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Pleural metastasis in rectal cancer is often due to secondary invasion or dissemination from intrapulmonary metastases. To date, there are no reports on solitary pleural metastasis. Here, we report a rare case of lower rectal cancer that recurred as pleural metastasis 4 years after surgical resection of the primary tumor. He was a 65-year-old man who visited our department with an abnormal shadow on his chest X-ray. He had a history of lower rectal cancer and had undergone laparoscopic low anterior resection of the rectum and bilateral lymph node dissection after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Pathological ypT3N1M0 stage IIIA tumor was diagnosed, and adjuvant chemotherapy was administered. According to the computed tomography scan, a pleural tumor or pulmonary metastasis was suspected. Thoracoscopic partial resection of the lung and a partial pleurectomy were performed for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Histopathological examination revealed a highly differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma, consistent with metastatic rectal cancer. The nodule arose from the visceral pleura and invaded the parietal pleura with few malignant cells in the lung parenchyma. The lesion was surgically resected. However, 3 months after the second surgery, tumor recurrence with pleural dissemination was observed, and chemotherapy was initiated.

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma with rhabdoid morphology is rare, and only three case reports have been published to date, none of which discuss the genetic changes in the rhabdoid component. We present a case of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma with focal rhabdoid features and SMARCA4-deficiency detected using immunohistochemistry. A Japanese man in his 60s without viral hepatitis was diagnosed with an avascular tumor in the liver, measuring 4.4 cm in the greatest dimension. The tumor was mostly composed of moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma, focal poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, and an undifferentiated rhabdoid component. Immunohistochemical analysis showed an inclusion-like staining pattern for keratin AE1/AE3 and vimentin in the rhabdoid component. BRG1/SMARCA4 was detected in the differentiated component but not in the poorly- and undifferentiated components. Our novel findings reflecting the morphological and genetic heterogeneity of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and will aid the research on drugs targeting the aberrant SWItch/Sucrose NonFermentable complex.

Background Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is increasingly applied for early gastric cancer. ESD is a less invasive procedure and could be a radical treatment. However, in some cases, ESD cannot be completed owing to patient or technical factors. In such cases, which could have the potential for curative resection with ESD, standard gastrectomy is excessively invasive. Through closed laparoscopic and endoscopic cooperative surgery (LECS), gastric tumor can be precisely resected without exposing tumor cells to the abdominal cavity. Compared with standard gastrectomy, closed LECS is less invasive for the treatment of early gastric cancer. Case presentation We performed closed LECS for three cases of early gastric cancer after failed ESD. In all three cases, ESD was interrupted owing to technical and patient factors, including perforation, respiratory failure, and carbon dioxide narcosis. All three cases successfully underwent closed LECS with complete tumor resection and showed an uneventful postoperative course. All three patients remain alive and have experienced no complications or recurrence, with a median follow up of 30 (14–30) months. Conclusions Closed LECS is less invasive and useful procedure for the treatment of early gastric cancer, particularly in cases with difficulty in ESD.

The applicability of single-incision laparoscopic colectomy (SILC) for descending colon cancer is poorly understood. In the present study, consecutive experiences with SILC for descending colon cancer are reviewed, and its long-term clinical and oncological outcomes are evaluated. A single institutional experience of SILC for descending colon cancer is presented. Thirty patients (13 women) with a median age of 68.7 years and a median body mass index of 23.0 kg/m2 were treated with SILC for clinically diagnosed colon cancer between January 2011 and December 2015. We performed left hemicolectomy in patients whose tumor located at the splenic flexure, and selected descending colectomy in the other patients. There were no conversions and additional port insertion. The mean skin incision length was 2.89 cm. The mean operative time and blood loss were 184.7 min and 72.5 mL, respectively. The mean number of harvested lymph nodes was 18.8. The 5-year relapse-free survival for stage I, stage II, and stage III disease was 100%, 70.0%, and 67.3%, respectively. The 5-year overall survival for stage I, stage II, and stage III disease was 100%, 72.0%, and 67.3%, respectively. Our initial experiences showed that SILC can be applied to the treatment of descending colon cancer with good long-term clinical and oncological outcomes.

A uniform TiN film was coated on to the inner walls of long steel tubes by moving a chemical vapour deposition furnace along the tubes. The moving direction of the furnace from outlet side to inlet side gave a more homogeneous coating than the reverse moving direction. The TiN-coated steel tube (inside diameter 10 mm) was obtained under the following conditions; peak deposition temperature 1050° C, total flow rate of reactant gas (TiCl4 + N2 + H2) ∼ 6.0 ml sec−1, moving velocity of the furnace 2.8 mm min−1. The inner wall of the coated tube showed high corrosion resistance for dipping in 6N HCI aqueous solution for 17 h.