Background: Neogenin is expressed in cap cells that have been suggested to be mammary stem or precursor cells. Neogenin is known to play an important role in mammary morphogenesis; however its relationship to tumorigenesis remains to be elucidated.

The RUNX3 gene is regarded as a tumor suppressor gene in many human solid tumors, and its inactivation is believed to be related with solid tumor carcinogenesis. As little information is available about the role of the RUNX3 gene in breast cancer, we investigated the relationship between the RUNX3 gene and breast cancer. We performed reverse transcriptase-polymerases chain reaction (RT-PCR), methylation specific PCR, and bicolor fluorescent in situ hybridization analysis in an effort to reveal related mechanisms. Forty breast tissue samples and 13 cell lines were used in this study. Eighty-five percent of breast cancer tissues showed downregulated RUNX3 gene expression, whereas it was downregulated in only 25% of normal breast tissues by RT-PCR assay. Sixty-seven percent of breast cancer cell lines showed downregulated RUNX3 expression, but the RUNX3 gene was not expressed in two normal breast cell lines. Hypermethylation was observed in 53% of breast cancer tissues and 57% of breast cancer cell lines. Hemizygous deletion was observed in 43% of breast cancer cell lines. Hypermethylation and/or hemizygous deletion was observed in 5 of 7 breast cancer cell lines, and the four of these five examined showed no RUNX3 gene expression. We suggest that various mechanisms, including methylation and hemizygous deletion, could contribute to RUNX3 gene inactivation.

Little is known about the natural history of right colonic diverticulitis treated with conservative management. The purpose of this study was to analyze the short-term outcome of a conservative approach to the treatment of patients with acute right colonic diverticulitis. A retrospective review of the clinical and radiological findings of 62 patients with acute right colonic diverticulitis was carried out. Conservative treatment was provided to 47 patients and surgical treatment to 15 patients with the diagnosis of acute right colonic diverticulitis. An initial ultrasound was performed in 45 of 62 patients (73%) and a CT was performed in 16 of 62 patients (26%). Diverticulitis was confirmed pretreatment diagnosis in 56 of 61 (91.8%) patients who had radiological evaluation. There were seven (11.3%) pericolic abscesses identified as a complication of the diverticulitis. All 47 patients who received conservative management were successfully treated and had improvement of symptoms with no sign of clinical deterioration. For the fifteen patients who had surgery: 5 had right hemicolectomies, 8 had appendectomies without diverticulectomy, 1 had an appendectomy with diverticulectomy, and 1 had diverticulectomy alone. During a median follow-up of 23.9 months, two of 55 (3.6%) patients who did not have surgical resection for inflamed diverticulum had recurrences one and ten months after the initial treatment; they were successfully treated again with bowel rest and antibiotics without complication. Conservative treatment should be considered as a safe and effective option for acute right colonic diverticulitis. In addition, a less aggressive approach may be more suitable for recurrent diverticulitis than extended surgical resection.

Background Increasing rates of breast cancer screening have been associated with an increasing frequency of non-palpable breast lesions detection. Preoperative breast lesion localization is essential for optimizing excision accuracy. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of indocyanine green (ICG) hyaluronic acid injection as a novel mixture for localization. Methods We performed a prospective clinical trial with female patients who underwent surgery for non-palpable breast lesions. All patients were sequentially assigned to the control group (localization with activated charcoal), Test Group 1 (ICG-hyaluronic acid mixture 0.1 mL), or Test Group 2 (ICG-hyaluronic acid mixture 0.2 mL) by 1:1:1 ratio. Results A total of 44 patients were eligible for this study (Control Group = 14, Test Group 1 = 15, Test Group 2 = 15 patients). Fibroadenoma (n = 17, 38.6%) accounted for the largest proportion of diagnoses, and five patients (11.4%) were diagnosed with malignancies. There were no statistically significant differences in baseline characteristics among the three groups. The marking rate was over 86% in all groups, with no significant intergroup differences. Skin pigmentation was only observed in the control group. The mean accuracy of resection (the greatest diameter of the excised specimen divided by the greatest diameter of the preoperative lesion as observed using ultrasonography, with values closer to 1 reflecting a higher accuracy) was 3.7 in the control group, 2.2 in Test Group 1, and 2.1 in Test Group 2 (p = 0.037 between Controls and Test Group 1, p = 0.744 between Test Group 1 and Test Group 2, and p = 0.026 between Controls and Test Group 2). Conclusion ICG-hyaluronic acid injection is a novel method that was shown to accurately localize non-palpable breast lesions and was associated with no skin pigmentation. Further research is required to apply this method to malignant breast lesions. Trial registration “A Multicenter Open-label, Parallel, Phase 2 Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of LuminoMark™ Inj. (Conc. for Fluorescence) Localization in Patients with Non-palpable Breast Lesions” was prospectively registered as a trial (ClinicalTrials. gov Identifier: NCT03743259, date of registration: May 29, 2018, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03743259)