C6, C7, and Th3 vertebral bodies. In addition, a thickening of the sigmoid colon was observed from the rectal-sigmoid colon, suggesting CRC. A colon biopsy revealed poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma and the vertebra excision was metastatic adenocarcinoma. However, immunohistochemically, the vertebra tumor was negative for CK7 and CK20 but positive for CDX2. Therefore, we made the diagnosis of CRC with bone metastasis and decided to start treatment for CRC. Posterior stabilization was performed for the spinal tumor 6 days after admission. About one month after admission, she started treatment with chemotherapy. Initially, her left hand could not move, and she could barely hold the pen with her right hand. After adding cetuximab for the third time, she became able to bend the dorsiflexion of her right wrist joint, grasp a stick with her right hand, and move the fingertips of her left hand a little., Conclusion: The presented case could not be diagnosed as CRC unless CDX2 was examined. Upper body paralysis due to CRC bone metastasis was improved by chemotherapy., (Copyright © 2023 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.)

Depth information is important for postural stability and is generated by two visual systems: binocular and motion parallax. The effect of each type of parallax on postural stability remains unclear. We investigated the effects of binocular and motion parallax loss on static postural stability using a virtual reality (VR) system with a head-mounted display (HMD). A total of 24 healthy young adults were asked to stand still on a foam surface fixed on a force plate. They wore an HMD and faced a visual background in the VR system under four visual test conditions: normal vision (Control), absence of motion parallax (Non-MP)/binocular parallax (Non-BP), and absence of both motion and binocular parallax (Non-P). The sway area and velocity in the anteroposterior and mediolateral directions of the center-of-pressure displacements were measured. All postural stability measurements were significantly higher under the Non-MP and Non-P conditions than those under the Control and Non-BP conditions, with no significant differences in the postural stability measurements between the Control and Non-BP conditions. In conclusion, motion parallax has a more prominent effect on static postural stability than binocular parallax, which clarifies the underlying mechanisms of postural instability and informs the development of rehabilitation methods for people with visual impairments.

Dermatomyositis (DM) is an idiopathic inflammatory myopathy. The incidence of malignancy in DM patients is quite high. Anti-transcription intermediary factor 1-γ (anti-TIF1-γ) antibody is more prevalent in DM patients with malignancy than in those without malignancy. A 70-year-old woman developed hoarseness and difficulty swallowing. A physical examination revealed skin abnormalities. Breast cancer was found in her right breast. She was positive for anti-TIF1-γ antibody. Chemotherapy reduced the tumor size, decreased the anti-TIF1-γ antibody level, and improved her symptoms. About 2.5 years later, however, her skin symptoms worsened, and anti-TIF1-γ antibody levels increased again, and colorectal cancer was found. Treatment with endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) improved her symptoms again. Our case suggests that the exacerbating skin symptoms and parallel increase in the anti-TIF1-γ antibody level led to the detection of a second cancer after treatment of the first cancer in this case of DM.

An improved method is described for the determination of methylmercury (MeHg) in human hair that is based on thin-layer chromatography and thermal decomposition gold amalgamation atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The dithizone extraction and application procedure of this technique were optimized, thus improving its sensitivity and robustness and enabling the use of less toxic solvents than other approaches. The limit of detection was 0.18 ng MeHg (as Hg), corresponding to 0.018 mg MeHg kg -1 of hair relative to a 10 mg sample. This method is appropriate for detecting MeHg in hair at the approximate reference dose level established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry.)