Naoki Ohmiya

BACKGROUND: Owing to the rarity of metastatic tumors in the small bowel, their clinicopathological features, and prognostic factors remain poorly understood. This study aimed to clarify the clinicopathological features and factors associated with the prognosis of patients with small bowel metastasis from other organs in Japan. METHODS: We retrospectively examined 253 patients who were histopathologically diagnosed with small bowel metastases between January 2008 and December 2017 at multiple institutions in Japan. We identified the clinicopathological features of the condition and determined the factors associated with the prognosis of these patients. RESULTS: Obstructive symptoms were the most frequent clinical presentations (39% abdominal pain and 18% vomiting), while gastrointestinal bleeding was observed in 27% of patients. The diagnostic modalities included enteroscopy (33%), balloon-assisted enteroscopy (30%), and capsule endoscopy (13%). The most common primary tumor was lung cancer (38%), followed by colorectal cancer (18%), gastric cancer (9%), and malignant melanoma (6%). Surgical intervention, including tumor resection or bypass surgery, was performed in 79% of patients. The cumulative survival rates of patients at 12, 24, and 60 months were 49%, 36%, and 22%, respectively. Multivariate analysis identified surgery as a significant factor for improving overall survival (HR = 0.56, 95% CI 0.35-0.89, p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The lung cancer is the most frequent primary tumor of metastatic tumors in the small bowel. Surgical intervention was associated with improved survival outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS), a rare genetic disorder characterized by hamartomatous gastrointestinal polyps, poses increased risks of various cancers. Despite the importance of early intervention, the optimal timing for jejunal-ileal polypectomy remains unclear owing to the limited number of comparative studies. METHODS: Herein, we conducted a nationwide survey in Japan and analyzed data from 184 patients with PJS identified through a two-stage sampling process. The initial screening of 2912 medical institutions yielded 1748 facilities, of which 1077 responded to the survey. Time-dependent Cox proportional hazards models and logistic regression analyses were used to examine the association between the timing of jejunal-ileal polypectomy and the risk of surgery for intussusception. RESULTS: Among 184 patients (47.0% women; mean age, 33.5 years), intussusception was the most common complication (67.7%). In the Cox proportional hazards analysis excluding surgeries within 1 year of diagnosis, early jejunal-ileal polypectomy was associated with a reduced risk of surgery for intussusception (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.17; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.04-0.74, p = 0.018). Logistic regression analysis showed higher odds of surgery in the late treatment group compared with the early treatment group (adjusted odds ratio, 4.26; 95% CI 1.38-13.16, p = 0.012). CONCLUSIONS: Early jejunal-ileal polypectomy may reduce the risk of intussusception in patients with PJS. However, the need for frequent endoscopic procedures must be balanced considering patient burden. These findings support the importance of early intervention and highlight the need for optimized surveillance strategies that consider clinical effectiveness and patients' quality of life.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Although biologic therapy has revolutionized the treatment of Crohn's disease (CD), surgery remains unavoidable in cases involving ileal complications. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of biologics on proximal ileal lesions using balloon-assisted enteroscopy (BAE). METHODS: This open-label multicenter prospective study was conducted at tertiary referral centers in Japan. We enrolled 253 patients with active ileal CD who were treated with biologics (infliximab/adalimumab/ustekinumab/vedolizumab). BAE was performed at week 0 and week 26, and endoscopic findings were centrally assessed. We evaluated the rate of endoscopic remission (defined as having a maximum modified Simple Endoscopic Score for Crohn's disease <4) at week 26 and patient prognosis (CD-related hospitalization and surgery). RESULTS: At baseline, 74 patients (29.2%) had proximal ileal ulcerations without terminal ileal ulcerations. The second BAE showed that endoscopic remission was achieved in 91 patients (36.0%). Of the patients with complete ulcer healing of the terminal ileum, 28.6% (22/77) had residual ulcers in the proximal ileum. The rate of endoscopic remission in the proximal ileum (50.9%) was relatively lower compared with the colon (63.4%) and terminal ileum (56.7%), a trend consistently observed across all treatment agents. After a median follow-up of 134 weeks, residual ulcerations in the proximal ileum were associated with a poorer prognosis (P = .0126 for hospitalization and P = .0014 for surgery). CONCLUSIONS: A substantial proportion of patients with CD exhibited ulcerations in the proximal ileum, which correlated with a poorer prognosis. These lesions proved challenging to heal, regardless of the type of biologic used.

AIMS: The Japan COVID-19 Survey and the Questionnaire for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (J-DESIRE) identified multiple factors associated with anxiety regarding the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, no regional differences in anxiety were observed. In this post hoc analysis of J-DESIRE, we investigated the relationship between the municipal population size at the place of residence (MPSPR) and anxiety among patients with IBD in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS AND RESULTS: We analyzed 2958 questionnaires collected from patients with IBD aged ≥ 16 years between March 2020 and June 2021. The primary endpoint was the association between the visual analogue scale (VAS) scores of anxiety and MPSPR during the COVID-19 pandemic. The mean VAS score for anxiety was higher than the overall mean VAS score in municipalities with large and small populations, while it was lower in municipalities with medium populations. Therefore, we categorized the population into three groups based on MPSPR: ≤ 150 000, 150 001-1 000 000, and ≥ 1 000 001. The three groups had different background factors, contents of anxiety, and sources of information regarding therapeutic drugs. These differences may have led to differences in the degree and content of anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: We investigated the association between anxiety in Japanese patients with IBD and MPSPR nationwide during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. The results obtained in this analysis are useful not only in special situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic but also for considering regional differences in medical care.