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Background The effect of age on hair properties has previously been investigated in white and Japanese women; however, little is known of the age-related characteristic features of hair in Korean women. Objectives To determine the ageing features of Korean women’s hair by examining physical and biological factors in sufficient numbers of participants. Methods In total, 150 healthy Korean women (aged 23–69 years) living in Seoul were allocated to five age-graded groups. Age-related changes of various features of the scalp and hair shaft were measured, including hair density, diameter, tensile strength and lustre, and grey-hair ratio. The hair-shaft compositions of minerals, amino acids and steroid hormones were analysed by high-performance liquid chromatography. Results Hair-loss parameters (hair density, diameter and tensile strength) and hair lustre decreased significantly with age, beginning in the subjects’ 40s. The hairwhiteness value increased significantly with age, beginning in their 60s, due to an increase in the ratio of grey hair. Calcium and magnesium levels greatly exceeded the reference ranges and declined in an age-dependent manner, while potassium and phosphorus levels increased with age. No age-related change of hair-shaft amino acid content was evident. The contents of sterols and their metabolites (cholesterol, desmosterol, lanosterol and pregnenolone) increased significantly with age, but there was no correlation between the examined sex steroids and age. Conclusions These results show that intrinsic ageing produces diverse changes in the hair and scalp features of Korean women from their 40s, and the ageing features of Korean women’s hair could be partially different from that of women in other countries. Ageing is a process of progressive decreases in the maximal functioning and reserve capacity of all the organs in the body, including the skin and hair. The major age-related changes in the appearance of the skin are dryness (roughness), wrinkling, laxity, various neoplasms and slow recovery after injury. However, the ageing features of hair have not been defined sufficiently compared with those of the skin, with the exceptions of loss of hair pigmentation, hair loss and conversion of terminal to vellus hair. 1 Mammalian hair serves important roles including

Background This study was conducted to evaluate whether smoking history and the standardized uptake value (SUV) of 2-[fluorine-18]fluoro-2-deoxy- D -glucose (FDG) uptake are associated with unexpected pathological N2 status (pN2) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients and methods We analyzed the data of 220 patients who underwent surgical resection with clinical N2-negative status on computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET)–CT. The maximum SUV of primary tumor was chosen for logistic analysis. Results Seventy-two patients (33%) had never smoked. The SUV ranged from 1.0 to 29.0 (median 9.1). In univariate analysis, adenocarcinomas (P = 0.019), female gender (P = 0.010), N1 on CT (P = 0.025), and N1 PET–CT (P = 0.001) were associated with a high probability of pN2. The proportion of pN2 in never smokers was higher than in ever smokers (26% versus 10% respectively; P = 0.002). The SUV remained on a multivariate logistic model (odds ratio 1.1; 95% confidence interval 1.0–1.2; P = 0.010) and it had a better predictive value in never smokers than in ever smokers (P = 0.017). Conclusions This study indicates an association between smoking history and pN2 in clinically negative N2 NSCLC. The different roles of FDG uptake were also suggested based on smoking history.

Gene expression profiling studies have identified several breast cancer subtypes associated with markedly different clinical outcomes. In general, patients with stage I breast cancer have excellent outcomes. We assessed the clinicopathological characteristics and outcomes of patients with T1N0M0 breast cancer according to molecular subtype.Seven hundred and sixty-two T1N0M0 breast cancer patients undergoing curative surgery between January 1990 and December 2007 were analyzed. Subtypes were classified according to hormone receptor (HR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) status as follows: HR+/HER2-, HR+/HER2+, HR-/HER2- (triple-negative, TN), and HR-/HER2+.The distribution of subtypes was HR+/HER2-, 56.6%; HR+/HER2+, 10.1%; TN, 20.1%; and HR-/HER2+, 13.3%. Marked differences were observed among subtypes in multifocality/multicentricity, histological grade, extensive intraductal components, p53 expression and the Ki-67 index. There were differences in recurrence-free survival and overall survival among patients with different molecular subtypes (log-rank p0.001 and 0.024, respectively). By multivariate analysis, lymphovascular invasion and classification of molecular subtype were independent predictors of recurrence (p = 0.003 and 0.043, respectively). The TN subtype showed significantly worse recurrence-free survival compared to the HR+/HER2- subtype (hazard ratio, 4.54; 95% confidence interval, 1.60-12.86; p = 0.004).Patients with T1N0M0 breast cancer, a group with generally favorable clinical outcomes, had prognoses that were associated with the molecular subtype. The TN subtype was an independent predictor for recurrence in patients with T1N0M0 breast cancer.