We report a case of malignant phyllodes tumor of the prostate which is the eleventh reported case in the world. Phyllodes tumor of the prostate is extremely rare and histologically resembles mammary phyllodes tumor. Phyllodes tumor of the prostate is classified into benign, borderline and malignant, but health professionals should carefully follow up the borderline cases in case they take a malignant clinical course. This case was the first to be treated by pre-and postoperative radiation therapy. Although the patient had a slight response to radiation therapy, he eventually developed metastasis. Because malignant phyllodes tumor of the prostate is a very aggressive tumor, people with the condition should undergo systemic chemotherapy as adjuvant therapy.

Two patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma presented severe exertional dyspnea because of extension of a tumor into the right side of the heart. Removable of the tumor thrombus by open-heart surgery ameliorated the symptoms in each case, but their subsequent courses differed considerably. One patient survived for as long as 8 months thanks to successive multi-disciplinary treatments, whereas the other patient died suddenly 1 month after the surgery. The first patient's hepatocellular carcinoma was more differentiated, and the dyspnea was caused by a low cardiac output due to the intracardiac tumor mass, not by pulmonary embolism as in the second patient's case. We conclude that successive multidisciplinary treatments to control the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma is the most important approach and is indispensable for improving the prognosis.

In this study, we used 7 informative microsatellite markers at 8p22, 23.1, and 23.2 in Japanese patients to compare frequency of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in 53 lesions of high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN), 38 cases (38 lesions) of incidental prostate cancer (IPC), 31 cases (41 lesions) of latent prostate cancer (LPC), and 102 cases (168 lesions) of clinical prostate cancer (CPC). The frequency of LOH at 8p22-23.2 with at least 1 marker was 0%, 33%, 57%, and 51% in the HGPIN, IPC, LPC, and CPC cases, respectively. No statistically significant difference was found at 8p22-23.2 between the types of prostate cancer. However, the frequency of 8p22 deletion was significantly higher in CPC and LPC cases than in IPC cases (P = 0.0003) or lesions (P = 0.0017). The frequency of LOH at 8p22 and 8p23.1 loci in high-grade tumors was significantly higher than in low-grade tumors in both the LPCs/IPCs and CPCs (P < 0.05). Allelic loss at 8p22 was significantly more frequent in CPC than in IPC (P = 0.002) and in pT4 CPC than in earlier-stage CPC (P = 0.038). These findings suggest that deletion of 8p is an important event in both the initiation and metastasis of prostate cancer. The extremely high frequency of LOH at 8p22-23.1 in high-grade tumors suggests the existence of a novel putative tumor-suppressor gene associated with the progression of prostate cancer. These results should be useful in identifying the target gene of deletion at 8p.

Allelic loss at 13q is not only an important event in the metastasis of prostate cancer, but also associated with the initiation of the tumor.

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