While radiation increases the risk of lung cancer among members of the Life Span Study (LSS) cohort of atomic-bomb survivors, there are still important questions about the nature of its interaction with smoking, the predominant cause of lung cancer. Among 105,404 LSS subjects, 1,803 primary lung cancer incident cases were identified for the period 1958–1999. Individual smoking history information and the latest radiation dose estimates were utilized to investigate the joint effects of radiation and smoking on lung cancer rates using Poisson grouped survival regression methods. Relative to never-smokers lung cancer risks increased with the amount and duration of smoking, and decreased with time since quitting smoking at any level of radiation exposure. Models assuming generalized interactions of smoking and radiation fit markedly better than simple additive or multiplicative interaction models. The joint effect appeared to be super-multiplicative for light/moderate-smokers, with a rapid increase in excess risk with smoking intensity up to about 10 cigarettes per day, but additive or sub-additive for heavy-smokers smoking a pack or more per day, with little indication of any radiation-associated excess risk. The gender-averaged excess relative risk per Gy of lung cancer (at age 70 after radiation exposure at 30) was estimated as 0.59 (95% confidence interval: 0.31–1.00) for non-smokers with a female:male ratio of 3.1. About one-third of the lung cancer cases in this cohort were estimated to be attributable to smoking while about 7% were associated with radiation. The joint effect of smoking and radiation on lung cancer in the LSS is dependent on smoking intensity, and best described by the generalized interaction model rather than a simple additive or multiplicative model.

Thin films of garnet-type Al-doped Li7La3Zr2O12 (LLZ) are prepared by the sol-gel process. Thin films are prepared on MgO substrates by a dip-coating process using a precursor sol from Zr-alkoxide and Li, La and Al nitrates. After the dip-coating, the dried films are calcined at 450°C to get precursor films. When the precursor films are heat-treated at 900°C in an alumina crucible, La2Zr2O7 is mainly obtained. With coexistence of Li2CO3 powders in the crucible during the heat-treatment at 900°C, thin film of polycrystalline cubic LLZ is obtained. Addition of an ionic surfactant, lithium dodecylsulfate, improves the quality of the thin films, and the thin film heat-treated at 900°C with coexistence of Li2CO3 powders in the crucible shows the ionic conductivity of 2.4×10-6 S cm-1 at 25°C.

While the risk of lung cancer associated separately with smoking and radiation exposure has been widely reported, it is not clear how smoking and radiation together contribute to the risk of specific lung cancer histological types. With individual smoking histories and radiation dose estimates, we characterized the joint effects of radiation and smoking on type-specific lung cancer rates among the Life Span Study cohort of Japanese atomic bomb survivors. Among 105,404 cohort subjects followed between 1958 and 1999, 1,803 first primary lung cancer incident cases were diagnosed and classified by histological type. Poisson regression methods were used to estimate excess relative risks under several interaction models. Adenocarcinoma (636 cases), squamous-cell carcinoma (330) and small-cell carcinoma (194) made up 90% of the cases with known histology. Both smoking and radiation exposure significantly increased the risk of each major lung cancer histological type. Smoking-associated excess relative risks were significantly larger for small-cell and squamous-cell carcinomas than for adenocarcinoma. The gender-averaged excess relative risks per 1 Gy of radiation (for never-smokers at age 70 after radiation exposure at age 30) were estimated as 1.49 (95% confidence interval 0.1–4.6) for small-cell carcinoma, 0.75 (0.3–1.3) for adenocarcinoma, and 0.27 (0–1.5) for squamous-cell carcinoma. Under a model allowing radiation effects to vary with levels of smoking, the nature of the joint effect of smoking and radiation showed a similar pattern for different histological types in which the radiation-associated excess relative risk tended to be larger for moderate smokers than for heavy smokers. However, in contrast to analyses of all lung cancers as a group, such complicated interactions did not describe the data significantly better than either simple additive or multiplicative interaction models for any of the type-specific analyses.

A 70-year-old man was referred to our department due to abnormal shadows on a chest radiograph. Computed tomography of the chest revealed a 3-cm nodule in the right middle lung lobe, and bronchoscopy revealed adenocarcinoma cells with EGFR mutations. A lung resection was performed. Histological analysis revealed tumors comprising tall columnar cells that were similar to an adenocarcinoma of the sigmoid colon that had been resected 13 years previously. Metastatic colorectal carcinoma was initially considered, but immunohistochemical staining indicated pulmonary enteric adenocarcinoma. Pulmonary enteric adenocarcinoma was first described in 1991, and about 30 cases have since been described in the English literature. However, its concept and etiology are not clear. It is important to distinguish pulmonary enteric adenocarcinoma from metastatic colorectal carcinoma because of obvious differences in therapeutic strategies and prognosis, especially with a past history of colorectal carcinoma. Immunohistochemical and gene mutation analyses seemed to be helpful.

A case of Bence Jones kappa multiple myeloma with meningeal involvement in a 64-year-old woman is presented. Three years after the diagnosis of multiple myeloma, gait disturbances developed followed by visual disorders and impaired consciousness. A lumbar puncture revealed numerous atypical plasma cells in the cerebrospinal fluid. Craniospinal irradiation and intrathecal injections of methotrexate, cytarabine, and prednisolone were effective for a short period. At autopsy, the leptomeninges were infiltrated diffusely with atypical plasma cells. A review of the literature showed that multiple myeloma with meningeal involvement is accompanied frequently by circulating atypical plasma cells or plasma cell leukemia. Meningeal involvement is a rare complication and shows poor prognosis in cases of multiple myeloma.