BACKGROUND.To propose ‘never‐smoking nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC)’ as a separate entity, the clinicopathologic differences of operable NSCLC between never‐smoking patients and patients with a history of smoking were investigated.METHODS.The medical records of 1405 patients with primary NSCLC who underwent a complete resection at the study institution from 1974 through 2004 were reviewed for clinicopathologic variables and postoperative survival.RESULTS.The proportion of never‐smoking patients with NSCLC has been significantly increasing over 30 years, from 15.9% in the 1970s to 32.8% in the 2000s. A significantly greater proportion of female patients or adenocarcinoma patients was found in the ‘never‐smoking NSCLC’ group in comparison to the ‘smoking NSCLC’ group (85.8% vs 11.2% and 87.8% vs 49.1%, respectively). The proportion of pathologic stage IA disease for the ‘never‐smoking NSCLC’ group was significantly higher than that for the ‘smoking NSCLC’ group (40.1% vs 25.4%; P < .0001). With regard to both overall and cancer‐specific survival, the ‘never‐smoking NSCLC’ patient group was significantly superior to the ‘smoking NSCLC’ group. In addition to smoking status, the factors found to be significantly associated with the postoperative survival rate were sex, histologic type, T classification, and N classification by univariate analyses. A multivariate analysis revealed never‐smoking status to be an independent prognostic factor in addition to pathologic T and N classification.CONCLUSIONS.The differences in the clinicopathologic factors and survivals between the ‘never‐smoking NSCLC’ patient group and the ‘smoking NSCLC’ group suggest that NSCLC in never‐smokers should be considered a separate disease entity. Cancer 2008. © 2008 American Cancer Society.

DNA repair enzyme expression in tumor cells possibly affects sensitivity to anti-cancer agents. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between expression status of DNA repair enzymes and chemosensitivity in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). NSCLC tissues prepared from the surgical specimens of 41 patients were subjected to immunohistochemical analysis for Rad51 and ERCC1 proteins and to a chemosensitivity test using the MTT assay. The relationships between the expression status of the DNA repair enzymes and ex vivo chemosensitivity to various agents were evaluated. A positive expression for Rad51 and ERCC1 was observed in 17 cases (41%) and 20 cases (49%), respectively. The positivity of Rad51 was closely related to a certain histologic type of squamous cell carcinoma and poor differentiation, and the positivity of ERCC1 tended to be related to squamous cell carcinoma. In chemosensitivity tests, sensitivities to CDDP and CBDCA were significantly lower when both 2 enzymes were positive (p 5 0.012 and 0.04 in CDDP, 0.014 and 0.03 in CBDCA). Both Rad51 and ERCC1 expressions showed no significant relationship with sensitivities to paclitaxel, etoposide, vinorelbine, gemcitabine, 5-FU, or irinotecan. In conclusion, combined expression of Rad51 and ERCC1 expression is associated with resistance to platinum agents in the ex vivo study of clinical NSCLC, and evaluation of expression status of both DNA repair enzymes would be a predictor for clinical response to platinum-based chemotherapies. ' 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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The rat auditory cortex is organized as a tonotopic map of sound frequency. This map is broadly tuned at birth and is refined during the first 3 weeks postnatal. The structural correlates underlying tonotopic map maturation and reorganization during development are poorly understood. We employed fluorescent dye ballistic labeling (“DiOlistics”) alone, or in conjunction with immunohistochemistry, to quantify synaptogenesis in the auditory cortex of normal hearing rats. We show that the developmental appearance of dendritic protrusions, which include both immature filopodia and mature spines, on layers 2/3, 4, and 5 pyramidal and layer 4 spiny nonpyramidal neurons occurs in three phases: slow addition of dendritic protrusions from postnatal day 4 (P4) to P9, rapid addition of dendritic protrusions from P9 to P19, and a final phase where mature protrusion density is achieved (>P21). Next, we combined DiOlistics with immunohistochemical labeling of bassoon, a presynaptic scaffolding protein, as a novel method to categorize dendritic protrusions as either filopodia or mature spines in cortex fixed in vivo. Using this method we observed an increase in the spine‐to‐filopodium ratio from P9–P16, indicating a period of rapid spine maturation. Previous studies report mature spines as being shorter in length compared to filopodia. We similarly observed a reduction in protrusion length between P9 and P16, corroborating our immunohistochemical spine maturation data. These studies show that dendritic protrusion formation and spine maturation occur rapidly at a time previously shown to correspond to auditory cortical tonotopic map refinement (P11–P14), providing a structural correlate of physiological maturation. J. Comp. Neurol. 519:3327–3345, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

BACKGROUND. The presence of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutations is a good indicator of the clinical efficacy of gefitinib in patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer. It was recently reported that the serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level could be a predictive factor for the efficacy of gefitinib treatment; therefore, it is suggested that the EGFR gene mutation is associated with the serum CEA level. The current study analyzed the association between EGFR gene mutations and clinical features, including the serum CEA level, in patients with recurrent lung adenocarcinomas. METHODS. A total of 48 lung adenocarcinoma patients with postoperative disease recurrence who underwent chemotherapy were investigated. EGFR gene mutations at exons 18, 19, and 21 were measured using surgical specimens taken from the primary tumor. RESULTS. Mutations of the EGFR gene were detected in 25 of the 48 patients and the abnormal serum CEA concentration at the time of disease recurrence was found to be significantly associated with the incidence of EGFR gene mutations (P 5 .045). The rate of EGFR gene mutations significantly increased as the serum CEA level increased (serum CEA level; <5 vs 5 <20 vs 20 5 35% vs 55% vs 87.5%, respectively, P 5 .040). A multivariate analysis revealed that a higher serum CEA level at the time of disease recurrence is independently associated with EGFR gene mutations (P 5 .036) with an odds ratio of 4.70 (95% confidence interval, 1.1-21.1). CONCLUSIONS. The serum CEA level appears to be closely associated with the presence of EGFR gene mutations in patients with pulmonary adenocarcinomas.