Tseng-Hsi Lin

• MD, MS, PhD
• Head of Department at Taichung Veterans General Hospital

Importance Thyroid hormones have been shown to affect several important pathways in cancer development, including colorectal cancer (CRC). Clinical studies examining the association between thyroid disorders and colorectal cancer have conflicting results and have predominantly involved white populations. Objective To determine if a diagnosis of hy...

Background: Immature platelet fraction (IPF) is a new biomarker for thrombopoiesis and inflammation. However, the reference interval (RI) is wildly discrepant among published reports. This study aimed to establish the RI of IPF for a population in Taiwan and evaluate the effects the detection method of the analyzer, ethnicity, and reference indivi...

Objective To evaluate whether hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism increases the risk of subsequent breast cancer in an Asian population. Design Nationwide population-based case–control study. Setting All healthcare facilities in Taiwan. Participants A total of 103 466 women (mean age 53.3 years) were enrolled. Methods 51 733 adult women with newl...

Background Regorafenib has been demonstrated as effective in refractory metastatic colorectal cancer. Combination use with chemotherapy has not been reported. We examined the efficacy and safety of adding chemotherapy to Regorafenib for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer(mCRC) patients. Methods We recruited mCRC patients at our institut...

The file contains the raw data underlying the present study. (XLSX)

Background/purpose: The incidence of multiple myeloma in Asia has risen in the past 30 years. Lenalidomide, an IMiD immunomodulatory agent, has improved the overall survival in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) when used with dexamethasone versus dexamethasone alone. This observational registry (T-CC-MM-009; NCT01752075) as...

Gastric cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide. The majority of gastric cancers are diagnosed at an advanced or metastatic stage, with a 5-year survival rate of ~5–20% and a median overall survival of <1 year. Synchronous occurrence of gastric adenocarcinoma and lymphoma is rare, and thus far there is no consensus...

Background Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is a rare and acquired hematopoietic stem cell disease, with florid clinical presentations. Although this disease has been characterized in the western countries, its clinical and laboratory features in Taiwan have not yet been reported. ResultsAs a part of an international prospective, non-inter...

Objective: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematological malignancy that presents with infection, anemia, bone lesions, renal function impairment, and hypercalcemia. The survival of MM patients has improved in recent decades; however, early mortality remains a critical problem. The aim of this study was to identify the etiologies and clinical variables...

The treatment of metastatic melanoma is challenging. BRAF gene mutation is found in 40–60% of melanoma cases, the most common being the V600E mutation. Vemurafenib was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2011 as target therapy for the treatment with BRAF V600 mutation-positive metastatic melanoma. We report a case of metastatic amelanot...

Prenatal thalassemia studies from Taiwan show that one-third of fetuses with genetic abnormalities have β-thalassemia major (β-TM). However, the phenotypes and genotypes of adult thalassemia warrant further investigation. From September 2006 to April 2014, 741 male candidates drafted for military service with mean corpuscular volume (MCV) <80 fL an...

Background Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), a component of propolis, is reported to possess anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-tumor activities. Previously, our laboratory demonstrated the in vitro and in vivo bioactivity of CAPE and addressed the role of p53 and the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway in re...

Background Stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) (CXC chemokine ligand-12)/CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) is involved in the carcinogenesis of human gastric cancer, where it stimulates angiogenesis and favors metastasis of tumor cells to distant organs. In addition, resistin is suggested to be an important link between obesity and the development...

Porphyromonas gingivalis is a major pathogen in the initiation and progression of periodontal disease, which is recognized as a common complication of diabetes. ICAM-1 expression by human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) is crucial for regulating local inflammatory responses in inflamed periodontal tissues. However, the effect of P. gingivalis in a high...

Some chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) do not respond or relapse. BCR-ABL1 mutations are the principal cause of TKI resistance, but the kinetics of emerging mutations in CML patients treated with imatinib remain to be determined. To investigate the emergence dynamics of mutations and their effects...

Franklin disease, or gamma heavy-chain disease, in patients with autoimmune disorders is a challenge for clinicians to diagnose due to its rarity, and recurrent infection is one of its characteristics. Within the spectrum of infections in Franklin disease patients, various fungi should always be considered. In this study, the authors describe a 57-...

Castleman's disease (CD) is a rare, benign lymphoproliferative disorder that can involve single lymph node stations or can be systemic. Unicentric CD in patients with microcytic anemia is rarely described in the English literature. We describe the case of a 19-year-old Chinese woman with hyaline vascular type of unicentric CD presenting as severe n...

Flavonoids have been demonstrated to exert health benefits in humans. We investigated whether the flavonoid baicalein would inhibit the adhesion, migration, invasion, and growth of human hepatoma cell lines, and we also investigated its mechanism of action. The separate effects of baicalein and baicalin on the viability of HA22T/VGH and SK-Hep1 cel...

E-selectin expression by endothelial cells (ECs) is crucial for leukocyte recruitment during the inflammatory response. Macrophage accumulation and serum E-selectin elevation are features of type 2 diabetes mellitus. However, the interactions between macrophages and ECs in regulating vascular endothelial function are not clearly understood. We inve...

In order to overcome chemotherapy resistance, many laboratories are searching for agents that increase the sensitivity of cancer cells to anticancer drugs. Arsenic trioxide (As2O3) is widely used in treating human acute polymyelocytic leukemia (APL). However, solid tumors and other leukemia cells such as U937 promonocytic leukemia cells are insensi...

Tannic acid (TA), a glucoside of gallic acid polymer, has been shown to possess anti-bacterial, anti-enzymatic, anti-tumor and astringent properties. However, the anti-cancer activity of TA in leukemia is still obscure. In this study, we showed TA-induced apoptotic death in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) HL-60 cells via dose- and time-dependent manne...

To determine if tranexamic acid could reduce the drainage duration after head and neck procedures. Prospective, randomized, controlled trial. Patients who underwent head and neck operations were included. The study group was treated with tranexamic acid during the perioperative period whereas the control group received normal saline solution. Blood...

Unlabelled: Lamivudine is effective to control hepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation in HBV-carrying cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy, but the optimal treatment protocol remains undetermined. In this study, HBV carriers with newly diagnosed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) who underwent chemotherapy were randomized to either prophylactic (P) or...

Arsenic trioxide (As2O3) exhibits promising anticarcinogenic activity in acute promyelocytic leukemic patients and induces apoptosis in various tumor cells in vitro. Here, we investigated the effect of the natural alkaloid berberine on As2O3-mediated inhibition of cancer cell migration using rat and human glioma cell lines. The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiaz...

Flavanones richly exist in citrus and have been well characterized to have various bioactive properties. However, the anti-metastasis properties of flavanones remain unclear. The anti-metastatic effects of six flavanones including flavanone, 2'-OH flavanone, 4'-OH flavanone, 6-OH flavanone, naringin, and naringenin were investigated in lung cancer...

Langerhans' cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a disorder of unknown etiology, characterized by abnormal proliferation of cells of the dendritic cell lineage. The acute disseminated form of the disease characteristically occurs in children younger than 3 years of age. More indolent forms of LCH occur primarily in older children and young adults. The progn...

Rapid and accurate diagnosis of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is essential for management of the disease, as all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) therapy only induces complete remission in patients whose leukemic cells harbor a t(15;17) translocation, resulting in promyelocytic-retinoic acid receptor alpha (PML-RAR alpha) fusion transcripts. Moreove...

Standard intensive induction chemotherapy is poorly tolerated by elderly patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). To reduce critical neutropenia after chemotherapy, we administered recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (CM-CSF) to 15 newly diagnosed elderly patients, who received full-dose induction chemotherapy...

Most ocular tumors metastasize from systemic origins in breast carcinoma in females, and bronchial carcinoma in males. Here, we report a case of choroidal carcinoma metastasis from the breast with visual problems being the only initial manifestations. In this case, both eyes were involved at almost the same time, with initial manifestation of blurr...

Lymphomas occurring in nasal cavities and paranasal sinuses are uncommon neoplasms in Western, but are reported to be higher in Oriental, countries. A retrospective study was performed to analyze the clinical and pathological characteristics of sinonasal lymphomas/polymorphic reticulosis at Taichung Veterans General Hospital during a 14-year period...

A 62-year-old woman with hypocellular acute myelogenous leukemia experienced spontaneous remission after repeated episodes of severe infections. Transient surge of profuse blasts in the peripheral blood was observed prior to the occurrence of spontaneous remission. The duration of the spontaneous remission was relatively short, and the disease rela...

Plain chest film is the most convenient and common tool used to evaluate the response of lung cancer to chemotherapy. Many authors tried to evaluate the use of plain chest films to predict chemotherapy response. This study investigated a new factor which could be used to predict the chemotherapy response of small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Sixty-two...