細谷 好則

Gastric cancer is a common malignancy and remains potentially lethal. The prognosis of patients with stage IV gastric cancer is thought to be poor, but new molecular targeted therapy may benefit patients with advanced gastric cancer. Currently, conversion surgery after chemotherapy with a trastuzumab-containing regimen is reported to be effective in these patients. We present 3 patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)–positive advanced gastric cancer who underwent conversion surgery after receiving a trastuzumab-containing chemotherapy regimen. Interestingly, the primary lesion acquired resistance to the trastuzumab-containing regimen, although the metastatic lesions maintained a complete response. The reason why the primary lesions became resistant to trastuzumab remains unclear. More studies are needed to clarify the mechanism of resistance. Conversion surgery, made possible by the use of molecular-targeted therapy, may improve the prognosis of patients with stage IV gastric cancer, particularly if metastatic lesions show a complete response to therapy.

As a graduation requirement for English proficiency, students in two-year advanced engineering courses need to take over 400 scores on the TOEIC test. This paper reports on an attempt to improve TOEIC scores of the second-year students, by focusing on Part 2 in Listening Section and Part 5 in Reading Section, in English classes of the 2013 and 2014 school year. The strategies taken for score improvement are listening skills training for Part 2, vocabulary enhancement, development of a solid foundation in grammar, and exercises for Part 5. Most of the students succeeded in raising their scores, but through this approach, the difficulties and problems the students tend to have in their English studies have been identified. These problems will be analyzed and discussed for a future direction of English education for students in advanced courses.