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Sample records for specific cancers include

  1. Extensions of the Rosner-Colditz breast cancer prediction model to include older women and type-specific predicted risk.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glynn, Robert J; Colditz, Graham A; Tamimi, Rulla M; Chen, Wendy Y; Hankinson, Susan E; Willett, Walter W; Rosner, Bernard

    2017-08-01

    A breast cancer risk prediction rule previously developed by Rosner and Colditz has reasonable predictive ability. We developed a re-fitted version of this model, based on more than twice as many cases now including women up to age 85, and further extended it to a model that distinguished risk factor prediction of tumors with different estrogen/progesterone receptor status. We compared the calibration and discriminatory ability of the original, the re-fitted, and the type-specific models. Evaluation used data from the Nurses' Health Study during the period 1980-2008, when 4384 incident invasive breast cancers occurred over 1.5 million person-years. Model development used two-thirds of study subjects and validation used one-third. Predicted risks in the validation sample from the original and re-fitted models were highly correlated (ρ = 0.93), but several parameters, notably those related to use of menopausal hormone therapy and age, had different estimates. The re-fitted model was well-calibrated and had an overall C-statistic of 0.65. The extended, type-specific model identified several risk factors with varying associations with occurrence of tumors of different receptor status. However, this extended model relative to the prediction of any breast cancer did not meaningfully reclassify women who developed breast cancer to higher risk categories, nor women remaining cancer free to lower risk categories. The re-fitted Rosner-Colditz model has applicability to risk prediction in women up to age 85, and its discrimination is not improved by consideration of varying associations across tumor subtypes.

  2. Risk Factors for Breast Cancer, Including Occupational Exposures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elisabete Weiderpass

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available The knowledge on the etiology of breast cancer has advanced substantially in recent years, and several etiological factors are now firmly established. However, very few new discoveries have been made in relation to occupational risk factors. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has evaluated over 900 different exposures or agents to-date to determine whether they are carcinogenic to humans. These evaluations are published as a series of Monographs (www.iarc.fr. For breast cancer the following substances have been classified as “carcinogenic to humans” (Group 1: alcoholic beverages, exposure to diethylstilbestrol, estrogen-progestogen contraceptives, estrogen-progestogen hormone replacement therapy and exposure to X-radiation and gamma-radiation (in special populations such as atomic bomb survivors, medical patients, and in-utero exposure. Ethylene oxide is also classified as a Group 1 carcinogen, although the evidence for carcinogenicity in epidemiologic studies, and specifically for the human breast, is limited. The classification “probably carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2A includes estrogen hormone replacement therapy, tobacco smoking, and shift work involving circadian disruption, including work as a flight attendant. If the association between shift work and breast cancer, the most common female cancer, is confirmed, shift work could become the leading cause of occupational cancer in women.

  3. Rare thoracic cancers, including peritoneum mesothelioma

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Siesling, Sabine; van der Zwan, Jan Maarten; Izarzugaza, Isabel; Jaal, Jana; Treasure, Tom; Foschi, Roberto; Ricardi, Umberto; Groen, Harry; Tavilla, Andrea; Ardanaz, Eva

    Rare thoracic cancers include those of the trachea, thymus and mesothelioma (including peritoneum mesothelioma). The aim of this study was to describe the incidence, prevalence and survival of rare thoracic tumours using a large database, which includes cancer patients diagnosed from 1978 to 2002,

  4. Rare thoracic cancers, including peritoneum mesothelioma

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Siesling, Sabine; Zwan, J.M.V.D.; Izarzugaza, I.; Jaal, J.; Treasure, T.; Foschi, R.; Ricardi, U.; Groen, H.; Tavilla, A.; Ardanaz, E.

    2012-01-01

    Rare thoracic cancers include those of the trachea, thymus and mesothelioma (including peritoneum mesothelioma). The aim of this study was to describe the incidence, prevalence and survival of rare thoracic tumours using a large database, which includes cancer patients diagnosed from 1978 to 2002,

  5. The situation-specific theory of pain experience for Asian American cancer patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Im, Eun-Ok

    2008-01-01

    Studies have indicated the need for theories that explain and target ethnic-specific cancer pain experiences, including those of Asian Americans. In this article, I present a situation-specific theory that explains the unique cancer pain experience of Asian Americans. Unlike other existing theories, this situation-specific theory was developed on the basis of evidence, including a systematic literature review and research findings, making it comprehensive and highly applicable to research and practice with Asian American patients with cancer. Thus, this theory would strengthen the interconnections among theory, evidence, and practice in pain management for Asian American cancer patients.

  6. Cancer Chemotherapy Specific to Acidic Nests.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kobayashi, Hiroshi

    2017-04-20

    The realization of cancer therapeutics specific to cancer cells with less of an effect on normal tissues is our goal. Many trials have been carried out for this purpose, but this goal is still far from being realized. It was found more than 80 years ago that solid cancer nests are acidified, but in vitro studies under acidic conditions have not been extensively studied. Recently, in vitro experiments under acidic conditions were started and anti-cancer drugs specific to acidic areas have been identified. Many genes have been reported to be expressed at a high level under acidic conditions, and such genes may be potent targets for anti-cancer drugs specific to acidic nests. In this review article, recent in vitro, in vivo, and clinical achievements in anti-cancer drugs with marked efficacy under acidic conditions are summarized, and the clinical use of anti-cancer drugs specific to acidic nests is discussed.

  7. Tissue Specific Promoters in Colorectal Cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. R. Rama

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Colorectal carcinoma is the third most prevalent cancer in the world. In the most advanced stages, the use of chemotherapy induces a poor response and is usually accompanied by other tissue damage. Significant progress based on suicide gene therapy has demonstrated that it may potentiate the classical cytotoxic effects in colorectal cancer. The inconvenience still rests with the targeting and the specificity efficiency. The main target of gene therapy is to achieve an effective vehicle to hand over therapeutic genes safely into specific cells. One possibility is the use of tumor-specific promoters overexpressed in cancers. They could induce a specific expression of therapeutic genes in a given tumor, increasing their localized activity. Several promoters have been assayed into direct suicide genes to cancer cells. This review discusses the current status of specific tumor-promoters and their great potential in colorectal carcinoma treatment.

  8. A mixed-method study on the generic and ostomy-specific quality of life of cancer and non-cancer ostomy patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jansen, Femke; van Uden-Kraan, Cornelia F; Braakman, J Annemieke; van Keizerswaard, Paulina M; Witte, Birgit I; Verdonck-de Leeuw, Irma M

    2015-06-01

    The aim of this study is to compare the generic and ostomy-specific quality of life (QoL) between cancer and non-cancer ostomy patients using a mixed-method design. All patients with an ostomy participating in the Stomapanel of the Dutch Ostomy Association were asked to complete a generic (RAND-36) and ostomy-specific (Stoma-QoL) QoL questionnaire. In addition, open-ended questions on symptoms, restrictions or adaptations influencing daily life were included. The generic and ostomy-specific QoL between cancer and non-cancer ostomy patients were compared using linear regression analyses. Qualitative responses were analysed using content analysis. In total, 668 patients were included: 379 cancer patients (80 % colorectal, 17 % bladder and 3 % other) and 289 non-cancer patients (38 % colitis ulcerosa, 22 % Crohn's disease and 40 % other) with a colostomy (55 %), ileostomy (31 %) and/or urostomy (16 %). Adjusted for gender, age, type of ostomy and time elapsed since ostomy surgery, cancer ostomy patients scored higher (better) on Stoma-QoL (β = 2.1) and all RAND-36 domains (9.1 ostomy patients. Of the 33 themes coded for in the content analysis, fatigue or sleeplessness, leakages, pain, bladder or bowel complaints, physical functioning or activity, travelling or being away from home, other daily activities (including work), clothing and diet were among the 10 most frequently reported themes, although ranking differed between both patient groups. Besides, cancer ostomy patients frequently reported on the impact on (engaging in a) relationship or sexual intimacy and non-cancer ostomy patients frequently reported to be relieved of symptoms and restrictions in daily life. Cancer patients reported better generic and ostomy-specific QoL than non-cancer ostomy patients. In both cancer and non-cancer ostomy patients, fatigue or sleeplessness, leakages, pain, bladder or bowel complaints, physical functioning or activity, travelling or being away from home, other daily

  9. Influence of specific comorbidities on survival after early-stage breast cancer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ewertz, Marianne; Land, Lotte Holm; Dalton, Susanne Oksbjerg

    2018-01-01

    elevated for patients with prior myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, cerebrovascular disease, connective tissue disease, ulcer disease, and diabetes. The similar effect of adjuvant treatment in patients with and without comorbidity underlines the importance of adhering to guideline therapy.......BACKGROUND: While comorbidity indices are useful for describing trends in survival, information on specific comorbidities is needed for the clinician advising the individual breast cancer patient on her treatment. Here we present an analysis of overall survival, breast cancer-specific mortality......, and effect of medical adjuvant treatment among breast cancer patients suffering from 12 major comorbidities compared with breast cancer patients without comorbidities. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study population was identified from the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group and included 59,673 women without...

  10. Should abdominal sequences be included in prostate cancer MR staging studies?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McEvoy, S.H.; Lavelle, L.P.; Purcell, Y.M.; Quinlan, D.M.; Skehan, S.J.; Collins, C.D.; McMahon, C.J.

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • ESUR guideline that abdominal MR sequences are reserved for high-risk prostate cancer is tested. • Routine abdominal sequences are of low yield in prostate cancer MR staging. • Routine abdominal staging sequences frequently result in incidental findings. • Abdominal staging sequences should be reserved for high-risk prostate cancer cases. - Abstract: Objectives: Prostate cancer staging MR examinations commonly include abdominal sequences to assess for non-regional (common iliac or para-aortic) nodal metastasis. In our experience the diagnostic yield of this is limited, but incidental findings are frequent, often necessitating further investigations. The aim of this study is to assess the diagnostic utility of abdominal sequences in routine prostate cancer MR staging studies. Methods: Findings on abdominal sequences of consecutive MRI prostate studies performed for staging newly diagnosed prostate cancer between September 2011 and September 2013 were reviewed with respect to adenopathy and additional incidental findings. Results were correlated with Gleason grade and serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level in each case. Results: 355 MRI prostate examinations were reviewed. 4 (1.1%) showed enlarged non-regional lymph nodes. Incidental findings were found in 82(23.1%) cases, neccessitating further investigation in 45 (12.7%) cases. Enlarged non-regional nodes were associated with higher PSA level and Gleason grade (p = 0.007, p = 0.005 respectively). With a combined threshold of PSA > 20 ng/mL and/or Gleason grade ≥8 the sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV were 100, 60, 3 and 100% respectively for predicting the presence of non-regional adenopathy. Conclusions: Routine abdominal sequences are of very low yield in routine prostate cancer MR staging, frequently resulting in incidental findings requiring further work-up and should be reserved for high-risk cases. Our experience supports the use of an abdominal staging sequence in high

  11. Elevated Cancer-Specific Mortality Among HIV-Infected Patients in the United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coghill, Anna E; Shiels, Meredith S; Suneja, Gita; Engels, Eric A

    2015-07-20

    Despite advances in the treatment of HIV, HIV-infected people remain at increased risk for many cancers, and the number of non-AIDS-defining cancers is increasing with the aging of the HIV-infected population. No prior study has comprehensively evaluated the effect of HIV on cancer-specific mortality. We identified cases of 14 common cancers occurring from 1996 to 2010 in six US states participating in a linkage of cancer and HIV/AIDS registries. We used Cox regression to examine the association between patient HIV status and death resulting from the presenting cancer (ascertained from death certificates), adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, year of cancer diagnosis, and cancer stage. We included 1,816,461 patients with cancer, 6,459 (0.36%) of whom were HIV infected. Cancer-specific mortality was significantly elevated in HIV-infected compared with HIV-uninfected patients for many cancers: colorectum (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.49; 95% CI, 1.21 to 1.84), pancreas (HR, 1.71; 95% CI, 1.35 to 2.18), larynx (HR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.06 to 2.47), lung (HR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.17 to 1.39), melanoma (HR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.09 to 2.70), breast (HR, 2.61; 95% CI, 2.06 to 3.31), and prostate (HR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.02 to 2.41). HIV was not associated with increased cancer-specific mortality for anal cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma, or diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. After further adjustment for cancer treatment, HIV remained associated with elevated cancer-specific mortality for common non-AIDS-defining cancers: colorectum (HR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.09 to 1.80), lung (HR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.14 to 1.44), melanoma (HR, 1.93; 95% CI, 1.14 to 3.27), and breast (HR, 2.64; 95% CI, 1.86 to 3.73). HIV-infected patients with cancer experienced higher cancer-specific mortality than HIV-uninfected patients, independent of cancer stage or receipt of cancer treatment. The elevation in cancer-specific mortality among HIV-infected patients may be attributable to unmeasured stage or treatment differences as well

  12. Site-specific cancer risk in the Baltic cohort of Chernobyl cleanup workers, 1986-2007.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rahu, Kaja; Hakulinen, Timo; Smailyte, Giedre; Stengrevics, Aivars; Auvinen, Anssi; Inskip, Peter D; Boice, John D; Rahu, Mati

    2013-09-01

    To assess site-specific cancer risk in the Baltic cohort of Chernobyl cleanup workers, 1986-2007. The Baltic cohort includes 17,040 men from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who participated in the environmental cleanup after the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in 1986-1991 and who were followed up for cancer incidence until the end of 2007. Cancer cases diagnosed in the cohort and in the male population of each country were identified from the respective national cancer registers. The proportional incidence ratio (PIR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to estimate the site-specific cancer risk in the cohort. For comparison and as it was possible, the site-specific standardised incidence ratio (SIR) was calculated for the Estonian sub-cohort, which was not feasible for the other countries. Overall, 756 cancer cases were reported during 1986-2007. A higher proportion of thyroid cancers in relation to the male population was found (PIR=2.76; 95%CI 1.63-4.36), especially among those who started their mission shortly after the accident, in April-May 1986 (PIR=6.38; 95%CI 2.34-13.89). Also, an excess of oesophageal cancers was noted (PIR=1.52; 95% CI 1.06-2.11). No increased PIRs for leukaemia or radiation-related cancer sites combined were observed. PIRs and SIRs for the Estonian sub-cohort demonstrated the same site-specific cancer risk pattern. Consistent evidence of an increase in radiation-related cancers in the Baltic cohort was not observed with the possible exception of thyroid cancer, where conclusions are hampered by known medical examination including thyroid screening among cleanup workers. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Review article: Prostate cancer screening using prostate specific ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Background: Prostate cancer is the commonest cancer among men in Nigeria and early detection is key to cure and survival but its screening through prostate specific antigen (PSA) has remain controversial in literature. Screening with prostate specific antigen (PSA) has led to more men diagnosed with prostate cancer than ...

  14. Cause-specific mortality in HPV+ and HPV- oropharyngeal cancer patients

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nørregaard, Cecilie; Grønhøj, Christian; Jensen, David

    2018-01-01

    Identifying the causes of death in head and neck cancer patients can optimize follow-up and therapeutic strategies, but studies in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) patients stratified by HPV status are lacking. We report cause-specific mortality in a population-based cohort of patients...... with OPSCC. Patients who had been diagnosed with OPSCC (n = 1541) between 2000 and 2014 in eastern Denmark were included in the study. Causes of death were collected through medical files and the Danish National Cause of Death registry. Deaths were grouped as (1) primary oropharyngeal cancer, (2) secondary...... malignancies, (3) cardiovascular and pulmonary disease, or (4) other/unspecified. The cumulative incidence of death and specific causes of death were determined using risk analysis. At follow-up, 723 (47.5%) patients had died. The median time to and cause of death were determined: oropharyngeal cancer (n = 432...

  15. Transrectal ultrasound in detecting prostate cancer compared with serum total prostate-specific antigen levels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tamsel, S.; Killi, R.; Demirpolat, G.; Hekimgil, M.; Soydan, S.; Altay, B.

    2008-01-01

    We carried out a retrospective study to review the efficiency of grey-scale transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS) in detecting prostate cancer compared with the data in recent published work, including alternative imaging methods of the prostate gland. Our study group consisted of 830 patients who underwent TRUS-guided biopsy of the prostate between May 2000 and June 2004. The relation between abnormal TRUS findings and serum total prostate-specific antigen (tPSA) levels was evaluated in patients with prostate cancer who were divided into three different groups according to serum tPSA levels. Group I included patients with tPSA levels of 4-9.9 ng/mL, group II included tPSA levels of 10-19.9 ng/mL and group III included patients with tPSA levels of 20 ng/mL or more. In general, TRUS detected 185 (64%) of 291 cancers with a specificity of 89%, a PPV of 76% and an accuracy of 80%. TRUS findings enabled the correct identification of 22 (56%) of the 39 cancers in group I, 28 (30%) of the 93 cancers in group II and 135 (85%) of the 159 cancers in group III. In conclusion, TRUS alone has a limited potential to identify prostate cancer, especially in patients with tPSA levels lower than 20 ng/mL. Therefore, increased numbers of systematically placed biopsy cores must be taken or alternative imaging methods are required to direct TRUS-guided biopsy for improving prostate cancer detection.

  16. Discovery of cancer common and specific driver gene sets

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Cancer is known as a disease mainly caused by gene alterations. Discovery of mutated driver pathways or gene sets is becoming an important step to understand molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis. However, systematically investigating commonalities and specificities of driver gene sets among multiple cancer types is still a great challenge, but this investigation will undoubtedly benefit deciphering cancers and will be helpful for personalized therapy and precision medicine in cancer treatment. In this study, we propose two optimization models to de novo discover common driver gene sets among multiple cancer types (ComMDP) and specific driver gene sets of one certain or multiple cancer types to other cancers (SpeMDP), respectively. We first apply ComMDP and SpeMDP to simulated data to validate their efficiency. Then, we further apply these methods to 12 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and obtain several biologically meaningful driver pathways. As examples, we construct a common cancer pathway model for BRCA and OV, infer a complex driver pathway model for BRCA carcinogenesis based on common driver gene sets of BRCA with eight cancer types, and investigate specific driver pathways of the liquid cancer lymphoblastic acute myeloid leukemia (LAML) versus other solid cancer types. In these processes more candidate cancer genes are also found. PMID:28168295

  17. Low penetrance breast cancer susceptibility loci are associated with specific breast tumor subtypes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Broeks, Annegien; Schmidt, Marjanka K; Sherman, Mark E

    2011-01-01

    Breast cancers demonstrate substantial biological, clinical and etiological heterogeneity. We investigated breast cancer risk associations of eight susceptibility loci identified in GWAS and two putative susceptibility loci in candidate genes in relation to specific breast tumor subtypes. Subtype...... stratification might help in the identification and characterization of novel risk factors for breast cancer subtypes. This may eventually result in further improvements in prevention, early detection and treatment.......Breast cancers demonstrate substantial biological, clinical and etiological heterogeneity. We investigated breast cancer risk associations of eight susceptibility loci identified in GWAS and two putative susceptibility loci in candidate genes in relation to specific breast tumor subtypes. Subtypes...... were defined by five markers (ER, PR, HER2, CK5/6, EGFR) and other pathological and clinical features. Analyses included up to 30 040 invasive breast cancer cases and 53 692 controls from 31 studies within the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. We confirmed previous reports of stronger associations...

  18. Site-specific cancer risk in the Baltic cohort of Chernobyl cleanup workers, 1986–2007

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rahu, Kaja; Hakulinen, Timo; Smailyte, Giedre; Stengrevics, Aivars; Auvinen, Anssi; Inskip, Peter D.; Boice, John D.; Rahu, Mati

    2013-01-01

    Objective To assess site-specific cancer risk in the Baltic cohort of Chernobyl cleanup workers 1986–2007. Methods The Baltic cohort includes 17,040 men from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who participated in the environmental cleanup after the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in 1986–1991, and who were followed for cancer incidence until the end of 2007. Cancer cases diagnosed in the cohort and in the male population of each country were identified from the respective national cancer registers. The proportional incidence ratio (PIR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to estimate the site-specific cancer risk in the cohort. For comparison and as it was possible, the site-specific standardized incidence ratio (SIR) was calculated for the Estonian sub-cohort, which was not feasible for the other countries. Results Overall, 756 cancer cases were reported during 1986–2007. A higher proportion of thyroid cancers in relation to the male population was found (PIR=2.76; 95%CI 1.63–4.36), especially among those who started their mission shortly after the accident, in April–May 1986 (PIR=6.38; 95% CI 2.34–13.89). Also, an excess of oesophageal cancers was noted (PIR=1.52; 95% CI 1.06–2.11). No increased PIRs for leukaemia or radiation-related cancer sites combined were observed. PIRs and SIRs for the Estonian sub-cohort demonstrated the same site-specific cancer risk pattern. Conclusion Consistent evidence of an increase in radiation-related cancers in the Baltic cohort was not observed with the possible exception of thyroid cancer, where conclusions are hampered by known medical examination including thyroid screening among cleanup workers. PMID:23683549

  19. Negative cancer stereotypes and disease-specific self-concept in head and neck cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Janice C; Payne, Ada Y M; Mah, Kenneth; Lebel, Sophie; Lee, Ruth N F; Irish, Jonathan; Rodin, Gary; Devins, Gerald M

    2013-05-01

    Life-threatening diseases, such as head and neck cancer (HNCa), can stimulate the emergence of a new disease-specific self-concept. We hypothesized that (i) negative cancer-stereotypes invoke distancing, which inhibits the adoption of a disease-specific self-concept and (ii) patient characteristics, disease and treatment factors, and cancer-related stressors moderate the phenomenon. Head and neck cancer outpatients (N = 522) completed a semantic-differential measure of disease-specific self-concept (perceived similarity to the 'cancer patient') and other self-report measures in structured interviews. Negative cancer-stereotypes were represented by the number of semantic-differential dimensions (0-3) along which respondents evaluated the stereotypic 'cancer patient' negatively (i.e., negative valence). We tested the two-way interactions between negative valence and hypothesized moderator variables. We observed significant negative valence × moderator interactions for the following: (i) patient characteristics (education, employment, social networks); (ii) disease and treatment factors (cancer-symptom burden); and (iii) cancer-related stressors (uncertainty, lack of information, and existential threats). Negative cancer stereotypes were consistently associated with distancing of self from the stereotypic 'cancer patient,' but the effect varied across moderator variables. All significant moderators (except employment and social networks) were associated with increasing perceived similarity to the 'cancer patient' when respondents maintained negative stereotypes; perceived similarity decreased when people were employed or had extensive social networks. Moderator effects were less pronounced when respondents did not endorse negative cancer stereotypes. When they hold negative stereotypes, people with HNCa distance themselves from a 'cancer patient' identity to preserve self-esteem or social status, but exposure to cancer-related stressors and adaptive demands may

  20. Similarities in the Age-Specific Incidence of Colon and Testicular Cancers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soto-Ortiz, Luis; Brody, James P

    2013-01-01

    Colon cancers are thought to be an inevitable result of aging, while testicular cancers are thought to develop in only a small fraction of men, beginning in utero. These models of carcinogenesis are, in part, based upon age-specific incidence data. The specific incidence for colon cancer appears to monotonically increase with age, while that of testicular cancer increases to a maximum value at about 35 years of age, then declines to nearly zero by the age of 80. We hypothesized that the age-specific incidence for these two cancers is similar; the apparent difference is caused by a longer development time for colon cancer and the lack of age-specific incidence data for people over 84 years of age. Here we show that a single distribution can describe the age-specific incidence of both colon carcinoma and testicular cancer. Furthermore, this distribution predicts that the specific incidence of colon cancer should reach a maximum at about age 90 and then decrease. Data on the incidence of colon carcinoma for women aged 85-99, acquired from SEER and the US Census, is consistent with this prediction. We conclude that the age specific data for testicular cancers and colon cancers is similar, suggesting that the underlying process leading to the development of these two forms of cancer may be similar.

  1. Similarities in the Age-Specific Incidence of Colon and Testicular Cancers.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luis Soto-Ortiz

    Full Text Available Colon cancers are thought to be an inevitable result of aging, while testicular cancers are thought to develop in only a small fraction of men, beginning in utero. These models of carcinogenesis are, in part, based upon age-specific incidence data. The specific incidence for colon cancer appears to monotonically increase with age, while that of testicular cancer increases to a maximum value at about 35 years of age, then declines to nearly zero by the age of 80. We hypothesized that the age-specific incidence for these two cancers is similar; the apparent difference is caused by a longer development time for colon cancer and the lack of age-specific incidence data for people over 84 years of age. Here we show that a single distribution can describe the age-specific incidence of both colon carcinoma and testicular cancer. Furthermore, this distribution predicts that the specific incidence of colon cancer should reach a maximum at about age 90 and then decrease. Data on the incidence of colon carcinoma for women aged 85-99, acquired from SEER and the US Census, is consistent with this prediction. We conclude that the age specific data for testicular cancers and colon cancers is similar, suggesting that the underlying process leading to the development of these two forms of cancer may be similar.

  2. Prostate-specific antigen: does the current evidence support its use in prostate cancer screening?

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Duffy, Michael J

    2012-02-01

    Although widely used, the value of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in screening asymptomatic men for prostate cancer is controversial. Reasons for the controversy relate to PSA being less than an ideal marker in detecting early prostate cancer, the possibility that screening for prostate cancer may result in the overdetection and thus overtreatment of indolent disease and the lack of clarity as to the definitive or best treatment for men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer. Although the results from some randomized prospective trials suggest that screening with PSA reduces mortality from prostate cancer, the overall benefit was modest. It is thus currently unclear as to whether the modest benefit of reduced mortality outweighs the harms of overdetection and overtreatment. Thus, prior to undergoing screening for prostate cancer, men should be informed of the risks and benefits of early detection. Newly emerging markers that may complement PSA in the early detection of prostate cancer include specific isoforms of PSA and PCA3.

  3. Production of prostate-specific antigen by a breast cancer cell line, Sk-Br-3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kamali Sarvestani, E.; Ghaderi, A.

    2002-01-01

    Prostate-specific antigen is a 33-KDa serine protease that is produced predominantly by prostate epithelium. However, it has been shown that about 30-40% of female breast tumors produce prostate-specific antigen and its production is associated with the presence of estrogen and progesterone receptors. We have now developed a new tissue culture system to study prostate-specific antigen production in breast cancer and its association with prognostic factors such as progesterone receptor and c-erbB-2. For this purpose we investigated the ability of prostate-specific antigen production in five different cell lines, including two breast cancer cell lines, Sk-Br-3 and MDA-MB-453. The prostate-specific antigen in tissue culture supernatant and cytoplasm of the Sk-Br-3 cell line was detected by western blotting and immunoperoxidase, respectively. Furthermore, we found lower expression of c-erbB-2 in Sk-Br-3 than non-prostate-specific antigen producer breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-453. Progesterone receptor was expressed by both prostate-specific antigen-positive and -negative cell lines and only the intensity of staining and the number of positive cells in Sk-Br-3 population was higher than MDA-MB-453. According to our findings prostate-specific antigen can be considered as a good prognostic factor in breast cancer and we suggest that these two cell lines are a good in vitro model to study the relationship of different breast cancer prognostic factors and their regulations

  4. Cancer-specific self-efficacy and psychosocial and functional adaptation to early stage breast cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manne, Sharon L; Ostroff, Jamie S; Norton, Tina R; Fox, Kevin; Grana, Generosa; Goldstein, Lori

    2006-04-01

    Although self-efficacy is considered a key psychological resource in adapting to chronic physical illness, this construct has received less attention among individuals coping with cancer. To examine changes in cancer self-efficacy over time among women with early stage breast cancer and associations between task-specific domains of self-efficacy and specific psychological, relationship, and functional outcomes. Ninety-five women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer completed surveys postsurgery and 1 year later. Cancer-related self-efficacy was relatively stable over 1 year, with only 2 domains of efficacy-(a) Activity Management and (b) Self-Satisfaction-evidencing significant increases over the 1-year time period. Cross-sectional findings were relatively consistent with predictions and suggested that specific domains of self-efficacy were more strongly related to relevant domains of adaptation. Longitudinal findings were not as consistent with the domain-specificity hypothesis but did suggest several predictive associations between self-efficacy and outcomes. Personal Management self-efficacy was associated with higher relationship satisfaction, higher Communication Self-Efficacy was associated with less functional impairment, and higher Affective Management self-efficacy was associated with higher self-esteem 1 year later. Specific domains of cancer-related self-efficacy are most closely related to relevant areas of adaptation when considered cross-sectionally, but further study is needed to clarify the nature of these relationships over time.

  5. Clinical problems of multiple primary cancers including head and neck cancers. From the viewpoint of radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nishio, Masamichi; Myojin, Miyako; Nishiyama, Noriaki; Taguchi, Hiroshi; Takagi, Masaru; Tanaka, Katsuhiko

    2003-01-01

    A total of 2144 head and neck cancers were treated by radiotherapy at the National Sapporo Hospital between 1974 and 2001. Of these, 313 (14.6%) were found to have other primary cancers besides head and neck cancer, in which double cancers were 79% and triple or more cancers were 21%. Frequency according to primary site of the first head and neck cancer was oral cavity: 107/603 (17.7%), epipharynx cancer: 7/117 (6.0%), oropharyngeal cancer: 63/257 (24.5%), hypopharyngeal cancer: 65/200 (32.5%), laryngeal cancer: 114/558 (20.4%), and nose/paranasal sinus: 4.9% respectively. Esophageal cancer, head and neck cancer, lung cancer and gastric cancer were very frequent as other primary sites combined with the head and neck. The first onset region was the head and neck in 233 out of 313 cases with multiple primary cancers. The five-year survival rate from the onset of head and neck cancers is 52%, 10-year: 30%, and 5-year cause-specific survival rate 82%, and 10-year: 78%, respectively. The treatment possibilities in multiple primary cancers tend to be limited because the treatment areas are sometimes overlapped. New approaches to the treatment of multiple primary cancers should be considered in the future. (author)

  6. Cancer-specific mortality of Asian Americans diagnosed with cancer: a nationwide population-based assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trinh, Quoc-Dien; Nguyen, Paul L; Leow, Jeffrey J; Dalela, Deepansh; Chao, Grace F; Mahal, Brandon A; Nayak, Manan; Schmid, Marianne; Choueiri, Toni K; Aizer, Ayal A

    2015-06-01

    Racial disparities in cancer survival outcomes have been primarily attributed to underlying biologic mechanisms and the quality of cancer care received. Because prior literature shows little difference exists in the socioeconomic status of non-Hispanic whites and Asian Americans, any difference in cancer survival is less likely to be attributable to inequalities of care. We sought to examine differences in cancer-specific survival between whites and Asian Americans. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program was used to identify patients with lung (n = 130 852 [16.9%]), breast (n = 313 977 [40.4%]), prostate (n = 166 529 [21.4%]), or colorectal (n = 165 140 [21.3%]) cancer (the three leading causes of cancer-related mortality within each sex) diagnosed between 1991 and 2007. Fine and Gray's competing risks regression compared the cancer-specific mortality (CSM) of eight Asian American groups (Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Japanese, Korean, other Asian, South Asian [Indian/Pakistani], and Vietnamese) to non-Hispanic white patients. All P values were two-sided. In competing risks regression, the receipt of definitive treatment was an independent predictor of CSM (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.37, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.35 to 0.40; HR = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.53 to 0.58; HR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.60 to 0.62; and HR = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.25 to 0.29) for prostate, breast, lung, and colorectal cancers respectively, all P < .001). In adjusted analyses, most Asian subgroups (except Hawaiians and Koreans) had lower CSM relative to white patients, with hazard ratios ranging from 0.54 (95% CI = 0.38 to 0.78) to 0.88 (95% CI = 0.84 to 0.93) for Japanese patients with prostate and Chinese patients with lung cancer, respectively. Despite adjustment for potential confounders, including the receipt of definitive treatment and tumor characteristics, most Asian subgroups had better CSM than non-Hispanic white patients. These findings suggest that underlying genetic

  7. Cancer-Specific and All-Cause Mortality in Kidney Transplant Recipients With and Without Previous Cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Viecelli, Andrea K; Lim, Wai H; Macaskill, Petra; Chapman, Jeremy R; Craig, Jonathan C; Clayton, Philip; Cohney, Solomon; Carroll, Robert; Wong, Germaine

    2015-12-01

    For dialysis patients with a cancer history, a period of surveillance is generally recommended before listing for transplantation. However, the outcomes of patients with cancer recurrence and/or a second primary cancer after transplantation are unknown. To determine the prognosis of kidney transplant recipients who developed cancer after transplantation and whether this varied with cancer types (first cancer, recurrence, second primary cancer). Using data from the Australian and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry, we compared the cancer-specific and all-cause mortality among recipients with different cancer types using adjusted Cox proportional hazard models. Of the 21,415 recipients transplanted between 1965 and 2012, 3% (651 of 21,415) had a previous cancer history. A total of 2840 (13%) recipients developed cancer after the first transplant, of whom 2760 (97.2%) developed a first cancer, 23 (0.8%) experienced cancer recurrence, and 57 (2%) developed a second primary cancer. There were no significant differences in the risks of cancer-specific and all-cause mortality between recipients who developed their first cancer after transplant, those with cancer recurrence (adjusted hazard ratios [aHRs], 0.79; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.38-1.67; P = 0.54 and aHRs, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.45-1.66; P = 0.66, respectively) and recipients who developed a second primary cancer after transplantation (aHRs, 1.01; 95%CI, 0.63-1.62; P = 0.95 and aHRs, 1.16; 95% CI, 0.79-1.69; P = 0.45, respectively). Among patients with a previous history of malignancy, recurrent and second primary cancers are infrequent after renal transplantation. A history of previous malignancy does not have an additive effect on the cancer-specific and overall survival of kidney transplant recipients who develop cancer.

  8. The association between socioeconomic factors and breast cancer-specific survival varies by race.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shailesh Agarwal

    Full Text Available Although racial disparity is well described for oncologic outcomes, factors associated with survival within racial groups remains unexplored. The objective of this study is to determine whether breast cancer survival among White or Black patients is associated with differing patient factors. Women diagnosed with breast cancer from 1998 through 2012 were identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER database. Cox proportional hazard logistic regression was used to estimate cause-specific survival in the combined cohort, and separate cohorts of Black or White patients only. Main outcomes included cause-specific survival in cohorts of Black only, White only, or all patients adjusted for demographic and oncologic factors. A total of 406,907 Black (10.8% or White (89.2% patients diagnosed with breast cancer from 1998 through 2012 were isolated. Cancer-specific survival analysis of the combined cohort showed significantly decreased hazard ratio (H.R. in patients from the higher economic quartiles (Q1: 1.0 (ref, Q2: 0.95 (p<0.01, Q3: 0.94 (p<0.01, Q4: 0.87 (p<0.001. Analysis of the White only cohort showed a similar relationship with income (Q1: 1.0 (ref, Q2: 0.95 (p<0.01, Q3: 0.95 (p<0.01, Q4: 0.86 (p<0.001. However, analysis of the Black only cohort did not show a relationship with income (Q1: 1.0 (ref, Q2: 1.04 (p = 0.34, Q3: 0.97 (p = 0.53, Q4: 1.04 (p = 0.47. A test of interaction confirmed that the association between income and cancer-specific survival is dependent on patient race, both with and without adjustment for demographic and oncologic characteristics (p<0.01. While median county income is positively associated with cancer-specific survival among White patients, this is not the case with Black patients. Similar findings were noted for education level. These findings suggest that the association between socioeconomic status and breast cancer survival commonly reported in the literature is specific to White patients

  9. Subsite-Specific Dietary Risk Factors for Colorectal Cancer: A Review of Cohort Studies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anette Hjartåker

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective. A shift in the total incidence from left- to right-sided colon cancer has been reported and raises the question as to whether lifestyle risk factors are responsible for the changing subsite distribution of colon cancer. The present study provides a review of the subsite-specific risk estimates for the dietary components presently regarded as convincing or probable risk factors for colorectal cancer: red meat, processed meat, fiber, garlic, milk, calcium, and alcohol. Methods. Studies were identified by searching PubMed through October 8, 2012 and by reviewing reference lists. Thirty-two prospective cohort studies are included, and the estimates are compared by sex for each risk factor. Results. For alcohol, there seems to be a stronger association with rectal cancer than with colon cancer, and for meat a somewhat stronger association with distal colon and rectal cancer, relative to proximal colon cancer. For fiber, milk, and calcium, there were only minor differences in relative risk across subsites. No statement could be given regarding garlic. Overall, many of the subsite-specific risk estimates were nonsignificant, irrespective of exposure. Conclusion. For some dietary components the associations with risk of cancer of the rectum and distal colon appear stronger than for proximal colon, but not for all.

  10. Cancer Patient T Cells Genetically Targeted to Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen Specifically Lyse Prostate Cancer Cells and Release Cytokines in Response to Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael C. Gong

    1999-06-01

    Full Text Available The expression of immunoglobulin-based artificial receptors in normal T lymphocytes provides a means to target lymphocytes to cell surface antigens independently of major histocompatibility complex restriction. Such artificial receptors have been previously shown to confer antigen-specific tumoricidal properties in murine T cells. We constructed a novel ζ chain fusion receptor specific for prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA termed Pz-1. PSMA is a cell-surface glycoprotein expressed on prostate cancer cells and the neovascular endothelium of multiple carcinomas. We show that primary T cells harvested from five of five patients with different stages of prostate cancer and transduced with the Pz-1 receptor readily lyse prostate cancer cells. Having established a culture system using fibroblasts that express PSMA, we next show that T cells expressing the Pz-1 receptor release cytokines in response to cell-bound PSMA. Furthermore, we show that the cytokine release is greatly augmented by B7.1-mediated costimulation. Thus, our findings support the feasibility of adoptive cell therapy by using genetically engineered T cells in prostate cancer patients and suggest that both CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocyte functions can be synergistically targeted against tumor cells.

  11. Changes in endocrine thymus function in patients with breast cancer under the action of combined treatment including non-specific active immunotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bendyug, G.D.

    1988-01-01

    The state of endocrine thymus function in patients with breast cancer of the 1st-4th stage and in 31 patients with precancerous diseases is studied. It is established that considerable decrease of thymus serous factor (TSF) content in all patients is observed. Radiation- and polychemotherapy carried out decreases the endocrine thymus function. Inclusions of non-specific active immunotherapy in patients' treatment promote the increase of TSF content, that increases treatment efficiency

  12. High intake of specific carotenoids and flavonoids does not reduce the risk of bladder cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia, R; Gonzalez, C A; Agudo, A; Riboli, E

    1999-01-01

    An analysis of a previously completed Spanish multicentric case-control study of bladder cancer was carried out using new available data on the contents in foods of specific carotenoids (alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lutein, and lycopene) and flavonoids (quercetin, kaempferol, myricetin, and luteolin) to investigate the relationship of these phytochemicals with bladder cancer. The study included 497 cases first diagnosed with bladder cancer, 547 neighborhood controls, and 566 hospitals controls, matched by gender, age, area of residence, and hospital. Usual food intake was estimated using a dietary history questionnaire administered by trained interviewers. None of the specific carotenoids and none of the specific flavonoids have been found to be significantly associated with bladder cancer risk in this analysis. The adjusted odds ratios for subjects in the highest quartile of intake with respect to subjects in the lowest quartile were 1.36 (95% confidence interval = 0.94-1.95) for total carotenoid intake and 1.23 (95% confidence interval = 0.85-1.79) for total flavonoid intake. The results of this study does not support the hypothesis that intake of specific carotenoids and flavonoids is protective against bladder cancer risk.

  13. Prodrug strategy for cancer cell-specific targeting: A recent overview.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Xian; Li, Xiang; You, Qidong; Zhang, Xiaojin

    2017-10-20

    The increasing development of targeted cancer therapy provides extensive possibilities in clinical trials, and numerous strategies have been explored. The prodrug is one of the most promising strategies in targeted cancer therapy to improve the selectivity and efficacy of cytotoxic compounds. Compared with normal tissues, cancer cells are characterized by unique aberrant markers, thus inactive prodrugs targeting these markers are excellent therapeutics to release active drugs, killing cancer cells without damaging normal tissues. In this review, we explore an integrated view of potential prodrugs applied in targeted cancer therapy based on aberrant cancer specific markers and some examples are provided for inspiring new ideas of prodrug strategy for cancer cell-specific targeting. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

  14. Navigating cancer network attractors for tumor-specific therapy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Creixell, Pau; Schoof, Erwin; Erler, Janine Terra

    2012-01-01

    understanding of the processes by which genetic lesions perturb these networks and lead to disease phenotypes. Network biology will help circumvent fundamental obstacles in cancer treatment, such as drug resistance and metastasis, empowering personalized and tumor-specific cancer therapies....

  15. Prostatic specific antigen for prostate cancer detection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lucas Nogueira

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Prostate-specific antigen (PSA has been used for prostate cancer detection since 1994. PSA testing has revolutionized our ability to diagnose, treat, and follow-up patients. In the last two decades, PSA screening has led to a substantial increase in the incidence of prostate cancer (PC. This increased detection caused the incidence of advanced-stage disease to decrease at a dramatic rate, and most newly diagnosed PC today are localized tumors with a high probability of cure. PSA screening is associated with a 75% reduction in the proportion of men who now present with metastatic disease and a 32.5% reduction in the age-adjusted prostate cancer mortality rate through 2003. Although PSA is not a perfect marker, PSA testing has limited specificity for prostate cancer detection, and its appropriate clinical application remains a topic of debate. Due to its widespread use and increased over-detection, the result has been the occurrence of over-treatment of indolent cancers. Accordingly, several variations as regards PSA measurement have emerged as useful adjuncts for prostate cancer screening. These procedures take into consideration additional factors, such as the proportion of different PSA isoforms (free PSA, complexed PSA, pro-PSA and B PSA, the prostate volume (PSA density, and the rate of change in PSA levels over time (PSA velocity or PSA doubling time. The history and evidence underlying each of these parameters are reviewed in the following article.

  16. Prostatic specific antigen for prostate cancer detection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nogueira, Lucas; Corradi, Renato; Eastham, James A

    2009-01-01

    Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has been used for prostate cancer detection since 1994. PSA testing has revolutionized our ability to diagnose, treat, and follow-up patients. In the last two decades, PSA screening has led to a substantial increase in the incidence of prostate cancer (PC). This increased detection caused the incidence of advanced-stage disease to decrease at a dramatic rate, and most newly diagnosed PC today are localized tumors with a high probability of cure. PSA screening is associated with a 75% reduction in the proportion of men who now present with metastatic disease and a 32.5% reduction in the age-adjusted prostate cancer mortality rate through 2003. Although PSA is not a perfect marker, PSA testing has limited specificity for prostate cancer detection, and its appropriate clinical application remains a topic of debate. Due to its widespread use and increased over-detection, the result has been the occurrence of over-treatment of indolent cancers. Accordingly, several variations as regards PSA measurement have emerged as useful adjuncts for prostate cancer screening. These procedures take into consideration additional factors, such as the proportion of different PSA isoforms (free PSA, complexed PSA, pro-PSA and B PSA), the prostate volume (PSA density), and the rate of change in PSA levels over time (PSA velocity or PSA doubling time). The history and evidence underlying each of these parameters are reviewed in the following article.

  17. Common germline polymorphisms associated with breast cancer-specific survival

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pirie, Ailith; Guo, Qi; Kraft, Peter

    2015-01-01

    in the meta-analysis. Fifty-four of these were evaluated in the full set of 37,954 breast cancer cases with 2,900 events and the two additional variants were evaluated in a reduced sample size of 30,000 samples in order to ensure independence from the previously published studies. Five variants reached...... evaluated in the pooled analysis of over 37,000 breast cancer cases for association with breast cancer-specific survival. Previous associations were evaluated using a one-sided test based on the reported direction of effect. RESULTS: Fifty-six variants from 45 previous publications were evaluated......-specific survival using data from a pooled analysis of eight breast cancer survival genome-wide association studies (GWAS) from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. METHODS: A literature review was conducted of all previously published associations between common germline variants and three survival outcomes...

  18. Fusion peptides from oncogenic chimeric proteins as putative specific biomarkers of cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conlon, Kevin P; Basrur, Venkatesha; Rolland, Delphine; Wolfe, Thomas; Nesvizhskii, Alexey I; MacCoss, Michael J; Lim, Megan S; Elenitoba-Johnson, Kojo S J

    2013-10-01

    Chromosomal translocations encoding chimeric fusion proteins constitute one of the most common mechanisms underlying oncogenic transformation in human cancer. Fusion peptides resulting from such oncogenic chimeric fusions, though unique to specific cancer subtypes, are unexplored as cancer biomarkers. Here we show, using an approach termed fusion peptide multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry, the direct identification of different cancer-specific fusion peptides arising from protein chimeras that are generated from the juxtaposition of heterologous genes fused by recurrent chromosomal translocations. Using fusion peptide multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry in a clinically relevant scenario, we demonstrate the specific, sensitive, and unambiguous detection of a specific diagnostic fusion peptide in clinical samples of anaplastic large cell lymphoma, but not in a diverse array of benign lymph nodes or other forms of primary malignant lymphomas and cancer-derived cell lines. Our studies highlight the utility of fusion peptides as cancer biomarkers and carry broad implications for the use of protein biomarkers in cancer detection and monitoring.

  19. Age-specific incidence of all neoplasms after colorectal cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levi, Fabio; Randimbison, Lalao; Blanc-Moya, Rafael; La Vecchia, Carlo

    2014-10-01

    Patients diagnosed with a specific neoplasm tend to have a subsequent excess risk of the same neoplasm. The age incidence of a second neoplasm at the same site is approximately constant with age, and consequently the relative risk is greater at younger age. It is unclear whether such a line of reasoning can be extended from a specific neoplasm to the incidence of all neoplasms in subjects diagnosed with a defined neoplasm. We considered the age-specific incidence of all non-hormone-related epithelial neoplasms after a first primary colorectal cancer (n = 9542) in the Vaud Cancer Registry data set. In subjects with a previous colorectal cancer, the incidence rate of all other epithelial non-hormone-related cancers was stable around 800 per 100,000 between age 30 and 60 years, and rose only about twofold to reach 1685 at age 70 to 79 years and 1826 per 100,000 at age 80 years or older. After excluding synchronous cancers, the rise was only about 1.5-fold, that is, from about 700 to 1000. In the general population, the incidence rate of all epithelial non-hormone-related cancers was 29 per 100,000 at age 30 to 39 years, and rose 30-fold to 883 per 100,000 at age 70 to 79 years. Excluding colorectal cancers, the rise of all non-hormone-related cancers was from 360 per 100,000 at age 40 to 49 years to 940 at age 70 to 79 years after colorectal cancer, and from 90 to 636 per 100,000 in the general population (i.e., 2.6- vs. 7.1-fold). The rise of incidence with age of all epithelial non-hormone-related second cancers after colorectal cancer is much smaller than in the general population. This can possibly be related to the occurrence of a single mutational event in a population of susceptible individuals, although alternative models are plausible within the complexity of the process of carcinogenesis. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Age- and Tumor Subtype-Specific Breast Cancer Risk Estimates for CHEK2*1100delC Carriers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schmidt, Marjanka K; Hogervorst, Frans; van Hien, Richard R

    2016-01-01

    PURPOSE: CHEK2*1100delC is a well-established breast cancer risk variant that is most prevalent in European populations; however, there are limited data on risk of breast cancer by age and tumor subtype, which limits its usefulness in breast cancer risk prediction. We aimed to generate tumor...... subtype- and age-specific risk estimates by using data from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium, including 44,777 patients with breast cancer and 42,997 controls from 33 studies genotyped for CHEK2*1100delC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: CHEK2*1100delC genotyping was mostly done by a custom Taqman assay....... Breast cancer odds ratios (ORs) for CHEK2*1100delC carriers versus noncarriers were estimated by using logistic regression and adjusted for study (categorical) and age. Main analyses included patients with invasive breast cancer from population- and hospital-based studies. RESULTS: Proportions...

  1. Disease-Specific Mortality of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer Patients in Korea: A Multicenter Cohort Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Min Ji Jeon

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available BackgroundLittle is known regarding disease-specific mortality of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC patients and its risk factors in Korea.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed a large multi-center cohort of thyroid cancer from six Korean hospitals and included 8,058 DTC patients who underwent initial surgery between 1996 and 2005.ResultsMean age of patients at diagnosis was 46.2±12.3 years; 87% were females. Most patients had papillary thyroid cancer (PTC; 97% and underwent total thyroidectomy (85%. Mean size of the primary tumor was 1.6±1.0 cm. Approximately 40% of patients had cervical lymph node (LN metastases and 1.3% had synchronous distant metastases. During 11.3 years of follow-up, 150 disease-specific mortalities (1.9% occurred; the 10-year disease-specific survival (DSS rate was 98%. According to the year of diagnosis, the number of disease-specific mortality was not different. However, the rate of disease-specific mortality decreased during the study period (from 7.7% to 0.7%. Older age (≥45 years at diagnosis, male, follicular thyroid cancer (FTC versus PTC, larger tumor size (>2 cm, presence of extrathyroidal extension (ETE, lateral cervical LN metastasis, distant metastasis and tumor node metastasis (TNM stage were independent risk factors of disease-specific mortality of DTC patients.ConclusionThe rate of disease-specific mortality of Korean DTC patients was 1.9%; the 10-year DSS rate was 98% during 1996 to 2005. Older age at diagnosis, male, FTC, larger tumor size, presence of ETE, lateral cervical LN metastasis, distant metastasis, and TNM stages were significant risk factors of disease-specific mortality of Korean DTC patients.

  2. Identifying functional cancer-specific miRNA-mRNA interactions in testicular germ cell tumor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sedaghat, Nafiseh; Fathy, Mahmood; Modarressi, Mohammad Hossein; Shojaie, Ali

    2016-09-07

    Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men aged between 15 and 35 and more than 90% of testicular neoplasms are originated at germ cells. Recent research has shown the impact of microRNAs (miRNAs) in different types of cancer, including testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT). MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs which affect the development and progression of cancer cells by binding to mRNAs and regulating their expressions. The identification of functional miRNA-mRNA interactions in cancers, i.e. those that alter the expression of genes in cancer cells, can help delineate post-regulatory mechanisms and may lead to new treatments to control the progression of cancer. A number of sequence-based methods have been developed to predict miRNA-mRNA interactions based on the complementarity of sequences. While necessary, sequence complementarity is, however, not sufficient for presence of functional interactions. Alternative methods have thus been developed to refine the sequence-based interactions using concurrent expression profiles of miRNAs and mRNAs. This study aims to find functional cancer-specific miRNA-mRNA interactions in TGCT. To this end, the sequence-based predicted interactions are first refined using an ensemble learning method, based on two well-known methods of learning miRNA-mRNA interactions, namely, TaLasso and GenMiR++. Additional functional analyses were then used to identify a subset of interactions to be most likely functional and specific to TGCT. The final list of 13 miRNA-mRNA interactions can be potential targets for identifying TGCT-specific interactions and future laboratory experiments to develop new therapies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Identification of an epigenetic biomarker panel with high sensitivity and specificity for colorectal cancer and adenomas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lind Guro E

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The presence of cancer-specific DNA methylation patterns in epithelial colorectal cells in human feces provides the prospect of a simple, non-invasive screening test for colorectal cancer and its precursor, the adenoma. This study investigates a panel of epigenetic markers for the detection of colorectal cancer and adenomas. Methods Candidate biomarkers were subjected to quantitative methylation analysis in test sets of tissue samples from colorectal cancers, adenomas, and normal colonic mucosa. All findings were verified in independent clinical validation series. A total of 523 human samples were included in the study. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC curve analysis was used to evaluate the performance of the biomarker panel. Results Promoter hypermethylation of the genes CNRIP1, FBN1, INA, MAL, SNCA, and SPG20 was frequent in both colorectal cancers (65-94% and adenomas (35-91%, whereas normal mucosa samples were rarely (0-5% methylated. The combined sensitivity of at least two positives among the six markers was 94% for colorectal cancers and 93% for adenoma samples, with a specificity of 98%. The resulting areas under the ROC curve were 0.984 for cancers and 0.968 for adenomas versus normal mucosa. Conclusions The novel epigenetic marker panel shows very high sensitivity and specificity for both colorectal cancers and adenomas. Our findings suggest this biomarker panel to be highly suitable for early tumor detection.

  4. The influence of acculturation and breast cancer-specific distress on perceived barriers to genetic testing for breast cancer among women of African descent.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sussner, Katarina M; Thompson, Hayley S; Jandorf, Lina; Edwards, Tiffany A; Forman, Andrea; Brown, Karen; Kapil-Pair, Nidhi; Bovbjerg, Dana H; Schwartz, Marc D; Valdimarsdottir, Heiddis B

    2009-09-01

    Rising health disparities are increasingly evident in relation to use of genetic services (including genetic counseling and testing) for breast cancer risk, with women of African descent less likely to use genetic services compared with Whites. Meanwhile, little is known regarding potential within-group acculturation and psychological differences underlying perceived barriers to genetic testing among women of African descent. Hypothesized contributions of acculturation factors and breast cancer-specific distress to perceived barriers to genetic testing were examined with a statistical analysis of baseline data from 146 women of African descent (56% US born and 44% foreign born) meeting genetic breast cancer risk criteria and participating in a larger longitudinal study that included the opportunity for free genetic counseling and testing. Perceived barriers assessed included: (1) anticipation of negative emotional reactions, (2) stigma, (3) confidentiality concerns, (4) family-related worry, and (5) family-related guilt associated with genetic testing. In multivariate analyses, being foreign born was a significant predictor of anticipated negative emotional reactions about genetic testing (beta=0.26; SE=0.11; p=0.01). Breast cancer-specific distress scores (avoidance symptoms) were positively related to anticipated negative emotional reactions (beta=0.02; SE=0.005; p=barriers to genetic testing among women of African descent. The potential utility of culturally tailored genetic counseling services taking into account such influences and addressing emotional and psychological concerns of women considering genetic testing for breast cancer should be investigated.

  5. Cancer-specific Therapeutic Potential of Resveratrol: Metabolic Approach against Hallmarks of Cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dong Hoon Suh

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACTCancer hallmarks include evading apoptosis, limitless replicative potential, sustained angiogenesis, tissue invasion and metastasis. Cancer cells undergo metabolic reprogramming and inevitably take advantage of glycolysis to meet the increased metabolic demand: rapid energy generation and macromolecular synthesis. Resveratrol, a polyphenolic phytoalexin, is known to exhibit pleiotropic anti-cancer effects most of which are linked to metabolic reprogramming in cancer cells. This review summarizes various anti-cancer effects of resveratrol in the context of cancer hallmarks in relation to metabolic reprogramming.

  6. Spontaneous presence of FOXO3-specific T cells in cancer patients

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Stine Kiaer; Ahmad, Shamaila Munir; Idorn, Manja

    2014-01-01

    In the present study, we describe forkhead box O3 (FOXO3)-specific, cytotoxic CD8(+) T cells existent among peripheral-blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of cancer patients. FOXO3 immunogenicity appears specific, as we did not detect reactivity toward FOXO3 among T cells in healthy individuals. FOXO3...... may naturally serve as a target antigen for tumor-reactive T cells as it is frequently over-expressed in cancer cells. In addition, expression of FOXO3 plays a critical role in immunosuppression mediated by tumor-associated dendritic cells (TADCs). Indeed, FOXO3-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs......) were able to specifically recognize and kill both FOXO3-expressing cancer cells as well as dendritic cells. Thus, FOXO3 was processed and presented by HLA-A2 on the cell surface of both immune cells and cancer cells. As FOXO3 programs TADCs to become tolerogenic, FOXO3 signaling thereby comprises...

  7. Skin Cancer (Including Melanoma)—Patient Version

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer. The main types of skin cancer are squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and melanoma. Most deaths from skin cancer are caused by melanoma. Start here to find information on skin cancer treatment, causes and prevention, screening, research, and statistics.

  8. A cancer specific cell-penetrating peptide, BR2, for the efficient delivery of an scFv into cancer cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ki Jung Lim

    Full Text Available Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs have proven very effective as intracellular delivery vehicles for various therapeutics. However, there are some concerns about non-specific penetration and cytotoxicity of CPPs for effective cancer treatments. Herein, based on the cell-penetrating motif of an anticancer peptide, buforin IIb, we designed several CPP derivatives with cancer cell specificity. Among the derivatives, a 17-amino acid peptide (BR2 was found to have cancer-specificity without toxicity to normal cells. After specifically targeting cancer cells through interaction with gangliosides, BR2 entered cells via lipid-mediated macropinocytosis. Moreover, BR2 showed higher membrane translocation efficiency than the well-known CPP Tat (49-57. The capability of BR2 as a cancer-specific drug carrier was demonstrated by fusion of BR2 to a single-chain variable fragment (scFv directed toward a mutated K-ras (G12V. BR2-fused scFv induced a higher degree of apoptosis than Tat-fused scFv in K-ras mutated HCT116 cells. These results suggest that the novel cell-penetrating peptide BR2 has great potential as a useful drug delivery carrier with cancer cell specificity.

  9. A cancer specific cell-penetrating peptide, BR2, for the efficient delivery of an scFv into cancer cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Ki Jung; Sung, Bong Hyun; Shin, Ju Ri; Lee, Young Woong; Kim, Da Jung; Yang, Kyung Seok; Kim, Sun Chang

    2013-01-01

    Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have proven very effective as intracellular delivery vehicles for various therapeutics. However, there are some concerns about non-specific penetration and cytotoxicity of CPPs for effective cancer treatments. Herein, based on the cell-penetrating motif of an anticancer peptide, buforin IIb, we designed several CPP derivatives with cancer cell specificity. Among the derivatives, a 17-amino acid peptide (BR2) was found to have cancer-specificity without toxicity to normal cells. After specifically targeting cancer cells through interaction with gangliosides, BR2 entered cells via lipid-mediated macropinocytosis. Moreover, BR2 showed higher membrane translocation efficiency than the well-known CPP Tat (49-57). The capability of BR2 as a cancer-specific drug carrier was demonstrated by fusion of BR2 to a single-chain variable fragment (scFv) directed toward a mutated K-ras (G12V). BR2-fused scFv induced a higher degree of apoptosis than Tat-fused scFv in K-ras mutated HCT116 cells. These results suggest that the novel cell-penetrating peptide BR2 has great potential as a useful drug delivery carrier with cancer cell specificity.

  10. Impact of Preexisting Mental Illness on All-Cause and Breast Cancer-Specific Mortality in Elderly Patients With Breast Cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iglay, Kristy; Santorelli, Melissa L; Hirshfield, Kim M; Williams, Jill M; Rhoads, George G; Lin, Yong; Demissie, Kitaw

    2017-12-20

    Purpose Limited data are available on the survival of patients with breast cancer with preexisting mental illness, and elderly women are of special interest because they experience the highest incidence of breast cancer. Therefore, we compared all-cause and breast cancer-specific mortality for elderly patients with breast cancer with and without mental illness. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted by using SEER-Medicare data, including 19,028 women ≥ 68 years of age who were diagnosed with stage I to IIIa breast cancer in the United States from 2005 to 2007. Patients were classified as having severe mental illness if an International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Edition, Clinical Modification code for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or other psychotic disorder was recorded on at least one inpatient or two outpatient claims during the 3 years before breast cancer diagnosis. Patients were followed for up to 5 years after breast cancer diagnosis to assess survival outcomes, which were then compared with those of patients without mental illness. Results Nearly 3% of patients had preexisting severe mental illness. We observed a two-fold increase in the all-cause mortality hazard between patients with severe mental illness compared with those without mental illness after adjusting for age, income, race, ethnicity, geographic location, and marital status (adjusted hazard ratio, 2.19; 95% CI, 1.84 to 2.60). A 20% increase in breast cancer-specific mortality hazard was observed, but the association was not significant (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.20; 95% CI, 0.82 to 1.74). Patients with severe mental illness were more likely to be diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and aggressive tumor characteristics. They also had increased tobacco use and more comorbidities. Conclusion Patients with severe mental illness may need assistance with coordinating medical services.

  11. Tumor endothelial markers define novel subsets of cancer-specific circulating endothelial cells associated with antitumor efficacy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehran, Reza; Nilsson, Monique; Khajavi, Mehrdad; Du, Zhiqiang; Cascone, Tina; Wu, Hua Kang; Cortes, Andrea; Xu, Li; Zurita, Amado; Schier, Robert; Riedel, Bernhard; El-Zein, Randa; Heymach, John V.

    2014-01-01

    Circulating endothelial cells (CEC) are derived from multiple sources including bone marrow (circulating endothelial progenitors [CEP]) and established vasculature (mature CEC). Although CEC have shown promise as a biomarker for cancer patients, their utility has been limited in part by the lack of specificity for tumor vasculature and the different non-malignant causes that can impact CEC. Tumor endothelial markers (TEM) are antigens enriched in tumor vs non-malignant endothelia. We hypothesized that TEMs may be detectable on CEC and that these circulating TEM+ endothelial cells (CTEC) may be a more specific marker for cancer and tumor response than standard CEC. We found that tumor-bearing mice had a relative increase in numbers of circulating CTEC, specifically with increased levels of TEM7 and TEM8 expression. Following treatment with various vascular targeting agents, we observed a decrease in CTEC that correlated with the reductions in tumor growth. We extended these findings to human clinical samples and observed that CTEC were present in esophageal cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients (N=40) and their levels decreased after surgical resection. These results demonstrate that CTEC are detectable in preclinical cancer models and cancer patients. Further, they suggest that CTEC offer a novel cancer-associated marker that may be useful as a blood-based surrogate for assessing the presence of tumor vasculature and antiangiogenic drug activity. PMID:24626092

  12. Baseline prostate-specific antigen measurements and subsequent prostate cancer risk in the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Signe Benzon; Brasso, Klaus; Iversen, Peter

    2013-01-01

    Although prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening reduces mortality from prostate cancer, substantial over-diagnosis and subsequent overtreatment are concerns. Early screening of men for PSA may serve to stratify the male population by risk of future clinical prostate cancer.......Although prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening reduces mortality from prostate cancer, substantial over-diagnosis and subsequent overtreatment are concerns. Early screening of men for PSA may serve to stratify the male population by risk of future clinical prostate cancer....

  13. Disulfide-crosslinked nanomicelles confer cancer-specific drug delivery and improve efficacy of paclitaxel in bladder cancer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pan, Amy; Zhang, Hongyong; Li, Yuanpei; Lin, Tzu-yin; Wang, Fuli; Lee, Joyce; Cheng, Mingshan; Dall'Era, Marc; Li, Tianhong; deVere White, Ralph; Pan, Chong-Xian; Lam, Kit S.

    2016-10-01

    Chemotherapy commonly used in the treatment of advanced bladder cancer is only moderately effective and associated with significant toxicity. There has been no appreciable improvement in overall survival over the last three decades. The goal of this project is to develop and characterize bladder cancer-specific nanometer-scale micelles loaded with the chemotherapeutic drug paclitaxel (PTX) and determine the anti-tumor activity and toxicity. Micelle-building-material telodendrimers were synthesized through the stepwise conjugation of eight cholic acid units at one terminus of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and a bladder cancer-specific targeting peptide named PLZ4 at the other terminus. To synthesize disulfide-crosslinked PLZ4 nanomicelles (DC-PNM), cysteine was introduced between the cholic acid and PEG. DC-PNM-PTX was synthesized through the evaporation method by loading PTX in the core. The loading capacity of PTX in DC-PNM was 25% (W/W). The loading efficiency was over 99%. DC-PNM-PTX was spherical with the median size of 25 nm. The stability of DC-PNM-PTX was determined in a solution containing sodium docecyl sulfate (SDS). It was stable in a SDS solution, but dissolved within 5 min after the addition of glutathione at the physiological intracellular concentration of 10 mM. In vivo targeting and anti-tumor activity were determined in immunodeficient mice carrying patient-derived bladder cancer xenografts (PDXs). After intravenous administration, DC-PNM specifically targeted the bladder cancer PDXs, but very little to the lung cancer xenografts in the same mice (p < 0.001). DC-PNM loaded with PTX overcame cisplatin resistance, and improved the median survival from 55 d with free PTX to 69.5 d (p = 0.03) of mice carrying PDXs. In conclusion, DC-PNM remained stable in the SDS solution, specifically targeted the bladder cancer xenografts in vivo, and improved the anti-cancer efficacy of PTX.

  14. Robust prediction of anti-cancer drug sensitivity and sensitivity-specific biomarker.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heewon Park

    Full Text Available The personal genomics era has attracted a large amount of attention for anti-cancer therapy by patient-specific analysis. Patient-specific analysis enables discovery of individual genomic characteristics for each patient, and thus we can effectively predict individual genetic risk of disease and perform personalized anti-cancer therapy. Although the existing methods for patient-specific analysis have successfully uncovered crucial biomarkers, their performance takes a sudden turn for the worst in the presence of outliers, since the methods are based on non-robust manners. In practice, clinical and genomic alterations datasets usually contain outliers from various sources (e.g., experiment error, coding error, etc. and the outliers may significantly affect the result of patient-specific analysis. We propose a robust methodology for patient-specific analysis in line with the NetwrokProfiler. In the proposed method, outliers in high dimensional gene expression levels and drug response datasets are simultaneously controlled by robust Mahalanobis distance in robust principal component space. Thus, we can effectively perform for predicting anti-cancer drug sensitivity and identifying sensitivity-specific biomarkers for individual patients. We observe through Monte Carlo simulations that the proposed robust method produces outstanding performances for predicting response variable in the presence of outliers. We also apply the proposed methodology to the Sanger dataset in order to uncover cancer biomarkers and predict anti-cancer drug sensitivity, and show the effectiveness of our method.

  15. Cancer-specific SNPs originate from low-level heteroplasmic variants in human mitochondrial genomes of a matched cell line pair.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hedberg, Annica; Knutsen, Erik; Løvhaugen, Anne Silje; Jørgensen, Tor Erik; Perander, Maria; Johansen, Steinar D

    2018-04-19

    Low-level mitochondrial heteroplasmy is a common phenomenon in both normal and cancer cells. Here, we investigate the link between low-level heteroplasmy and mitogenome mutations in a human breast cancer matched cell line by high-throughput sequencing. We identified 23 heteroplasmic sites, of which 15 were common between normal cells (Hs578Bst) and cancer cells (Hs578T). Most sites were clustered within the highly conserved Complex IV and ribosomal RNA genes. Two heteroplasmic variants in normal cells were found as fixed mutations in cancer cells. This indicates a positive selection of these variants in cancer cells. RNA-Seq analysis identified upregulated L-strand specific transcripts in cancer cells, which include three mitochondrial long non-coding RNA molecules. We hypothesize that this is due to two cancer cell-specific mutations in the control region.

  16. Study of cancer-specific chimeric promoters induced by irradiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xiong Jie; Zhou Yunfeng; Sun Wenjie; Wang Weifeng; Liao Zhengkai; Zhou Fuxiang; Xie Conghua

    2010-01-01

    Objective: To combine the radio-inducible CArG element with cancer-specific human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene promoter, and to construct the novel chimeric promoters. Methods: The synthetic hTERT promoters containing different number of radio-inducible CArG elements were constructed, and the activities of the promoters in the cancer cells (HeLa, A549, and MHCC97 cells) and nomal cells (hEL cells) were detected by using luciferase-reporter assays after the treatment of irradiation (a single or fractionated irradiation dose). Results: Synthetic promoter containing 6 repeated CArG units was better in radio-inducibility than any other promoters containing different number of CArG units, and nearly maximum levels obtained at 4-6 Gy. The very low activities of the chimeric promoters could be detected in normal hEL cells. A similar level of reporter gene expression was observed after 3 fractionated doses of 2 Gy compared with a single dose of 6 Gy in cancer cells. Conclusions: The cancer-specific chimeric promoter containing 6 CArG elements showes the best radio-response, and the chimeric promoter system has the potential in cancer gene therapy. (authors)

  17. [Histopathological characteristics of genital and breast cancer included in epidemiologic study cohort].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matei, Mioara; Azoicăi, Doina

    2009-01-01

    The correct management of genitals and breast cancers and the improving of the preventional and therapeutical successes ratio involve the knowledge of the histopathological features of these nosological entities which have different origins, different risk factors, different simptomatology and also different prognosis. The descriptive evaluation of the histopathological features of the genitals and breast cancers to women from North-Eastern region of Romania. We have been included in the study 96 women (age range 23-77 years, mean 54,49) diagnosed with breast cancer, ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer and cervical cancer at the hospital admission, residency in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics within 23 months. The following main parameters were assessed: histological types, stage at diagnosis, Pap test. After data collection, these have been codified and included in a MS Excel Database, in order to be processed with SPSS 16 and EpiInfo 3.5.1. (2008) Softwares. The following cases' repartition on diagnostic types was observed: breast cancer (44 cases), cervical cancer (24 cases), endometrial cancer (16 cases) and ovarian cancer (12 cases). In our study, the most affected range of age was 40-69 years for breast cancer, 30-59 years for cervical cancer, over 6 years for endometrial cancer and 50-59 years for ovarian cancer. For the cervical neoplasia, 40% of analyzed cases were in incipient stages (in situ to IB stage lessions). More than 50% of breast cancer cases have been diagnosed in advances stages (IIB to IIIC stages). For the endometrium carcinoma, 45% of cases have been identified in incipient stages (in situ to IC). The ovarian neoplasia cases have been detected, most frequently, in advanced stages (III and IV). 25% of women which participated in our study had showed cervical changes. From a histopathological point of view, for cervical neoplasia, squamous carcinoma was the most frequent type (87%), for breast neoplasia--invasive ductal carcinoma (80

  18. Bromodomain protein 4 discriminates tissue-specific super-enhancers containing disease-specific susceptibility loci in prostate and breast cancer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zuber, Verena; Bettella, Francesco; Witoelar, Aree

    2017-01-01

    progression. Although previous approaches have been tried to explain risk associated with SNPs in regulatory DNA elements, so far epigenetic readers such as bromodomain containing protein 4 (BRD4) and super-enhancers have not been used to annotate SNPs. In prostate cancer (PC), androgen receptor (AR) binding......Background: Epigenetic information can be used to identify clinically relevant genomic variants single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of functional importance in cancer development. Super-enhancers are cell-specific DNA elements, acting to determine tissue or cell identity and driving tumor...... the differential enrichment of SNPs mapping to specific categories of enhancers. We find that BRD4 is the key discriminant of tissue-specific enhancers, showing that it is more powerful than AR binding information to capture PC specific risk loci, and can be used with similar effect in breast cancer (BC...

  19. Cancer cell specific cytotoxic gene expression mediated by ARF tumor suppressor promoter constructs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kurayoshi, Kenta; Ozono, Eiko; Iwanaga, Ritsuko; Bradford, Andrew P.; Komori, Hideyuki; Ohtani, Kiyoshi

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • ARF promoter showed higher responsiveness to deregulated E2F activity than the E2F1 promoter. • ARF promoter showed higher cancer cell-specificity than E2F1 promoter to drive gene expression. • HSV-TK driven by ARF promoter showed higher cancer cell-specific cytotoxicity than that driven by E2F1 promoter. - Abstract: In current cancer treatment protocols, such as radiation and chemotherapy, side effects on normal cells are major obstacles to radical therapy. To avoid these side effects, a cancer cell-specific approach is needed. One way to specifically target cancer cells is to utilize a cancer specific promoter to express a cytotoxic gene (suicide gene therapy) or a viral gene required for viral replication (oncolytic virotherapy). For this purpose, the selected promoter should have minimal activity in normal cells to avoid side effects, and high activity in a wide variety of cancers to obtain optimal therapeutic efficacy. In contrast to the AFP, CEA and PSA promoters, which have high activity only in a limited spectrum of tumors, the E2F1 promoter exhibits high activity in wide variety of cancers. This is based on the mechanism of carcinogenesis. Defects in the RB pathway and activation of the transcription factor E2F, the main target of the RB pathway, are observed in almost all cancers. Consequently, the E2F1 promoter, which is mainly regulated by E2F, has high activity in wide variety of cancers. However, E2F is also activated by growth stimulation in normal growing cells, suggesting that the E2F1 promoter may also be highly active in normal growing cells. In contrast, we found that the tumor suppressor ARF promoter is activated by deregulated E2F activity, induced by forced inactivation of pRB, but does not respond to physiological E2F activity induced by growth stimulation. We also found that the deregulated E2F activity, which activates the ARF promoter, is detected only in cancer cell lines. These observations suggest that ARF promoter

  20. Cancer cell specific cytotoxic gene expression mediated by ARF tumor suppressor promoter constructs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurayoshi, Kenta [Department of Bioscience, School of Science and Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University, 2-1 Gakuen, Sanda, Hyogo 669-1337 (Japan); Ozono, Eiko [Centre for Molecular Oncology, Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary, University of London, John Vane Science Centre, Charterhouse Square, London EC1M 6BQ (United Kingdom); Iwanaga, Ritsuko; Bradford, Andrew P. [Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Anschutz Medical Campus, 12800 East 19th Avenue, Aurora, CO 80045 (United States); Komori, Hideyuki [Center for Stem Cell Biology, Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States); Ohtani, Kiyoshi, E-mail: btm88939@kwansei.ac.jp [Department of Bioscience, School of Science and Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University, 2-1 Gakuen, Sanda, Hyogo 669-1337 (Japan)

    2014-07-18

    Highlights: • ARF promoter showed higher responsiveness to deregulated E2F activity than the E2F1 promoter. • ARF promoter showed higher cancer cell-specificity than E2F1 promoter to drive gene expression. • HSV-TK driven by ARF promoter showed higher cancer cell-specific cytotoxicity than that driven by E2F1 promoter. - Abstract: In current cancer treatment protocols, such as radiation and chemotherapy, side effects on normal cells are major obstacles to radical therapy. To avoid these side effects, a cancer cell-specific approach is needed. One way to specifically target cancer cells is to utilize a cancer specific promoter to express a cytotoxic gene (suicide gene therapy) or a viral gene required for viral replication (oncolytic virotherapy). For this purpose, the selected promoter should have minimal activity in normal cells to avoid side effects, and high activity in a wide variety of cancers to obtain optimal therapeutic efficacy. In contrast to the AFP, CEA and PSA promoters, which have high activity only in a limited spectrum of tumors, the E2F1 promoter exhibits high activity in wide variety of cancers. This is based on the mechanism of carcinogenesis. Defects in the RB pathway and activation of the transcription factor E2F, the main target of the RB pathway, are observed in almost all cancers. Consequently, the E2F1 promoter, which is mainly regulated by E2F, has high activity in wide variety of cancers. However, E2F is also activated by growth stimulation in normal growing cells, suggesting that the E2F1 promoter may also be highly active in normal growing cells. In contrast, we found that the tumor suppressor ARF promoter is activated by deregulated E2F activity, induced by forced inactivation of pRB, but does not respond to physiological E2F activity induced by growth stimulation. We also found that the deregulated E2F activity, which activates the ARF promoter, is detected only in cancer cell lines. These observations suggest that ARF promoter

  1. Association between PSA kinetics and cancer-specific mortality in patients with localised prostate cancer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thomsen, Frederik Birkebæk; Brasso, Klaus; Berg, Kasper Drimer

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND: The prognostic value of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) kinetics in untreated prostate cancer (PCa) patients is debatable. We investigated the association between PSA doubling time (PSAdt), PSA velocity (PSAvel) and PSAvel risk count (PSAvRC) and PCa mortality in a cohort of patients...... with localised PCa managed on watchful waiting. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with clinically localised PCa managed observationally, who were randomised to and remained on placebo for minimum 18 months in the SPCG-6 study, were included. All patients survived at least 2 years and had a minimum of three PSA...... determinations available. The prognostic value of PSA kinetics was analysed and patients were stratified according to their PSA at consent: ≤10, 10.1-25, and >25 ng/ml. Cumulative incidences of PCa-specific mortality were estimated with the Aalen-Johansen method. RESULTS: Two hundred and sixty-three patients...

  2. Statistical methods for site-specific analysis of cancer among the A-bomb survivors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pierce, D.A.; Preston, D.L.

    1992-01-01

    Statistical methods are presented for joint, or simultaneous, analysis of the risks of several types of cancer for the A-bomb survivors. Previous analyses have been made either for all cancers except leukemia together, or have been done separately by cancer type. Either of these approaches has serious limitations, and the aim of joint analysis is to overcome these, while taking advantage of the strengths of each. The primary advantage of joint analysis is that models for risks of various cancer types can have some parameters in common, and others which are type-specific. This serves to overcome difficulties due to the limited data on specific cancer types. It also provides for significant tests comparing both type-specific risks and type-specific effects of modifying factors such as sex and age. These methods are exemplified here by joint analysis of three classes of cancer considered by the BEIR-V committee: (i) respiratory, (ii) digestive, and (iii) other cancers, excluding leukemia and breast cancer. The primary aim is to illustrate the general advantages of joint analyses, but in addition some comparison is made between the results of such joint analyses and the conclusions drawn by BEIR-V committee from separate analyses. (author)

  3. Gene Therapy for Pancreatic Cancer: Specificity, Issues and Hopes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rouanet, Marie; Lebrin, Marine; Gross, Fabian; Bournet, Barbara; Cordelier, Pierre; Buscail, Louis

    2017-06-08

    A recent death projection has placed pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma as the second cause of death by cancer in 2030. The prognosis for pancreatic cancer is very poor and there is a great need for new treatments that can change this poor outcome. Developments of therapeutic innovations in combination with conventional chemotherapy are needed urgently. Among innovative treatments the gene therapy offers a promising avenue. The present review gives an overview of the general strategy of gene therapy as well as the limitations and stakes of the different experimental in vivo models, expression vectors (synthetic and viral), molecular tools (interference RNA, genome editing) and therapeutic genes (tumor suppressor genes, antiangiogenic and pro-apoptotic genes, suicide genes). The latest developments in pancreatic carcinoma gene therapy are described including gene-based tumor cell sensitization to chemotherapy, vaccination and adoptive immunotherapy (chimeric antigen receptor T-cells strategy). Nowadays, there is a specific development of oncolytic virus therapies including oncolytic adenoviruses, herpes virus, parvovirus or reovirus. A summary of all published and on-going phase-1 trials is given. Most of them associate gene therapy and chemotherapy or radiochemotherapy. The first results are encouraging for most of the trials but remain to be confirmed in phase 2 trials.

  4. Specific repression of mutant K-RAS by 10-23 DNAzyme: Sensitizing cancer cell to anti-cancer therapies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yu, S.-H.; Wang, T.-H.; Au, L.-C.

    2009-01-01

    Point mutations of the Ras family are frequently found in human cancers at a prevalence rate of 30%. The most common mutation K-Ras(G12V), required for tumor proliferation, survival, and metastasis due to its constitutively active GTPase activity, has provided an ideal target for cancer therapy. 10-23 DNAzyme, an oligodeoxyribonucleotide-based ribonuclease consisting of a 15-nucleotide catalytical domain flanked by two target-specific complementary arms, has been shown to effectively cleave the target mRNA at purine-pyrimidine dinucleotide. Taking advantage of this specific property, 10-23 DNAzyme was designed to cleave mRNA of K-Ras(G12V)(GGU → GUU) at the GU dinucleotide while left the wild-type (WT) K-Ras mRNA intact. The K-Ras(G12V)-specific 10-23 DNAzyme was able to reduce K-Ras(G12V) at both mRNA and protein levels in SW480 cell carrying homozygous K-Ras(G12V). No effect was observed on the WT K-Ras in HEK cells. Although K-Ras(G12V)-specific DNAzymes alone did not inhibit proliferation of SW480 or HEK cells, pre-treatment of this DNAzyme sensitized the K-Ras(G12V) mutant cells to anti-cancer agents such as doxorubicin and radiation. These results offer a potential of using allele-specific 10-23 DNAzyme in combination with other cancer therapies to achieve better effectiveness on cancer treatment.

  5. Combinatorial synthesis and screening of cancer cell-specific nanomedicines targeted via phage fusion proteins

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James W. Gillespie

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Active tumor targeting of nanomedicines has recently shown significant improvements in the therapeutic activity of currently existing drug delivery systems, such as liposomal doxorubicin (Doxil/Caelyx/Lipodox. Previously, we have shown that isolated pVIII major coat proteins of the fd tet filamentous phage vector, containing cancer cell-specific peptide fusions at their N terminus, can be used as active targeting ligands in a liposomal doxorubicin delivery system in vitro and in vivo. Here, we show a novel major coat protein isolation procedure in 2-propanol that allows spontaneous incorporation of the hydrophobic protein core into preformed liposomal doxorubicin with minimal damage or drug loss while still retaining the targeting ligand exposed for cell-specific targeting. Using a panel of 12 structurally unique ligands with specificity towards breast, lung, and/or pancreatic cancer, we showed the feasibility of pVIII major coat proteins to significantly increase the throughput of targeting ligand screening in a common nanomedicine core. Phage protein-modified Lipodox samples showed an average doxorubicin recovery of 82.8% across all samples with 100% of protein incorporation in the correct orientation (N-terminus exposed. Following cytotoxicity screening in a doxorubicin-sensitive breast cancer line (MCF-7, three major groups of ligands were identified. Ligands showing the most improved cytotoxicity included: DMPGTVLP, ANGRPSMT, VNGRAEAP, and ANDVYLD showing a 25-fold improvement (p < 0.05 in toxicity. Similarly DGQYLGSQ, ETYNQPYL, and GSSEQLYL ligands with specificity towards a doxorubicin-insensitive pancreatic cancer line (PANC-1 showed significant increases in toxicity (2-fold; p < 0.05. Thus, we demonstrated proof-of-concept that pVIII major coat proteins can be screened in significantly higher throughput to identify novel ligands displaying improved therapeutic activity in a desired cancer phenotype.

  6. Effect of More vs Less Frequent Follow-up Testing on Overall and Colorectal Cancer-Specific Mortality in Patients With Stage II or III Colorectal Cancer: The COLOFOL Randomized Clinical Trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wille-Jørgensen, Peer; Syk, Ingvar; Smedh, Kenneth; Laurberg, Søren; Nielsen, Dennis T; Petersen, Sune H; Renehan, Andrew G; Horváth-Puhó, Erzsébet; Påhlman, Lars; Sørensen, Henrik T

    2018-05-22

    Intensive follow-up of patients after curative surgery for colorectal cancer is common in clinical practice, but evidence of a survival benefit is limited. To examine overall mortality, colorectal cancer-specific mortality, and colorectal cancer-specific recurrence rates among patients with stage II or III colorectal cancer who were randomized after curative surgery to 2 alternative schedules for follow-up testing with computed tomography and carcinoembryonic antigen. Unblinded randomized trial including 2509 patients with stage II or III colorectal cancer treated at 24 centers in Sweden, Denmark, and Uruguay from January 2006 through December 2010 and followed up for 5 years; follow-up ended on December 31, 2015. Patients were randomized either to follow-up testing with computed tomography of the thorax and abdomen and serum carcinoembryonic antigen at 6, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months after surgery (high-frequency group; n = 1253 patients) or at 12 and 36 months after surgery (low-frequency group; n = 1256 patients). The primary outcomes were 5-year overall mortality and colorectal cancer-specific mortality rates. The secondary outcome was the colorectal cancer-specific recurrence rate. Both intention-to-treat and per-protocol analyses were performed. Among 2555 patients who were randomized, 2509 were included in the intention-to-treat analysis (mean age, 63.5 years; 1128 women [45%]) and 2365 (94.3%) completed the trial. The 5-year overall patient mortality rate in the high-frequency group was 13.0% (161/1253) compared with 14.1% (174/1256) in the low-frequency group (risk difference, 1.1% [95% CI, -1.6% to 3.8%]; P = .43). The 5-year colorectal cancer-specific mortality rate in the high-frequency group was 10.6% (128/1248) compared with 11.4% (137/1250) in the low-frequency group (risk difference, 0.8% [95% CI, -1.7% to 3.3%]; P = .52). The colorectal cancer-specific recurrence rate was 21.6% (265/1248) in the high-frequency group compared with 19

  7. Attributing death to cancer: cause-specific survival estimation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mathew A

    2002-10-01

    Full Text Available Cancer survival estimation is an important part of assessing the overall strength of cancer care in a region. Generally, the death of a patient is taken as the end point in estimation of overall survival. When calculating the overall survival, the cause of death is not taken into account. With increasing demand for better survival of cancer patients it is important for clinicians and researchers to know about survival statistics due to disease of interest, i.e. net survival. It is also important to choose the best method for estimating net survival. Increase in the use of computer programmes has made it possible to carry out statistical analysis without guidance from a bio-statistician. This is of prime importance in third- world countries as there are a few trained bio-statisticians to guide clinicians and researchers. The present communication describes current methods used to estimate net survival such as cause-specific survival and relative survival. The limitation of estimation of cause-specific survival particularly in India and the usefulness of relative survival are discussed. The various sources for estimating cancer survival are also discussed. As survival-estimates are to be projected on to the population at large, it becomes important to measure the variation of the estimates, and thus confidence intervals are used. Rothman′s confidence interval gives the most satisfactory result for survival estimate.

  8. Can specific transcriptional regulators assemble a universal cancer signature?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roy, Janine; Isik, Zerrin; Pilarsky, Christian; Schroeder, Michael

    2013-10-01

    Recently, there is a lot of interest in using biomarker signatures derived from gene expression data to predict cancer progression. We assembled signatures of 25 published datasets covering 13 types of cancers. How do these signatures compare with each other? On one hand signatures answering the same biological question should overlap, whereas signatures predicting different cancer types should differ. On the other hand, there could also be a Universal Cancer Signature that is predictive independently of the cancer type. Initially, we generate signatures for all datasets using classical approaches such as t-test and fold change and then, we explore signatures resulting from a network-based method, that applies the random surfer model of Google's PageRank algorithm. We show that the signatures as published by the authors and the signatures generated with classical methods do not overlap - not even for the same cancer type - whereas the network-based signatures strongly overlap. Selecting 10 out of 37 universal cancer genes gives the optimal prediction for all cancers thus taking a first step towards a Universal Cancer Signature. We furthermore analyze and discuss the involved genes in terms of the Hallmarks of cancer and in particular single out SP1, JUN/FOS and NFKB1 and examine their specific role in cancer progression.

  9. A site specific model and analysis of the neutral somatic mutation rate in whole-genome cancer data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bertl, Johanna; Guo, Qianyun; Juul, Malene; Besenbacher, Søren; Nielsen, Morten Muhlig; Hornshøj, Henrik; Pedersen, Jakob Skou; Hobolth, Asger

    2018-04-19

    Detailed modelling of the neutral mutational process in cancer cells is crucial for identifying driver mutations and understanding the mutational mechanisms that act during cancer development. The neutral mutational process is very complex: whole-genome analyses have revealed that the mutation rate differs between cancer types, between patients and along the genome depending on the genetic and epigenetic context. Therefore, methods that predict the number of different types of mutations in regions or specific genomic elements must consider local genomic explanatory variables. A major drawback of most methods is the need to average the explanatory variables across the entire region or genomic element. This procedure is particularly problematic if the explanatory variable varies dramatically in the element under consideration. To take into account the fine scale of the explanatory variables, we model the probabilities of different types of mutations for each position in the genome by multinomial logistic regression. We analyse 505 cancer genomes from 14 different cancer types and compare the performance in predicting mutation rate for both regional based models and site-specific models. We show that for 1000 randomly selected genomic positions, the site-specific model predicts the mutation rate much better than regional based models. We use a forward selection procedure to identify the most important explanatory variables. The procedure identifies site-specific conservation (phyloP), replication timing, and expression level as the best predictors for the mutation rate. Finally, our model confirms and quantifies certain well-known mutational signatures. We find that our site-specific multinomial regression model outperforms the regional based models. The possibility of including genomic variables on different scales and patient specific variables makes it a versatile framework for studying different mutational mechanisms. Our model can serve as the neutral null model

  10. Circulating microRNAs as specific biomarkers for breast cancer detection.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Enders K O Ng

    Full Text Available We previously showed microRNAs (miRNAs in plasma are potential biomarkers for colorectal cancer detection. Here, we aimed to develop specific blood-based miRNA assay for breast cancer detection.TaqMan-based miRNA profiling was performed in tumor, adjacent non-tumor, corresponding plasma from breast cancer patients, and plasma from matched healthy controls. All putative markers identified were verified in a training set of breast cancer patients. Selected markers were validated in a case-control cohort of 170 breast cancer patients, 100 controls, and 95 other types of cancers and then blindly validated in an independent set of 70 breast cancer patients and 50 healthy controls. Profiling results showed 8 miRNAs were concordantly up-regulated and 1 miRNA was concordantly down-regulated in both plasma and tumor tissue of breast cancer patients. Of the 8 up-regulated miRNAs, only 3 were significantly elevated (p<0.0001 before surgery and reduced after surgery in the training set. Results from the validation cohort showed that a combination of miR-145 and miR-451 was the best biomarker (p<0.0001 in discriminating breast cancer from healthy controls and all other types of cancers. In the blind validation, these plasma markers yielded Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC curve area of 0.931. The positive predictive value was 88% and the negative predictive value was 92%. Altered levels of these miRNAs in plasma have been detected not only in advanced stages but also early stages of tumors. The positive predictive value for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS cases was 96%.These results suggested that these circulating miRNAs could be a potential specific biomarker for breast cancer screening.

  11. Characterization of Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) for Use in Therapeutic and Diagnostic Strategies Against Prostate Cancer

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    O'Keefe, Denise

    2002-01-01

    Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) appears to be an ideal prostate cancer marker and potential therapeutic target, however there have been reports of PSMA expression in non-prostatic tissues, including brain, kidney and liver...

  12. Pan-cancer stratification of solid human epithelial tumors and cancer cell lines reveals commonalities and tissue-specific features of the CpG island methylator phenotype.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sánchez-Vega, Francisco; Gotea, Valer; Margolin, Gennady; Elnitski, Laura

    2015-01-01

    The term CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) has been used to describe widespread DNA hypermethylation at CpG-rich genomic regions affecting clinically distinct subsets of cancer patients. Even though there have been numerous studies of CIMP in individual cancer types, a uniform analysis across tissues is still lacking. We analyze genome-wide patterns of CpG island hypermethylation in 5,253 solid epithelial tumors from 15 cancer types from TCGA and 23 cancer cell lines from ENCODE. We identify differentially methylated loci that define CIMP+ and CIMP- samples, and we use unsupervised clustering to provide a robust molecular stratification of tumor methylomes for 12 cancer types and all cancer cell lines. With a minimal set of 89 discriminative loci, we demonstrate accurate pan-cancer separation of the 12 CIMP+/- subpopulations, based on their average levels of methylation. Tumor samples in different CIMP subclasses show distinctive correlations with gene expression profiles and recurrence of somatic mutations, copy number variations, and epigenetic silencing. Enrichment analyses indicate shared canonical pathways and upstream regulators for CIMP-targeted regions across cancer types. Furthermore, genomic alterations showing consistent associations with CIMP+/- status include genes involved in DNA repair, chromatin remodeling genes, and several histone methyltransferases. Associations of CIMP status with specific clinical features, including overall survival in several cancer types, highlight the importance of the CIMP+/- designation for individual tumor evaluation and personalized medicine. We present a comprehensive computational study of CIMP that reveals pan-cancer commonalities and tissue-specific differences underlying concurrent hypermethylation of CpG islands across tumors. Our stratification of solid tumors and cancer cell lines based on CIMP status is data-driven and agnostic to tumor type by design, which protects against known biases that have hindered

  13. The association of long-term treatment-related side effects with cancer-specific and general quality of life among prostate cancer survivors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Kimberly M; Kelly, Scott P; Luta, George; Tomko, Catherine; Miller, Anthony B; Taylor, Kathryn L

    2014-08-01

    To examine the association between treatment-related side effects and cancer-specific and general quality of life (QOL) among long-term prostate cancer survivors. Within the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, we conducted telephone interviews with prostate cancer survivors (N = 518) who were 5-10 years after diagnosis. We assessed demographic and clinical information, sexual, urinary, and bowel treatment-related side effects (Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite), cancer-specific QOL (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy--total score), and general QOL (the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 12's physical and mental subscales). Participants were aged 74.6 years on average, primarily White (88.4%), and married (81.7%). Pearson correlation coefficients between the 3 treatment-related side effect domains (urinary, sexual, and bowel) and QOL ranged between 0.14 and 0.42 (P functioning and greater bowel side effects were independently associated with poorer cancer-specific QOL (P functions were also associated with poorer general QOL on the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 12's physical component summary and mental component summary (P side effects demonstrated the strongest association with all QOL outcomes. Treatment-related side effects persisted for up to 10 years after diagnosis and continued to be associated with men's QOL. These results suggest that each of the treatment-related side effects was independently associated with cancer-specific QOL. Compared with the other Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite domains, bowel side effects had the strongest association with cancer-specific and general QOL. These associations emphasize the tremendous impact that bowel side effects continue to have for men many years after their initial diagnosis. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  14. Impact of Physical Activity on Cancer-Specific and Overall Survival of Patients with Colorectal Cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gaetan Des Guetz

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. Physical activity (PA reduces incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC. Its influence on cancer-specific (CSS and overall survival (OS is controversial. Methods. We performed a literature-based meta-analysis (MA of observational studies, using keywords “colorectal cancer, physical activity, and survival” in PubMed and EMBASE. No dedicated MA was found in the Cochrane Library. References were cross-checked. Pre- and postdiagnosis PA levels were assessed by MET. Usually, “high” PA was higher than 17 MET hour/week. Hazard ratios (HRs for OS and CSS were calculated, with their 95% confidence interval. We used more conservative adjusted HRs, since variables of adjustment were similar between studies. When higher PA was associated with improved survival, HRs for detrimental events were set to <1. We used EasyMA software and fixed effect model whenever possible. Results. Seven studies (8056 participants were included, representing 3762 men and 4256 women, 5210 colon and 1745 rectum cancers. Mean age was 67 years. HR CSS for postdiagnosis PA (higher PA versus lower was 0.61 (0.44–0.86. The corresponding HR OS was 0.62 (0.54–0.71. HR CSS for prediagnosis PA was 0.75 (0.62–0.91. The corresponding HR OS was 0.74 (0.62–0.89. Conclusion. Higher PA predicted a better CSS. Sustained PA should be advised for CRC. OS also improved (reduced cardiovascular risk.

  15. Cancer cachexia decreases specific force and accelerates fatigue in limb muscle

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Roberts, B. M. [1225 Center Drive, HPNP Building Room 1142, Department of Physical Therapy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610 (United States); Frye, G. S.; Ahn, B.; Ferreira, L. F. [1864 Stadium Road, Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610 (United States); Judge, A.R., E-mail: arjudge@phhp.ufl.edu [1225 Center Drive, HPNP Building Room 1142, Department of Physical Therapy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610 (United States)

    2013-06-07

    Highlights: •C-26 cancer cachexia causes a significant decrease in limb muscle absolute force. •C-26 cancer cachexia causes a significant decrease in limb muscle specific force. •C-26 cancer cachexia decreases fatigue resistance in the soleus muscle. •C-26 cancer cachexia prolongs time to peak twitch tension in limb muscle. •C-26 cancer cachexia prolongs one half twitch relaxation time in limb muscle. -- Abstract: Cancer cachexia is a complex metabolic syndrome that is characterized by the loss of skeletal muscle mass and weakness, which compromises physical function, reduces quality of life, and ultimately can lead to mortality. Experimental models of cancer cachexia have recapitulated this skeletal muscle atrophy and consequent decline in muscle force generating capacity. However, more recently, we provided evidence that during severe cancer cachexia muscle weakness in the diaphragm muscle cannot be entirely accounted for by the muscle atrophy. This indicates that muscle weakness is not just a consequence of muscle atrophy but that there is also significant contractile dysfunction. The current study aimed to determine whether contractile dysfunction is also present in limb muscles during severe Colon-26 (C26) carcinoma cachexia by studying the glycolytic extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle and the oxidative soleus muscle, which has an activity pattern that more closely resembles the diaphragm. Severe C-26 cancer cachexia caused significant muscle fiber atrophy and a reduction in maximum absolute force in both the EDL and soleus muscles. However, normalization to muscle cross sectional area further demonstrated a 13% decrease in maximum isometric specific force in the EDL and an even greater decrease (17%) in maximum isometric specific force in the soleus. Time to peak tension and half relaxation time were also significantly slowed in both the EDL and the solei from C-26 mice compared to controls. Since, in addition to postural control, the oxidative

  16. Cancer cachexia decreases specific force and accelerates fatigue in limb muscle

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roberts, B.M.; Frye, G.S.; Ahn, B.; Ferreira, L.F.; Judge, A.R.

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: •C-26 cancer cachexia causes a significant decrease in limb muscle absolute force. •C-26 cancer cachexia causes a significant decrease in limb muscle specific force. •C-26 cancer cachexia decreases fatigue resistance in the soleus muscle. •C-26 cancer cachexia prolongs time to peak twitch tension in limb muscle. •C-26 cancer cachexia prolongs one half twitch relaxation time in limb muscle. -- Abstract: Cancer cachexia is a complex metabolic syndrome that is characterized by the loss of skeletal muscle mass and weakness, which compromises physical function, reduces quality of life, and ultimately can lead to mortality. Experimental models of cancer cachexia have recapitulated this skeletal muscle atrophy and consequent decline in muscle force generating capacity. However, more recently, we provided evidence that during severe cancer cachexia muscle weakness in the diaphragm muscle cannot be entirely accounted for by the muscle atrophy. This indicates that muscle weakness is not just a consequence of muscle atrophy but that there is also significant contractile dysfunction. The current study aimed to determine whether contractile dysfunction is also present in limb muscles during severe Colon-26 (C26) carcinoma cachexia by studying the glycolytic extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle and the oxidative soleus muscle, which has an activity pattern that more closely resembles the diaphragm. Severe C-26 cancer cachexia caused significant muscle fiber atrophy and a reduction in maximum absolute force in both the EDL and soleus muscles. However, normalization to muscle cross sectional area further demonstrated a 13% decrease in maximum isometric specific force in the EDL and an even greater decrease (17%) in maximum isometric specific force in the soleus. Time to peak tension and half relaxation time were also significantly slowed in both the EDL and the solei from C-26 mice compared to controls. Since, in addition to postural control, the oxidative

  17. Association of tobacco habits, including bidi smoking, with overall and site-specific cancer incidence: results from the Mumbai cohort study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pednekar, Mangesh S.; Gupta, Prakash C.; Yeole, Balkrishna B.; Hébert, James R.

    2013-01-01

    Objective Bidis are hand-rolled cigarettes commonly smoked in South Asia and are marketed to Western populations as a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes. This study examined the association between bidis and other forms of tobacco use and cancer incidence in an urban developing country population. Methods Using data from the large, well-characterized Mumbai cohort study, adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed from Cox proportional hazards regression models in order to compare the relative effect of various forms of tobacco use on cancer incidence. Results During 649,228 person-years of follow-up 1,267 incident cancers occurred in 87,222 male cohort members. Incident oral cancer in bidi smokers (HR = 3.55; 95% CI = 2.40,5.24) was 42% higher than in cigarette smokers (HR = 2.50;95% CI = 1.65,3.78). For all respiratory and intrathoracic organs combined, the increase was 69% (HR = 5.54; 95% CI = 3.46,8.87 vs. HR = 3.28; 95% CI = 1.99,5.39); for lung and larynx, the increases were 35 and 112%, respectively. Smokeless tobacco use was associated with cancers of the lip, oral cavity, pharynx, digestive, respiratory, and intrathoracic organs. Conclusions Despite marketing claims to the contrary, we found that smokeless tobacco use and bidi smoking are at least as harmful as cigarette smoking for all incident cancers and are associated with increased risk of oral and respiratory/intrathoracic cancers. PMID:21431915

  18. Cause-specific mortality in Scottish patients with colorectal cancer with and without type 2 diabetes (2000-2007).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, J J; Brewster, D H; Colhoun, H M; Fischbacher, C M; Lindsay, R S; Wild, S H

    2013-07-01

    The objective of this study was to use Scottish national data to assess the influence of type 2 diabetes on (1) survival (overall and cause-specific) in multiple time intervals after diagnosis of colorectal cancer and (2) cause of death. Data from the Scottish Cancer Registry were linked to data from a population-based national diabetes register. All people in Scotland diagnosed with non-metastatic cancer of the colon or rectum in 2000-2007 were included. The effect of pre-existing type 2 diabetes on survival over four discrete time intervals (5 years) after cancer diagnosis was assessed by Cox regression. Cumulative incidence functions were calculated representing the respective probabilities of death from the competing causes of colorectal cancer, cardiovascular disease, other cancers and any other cause. Data were available for 19,505 people with colon or rectal cancer (1,957 with pre-existing diabetes). Cause-specific mortality analyses identified a stronger association between diabetes and cardiovascular disease mortality than that between diabetes and cancer mortality. Beyond 5 years after colon cancer diagnosis, diabetes was associated with a detrimental effect on all-cause mortality after adjustment for age, socioeconomic status and cancer stage (HR [95% CI]: 1.57 [1.19, 2.06] in men; 1.84 [1.36, 2.50] in women). For patients with rectal cancer, diabetes was not associated with differential survival in any time interval. Poorer survival observed for colon cancer associated with type 2 diabetes in Scotland may be explained by higher mortality from causes other than cancer.

  19. Age-specific interval breast cancers in Japan. Estimation of the proper sensitivity of screening using a population-based cancer registry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Suzuki, Akihiko; Kuriyama, Shinichi; Kawai, Masaaki

    2008-01-01

    The age-specific sensitivity of a screening program was investigated using a population-based cancer registry as a source of false-negative cancer cases. A population-based screening program for breast cancer was run using either clinical breast examinations (CBE) alone or mammography combined with CBE in the Miyagi Prefecture from 1997 to 2002. Interval cancers were newly identified by linking the screening records to the population-based cancer registry to estimate the number of false-negative cases of screening program. Among 112071 women screened by mammography combined with CBE, the number of detected cancers, false-negative cases and the sensitivity were 289, 22 and 92.9%, respectively, based on the reports from participating municipalities. The number of newly found false-negative cases and corrected sensitivity when using the registry were 34 and 83.8%, respectively. In detected cancers, the sensitivity of screening by mammography combined with CBE in women ranging from 40 to 49 years of age based on a population-based cancer registry was much lower than that in women 50-59 and 60-69 years of age (40-49: 18, 71.4%, 50-59: 19, 85.8%, 60-69: 19, 87.2%). These data suggest that the accurate outcome of an evaluation of breast cancer screening must include the use of a population-based cancer registry for detecting false-negative cases. Screening by mammography combined with CBE may therefore not be sufficiently sensitive for women ranging from 40 to 49 years of age. (author)

  20. Screening for prostate cancer with the prostate-specific antigen test: are patients making informed decisions?

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Dell, K J; Volk, R J; Cass, A R; Spann, S J

    1999-09-01

    The benefits of early detection of prostate cancer are uncertain, and the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Family Physicians recommend individual decision making in prostate cancer screening. This study reports the knowledge of male primary care patients about prostate cancer and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing and examines how that knowledge is related to PSA testing, preferences for testing in the future, and desire for involvement in physician-patient decision making. The sample included 160 men aged 45 to 70 years with no history of prostate cancer who presented for care at a university-based family medicine clinic. Before scheduled office visits, patients completed a questionnaire developed for this study that included a 10-question measure of prostate cancer knowledge, the Deber-Kraestchmer Problem-Solving Decision-Making Scale, sociodemographic indicators, and questions on PSA testing. In general, patients who were college graduates were more knowledgeable about prostate cancer and early detection than those with a high school education or less. Aside from college graduates, most patients could not identify the principle advantages and disadvantages of PSA testing. Patients indicating previous or future plans for PSA testing demonstrated greater knowledge than other patients. Desire for involvement in decision making varied by patient education but was not related to past PSA testing. Patients lack knowledge about prostate cancer and early detection. This knowledge deficit may impede the early detection of prostate cancer and is a barrier to making an informed decision about undergoing PSA testing.

  1. Non-oncogenic Acute Viral Infections Disrupt Anti-cancer Responses and Lead to Accelerated Cancer-Specific Host Death

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frederick J. Kohlhapp

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available In light of increased cancer prevalence and cancer-specific deaths in patients with infections, we investigated whether infections alter anti-tumor immune responses. We report that acute influenza infection of the lung promotes distal melanoma growth in the dermis and leads to accelerated cancer-specific host death. Furthermore, we show that during influenza infection, anti-melanoma CD8+ T cells are shunted from the tumor to the infection site, where they express high levels of the inhibitory receptor programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1. Immunotherapy to block PD-1 reverses this loss of anti-tumor CD8+ T cells from the tumor and decreases infection-induced tumor growth. Our findings show that acute non-oncogenic infection can promote cancer growth, raising concerns regarding acute viral illness sequelae. They also suggest an unexpected role for PD-1 blockade in cancer immunotherapy and provide insight into the immune response when faced with concomitant challenges.

  2. Non-specific chemical inhibition of the Fanconi anemia pathway sensitizes cancer cells to cisplatin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jacquemont Céline

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Platinum compounds such as cisplatin and carboplatin are DNA crosslinking agents widely used for cancer chemotherapy. However, the effectiveness of platinum compounds is often tempered by the acquisition of cellular drug resistance. Until now, no pharmacological approach has successfully overcome cisplatin resistance in cancer treatment. Since the Fanconi anemia (FA pathway is a DNA damage response pathway required for cellular resistance to DNA interstrand crosslinking agents, identification of small molecules that inhibit the FA pathway may reveal classes of chemicals that sensitize cancer cells to cisplatin. Results Through a cell-based screening assay of over 16,000 chemicals, we identified 26 small molecules that inhibit ionizing radiation and cisplatin-induced FANCD2 foci formation, a marker of FA pathway activity, in multiple human cell lines. Most of these small molecules also compromised ionizing radiation-induced RAD51 foci formation and homologous recombination repair, indicating that they are not selective toward the regulation of FANCD2. These compounds include known inhibitors of the proteasome, cathepsin B, lysosome, CHK1, HSP90, CDK and PKC, and several uncharacterized chemicals including a novel proteasome inhibitor (Chembridge compound 5929407. Isobologram analyses demonstrated that half of the identified molecules sensitized ovarian cancer cells to cisplatin. Among them, 9 demonstrated increased efficiency toward FA pathway-proficient, cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancer cells. Six small molecules, including bortezomib (proteasome inhibitor, CA-074-Me (cathepsin B inhibitor and 17-AAG (HSP90 inhibitor, synergized with cisplatin specifically in FA-proficient ovarian cancer cells (2008 + FANCF, but not in FA-deficient isogenic cells (2008. In addition, geldanamycin (HSP90 inhibitor and two CHK1 inhibitors (UCN-01 and SB218078 exhibited a significantly stronger synergism with cisplatin in FA

  3. Prostate-specific antigen-based prostate cancer screening: Past and future.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alberts, Arnout R; Schoots, Ivo G; Roobol, Monique J

    2015-06-01

    Prostate-specific antigen-based prostate cancer screening remains a controversial topic. Up to now, there is worldwide consensus on the statement that the harms of population-based screening, mainly as a result of overdiagnosis (the detection of clinically insignificant tumors that would have never caused any symptoms), outweigh the benefits. However, worldwide opportunistic screening takes place on a wide scale. The European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer showed a reduction in prostate cancer mortality through prostate-specific antigen based-screening. These population-based data need to be individualized in order to avoid screening in those who cannot benefit and start screening in those who will. For now, lacking a more optimal screening approach, screening should only be started after the process of shared decision-making. The focus of future research is the reduction of unnecessary testing and overdiagnosis by further research to better biomarkers and the value of the multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging, potentially combined in already existing prostate-specific antigen-based multivariate risk prediction models. © 2015 The Japanese Urological Association.

  4. Lung cancer risk and cancer-specific mortality in subjects undergoing routine imaging test when stratified with and without identified lung nodule on imaging study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gomez-Saez, Noemi [Miguel Hernandez University, Public Health, History of Science and Ginecology Department, Alicante (Spain); Hernandez-Aguado, Ildefonso; Pastor Valero, Maria; Parker, Lucy Anne; Lumbreras, Blanca [Miguel Hernandez University, Public Health, History of Science and Ginecology Department, Alicante (Spain); CIBER en Epidemiologia y Salud Publica, Madrid (Spain); Vilar, Jose; Domingo, Maria Luisa [Peset Hospital, Radiodiagnostic Department, Valencia (Spain); Gonzalez-Alvarez, Isabel; Lorente, Maria Fermina [San Juan Hospital, Radiodiagnostic Department, San Juan de Alicante (Spain)

    2015-12-15

    To assess the risk of lung cancer and specific mortality rate in patients with and without solitary pulmonary nodules (SPN) on chest radiograph and CT. This prospective study included 16,078 patients ≥35 years old (893 of them had an SPN detected with either chest radiograph or CT) and 15,185 without SPN. Patients were followed up for 18 months or until being diagnosed with lung cancer. Risk and mortality lung cancer were calculated in both groups with Poisson regression. In patients with SPN, incidence of lung cancer was 8.3 % (95 % CI 6.0-11.2) on radiograph and 12.4 % (95 % CI 9.3-15.9) on CT. A chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in patients with radiographs (odds ratio 2.62; 95 % CI 1.03, 6.67) and smoking habit (odds ratio 20.63; 95 % CI 3.84, 110.77) in patients with CT were associated with a higher probability of lung cancer. Large nodule size and spiculated edge were associated with lung cancer on both CT and radiograph. Lung cancer-specific mortality was lower in patients with SPN than in those without SPN (1.73/1000 person-years, 95 % CI 1.08-2.88 vs. 2.15/1000 person-years, 95 % CI 1.25-3.96). The risk of lung cancer for patients with SPN is higher in clinical populations than in screening studies. Moreover, patients with SPN showed lower mortality than those without SPN. (orig.)

  5. Lung cancer risk and cancer-specific mortality in subjects undergoing routine imaging test when stratified with and without identified lung nodule on imaging study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gomez-Saez, Noemi; Hernandez-Aguado, Ildefonso; Pastor Valero, Maria; Parker, Lucy Anne; Lumbreras, Blanca; Vilar, Jose; Domingo, Maria Luisa; Gonzalez-Alvarez, Isabel; Lorente, Maria Fermina

    2015-01-01

    To assess the risk of lung cancer and specific mortality rate in patients with and without solitary pulmonary nodules (SPN) on chest radiograph and CT. This prospective study included 16,078 patients ≥35 years old (893 of them had an SPN detected with either chest radiograph or CT) and 15,185 without SPN. Patients were followed up for 18 months or until being diagnosed with lung cancer. Risk and mortality lung cancer were calculated in both groups with Poisson regression. In patients with SPN, incidence of lung cancer was 8.3 % (95 % CI 6.0-11.2) on radiograph and 12.4 % (95 % CI 9.3-15.9) on CT. A chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in patients with radiographs (odds ratio 2.62; 95 % CI 1.03, 6.67) and smoking habit (odds ratio 20.63; 95 % CI 3.84, 110.77) in patients with CT were associated with a higher probability of lung cancer. Large nodule size and spiculated edge were associated with lung cancer on both CT and radiograph. Lung cancer-specific mortality was lower in patients with SPN than in those without SPN (1.73/1000 person-years, 95 % CI 1.08-2.88 vs. 2.15/1000 person-years, 95 % CI 1.25-3.96). The risk of lung cancer for patients with SPN is higher in clinical populations than in screening studies. Moreover, patients with SPN showed lower mortality than those without SPN. (orig.)

  6. 5-HTTLPR and use of antidepressants after colorectal cancer including a meta-analysis of 5-HTTLPR and depression after cancer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Suppli, N P; Bukh, J D; Moffitt, T E

    2015-01-01

    created an exposed-only cohort of 849 colorectal cancer patients from the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort study. The hypothesized association was investigated with Cox regression models and competing risk analyses. Five studies comprising a total of 1484 cancer patients were included in the meta...

  7. BRAF mutation-specific promoter methylation of FOX genes in colorectal cancer

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    E.H.J. van Roon (Eddy); A. Boot (Arnoud); A.A. Dihal (Ashwin); R.F. Ernst (Robert); T. van Wezel (Tom); H. Morreau (Hans); J.M. Boer (Judith)

    2013-01-01

    textabstractBackground: Cancer-specific hypermethylation of (promoter) CpG islands is common during the tumorigenesis of colon cancer. Although associations between certain genetic aberrations, such as BRAF mutation and microsatellite instability, and the CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP), have

  8. Genetic susceptibility for specific cancers. Medical liability of the clinician.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Severin, M J

    1999-12-01

    The use of genetic profiling techniques to detect individuals with an increased susceptibility to heritable cancers has provoked recent legal interest in the duties of the attending physician and in the rights of patients and their families. In the current study specific prima facie and recently litigated cases are presented and explored to delineate the issues facing physicians and to illustrate the prerogatives of patients who are caught up in a heritable cancer enigma. Various courts have attempted to answer questions involving lawsuits in which incidents of breast/ovarian carcinoma and colon carcinoma have provoked claims of negligence against health care providers. Health care workers involved in the care of these patients have specific duties to these individuals. It would appear that physicians are being forced to assume the additional duty of delving into a patient's family history of cancer through multiple generations. This duty is followed by a responsibility to provide detailed counseling to those patients in whom such activity impacts the diagnosis and management of familial cancer.

  9. Profound Tissue Specificity in Proliferation Control Underlies Cancer Drivers and Aneuploidy Patterns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sack, Laura Magill; Davoli, Teresa; Li, Mamie Z; Li, Yuyang; Xu, Qikai; Naxerova, Kamila; Wooten, Eric C; Bernardi, Ronald J; Martin, Timothy D; Chen, Ting; Leng, Yumei; Liang, Anthony C; Scorsone, Kathleen A; Westbrook, Thomas F; Wong, Kwok-Kin; Elledge, Stephen J

    2018-04-05

    Genomics has provided a detailed structural description of the cancer genome. Identifying oncogenic drivers that work primarily through dosage changes is a current challenge. Unrestrained proliferation is a critical hallmark of cancer. We constructed modular, barcoded libraries of human open reading frames (ORFs) and performed screens for proliferation regulators in multiple cell types. Approximately 10% of genes regulate proliferation, with most performing in an unexpectedly highly tissue-specific manner. Proliferation drivers in a given cell type showed specific enrichment in somatic copy number changes (SCNAs) from cognate tumors and helped predict aneuploidy patterns in those tumors, implying that tissue-type-specific genetic network architectures underlie SCNA and driver selection in different cancers. In vivo screening confirmed these results. We report a substantial contribution to the catalog of SCNA-associated cancer drivers, identifying 147 amplified and 107 deleted genes as potential drivers, and derive insights about the genetic network architecture of aneuploidy in tumors. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Multiple loci with different cancer specificities within the 8q24 gene desert

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ghoussaini, M.; Song, H.; Koessler, T.

    2008-01-01

    this gene desert were specifically associated with risks of different cancers. One block was solely associated with risk of breast cancer, three others were associated solely with the risk of prostate cancer, and a fifth was associated with the risk of prostate, colorectal, and ovarian cancer...

  11. Frailty Index Developed From a Cancer-Specific Geriatric Assessment and the Association With Mortality Among Older Adults With Cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guerard, Emily J; Deal, Allison M; Chang, YunKyung; Williams, Grant R; Nyrop, Kirsten A; Pergolotti, Mackenzi; Muss, Hyman B; Sanoff, Hanna K; Lund, Jennifer L

    2017-07-01

    Background: An objective measure is needed to identify frail older adults with cancer who are at increased risk for poor health outcomes. The primary objective of this study was to develop a frailty index from a cancer-specific geriatric assessment (GA) and evaluate its ability to predict all-cause mortality among older adults with cancer. Patients and Methods: Using a unique and novel data set that brings together GA data with cancer-specific and long-term mortality data, we developed the Carolina Frailty Index (CFI) from a cancer-specific GA based on the principles of deficit accumulation. CFI scores (range, 0-1) were categorized as robust (0-0.2), pre-frail (0.2-0.35), and frail (>0.35). The primary outcome for evaluating predictive validity was all-cause mortality. The Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank tests were used to compare survival between frailty groups, and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to evaluate associations. Results: In our sample of 546 older adults with cancer, the median age was 72 years, 72% were women, 85% were white, and 47% had a breast cancer diagnosis. Overall, 58% of patients were robust, 24% were pre-frail, and 18% were frail. The estimated 5-year survival rate was 72% in robust patients, 58% in pre-frail patients, and 34% in frail patients (log-rank test, P older adults with cancer, a finding that was independent of age, sex, cancer type and stage, and number of medical comorbidities. The CFI has the potential to become a tool that oncologists can use to objectively identify frailty in older adults with cancer. Copyright © 2017 by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

  12. Specific RSK kinase inhibition by dibenzyl trisulfide and implication for therapeutic treatment of cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lowe, Henry I C; Facey, Caroline O B; Toyang, Ngeh J; Bryant, Joseph L

    2014-04-01

    The Jamaican "Guinea Hen Weed" (Petiveria alliacea L.) plant has been traditionally used in folklore medicine to treat a variety of diseases including cancer. In the present study we investigated on the therapeutic feasibility of dibenzyl trisulfide (DTS) (isolated from the Jamaican Guinea Hen Weed) as a potent small-molecule kinase inhibitor to treat cancer. We investigated the inhibitory effects of DTS against a large panel of kinases using a well-established competitive binding assay. Cell proliferation data were obtained using the WST-1 colorimetric assay. DTS inhibited the activity of the C-terminal kinase domain of RSK1 (80% compared to control) with a Kd of 1.3 μM. Anti-proliferative effects of DTS were observed in small lung, pancreatic, breast, and prostate cancer cells with IC50 values ranging from 0.34-0.84 μM. We have identified DTS as a highly selective and isoform-specific RSK1 kinase inhibitor with broad cancer therapeutic potential.

  13. Screening and Establishment of Human Lung Cancer Cell Lines 
with Organ-specific Metastasis Potential

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qinghua ZHOU

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Background and objective Cancer metastasis is not only the malignant marker and characteristics, but also the main cause of failure to cure and lose their life in the patients with lung cancer. Lung cancer metastasis has organ-specific characteristics. The most common sites of lung cancer metastasis are mediastinal lymph node, brain, bone, liver and adrenal gland. The aim of this study is to screen and establish lung cancer cell model with organ-specific metastasis potential with human high-metastatic large cell lung cancer cell line L9981 established by our laboratory previously, and to provide cell models for studying the mechanisms and signal regulation of organ-specific metastasis of lung cancer. Materials and methods The parent lung cancer cell line, L9981-Luc, was inoculated in the armpit of nude mice. The live animal imaging system, IVIS-200, was used to detect the lung cancer organ-specific metastasis every week. When the organ-specific metastasis were established, the nude mices bearing the lung cancer were sacrificed when they became moribund. Under sterile conditions, the organs (mediastinal lymph nodes, lung, spinal column and brain with lung cancer organ-specific metastasis were removed and the metastasized nodules were dissected free of connective tissue and blood clots, and rinsed twice with medium. The metastasized nodules were finely minced using sterile scalpel blades in medium, and the cells were seeded in tissue culture dishes. Then, the cells with organ-specific metastasis potential were reinoculated into the armpit of nude mice, respectively. This processes were repeated to establish the organ-specific metastatic sublines of L9981-Luc cell line more than 10 times. Finally, the organ-specific metastasis sublines of L9981-Luc were screened and established, which the four cell lines have the characteristics only metastasized to brian, lung, bone and mediastinal lymph node. Results A group of organ-specific metastasis cell

  14. Limitations in SELDI-TOF MS whole serum proteomic profiling with IMAC surface to specifically detect colorectal cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Qi; Gu, Jin; Shen, Jing; Li, Zhen-fu; Jie, Jian-zheng; Wang, Wen-yue; Wang, Jin; Zhang, Zhong-tao; Li, Zhi-xia; Yan, Li

    2009-01-01

    Surface enhanced laser desorption and ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS) analysis on serum samples was reported to be able to detect colorectal cancer (CRC) from normal or control patients. We carried out a validation study of a SELDI-TOF MS approach with IMAC surface sample processing to identify CRC. A retrospective cohort of 338 serum samples including 154 CRCs, 67 control cancers and 117 non-cancerous conditions was profiled using SELDI-TOF-MS. No CRC 'specific' classifier was found. However, a classifier consisting of two protein peaks separates cancer from non-cancerous conditions with high accuracy. In this study, the SELDI-TOF-MS-based protein expression profiling approach did not perform to identify CRC. However, this technique is promising in distinguishing patients with cancer from a non-cancerous population; it may be useful for monitoring recurrence of CRC after treatment

  15. Persistence of type-specific human papillomavirus infection and increased long-term risk of cervical cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Hui-Chi; Schiffman, Mark; Lin, Ching-Yu; Pan, Mei-Hung; You, San-Lin; Chuang, Li-Chung; Hsieh, Chang-Yao; Liaw, Kai-Li; Hsing, Ann W; Chen, Chien-Jen

    2011-09-21

    Human papillomavirus (HPV) persistence is the pivotal event in cervical carcinogenesis. We followed a large-scale community-based cohort for 16 years to investigate the role of genotype-specific HPV persistence in predicting cervical cancer including invasive and in situ carcinoma. At the baseline examination in 1991-1992, 11,923 participants (aged 30-65 years) consented to HPV testing and cytology; 6923 participants were reexamined in 1993-1995. For HPV testing, we used a polymerase chain reaction-based assay that detected 39 HPV types. Women who developed cervical cancer were identified from cancer and death registries. Cumulative risks for developing cervical cancer among infected and persistently infected women were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Of 10,123 women who were initially cytologically normal, 68 developed cervical cancer. The 16-year cumulative risks of subsequent cervical cancer for women with HPV16, HPV58 (without HPV16), or other carcinogenic HPV types (without HPV16 or HPV58) were 13.5%, 10.3%, and 4.0%, respectively, compared with 0.26% for HPV-negative women. Women with type-specific persistence of any carcinogenic HPV had greatly increased risk compared with women who were HPV-negative at both visits (hazard ratio = 75.4, 95% confidence interval = 31.8 to 178.9). The cumulative cervical cancer risks following persistent carcinogenic HPV infections increased with age: The risks were 5.5%, 14.4%, and 18.1% for women aged 30-44 years, 45-54 years, and 55 years and older, respectively. However, newly acquired infections were associated with a low risk of cervical cancer regardless of age. HPV negativity was associated with a very low long-term risk of cervical cancer. Persistent detection of HPV among cytologically normal women greatly increased risk. Thus, it is useful to perform repeated HPV testing following an initial positive test.

  16. Prostate Cancer Cells Express More Androgen Receptor (AR) Following Androgen Deprivation, Improving Recognition by AR-Specific T Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olson, Brian M; Gamat, Melissa; Seliski, Joseph; Sawicki, Thomas; Jeffery, Justin; Ellis, Leigh; Drake, Charles G; Weichert, Jamey; McNeel, Douglas G

    2017-12-01

    Androgen deprivation is the primary therapy for recurrent prostate cancer, and agents targeting the androgen receptor (AR) pathway continue to be developed. Because androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) has immmunostimulatory effects as well as direct antitumor effects, AR-targeted therapies have been combined with other anticancer therapies, including immunotherapies. Here, we sought to study whether an antigen-specific mechanism of resistance to ADT (overexpression of the AR) may result in enhanced AR-specific T-cell immune recognition, and whether this might be strategically combined with an antitumor vaccine targeting the AR. Androgen deprivation increased AR expression in human and murine prostate tumor cells in vitro and in vivo The increased expression persisted over time. Increased AR expression was associated with recognition and cytolytic activity by AR-specific T cells. Furthermore, ADT combined with vaccination, specifically a DNA vaccine encoding the ligand-binding domain of the AR, led to improved antitumor responses as measured by tumor volumes and delays in the emergence of castrate-resistant prostate tumors in two murine prostate cancer models (Myc-CaP and prostate-specific PTEN-deficient mice). Together, these data suggest that ADT combined with AR-directed immunotherapy targets a major mechanism of resistance, overexpression of the AR. This combination may be more effective than ADT combined with other immunotherapeutic approaches. Cancer Immunol Res; 5(12); 1074-85. ©2017 AACR . ©2017 American Association for Cancer Research.

  17. Nomogram incorporating PSA level to predict cancer-specific survival for men with clinically localized prostate cancer managed without curative intent

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kattan, Michael W.; Cuzick, Jack; Fisher, Gabrielle; Berney, Daniel M.; Oliver, Tim; Foster, Christopher S.; Møller, Henrik; Reuter, Victor; Fearn, Paul; Eastham, James; Scardino, Peter T.

    2012-01-01

    Introduction The prognosis of men with clinically localized prostate cancer is highly variable, and it is difficult to counsel a man who may be considering avoiding, or delaying, aggressive therapy. After collecting data on a large cohort of men who received no initial active prostate cancer therapy, we sought to develop, and to internally validate, a nomogram for prediction of disease-specific survival. Methods Working with 6 cancer registries within England and numerous hospitals in the region, we constructed a population-based cohort of men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1990 and 1996. All men had baseline serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) measurements, centralized pathologic grading, and centralized review of clinical stage assignment. Based upon the clinical and pathological data from 1,911 men, we developed and validated a statistical model that served as the basis for the nomogram. The discrimination and calibration of the nomogram were assessed with use of one third of the men, who were omitted from modeling and used as a test sample. Results The median age of the included men was 70.4 years. The 25th and 75th percentiles of PSA were 7.3 and 32.6 ng/ml respectively, and the median was 15.4 ng/ml. Forty-two percent of the men had high grade disease. The nomogram predicted well with a concordance index of 0.73 and had good calibration. Conclusions We have developed an accurate tool for predicting the probability that a man with clinically localized prostate cancer will survive his disease for 120 months if the cancer is not treated with curative intent immediately. The tool should be helpful for patient counseling and clinical trial design. PMID:18000803

  18. Tumor-Associated Antigens for Specific Immunotherapy of Prostate Cancer

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kiessling, Andrea [Biologics Safety and Disposition, Preclinical Safety, Translational Sciences, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Novartis Pharma AG, Werk Klybeck, Klybeckstraße 141, Basel CH-4057 (Switzerland); Wehner, Rebekka [Institute of Immunology, Medical Faculty, University of Technology Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, Dresden 01307 (Germany); Füssel, Susanne [Department of Urology, Medical Faculty, University of Technology Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, Dresden 01307 (Germany); Bachmann, Michael [Institute of Immunology, Medical Faculty, University of Technology Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, Dresden 01307 (Germany); Wirth, Manfred P. [Department of Urology, Medical Faculty, University of Technology Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, Dresden 01307 (Germany); Schmitz, Marc, E-mail: marc.schmitz@tu-dresden.de [Institute of Immunology, Medical Faculty, University of Technology Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, Dresden 01307 (Germany)

    2012-02-22

    Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common noncutaneous cancer diagnosis and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men in the United States. Effective treatment modalities for advanced metastatic PCa are limited. Immunotherapeutic strategies based on T cells and antibodies represent interesting approaches to prevent progression from localized to advanced PCa and to improve survival outcomes for patients with advanced disease. CD8{sup +} cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) efficiently recognize and destroy tumor cells. CD4{sup +} T cells augment the antigen-presenting capacity of dendritic cells and promote the expansion of tumor-reactive CTLs. Antibodies mediate their antitumor effects via antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, activation of the complement system, improving the uptake of coated tumor cells by phagocytes, and the functional interference of biological pathways essential for tumor growth. Consequently, several tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) have been identified that represent promising targets for T cell- or antibody-based immunotherapy. These TAAs comprise proteins preferentially expressed in normal and malignant prostate tissues and molecules which are not predominantly restricted to the prostate, but are overexpressed in various tumor entities including PCa. Clinical trials provide evidence that specific immunotherapeutic strategies using such TAAs represent safe and feasible concepts for the induction of immunological and clinical responses in PCa patients. However, further improvement of the current approaches is required which may be achieved by combining T cell- and/or antibody-based strategies with radio-, hormone-, chemo- or antiangiogenic therapy.

  19. Prognostic and functional role of subtype-specific tumor-stroma interaction in breast cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merlino, Giuseppe; Miodini, Patrizia; Callari, Maurizio; D'Aiuto, Francesca; Cappelletti, Vera; Daidone, Maria Grazia

    2017-10-01

    None of the clinically relevant gene expression signatures available for breast cancer were specifically developed to capture the influence of the microenvironment on tumor cells. Here, we attempted to build subtype-specific signatures derived from an in vitro model reproducing tumor cell modifications after interaction with activated or normal stromal cells. Gene expression signatures derived from HER2+, luminal, and basal breast cancer cell lines (treated by normal fibroblasts or cancer-associated fibroblasts conditioned media) were evaluated in clinical tumors by in silico analysis on published gene expression profiles (GEPs). Patients were classified as microenvironment-positive (μENV+ve), that is, with tumors showing molecular profiles suggesting activation by the stroma, or microenvironment-negative (μENV-ve) based on correlation of their tumors' GEP with the respective subtype-specific signature. Patients with estrogen receptor alpha (ER)+/HER2-/μENV+ve tumors were characterized by 2.5-fold higher risk of developing distant metastases (HR = 2.546; 95% CI: 1.751-3.701, P = 9.84E-07), while μENV status did not affect, or only suggested the risk of distant metastases, in women with HER2+ (HR = 1.541; 95% CI: 0.788-3.012, P = 0.206) or ER-/HER2- tumors (HR = 1.894; 95% CI: 0.938-3.824; P = 0.0747), respectively. In ER+/HER2- tumors, the μENV status remained significantly associated with metastatic progression (HR = 2.098; CI: 1.214-3.624; P = 0.00791) in multivariable analysis including size, age, and Genomic Grade Index. Validity of our in vitro model was also supported by in vitro biological endpoints such as cell growth (MTT assay) and migration/invasion (Transwell assay). In vitro-derived gene signatures tracing the bidirectional interaction with cancer activated fibroblasts are subtype-specific and add independent prognostic information to classical prognostic variables in women with ER+/HER2- tumors. © 2017 The Authors. Published

  20. Acceleration of leukocytes' epigenetic age as an early tumor and sex-specific marker of breast and colorectal cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Durso, Danielle Fernandes; Bacalini, Maria Giulia; Sala, Claudia; Pirazzini, Chiara; Marasco, Elena; Bonafé, Massimiliano; do Valle, Ítalo Faria; Gentilini, Davide; Castellani, Gastone; Faria, Ana Maria Caetano; Franceschi, Claudio; Garagnani, Paolo; Nardini, Christine

    2017-04-04

    Changes in blood epigenetic age have been associated with several pathological conditions and have recently been described to anticipate cancer development. In this work, we analyze a publicly available leukocytes methylation dataset to evaluate the relation between DNA methylation age and the prospective development of specific types of cancer. We calculated DNA methylation age acceleration using five state-of-the-art estimators (three multi-site: Horvath, Hannum, Weidner; and two CpG specific: ELOV2 and FHL2) in a cohort including 845 subjects from the EPIC-Italy project and we compared 424 samples that remained cancer-free over the approximately ten years of follow-up with 235 and 166 subjects who developed breast and colorectal cancer, respectively. We show that the epigenetic age estimated from blood DNA methylation data is statistically significantly associated to future breast and male colorectal cancer development. These results are corroborated by survival analysis that shows significant association between age acceleration and cancer incidence suggesting that the chance of developing age-related diseases may be predicted by circulating epigenetic markers, with a dependence upon tumor type, sex and age estimator. These are encouraging results towards the non-invasive and perspective usage of epigenetic biomarkers.

  1. Lycopene, tomato products and prostate cancer-specific mortality among men diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Ying; Jacobs, Eric J; Newton, Christina C; McCullough, Marjorie L

    2016-06-15

    While dietary lycopene and tomato products have been inversely associated with prostate cancer incidence, there is limited evidence for an association between consumption of lycopene and tomato products and prostate-cancer specific mortality (PCSM). We examined the associations of prediagnosis and postdiagnosis dietary lycopene and tomato product intake with PCSM in a large prospective cohort. This analysis included men diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer between enrollment in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort in 1992 or 1993 and June 2011. Prediagnosis dietary data, collected at baseline, were available for 8,898 men, of whom 526 died of prostate cancer through 2012. Postdiagnosis dietary data, collected on follow-up surveys in 1999 and/or 2003, were available for 5,643 men, of whom 363 died of prostate cancer through 2012. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for PCSM. Neither prediagnosis nor postdiagnosis dietary lycopene intake was associated with PCSM (fourth vs. first quartile HR = 1.00, 95% CI 0.78-1.28; HR = 1.22, 95% CI 0.91-1.64, respectively). Similarly, neither prediagnosis nor postdiagnosis consumption of tomato products was associated with PCSM. Among men with high-risk cancers (T3-T4 or Gleason score 8-10, or nodal involvement), consistently reporting lycopene intake ≥ median on both postdiagnosis surveys was associated with lower PCSM (HR = 0.41, 95% CI 0.17-0.99, based on ten PCSM cases consistently ≥ median intake) compared to consistently reporting intake lycopene intake with PCSM among men with high-risk prostate cancers. © 2016 UICC.

  2. Mucin 1-specific immunotherapy in a mouse model of spontaneous breast cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mukherjee, Pinku; Madsen, Cathy S; Ginardi, Amelia R; Tinder, Teresa L; Jacobs, Fred; Parker, Joanne; Agrawal, Babita; Longenecker, B Michael; Gendler, Sandra J

    2003-01-01

    Human mucin 1 (MUC1) is an epithelial mucin glycoprotein that is overexpressed in 90% of all adenocarcinomas including breast, lung, pancreas, prostate, stomach, colon, and ovary. MUC1 is a target for immune intervention, because, in patients with solid adenocarcinomas, low-level cellular and humoral immune responses to MUC1 have been observed, which are not sufficiently strong to eradicate the growing tumor. The hypothesis for this study is that enhancing MUC1-specific immunity will result in antitumor immunity. To test this, the authors have developed a clinically relevant breast cancer model that demonstrates peripheral and central tolerance to MUC1 and develops spontaneous tumors of the mammary gland. In these mice, the authors tested a vaccine formulation comprised of liposomal-MUC1 lipopeptide and human recombinant interleukin-2. Results indicate that when compared with untreated mice, immunized mice develop T cells that express intracellular IFN-gamma, are reactive with MHC class I H-2Db/MUC1 tetramer, and are cytotoxic against MUC1-expressing tumor cells in vitro. The presence of MUC1-specific CTL did not translate into a clinical response as measured by time of tumor onset, tumor burden, and survival. The authors demonstrate that some of the immune-evasion mechanisms used by the tumor cells include downregulation of MHC-class I molecule, expression of TGF-beta2, and decrease in IFN-gamma -expressing effector T cells as tumors progress. Finally, utilizing an injectable breast cancer model, the authors show that targeting a single tumor antigen may not be an effective antitumor treatment, but that immunization with dendritic cells fed with whole tumor lysate is effective in breaking tolerance and protecting mice from subsequent tumor challenge. A physiologically relevant spontaneous breast cancer model has been developed to test improved immunotherapeutic approaches.

  3. Cancer survivors' experiences of a community-based cancer-specific exercise programme: results of an exploratory survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catt, Susan; Sheward, J; Sheward, E; Harder, H

    2018-04-05

    Exercise levels often decline following cancer diagnosis despite growing evidence of its benefits. Treatment side effects, older age, lack of confidence and opportunity to exercise with others in similar circumstances influence this. Our study explored the experiences of people attending a cancer-specific community-based exercise programme (CU Fitter™). A survey distributed to those attending the programme gathered demographic/clinical information, self-reported exercise levels, information provision and barriers to/benefits of exercise. Sixty surveys were evaluable from 65/100 returned (62% female, 68% > 60 years, 66% breast/prostate cancer). Most (68%) were receiving treatment. Sixty-eight percent attended classes once or twice weekly. Fifty-five percent received exercise advice after diagnosis, usually from their hospital doctor/nurse. More (73%) had read about exercising, but less used the Internet to source information (32%). Self-reported exercise levels were higher currently than before diagnosis (p = 0.05). Forty-eight percent said their primary barrier to exercising was the physical impact of cancer/treatment. Improving fitness/health (40%) and social support (16%) were the most important gains from the programme. Many (67%) had made other lifestyle changes and intented to keep (50%) or increase (30%) exercising. This community-based cancer-specific exercise approach engaged people with cancer and showed physical, psychological, and social benefits. Community-grown exercise initiatives bring cancer survivors together creating their own supportive environment. Combining this with instructors familiar with the population and providing an open-ended service may prove particularly motivating and beneficial. Further work is required to provide evidence for this.

  4. Characteristics and outcome in patients with non-specific symptoms and signs of cancer referred to a fast track cancer patient pathway; a retrospective cohort study

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jørgensen, Sara Falk; Ravn, Pernille; Thorsen, Søren

    2017-01-01

    Background: In 2012 a new cancer patient pathway for patients with non-specific symptoms and signs of cancer (NSSC-CPP) was introduced in Denmark. Limited information is available about the patients referred to the NSSC-CPP and the investigational course. The aim was to describe the population...... and the investigational course, estimate the prevalence of cancer and one-year mortality, and identify factors associated with a subsequent cancer diagnosis in patients referred to the NSSC-CPP. Method: This cohort study included patients with at least one visit at the NSSC-CPP at North Zealand Hospital in Denmark (NOH......) from October 1st 2013 to September 30th 2014. Data was based on retrospective reviews of the patient files. Logistic regression identified factors associated with a subsequent cancer diagnosis. Multivariate analyses were adjusted by age, gender, smoking status and alcohol consumption. Kaplan...

  5. Prostate specific antigen velocity does not aid prostate cancer detection in men with prior negative biopsy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vickers, Andrew J; Wolters, Tineke; Savage, Caroline J; Cronin, Angel M; O'Brien, M Frank; Roobol, Monique J; Aus, Gunnar; Scardino, Peter T; Hugosson, Jonas; Schröder, Fritz H; Lilja, Hans

    2010-09-01

    Prostate specific antigen velocity has been proposed as a marker to aid in prostate cancer detection. We determined whether prostate specific antigen velocity could predict repeat biopsy results in men with persistently increased prostate specific antigen after initial negative biopsy. We identified 1,837 men who participated in the Göteborg or Rotterdam section of the European Randomized Screening study of Prostate Cancer and who underwent 1 or more subsequent prostate biopsies after an initial negative finding. We evaluated whether prostate specific antigen velocity improved predictive accuracy beyond that of prostate specific antigen alone. Of the 2,579 repeat biopsies 363 (14%) were positive for prostate cancer, of which 44 (1.7%) were high grade (Gleason score 7 or greater). Prostate specific antigen velocity was statistically associated with cancer risk but had low predictive accuracy (AUC 0.55, p <0.001). There was some evidence that prostate specific antigen velocity improved AUC compared to prostate specific antigen for high grade cancer. However, the small increase in risk associated with high prostate specific antigen velocity (from 1.7% to 2.8% as velocity increased from 0 to 1 ng/ml per year) had questionable clinical relevance. Men with prior negative biopsy are at lower risk for prostate cancer at subsequent biopsies with high grade disease particularly rare. We found little evidence to support prostate specific antigen velocity to aid in decisions about repeat biopsy for prostate cancer. 2010 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Antigen specific T-cell responses against tumor antigens are controlled by regulatory T cells in patients with prostate cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hadaschik, Boris; Su, Yun; Huter, Eva; Ge, Yingzi; Hohenfellner, Markus; Beckhove, Philipp

    2012-04-01

    Immunotherapy is a promising approach in an effort to control castration resistant prostate cancer. We characterized tumor antigen reactive T cells in patients with prostate cancer and analyzed the suppression of antitumor responses by regulatory T cells. Peripheral blood samples were collected from 57 patients with histologically confirmed prostate cancer, 8 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia and 16 healthy donors. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated and antigen specific interferon-γ secretion of isolated T cells was analyzed by enzyme-linked immunospot assay. T cells were functionally characterized and T-cell responses before and after regulatory T-cell depletion were compared. As test tumor antigens, a panel of 11 long synthetic peptides derived from a total of 8 tumor antigens was used, including prostate specific antigen and prostatic acid phosphatase. In patients with prostate cancer we noted a 74.5% effector T-cell response rate compared with only 25% in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia and 31% in healthy donors. In most patients 2 or 3 tumor antigens were recognized. Comparing various disease stages there was a clear increase in the immune response against prostate specific antigens from intermediate to high risk tumors and castration resistant disease. Regulatory T-cell depletion led to a significant boost in effector T-cell responses against prostate specific antigen and prostatic acid phosphatase. Tumor specific effector T cells were detected in most patients with prostate cancer, especially those with castration resistant prostate cancer. Since effector T-cell responses against prostate specific antigens strongly increased after regulatory T-cell depletion, our results indicate that immunotherapy efficacy could be enhanced by decreasing regulatory T cells. Copyright © 2012 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Tumor specific glycoproteins and method for detecting tumorigenic cancers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Davidson, E.A.; Bolmer, S.D.

    1981-01-01

    The detection of tumour specific glycoproteins (TSGP) in human sera often indicates the presence of a malignant tumour in a patient. The distinguishing characteristics of TSGP isolated from the blood sera of cancer patients are described in detail together with methods of TSGP isolation and purification. Details are also given of radioimmunoassay techniques capable of detecting very low levels of serum TSGP with high specificity. (U.K.)

  8. Intake of specific carotenoids and flavonoids and the risk of gastric cancer in Spain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia-Closas, R; Gonzalez, C A; Agudo, A; Riboli, E

    1999-02-01

    To investigate the relationship between gastric cancer and the intake of specific carotenoids (alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lutein, and lycopene) and flavonoids (quercetin, kaempferol, myricetin, and luteolin) using new data on their concentration in foods. Case-control study carried out in Spain that included 354 cases of gastric cancer and 354 controls, matched by age, gender, area of residence and hospital. Usual food intake was assessed using a dietary history questionnaire. In a multivariate model adjusted for several dietary factors, no association was found between intake of any of the studied carotenoids and the risk of gastric cancer. The adjusted OR of gastric cancer for the highest quartile of total flavonoid intake versus the lowest quartile was 0.44 (95 percent confidence interval [CI] = 0.25-0.78; P for trend = 0.003). Kaempferol intake was found to be protective (OR = 0.48; CI = 0.26-0.88; P for trend = 0.04) comparing the highest versus the lowest quartile of intake. A trend toward lower risk of stomach cancer with higher intake of quercetin was also found. The results of this study support the hypothesis that the well-established protective effect of fruit and vegetables against gastric cancer could, in part, be due to the presence of flavonoids.

  9. Aberrant allele-specific replication, independent of parental origin, in blood cells of cancer patients

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dotan, Zohar A; Dotan, Aviva; Ramon, Jacob; Avivi, Lydia

    2008-01-01

    Allelic counterparts of biallelically expressed genes display an epigenetic symmetry normally manifested by synchronous replication, different from genes subjected to monoallelic expression, which normally are characterized by an asynchronous mode of replication (well exemplified by the SNRPN imprinted locus). Malignancy was documented to be associated with gross modifications in the inherent replication-timing coordination between allelic counterparts of imprinted genes as well as of biallelically expressed loci. The cancer-related allelic replication timing aberrations are non-disease specific and appear in peripheral blood cells of cancer patients, including those with solid tumors. As such they offer potential blood markers for non-invasive cancer test. The present study was aimed to gain some insight into the mechanism leading to the replication timing alterations of genes in blood lymphocytes of cancer patients. Peripheral blood samples derived from patients with prostate cancer were chosen to represent the cancerous status, and samples taken from patients with no cancer but with benign prostate hyperplasia were used to portray the normal status. Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) replication assay, applied to phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated blood lymphocytes, was used to evaluate the temporal order (either synchronous or asynchronous) of genes in the patients' cells. We demonstrated that: (i) the aberrant epigenetic profile, as delineated by the cancer status, is a reversible modification, evidenced by our ability to restore the normal patterns of replication in three unrelated loci (CEN15, SNRPN and RB1) by introducing an archetypical demethylating agent, 5-azacytidine; (ii) following the rehabilitating effect of demethylation, an imprinted gene (SNRPN) retains its original parental imprint; and (iii) the choice of an allele between early or late replication in the aberrant asynchronous replication, delineated by the cancer status, is not

  10. Genome-wide association studies identify four ER negative-specific breast cancer risk loci.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia-Closas, Montserrat; Couch, Fergus J; Lindstrom, Sara; Michailidou, Kyriaki; Schmidt, Marjanka K; Brook, Mark N; Orr, Nick; Rhie, Suhn Kyong; Riboli, Elio; Feigelson, Heather S; Le Marchand, Loic; Buring, Julie E; Eccles, Diana; Miron, Penelope; Fasching, Peter A; Brauch, Hiltrud; Chang-Claude, Jenny; Carpenter, Jane; Godwin, Andrew K; Nevanlinna, Heli; Giles, Graham G; Cox, Angela; Hopper, John L; Bolla, Manjeet K; Wang, Qin; Dennis, Joe; Dicks, Ed; Howat, Will J; Schoof, Nils; Bojesen, Stig E; Lambrechts, Diether; Broeks, Annegien; Andrulis, Irene L; Guénel, Pascal; Burwinkel, Barbara; Sawyer, Elinor J; Hollestelle, Antoinette; Fletcher, Olivia; Winqvist, Robert; Brenner, Hermann; Mannermaa, Arto; Hamann, Ute; Meindl, Alfons; Lindblom, Annika; Zheng, Wei; Devillee, Peter; Goldberg, Mark S; Lubinski, Jan; Kristensen, Vessela; Swerdlow, Anthony; Anton-Culver, Hoda; Dörk, Thilo; Muir, Kenneth; Matsuo, Keitaro; Wu, Anna H; Radice, Paolo; Teo, Soo Hwang; Shu, Xiao-Ou; Blot, William; Kang, Daehee; Hartman, Mikael; Sangrajrang, Suleeporn; Shen, Chen-Yang; Southey, Melissa C; Park, Daniel J; Hammet, Fleur; Stone, Jennifer; Veer, Laura J Van't; Rutgers, Emiel J; Lophatananon, Artitaya; Stewart-Brown, Sarah; Siriwanarangsan, Pornthep; Peto, Julian; Schrauder, Michael G; Ekici, Arif B; Beckmann, Matthias W; Dos Santos Silva, Isabel; Johnson, Nichola; Warren, Helen; Tomlinson, Ian; Kerin, Michael J; Miller, Nicola; Marme, Federick; Schneeweiss, Andreas; Sohn, Christof; Truong, Therese; Laurent-Puig, Pierre; Kerbrat, Pierre; Nordestgaard, Børge G; Nielsen, Sune F; Flyger, Henrik; Milne, Roger L; Perez, Jose Ignacio Arias; Menéndez, Primitiva; Müller, Heiko; Arndt, Volker; Stegmaier, Christa; Lichtner, Peter; Lochmann, Magdalena; Justenhoven, Christina; Ko, Yon-Dschun; Muranen, Taru A; Aittomäki, Kristiina; Blomqvist, Carl; Greco, Dario; Heikkinen, Tuomas; Ito, Hidemi; Iwata, Hiroji; Yatabe, Yasushi; Antonenkova, Natalia N; Margolin, Sara; Kataja, Vesa; Kosma, Veli-Matti; Hartikainen, Jaana M; Balleine, Rosemary; Tseng, Chiu-Chen; Berg, David Van Den; Stram, Daniel O; Neven, Patrick; Dieudonné, Anne-Sophie; Leunen, Karin; Rudolph, Anja; Nickels, Stefan; Flesch-Janys, Dieter; Peterlongo, Paolo; Peissel, Bernard; Bernard, Loris; Olson, Janet E; Wang, Xianshu; Stevens, Kristen; Severi, Gianluca; Baglietto, Laura; McLean, Catriona; Coetzee, Gerhard A; Feng, Ye; Henderson, Brian E; Schumacher, Fredrick; Bogdanova, Natalia V; Labrèche, France; Dumont, Martine; Yip, Cheng Har; Taib, Nur Aishah Mohd; Cheng, Ching-Yu; Shrubsole, Martha; Long, Jirong; Pylkäs, Katri; Jukkola-Vuorinen, Arja; Kauppila, Saila; Knight, Julia A; Glendon, Gord; Mulligan, Anna Marie; Tollenaar, Robertus A E M; Seynaeve, Caroline M; Kriege, Mieke; Hooning, Maartje J; van den Ouweland, Ans M W; van Deurzen, Carolien H M; Lu, Wei; Gao, Yu-Tang; Cai, Hui; Balasubramanian, Sabapathy P; Cross, Simon S; Reed, Malcolm W R; Signorello, Lisa; Cai, Qiuyin; Shah, Mitul; Miao, Hui; Chan, Ching Wan; Chia, Kee Seng; Jakubowska, Anna; Jaworska, Katarzyna; Durda, Katarzyna; Hsiung, Chia-Ni; Wu, Pei-Ei; Yu, Jyh-Cherng; Ashworth, Alan; Jones, Michael; Tessier, Daniel C; González-Neira, Anna; Pita, Guillermo; Alonso, M Rosario; Vincent, Daniel; Bacot, Francois; Ambrosone, Christine B; Bandera, Elisa V; John, Esther M; Chen, Gary K; Hu, Jennifer J; Rodriguez-Gil, Jorge L; Bernstein, Leslie; Press, Michael F; Ziegler, Regina G; Millikan, Robert M; Deming-Halverson, Sandra L; Nyante, Sarah; Ingles, Sue A; Waisfisz, Quinten; Tsimiklis, Helen; Makalic, Enes; Schmidt, Daniel; Bui, Minh; Gibson, Lorna; Müller-Myhsok, Bertram; Schmutzler, Rita K; Hein, Rebecca; Dahmen, Norbert; Beckmann, Lars; Aaltonen, Kirsimari; Czene, Kamila; Irwanto, Astrid; Liu, Jianjun; Turnbull, Clare; Rahman, Nazneen; Meijers-Heijboer, Hanne; Uitterlinden, Andre G; Rivadeneira, Fernando; Olswold, Curtis; Slager, Susan; Pilarski, Robert; Ademuyiwa, Foluso; Konstantopoulou, Irene; Martin, Nicholas G; Montgomery, Grant W; Slamon, Dennis J; Rauh, Claudia; Lux, Michael P; Jud, Sebastian M; Bruning, Thomas; Weaver, Joellen; Sharma, Priyanka; Pathak, Harsh; Tapper, Will; Gerty, Sue; Durcan, Lorraine; Trichopoulos, Dimitrios; Tumino, Rosario; Peeters, Petra H; Kaaks, Rudolf; Campa, Daniele; Canzian, Federico; Weiderpass, Elisabete; Johansson, Mattias; Khaw, Kay-Tee; Travis, Ruth; Clavel-Chapelon, Françoise; Kolonel, Laurence N; Chen, Constance; Beck, Andy; Hankinson, Susan E; Berg, Christine D; Hoover, Robert N; Lissowska, Jolanta; Figueroa, Jonine D; Chasman, Daniel I; Gaudet, Mia M; Diver, W Ryan; Willett, Walter C; Hunter, David J; Simard, Jacques; Benitez, Javier; Dunning, Alison M; Sherman, Mark E; Chenevix-Trench, Georgia; Chanock, Stephen J; Hall, Per; Pharoah, Paul D P; Vachon, Celine; Easton, Douglas F; Haiman, Christopher A; Kraft, Peter

    2013-04-01

    Estrogen receptor (ER)-negative tumors represent 20-30% of all breast cancers, with a higher proportion occurring in younger women and women of African ancestry. The etiology and clinical behavior of ER-negative tumors are different from those of tumors expressing ER (ER positive), including differences in genetic predisposition. To identify susceptibility loci specific to ER-negative disease, we combined in a meta-analysis 3 genome-wide association studies of 4,193 ER-negative breast cancer cases and 35,194 controls with a series of 40 follow-up studies (6,514 cases and 41,455 controls), genotyped using a custom Illumina array, iCOGS, developed by the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS). SNPs at four loci, 1q32.1 (MDM4, P = 2.1 × 10(-12) and LGR6, P = 1.4 × 10(-8)), 2p24.1 (P = 4.6 × 10(-8)) and 16q12.2 (FTO, P = 4.0 × 10(-8)), were associated with ER-negative but not ER-positive breast cancer (P > 0.05). These findings provide further evidence for distinct etiological pathways associated with invasive ER-positive and ER-negative breast cancers.

  11. Lifetime total and beverage specific - alcohol intake and prostate cancer risk: a case-control study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carruba Giuseppe

    2004-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background We investigated lifetime alcohol consumption and prostate cancer risk in a case-control study conducted in Buffalo, NY (1998–2001. Methods The study included 88 men, aged 45 to 85 years with incident, histologically-confirmed prostate cancer and 272 controls. We conducted extensive in-person interviews regarding lifetime alcohol consumption and other epidemiologic data. Results Prostate cancer risk was not associated with lifetime intake of total and beverage specific ethanol. In addition we found no association with number of drinks per day (average drinks per day over the lifetime or drinks per drinking day (average drinks per day on drinking days only over the lifetime. However, we observed an inverse association with the total number of drinking years. Men in the lowest tertile of total drinking years had a two-fold prostate cancer risk than men in the highest tertile (OR 2.16, 95% CI 0.98–4.78, p for trend Conclusion Our results suggest that alcohol intake distribution across lifetime may play a more important role in prostate cancer etiology than total lifetime consumption.

  12. Site-specific RNase A activity was dramatically reduced in serum from multiple types of cancer patients.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Weiyan Huang

    Full Text Available Potent RNase activities were found in the serum of mammals but the physiological function of the RNases was never well illustrated, largely due to the caveats in methods of RNase activity measurement. None of the existing methods can distinguish between RNases with different target specificities. A systematic study was recently carried out in our lab to investigate the site-specificity of serum RNases on double-stranded RNA substrates, and found that serum RNases cleave double-stranded RNAs predominantly at 5'-U/A-3' and 5'-C/A-3' dinucleotide sites, in a manner closely resembling RNase A. Based on this finding, a FRET assay was developed in the current study to measure this site-specific serum RNase activity in human samples using a double stranded RNA substrate. We demonstrated that the method has a dynamic range of 10(-5 mg/ml- 10(-1 mg/ml using serial dilution of RNase A. The sera of 303 cancer patients were subjected to comparison with 128 healthy controls, and it was found that serum RNase activities visualized with this site-specific double stranded probe were found to be significantly reduced in patients with gastric cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, esophageal cancer, ovary cancer, cervical cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer and lung cancer, while only minor changes were found in breast and colon cancer patients. This is the first report using double stranded RNA as probe to quantify site-specific activities of RNase A in a serum. The results illustrated that RNase A might be further evaluated to determine if it can serve as a new class of biomarkers for certain cancer types.

  13. Site-Specific RNase A Activity Was Dramatically Reduced in Serum from Multiple Types of Cancer Patients

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Weiyan; Zhao, Mei; Wei, Na; Wang, Xiaoxia; Cao, Huqing; Du, Quan; Liang, Zicai

    2014-01-01

    Potent RNase activities were found in the serum of mammals but the physiological function of the RNases was never well illustrated, largely due to the caveats in methods of RNase activity measurement. None of the existing methods can distinguish between RNases with different target specificities. A systematic study was recently carried out in our lab to investigate the site-specificity of serum RNases on double-stranded RNA substrates, and found that serum RNases cleave double-stranded RNAs predominantly at 5′-U/A-3′ and 5′-C/A-3′ dinucleotide sites, in a manner closely resembling RNase A. Based on this finding, a FRET assay was developed in the current study to measure this site-specific serum RNase activity in human samples using a double stranded RNA substrate. We demonstrated that the method has a dynamic range of 10−5 mg/ml- 10−1 mg/ml using serial dilution of RNase A. The sera of 303 cancer patients were subjected to comparison with 128 healthy controls, and it was found that serum RNase activities visualized with this site-specific double stranded probe were found to be significantly reduced in patients with gastric cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, esophageal cancer, ovary cancer, cervical cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer and lung cancer, while only minor changes were found in breast and colon cancer patients. This is the first report using double stranded RNA as probe to quantify site-specific activities of RNase A in a serum. The results illustrated that RNase A might be further evaluated to determine if it can serve as a new class of biomarkers for certain cancer types. PMID:24805924

  14. Genome-wide association study of prostate cancer-specific survival

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Szulkin, Robert; Karlsson, Robert; Whitington, Thomas

    2015-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Unnecessary intervention and overtreatment of indolent disease are common challenges in clinical management of prostate cancer. Improved tools to distinguish lethal from indolent disease are critical. METHODS: We performed a genome-wide survival analysis of cause-specific death in 24,...

  15. Potential for novel MUC1 glycopeptide-specific antibody in passive cancer immunotherapy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madsen, Caroline B; Wandall, Hans H; Pedersen, Anders Elm

    2013-01-01

    MUC1 is an important target for antibodies in passive cancer immunotherapy. Antibodies against mucin glycans or mucin peptide backbone alone may give rise to cross reactivity with normal tissues. Therefore, attempts to identify antibodies against cancer-specific MUC1 glycopeptide epitopes havebeen...

  16. Claudin-2 is an independent negative prognostic factor in breast cancer and specifically predicts early liver recurrences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kimbung, Siker; Kovács, Anikó; Bendahl, Pär-Ola; Malmström, Per; Fernö, Mårten; Hatschek, Thomas; Hedenfalk, Ingrid

    2014-02-01

    Predicting any future metastatic site of early-stage breast cancer is important as it significantly influences the prognosis of advanced disease. This study aimed at investigating the potential of claudin-2, over-expressed in breast cancer liver metastases, as a biomarker for predicting liver metastatic propensity in primary breast cancer. Claudin-2 expression was analyzed in two independent cohorts. Cohort 1 included 304 women with metastatic breast cancer diagnosed between 2002 and 2007, while cohort 2 included 237 premenopausal women with early-stage node-negative breast cancer diagnosed between 1991 and 1994. Global transcriptional profiling of fine-needle aspirates from metastases was performed, followed by immunohistochemical analyses in archival primary tumor tissue. Associations between claudin-2 expression and relapse site were assessed by univariable and multivariable Cox regression models including conventional prognostic factors. Two-sided statistical tests were used. CLDN2 was significantly up-regulated (P diagnosis and liver-specific recurrence was observed among patients with high levels of claudin-2 expression in the primary tumor (cohort 1, HR = 2.3, 95% CI = 1.3-3.9). These results suggest a novel role for claudin-2 as a prognostic biomarker with the ability to predict not only the likelihood of a breast cancer recurrence, but more interestingly, the liver metastatic potential of the primary tumor. Copyright © 2013 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Beneficial immune modulatory effects of a specific nutritional combination in a murine model for cancer cachexia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Faber, J; Vos, P; Kegler, D; van Norren, K; Argilés, J M; Laviano, A; Garssen, J; van Helvoort, A

    2008-01-01

    The majority of patients with advanced cancer are recognised by impaired immune competence influenced by several factors, including the type and stage of the tumour and the presence of cachexia. Recently, a specific nutritional combination containing fish oil, specific oligosaccharide mixture, high protein content and leucine has been developed aimed to support the immune system of cancer patients in order to reduce the frequency and severity of (infectious) complications. In a recently modified animal model cachexia is induced by inoculation of C26 tumour cells in mice. In a pre-cachectic state, no effect was observed on contact hypersensitivity, a validated in vivo method to measure Th1-mediated immune function, after adding the individual nutritional ingredients to the diet of tumour-bearing mice. However, the complete mixture resulted in significantly improved Th1 immunity. Moreover, in a cachectic state, the complete mixture reduced plasma levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and beneficially affected ex vivo immune function. Accordingly, the combination of the nutritional ingredients is required to obtain a synergistic effect, leading to a reduced inflammatory state and improved immune competence. From this, it can be concluded that the specific nutritional combination has potential as immune-supporting nutritional intervention to reduce the risk of (infectious) complications in cancer patients. PMID:19018259

  18. Effect of thoracoscopic esophagus cancer surgery on postoperative incision pain as well as non-specific and specific immune response

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jin-Long Wu1

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Objective: To explore the effect of thoracoscopic esophagus cancer surgery on postoperative incision pain as well as non-specific and specific immune response. Methods: 56 patients with esophageal cancer who accepted surgical treatment in our hospital between March 2011 and February 2016 were collected, the operation methods and related laboratory tests were reviewed, and then they were divided into the thoracoscope group (n=27 who accepted thoracoscopic surgery and the open surgery group (n=29 who accepted traditional thoracotomy. Before operation and 1 d after operation, immune scatter turbidimetry was used to detect serum levels of pain mediators, and flow cytometer was used to detect the levels of nonspecific immune indexes and specific immune indexes. Results: Before operation, the differences in serum pain mediators as well as nonspecific immune response and specific immune response indexes were not statistically significant between two groups of patients (P>0.05. 1 d after operation, serum pain mediators 5-HT, K+ and NE levels of thoracoscope group were lower than those of open surgery group (P<0.05; nonspecific immune response indexes NK cell as well as C3 and C4 levels in peripheral blood of thoracoscope group were significantly higher than those of open surgery group (P<0.05; specific immune response indexes CD4+, CD4+/CD8+, IgA and IgG levels in peripheral blood of thoracoscope group were significantly higher than those of open surgery group (P<0.05. Conclusion: Thoracoscopic esophagus cancer surgery causes less damage, has lighter inhibition on the immune response system, and is an ideal operation method for patients with early middle esophagus cancer.

  19. Work-specific cognitive symptoms and the role of work characteristics, fatigue and depressive symptoms in cancer patients during 18 months post return to work.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dorland, H F; Abma, F I; Roelen, C A M; Stewart, R; Amick, B C; Bültmann, U; Ranchor, A V

    2018-06-19

    Cancer patients can experience work-specific cognitive symptoms post return to work (RTW). The study aims to: 1) describe the course of work-specific cognitive symptoms in the first 18 months post RTW, and 2) examine the associations of work characteristics, fatigue and depressive symptoms with work-specific cognitive symptoms over time. This study used data from the 18-months longitudinal "Work Life after Cancer" cohort. The Cognitive Symptom Checklist-Work, Dutch Version (CSC-W DV) was used to measure work-specific cognitive symptoms. Linear mixed models were performed to examine the course of work-specific cognitive symptoms during 18 months follow-up; linear regression analyses with generalised estimating equations (GEE) were used to examine associations over time. Working cancer patients diagnosed with different cancer types were included (n=378). Work-specific cognitive symptoms were stable over 18 months. At baseline, cancer patients reported more working memory symptoms (M=31.9, CI=23.1, 26.4) compared to executive function symptoms (M=19.3; CI=17.6, 20.9). Cancer patients holding a job with both manual and non-manual tasks reported less work-specific cognitive symptoms (unstandardized regression coefficient b=-4.80; CI=-7.76, -1.83) over time, compared to cancer patients with a non-manual job. Over time, higher depressive symptoms were related to experiencing more overall work-specific cognitive symptoms (b=1.27; CI=1.00, 1.55) and a higher fatigue score was related to more working memory symptoms (b=0.13; CI=0.04, 0.23). Job type should be considered when looking at work-specific cognitive symptoms over time in working cancer patients. To reduce work-specific cognitive symptoms, interventions targeted at fatigue and depressive symptoms might be promising. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

  20. Discovery and Characterization of PRCAT47: A Novel Prostate Lineage and Cancer-Specific Long Noncoding RNA

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-07-01

    including suggestions for reducing this burden to Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and...localized and metastatic prostate cancer, and displayed strong transcriptional induction by AR. Preliminary data suggested that PRCAT47 has...diagnostic biomarker. Specific Aim 3: Interrogating the therapeutic potential of PRCAT47 using clinical grade antisense oligos (ASOs). Summary of Results

  1. Identification of lung cancer with high sensitivity and specificity by blood testing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephan Bernhard

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Lung cancer is a very frequent and lethal tumor with an identifiable risk population. Cytological analysis and chest X-ray failed to reduce mortality, and CT screenings are still controversially discussed. Recent studies provided first evidence for the potential usefulness of autoantigens as markers for lung cancer. Methods We used extended panels of arrayed antigens and determined autoantibody signatures of sera from patients with different kinds of lung cancer, different common non-tumor lung pathologies, and controls without any lung disease by a newly developed computer aided image analysis procedure. The resulting signatures were classified using linear kernel Support Vector Machines and 10-fold cross-validation. Results The novel approach allowed for discriminating lung cancer patients from controls without any lung disease with a specificity of 97.0%, a sensitivity of 97.9%, and an accuracy of 97.6%. The classification of stage IA/IB tumors and controls yielded a specificity of 97.6%, a sensitivity of 75.9%, and an accuracy of 92.9%. The discrimination of lung cancer patients from patients with non-tumor lung pathologies reached an accuracy of 88.5%. Conclusion We were able to separate lung cancer patients from subjects without any lung disease with high accuracy. Furthermore, lung cancer patients could be seprated from patients with other non-tumor lung diseases. These results provide clear evidence that blood-based tests open new avenues for the early diagnosis of lung cancer.

  2. Quality of Life of Head and Neck Cancer Patients Receiving Cancer Specific Treatments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James Gonsalves

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Head and neck cancer (HNC remains a considerable challenge to both patient and health care provider as the disease can have profound effect on Quality of life (QOL. Aims and Objectives: To assess the QOL and performance status of HNC patients, to find relation between domains of QOL and to find association between QOL and demographic and disease variables. Settings and Design: The study was conducted at Manipal group of hospitals, Manipal and Mangalore, using descriptive survey design. Material and Methods: The study comprised of 89 samples with all stages of HNC. Patients primarily diagnosed with HNC and undergoing disease specific treatment were included in the study. Tool on demographic, disease variables and quality of life were developed and content validity was established. Reliability of the tool was established. Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS scale was used to assess performance status. Corelational analysis was done to find relation between the domains of QOL. Association was found between the quality of life and demographic and disease variables. Results: Majority (83% of the participants were males, 39% had cancer arising from oral cavity, and 35% each were in cancer stage III and IV. Quality of life was poor among 30% of the subjects and 65% had KPS scores<80 %. There was moderate positive relation between the domains of QOL and a positive correlation between the QOL and performance status. No statistically significant association was found between QOL and disease and demographic variables. Conclusion: Physical, psychological, social and spiritual domains of QOL and functional status are affected in patients with HNC. The impact on one domain area of well being, significantly affects the other domain of QOL and there is relationship between the performance status and QOL

  3. Reduced expression of α-L-Fucosidase-1 (FUCA-1) predicts recurrence and shorter cancer specific survival in luminal B LN+ breast cancer patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonin, Serena; Parascandolo, Alessia; Aversa, Cinzia; Barbazza, Renzo; Tsuchida, Nobuo; Castellone, Maria Domenica; Stanta, Giorgio; Vecchio, Giancarlo

    2018-03-16

    The lysosomal enzyme α-L-Fucosidase-1 (FUCA-1) catalyzes the hydrolytic cleavage of terminal fucose residues. FUCA-1 gene is down-regulated in highly aggressive and metastatic human tumors as its inactivation perturbs the fucosylation of proteins involved in cell adhesion, migration and metastases. Negativity to FUCA-1 was significantly related to the development of later recurrences in breast cancer patients with lymph node involvement at diagnosis. Cancer specific survival of luminal B LN+ patients was influenced by FUCA-1 expression as luminal B LN+ patients with positive expression had a longer cancer specific survival. FUCA-1 mRNA expression was inversely related to cancer stage and lymph node involvement. WB and qPCR analysis of FUCA-1 expression in breast cancer-derived cell lines confirmed an inverse relationship with tumor aggressiveness. This study shows that, within LN+ breast cancer patients, FUCA-1 is able to identify a sub-set of non recurrent patients characterized by the positive expression of FUCA-1 and that, within luminal B LN+ patients, the expression of FUCA-1 predicts longer cancer specific survival. We have analyzed FUCA-1 in 305 breast cancer patients by Immunohistochemistry (IHC), and by qPCR in breast cancer patients and in breast cancer cell lines.

  4. Perceived cervical cancer risk among women treated for high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia: The importance of specific knowledge.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sonia Andersson

    Full Text Available Women with high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN are at increased risk for developing cervical cancer. We examine how women with high-grade CIN perceive their own risk, and about pertinent knowledge concerning human high-risk papillomavirus (HPV, CIN and cervical cancer.All patients who underwent first-time treatment of high-grade CIN (grade 2+ were followed-up at 6-months at the Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden and were invited to participate in the present study. This included completion of a questionnaire examining sociodemographic characteristics, self-perceived risk of cervical cancer without regular gynecologic follow-up, and 14 queries about HPV, CIN and cervical cancer knowledge, inter alia.The participation rate was 96.6%, with 479 women enrolled in this study. Over 75% were age 40 or younger, over half had completed university education. Most were married or co-living with their partner and were gainfully employed. On a scale scored from 10 (highest self-perceived risk of cervical cancer without regular gynecologic follow-up to 1 (lowest self-perceived risk, 64% rated their risk ≥ 7; almost 30% viewed their risk ≤ 6 and 7.5% did not rate their risk. A Specific Knowledge Scale with six of the queries explained 58.3% of the total variance. Nearly 30% of the women answered four or fewer of the six queries correctly. The Specific Knowledge Scale predicted self-perceived cervical cancer risk (Odds ratio = 11.3, 95% Confidence Interval 5.6 - 22.6 after adjusting for age, income and education. Most of the women with low self-perceived cervical cancer risk did not rate their HPV-related knowledge as good. However, 32 predominantly university-educated women, with low self-perceived cervical cancer risk, considered their HPV-related knowledge good.It is vital to effectively convey accurate information about these patients' cervical cancer risk, needed preventive and follow-up measures, together with the relevant

  5. The influence of the CHIEF pathway on colorectal cancer-specific mortality.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martha L Slattery

    Full Text Available Many components of the CHIEF (Convergence of Hormones, Inflammation, and Energy Related Factors pathway could influence survival given their involvement in cell growth, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and tumor invasion stimulation. We used ARTP (Adaptive Rank Truncation Product to test if genes in the pathway were associated with colorectal cancer-specific mortality. Colon cancer (n = 1555 and rectal cancer (n = 754 cases were followed over five years. Age, center, stage at diagnosis, and tumor molecular phenotype were considered when calculating ARTP p values. A polygenic risk score was used to summarize the magnitude of risk associated with this pathway. The JAK/STAT/SOC was significant for colon cancer survival (PARTP = 0.035. Fifteen genes (DUSP2, INFGR1, IL6, IRF2, JAK2, MAP3K10, MMP1, NFkB1A, NOS2A, PIK3CA, SEPX1, SMAD3, TLR2, TYK2, and VDR were associated with colon cancer mortality (PARTP < 0.05; JAK2 (PARTP  = 0.0086, PIK3CA (PARTP = 0.0098, and SMAD3 (PARTP = 0.0059 had the strongest associations. Over 40 SNPs were significantly associated with survival within the 15 significant genes (PARTP < 0.05. SMAD3 had the strongest association with survival (HRGG 2.46 95% CI 1.44,4.21 PTtrnd = 0.0002. Seven genes (IL2RA, IL8RA, IL8RB, IRF2, RAF1, RUNX3, and SEPX1 were significantly associated with rectal cancer (PARTP < 0.05. The HR for colorectal cancer-specific mortality among colon cancer cases in the upper at-risk alleles group was 11.81 (95% CI 7.07, 19. 74 and was 10.99 (95% CI 5.30, 22.78 for rectal cancer. These results suggest that several genes in the CHIEF pathway are important for colorectal cancer survival; the risk associated with the pathway merits validation in other studies.

  6. Chemokine Receptor-Specific Antibodies in Cancer Immunotherapy: Achievements and Challenges

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vela, Maria; Aris, Mariana; Llorente, Mercedes; Garcia-Sanz, Jose A.; Kremer, Leonor

    2015-01-01

    The 1990s brought a burst of information regarding the structure, expression pattern, and role in leukocyte migration and adhesion of chemokines and their receptors. At that time, the FDA approved the first therapeutic antibodies for cancer treatment. A few years later, it was reported that the chemokine receptors CXCR4 and CCR7 were involved on directing metastases to liver, lung, bone marrow, or lymph nodes, and the over-expression of CCR4, CCR6, and CCR9 by certain tumors. The possibility of inhibiting the interaction of chemokine receptors present on the surface of tumor cells with their ligands emerged as a new therapeutic approach. Therefore, many research groups and companies began to develop small molecule antagonists and specific antibodies, aiming to neutralize signaling from these receptors. Despite great expectations, so far, only one anti-chemokine receptor antibody has been approved for its clinical use, mogamulizumab, an anti-CCR4 antibody, granted in Japan to treat refractory adult T-cell leukemia and lymphoma. Here, we review the main achievements obtained with anti-chemokine receptor antibodies for cancer immunotherapy, including discovery and clinical studies, proposed mechanisms of action, and therapeutic applications. PMID:25688243

  7. Alcohol intake and colorectal cancer: a comparison of approaches for including repeated measures of alcohol consumption

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thygesen, Lau Caspar; Wu, Kana; Grønbaek, Morten

    2008-01-01

    BACKGROUND: In numerous studies, alcohol intake has been found to be positively associated with colorectal cancer risk. However, the majority of studies included only one exposure measurement, which may bias the results if long-term intake is relevant.METHODS: We compared different approaches...... for including repeated measures of alcohol intake among 47,432 US men enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Questionnaires including questions on alcohol intake had been completed in 1986, 1990, 1994, and 1998. The outcome was incident colorectal cancer during follow-up from 1986 to 2002.RESULTS......: During follow-up, 868 members of the cohort experienced colorectal cancer. Baseline, updated, and cumulative average alcohol intakes were positively associated with colorectal cancer, with only minor differences among the approaches. These results support moderately increased risk for intake >30 g...

  8. Wildtype p53-specific Antibody and T-Cell Responses in Cancer Patients

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Anders Elm; Stryhn, Anette; Justesen, Sune

    2011-01-01

    patients. Detection of antibodies against wt p53 protein has been used as a diagnostic and prognostic marker and discovery of new T-cell epitopes has enabled design of cancer vaccination protocols with promising results. Here, we identified wt p53-specific antibodies in various cancer patients......(264-272) in breast cancer patients and against HLA-A*01:01 binding peptide wt p53(226-234) and HLA-B*07:02 binding peptide wt p53(74-82) in renal cell cancer and breast cancer patients, respectively. Finally, we analyzed antibody and T-cell responses against wt p53 15-mer peptides in patients with metastatic renal...

  9. Prediction of extraprostatic extension by prostate specific antigen velocity, endorectal MRI, and biopsy Gleason score in clinically localized prostate cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nishimoto, Koshiro; Nakashima, Jun; Hashiguchi, Akinori; Kikuchi, Eiji; Miyajima, Akira; Nakagawa, Ken; Ohigashi, Takashi; Oya, Mototsugu; Murai, Masaru

    2008-01-01

    The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical value of prostate specific antigen velocity (PSAV) in predicting the extraprostatic extension of clinically localized prostate cancer. One hundred and three patients who underwent radical prostatectomy for clinically localized prostate cancer were included in the analysis. The correlation between preoperative parameters, including PSA-based parameters, clinical stage, and histological biopsy findings, and the pathological findings were analyzed. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify a significant set of independent predictors for the local extent of the disease. Sixty-four (60.2%) patients had organ confined prostate cancer and 39 (39.8%) patients had extraprostatic cancer. The biopsy Gleason score, PSA, PSA density, PSA density of the transition zone, and PSAV were significantly higher in the patients with extraprostatic cancer than in those with organ confined cancer. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that the biopsy Gleason score, endorectal magnetic resonance imaging findings, and PSAV were significant predictors of extraprostatic cancer (P<0.01). Probability curves for extraprostatic cancer were generated using these three preoperative parameters. The combination of PSAV, endorectal magnetic resonance imaging findings, and biopsy Gleason score can provide additional information for selecting appropriate candidates for radical prostatectomy. (author)

  10. Specific and Efficient Regression of Cancers Harboring KRAS Mutation by Targeted RNA Replacement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Sung Jin; Kim, Ju Hyun; Yang, Bitna; Jeong, Jin-Sook; Lee, Seong-Wook

    2017-02-01

    Mutations in the KRAS gene, which persistently activate RAS function, are most frequently found in many types of human cancers. Here, we proposed and verified a new approach against cancers harboring the KRAS mutation with high cancer selectivity and efficient anti-cancer effects based on targeted RNA replacement. To this end, trans-splicing ribozymes from Tetrahymena group I intron were developed, which can specifically target and reprogram the mutant KRAS G12V transcript to induce therapeutic gene activity in cells. Adenoviral vectors containing the specific ribozymes with downstream suicide gene were constructed and then infection with the adenoviruses specifically downregulated KRAS G12V expression and killed KRAS G12V-harboring cancer cells additively upon pro-drug treatment, but it did not affect the growth of wild-type KRAS-expressing cells. Minimal liver toxicity was noted when the adenoviruses were administered systemically in vivo. Importantly, intratumoral injection of the adenoviruses with pro-drug treatment specifically and significantly impeded the growth of xenografted tumors harboring KRAS G12V through a trans-splicing reaction with the target RNA. In contrast, xenografted tumors harboring wild-type KRAS were not affected by the adenoviruses. Therefore, RNA replacement with a mutant KRAS-targeting trans-splicing ribozyme is a potentially useful therapeutic strategy to combat tumors harboring KRAS mutation. Copyright © 2017 The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Predictive value of prostate-specific antigen for prostate cancer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Shepherd, Leah; Borges, Alvaro Humberto; Ravn, Lene

    2014-01-01

    INTRODUCTION: Although prostate cancer (PCa) incidence is lower in HIV+ men than in HIV- men, the usefulness of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening in this population is not well defined and may have higher false negative rates than in HIV- men. We aimed to describe the kinetics and predict......INTRODUCTION: Although prostate cancer (PCa) incidence is lower in HIV+ men than in HIV- men, the usefulness of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening in this population is not well defined and may have higher false negative rates than in HIV- men. We aimed to describe the kinetics...... and predictive value of PSA in HIV+ men. METHODS: Men with PCa (n=21) and up to two matched controls (n=40) with prospectively stored plasma samples before PCa (or matched date in controls) were selected. Cases and controls were matched on date of first and last sample, age, region of residence and CD4 count...... at first sample date. Total PSA (tPSA), free PSA (fPSA), testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) were measured. Conditional logistic regression models investigated associations between markers and PCa. Sensitivity and specificity of using tPSA >4 µg/L to predict PCa was calculated. Mixed...

  12. CHEK2*1100delC Heterozygosity in Women With Breast Cancer Associated With Early Death, Breast Cancer-Specific Death, and Increased Risk of a Second Breast Cancer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Weischer, Maren; Nordestgaard, Børge G; Pharoah, Paul

    2012-01-01

    PURPOSE We tested the hypotheses that CHEK2*1100delC heterozygosity is associated with increased risk of early death, breast cancer-specific death, and risk of a second breast cancer in women with a first breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS From 22 studies participating in the Breast Cancer Assoc...

  13. Generation of an inducible colon-specific Cre enzyme mouse line for colon cancer research

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tetteh, Paul W.; Kretzschmar, Kai; Begthel, Harry; Van Den Born, Maaike; Korving, Jeroen; Morsink, Folkert; Farin, Henner; Van Es, Johan H.; Offerhaus, G. Johan A; Clevers, Hans

    2016-01-01

    Current mouse models for colorectal cancer often differ significantly from human colon cancer, being largely restricted to the small intestine. Here, we aim to develop a colon-specific inducible mouse model that can faithfully recapitulate human colon cancer initiation and progression. Carbonic

  14. Usefulness of transrectal ultrasound in diagnosing prostate cancer: comparison with digital rectal examination, prostate-specific antigen and prostate-specific antigen density

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoon, Jung Hwan; Kim, Bo Hyun; Choi, Sang Hee; Kim, Seung Hoon; Choi, Han Yong; Chai, Soo Eung; Yoon, Hye Kyung; Lee, Soon Jin; Choo, In Wook; Kim, Bo Kyung

    1998-01-01

    To determine the usefulness of transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS) in diagnosing prostate cancer by comparing the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and positive and negative predictive values of TRUS with those of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA), prostate-specific antigen density (PSAD) and digital rectal examination (DRE). Two hundred and ten consecutive patients underwent TRUS-guided prostate biopsy due to elevated PSA and/or abnormal findings on TRUS or DRE. The TRUS findings were analyzed and correlated with pathological diagnosis. PSAD was calculated by dividing the serum PSA level by the prostate volume calculated on TRUS. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and positive and negative predictive values of TRUS were compared with those of PSA, PSAD and DRE. Using ROC curve analysis, the combinations of these diagnostic methods were also evaluated for the determination of efficacy in diagnosing prostate cancer. The sensitivity and specificity of serum PSA (cut-off level, 4ng/ml), PSAD (cut-off level, 0.15ng/ml/cm 3 ), DRE, and TRUS were 96%/17%, 96%/37%, 72%/62%, and 89%/68%, respectively. On TRUS, the sensitivity and specificity of low echoic lesions and those of irregular outer margin were 89%/69%, and 60%/90%, respectively. TRUS was statistically more accurate than other diagnostic methods. Of the combinations of diagnostic methods, TRUS and PSAD were most accurate. TRUS demonstrated lower sensitivity but higher specificity than PSA or PSAD. Although it is an accurate modality for the diagnosis of prostate cancer, it cannot be used as a confirmative test due to its relatively low positive predictive value. A combination of diagnostic methods and random biopsy is needed in patients in whom prostate cancer is suspected.=20

  15. Prostate cancer prediction using the random forest algorithm that takes into account transrectal ultrasound findings, age, and serum levels of prostate-specific antigen.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiao, Li-Hong; Chen, Pei-Ran; Gou, Zhong-Ping; Li, Yong-Zhong; Li, Mei; Xiang, Liang-Cheng; Feng, Ping

    2017-01-01

    The aim of this study is to evaluate the ability of the random forest algorithm that combines data on transrectal ultrasound findings, age, and serum levels of prostate-specific antigen to predict prostate carcinoma. Clinico-demographic data were analyzed for 941 patients with prostate diseases treated at our hospital, including age, serum prostate-specific antigen levels, transrectal ultrasound findings, and pathology diagnosis based on ultrasound-guided needle biopsy of the prostate. These data were compared between patients with and without prostate cancer using the Chi-square test, and then entered into the random forest model to predict diagnosis. Patients with and without prostate cancer differed significantly in age and serum prostate-specific antigen levels (P prostate-specific antigen and ultrasound predicted prostate cancer with an accuracy of 83.10%, sensitivity of 65.64%, and specificity of 93.83%. Positive predictive value was 86.72%, and negative predictive value was 81.64%. By integrating age, prostate-specific antigen levels and transrectal ultrasound findings, the random forest algorithm shows better diagnostic performance for prostate cancer than either diagnostic indicator on its own. This algorithm may help improve diagnosis of the disease by identifying patients at high risk for biopsy.

  16. Genome-wide association studies identify four ER negative–specific breast cancer risk loci

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia-Closas, Montserrat; Couch, Fergus J; Lindstrom, Sara; Michailidou, Kyriaki; Schmidt, Marjanka K; Brook, Mark N; orr, Nick; Rhie, Suhn Kyong; Riboli, Elio; Feigelson, Heather s; Le Marchand, Loic; Buring, Julie E; Eccles, Diana; Miron, Penelope; Fasching, Peter A; Brauch, Hiltrud; Chang-Claude, Jenny; Carpenter, Jane; Godwin, Andrew K; Nevanlinna, Heli; Giles, Graham G; Cox, Angela; Hopper, John L; Bolla, Manjeet K; Wang, Qin; Dennis, Joe; Dicks, Ed; Howat, Will J; Schoof, Nils; Bojesen, Stig E; Lambrechts, Diether; Broeks, Annegien; Andrulis, Irene L; Guénel, Pascal; Burwinkel, Barbara; Sawyer, Elinor J; Hollestelle, Antoinette; Fletcher, Olivia; Winqvist, Robert; Brenner, Hermann; Mannermaa, Arto; Hamann, Ute; Meindl, Alfons; Lindblom, Annika; Zheng, Wei; Devillee, Peter; Goldberg, Mark S; Lubinski, Jan; Kristensen, Vessela; Swerdlow, Anthony; Anton-Culver, Hoda; Dörk, Thilo; Muir, Kenneth; Matsuo, Keitaro; Wu, Anna H; Radice, Paolo; Teo, Soo Hwang; Shu, Xiao-Ou; Blot, William; Kang, Daehee; Hartman, Mikael; Sangrajrang, Suleeporn; Shen, Chen-Yang; Southey, Melissa C; Park, Daniel J; Hammet, Fleur; Stone, Jennifer; Veer, Laura J Van’t; Rutgers, Emiel J; Lophatananon, Artitaya; Stewart-Brown, Sarah; Siriwanarangsan, Pornthep; Peto, Julian; Schrauder, Michael G; Ekici, Arif B; Beckmann, Matthias W; Silva, Isabel dos Santos; Johnson, Nichola; Warren, Helen; Tomlinson, Ian; Kerin, Michael J; Miller, Nicola; Marme, Federick; Schneeweiss, Andreas; Sohn, Christof; Truong, Therese; Laurent-Puig, Pierre; Kerbrat, Pierre; Nordestgaard, Børge G; Nielsen, Sune F; Flyger, Henrik; Milne, Roger L; Perez, Jose Ignacio Arias; Menéndez, Primitiva; Müller, Heiko; Arndt, Volker; Stegmaier, Christa; Lichtner, Peter; Lochmann, Magdalena; Justenhoven, Christina; Ko, Yon-Dschun; Muranen, Taru A; Aittomäki, Kristiina; Blomqvist, Carl; Greco, Dario; Heikkinen, Tuomas; Ito, Hidemi; Iwata, Hiroji; Yatabe, Yasushi; Antonenkova, Natalia N; Margolin, Sara; Kataja, Vesa; Kosma, Veli-Matti; Hartikainen, Jaana M; Balleine, Rosemary; Tseng, Chiu-Chen; Van Den Berg, David; Stram, Daniel O; Neven, Patrick; Dieudonné, Anne-Sophie; Leunen, Karin; Rudolph, Anja; Nickels, Stefan; Flesch-Janys, Dieter; Peterlongo, Paolo; Peissel, Bernard; Bernard, Loris; Olson, Janet E; Wang, Xianshu; Stevens, Kristen; Severi, Gianluca; Baglietto, Laura; Mclean, Catriona; Coetzee, Gerhard A; Feng, Ye; Henderson, Brian E; Schumacher, Fredrick; Bogdanova, Natalia V; Labrèche, France; Dumont, Martine; Yip, Cheng Har; Taib, Nur Aishah Mohd; Cheng, Ching-Yu; Shrubsole, Martha; Long, Jirong; Pylkäs, Katri; Jukkola-Vuorinen, Arja; Kauppila, Saila; knight, Julia A; Glendon, Gord; Mulligan, Anna Marie; Tollenaar, Robertus A E M; Seynaeve, Caroline M; Kriege, Mieke; Hooning, Maartje J; Van den Ouweland, Ans M W; Van Deurzen, Carolien H M; Lu, Wei; Gao, Yu-Tang; Cai, Hui; Balasubramanian, Sabapathy P; Cross, Simon S; Reed, Malcolm W R; Signorello, Lisa; Cai, Qiuyin; Shah, Mitul; Miao, Hui; Chan, Ching Wan; Chia, Kee Seng; Jakubowska, Anna; Jaworska, Katarzyna; Durda, Katarzyna; Hsiung, Chia-Ni; Wu, Pei-Ei; Yu, Jyh-Cherng; Ashworth, Alan; Jones, Michael; Tessier, Daniel C; González-Neira, Anna; Pita, Guillermo; Alonso, M Rosario; Vincent, Daniel; Bacot, Francois; Ambrosone, Christine B; Bandera, Elisa V; John, Esther M; Chen, Gary K; Hu, Jennifer J; Rodriguez-gil, Jorge L; Bernstein, Leslie; Press, Michael F; Ziegler, Regina G; Millikan, Robert M; Deming-Halverson, Sandra L; Nyante, Sarah; Ingles, Sue A; Waisfisz, Quinten; Tsimiklis, Helen; Makalic, Enes; Schmidt, Daniel; Bui, Minh; Gibson, Lorna; Müller-Myhsok, Bertram; Schmutzler, Rita K; Hein, Rebecca; Dahmen, Norbert; Beckmann, Lars; Aaltonen, Kirsimari; Czene, Kamila; Irwanto, Astrid; Liu, Jianjun; Turnbull, Clare; Rahman, Nazneen; Meijers-Heijboer, Hanne; Uitterlinden, Andre G; Rivadeneira, Fernando; Olswold, Curtis; Slager, Susan; Pilarski, Robert; Ademuyiwa, Foluso; Konstantopoulou, Irene; Martin, Nicholas G; Montgomery, Grant W; Slamon, Dennis J; Rauh, Claudia; Lux, Michael P; Jud, Sebastian M; Bruning, Thomas; Weaver, Joellen; Sharma, Priyanka; Pathak, Harsh; Tapper, Will; Gerty, Sue; Durcan, Lorraine; Trichopoulos, Dimitrios; Tumino, Rosario; Peeters, Petra H; Kaaks, Rudolf; Campa, Daniele; Canzian, Federico; Weiderpass, Elisabete; Johansson, Mattias; Khaw, Kay-Tee; Travis, Ruth; Clavel-Chapelon, Françoise; Kolonel, Laurence N; Chen, Constance; Beck, Andy; Hankinson, Susan E; Berg, Christine D; Hoover, Robert N; Lissowska, Jolanta; Figueroa, Jonine D; Chasman, Daniel I; Gaudet, Mia M; Diver, W Ryan; Willett, Walter C; Hunter, David J; Simard, Jacques; Benitez, Javier; Dunning, Alison M; Sherman, Mark E; Chenevix-Trench, Georgia; Chanock, Stephen J; Hall, Per; Pharoah, Paul D P; Vachon, Celine; Easton, Douglas F; Haiman, Christopher A; Kraft, Peter

    2013-01-01

    Estrogen receptor (ER)-negative tumors represent 20–30% of all breast cancers, with a higher proportion occurring in younger women and women of African ancestry1. The etiology2 and clinical behavior3 of ER-negative tumors are different from those of tumors expressing ER (ER positive), including differences in genetic predisposition4. To identify susceptibility loci specific to ER-negative disease, we combined in a meta-analysis 3 genome-wide association studies of 4,193 ER-negative breast cancer cases and 35,194 controls with a series of 40 follow-up studies (6,514 cases and 41,455 controls), genotyped using a custom Illumina array, iCOGS, developed by the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS). SNPs at four loci, 1q32.1 (MDM4, P = 2.1 × 10−12 and LGR6, P = 1.4 × 10−8), 2p24.1 (P = 4.6 × 10−8) and 16q12.2 (FTO, P = 4.0 × 10−8), were associated with ER-negative but not ER-positive breast cancer (P > 0.05). These findings provide further evidence for distinct etiological pathways associated with invasive ER-positive and ER-negative breast cancers. PMID:23535733

  17. Placenta-specific protein 1 promotes cell proliferation and invasion in non-small cell lung cancer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Li; Zha, Tian-Qi; He, Xiang; Chen, Liang; Zhu, Quan; Wu, Wei-Bing; Nie, Feng-Qi; Wang, Qian; Zang, Chong-Shuang; Zhang, Mei-Ling; He, Jing; Li, Wei; Jiang, Wen; Lu, Kai-Hua

    2018-01-01

    Pulmonary carcinoma-associated proteins have emerged as crucial players in governing fundamental biological processes such as cell proliferation, apoptosis and metastasis in human cancers. Placenta-specific protein 1 (PLAC1) is a cancer-related protein, which is activated and upregulated in a variety of malignant tissues, including prostate cancer, gastric adenocarcinoma, colorectal, epithelial ovarian and breast cancer. However, its biological role and clinical significance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) development and progression are still unknown. In the present study, we found that PLAC1 was significantly upregulated in NSCLC tissues, and its expression level was associated with advanced pathological stage and it was also correlated with shorter progression-free survival of lung cancer patients. Furthermore, knockdown of PLAC1 expression by siRNA inhibited cell proliferation, induced apoptosis and impaired invasive ability in NSCLC cells partly via regulation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related protein expression. Our findings present that increased PLAC1 could be identified as a negative prognostic biomarker in NSCLC and regulate cell proliferation and invasion. Thus, we conclusively demonstrated that PLAC1 plays a key role in NSCLC development and progression, which may provide novel insights on the function of tumor-related gene-driven tumorigenesis. PMID:29138842

  18. Tumor-specific RNA interference targeting Pokemon suppresses tumor growth and induces apoptosis in prostate cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yining; Xu, Shuxiong; Wang, Xiangwei; Shi, Hua; Sun, Zhaolin; Yang, Zhao

    2013-02-01

    To explore the exact mechanism of Pokemon in prostate cancer. Pokemon is a member of the POK family of transcriptional repressors. Its main function is suppression of the p14ARF (alternate reading frame) tumor suppressor gene. Although Pokemon expression has been found to be increased in various types of lymphoma, the exact mechanism of the gene in prostate cancer is not clear. In the present study, prostate cancer cells were transfected with the specific short hairpin ribonucleic acid (RNA) expression vector targeting Pokemon. The expression of Pokemon messenger RNA and its protein was detected by semiquantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting, respectively. The cell growth and cell apoptosis were also examined using the methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium assay and flow cytometry. The results demonstrated that specific RNA interference (RNAi) could decrease the expression levels of Pokemon gene messenger RNA and protein in prostate cancer cells. In addition, that specific RNAi significantly inhibited the cell proliferation and increased the apoptotic rate. In vivo experiments showed that specific RNAi inhibited the tumorigenicity of prostate cancer cells and significantly suppressed tumor growth. Therefore, an RNAi-targeted Pokemon gene strategy could be a potential approach to prostate cancer therapy. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Joint analysis of site-specific cancer risks for the atomic bomb survivors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pierce, D.A.; Preston, D.L.

    1993-01-01

    Statistical methods are presented for joint analysis of site-specific cancer risks for the atomic-bomb survivors. Previous analyses of these data, aside from those on leukemia, have been made either without regard to cancer type, or separately for types or classes of cancers. Clearly, analyses without regard to cancer type are less than satisfactory. The primary advantages of joint, rather than separate, analyses are that (1) models can be fitted with parameters common to cancer types, which can allow more-precise estimation of effects of interest, (2) significance tests can be used to compare type-specific risks, and (3) a clearer understanding may be obtained of risk-modification factors such as sex, age at exposure, and time since exposure. Joint analysis is straightforward, entailing primarily the incorporation of another factor for cancer type in the usual cross-tabulation of the data for analysis. The use of these methods is illustrated in an analysis of the three categories of cancer studied by the fifth Advisory Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR V): digestive, respiratory, and other solid tumors. Based on this analysis, some criticism is made of the BEIR V-preferred models. Since the proposed methods are applicable to models for either relative or absolute risks, some comments on the use of explicit models for the absolute excess risk are also given. Although some of the gains from joint analysis are apparent from the results here, it will be important to use these methods with a more suitable choice of cancer classes and for cancer incidence data in which the diagnoses are more accurate. (author)

  20. Prostate-specific membrane antigen-directed nanoparticle targeting for extreme nearfield ablation of prostate cancer cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Seung S; Roche, Philip Jr; Giannopoulos, Paresa N; Mitmaker, Elliot J; Tamilia, Michael; Paliouras, Miltiadis; Trifiro, Mark A

    2017-03-01

    Almost all biological therapeutic interventions cannot overcome neoplastic heterogeneity. Physical ablation therapy is immune to tumor heterogeneity, but nearby tissue damage is the limiting factor in delivering lethal doses. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes offer a number of unique properties: chemical stability, photonic properties including efficient light absorption, thermal conductivity, and extensive surface area availability for covalent chemical ligation. When combined together with a targeting moiety such as an antibody or small molecule, one can deliver highly localized temperature increases and cause extensive cellular damage. We have functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes by conjugating an antibody against prostate-specific membrane antigen. In our in vitro studies using prostate-specific membrane antigen-positive LNCaP prostate cancer cells, we have effectively demonstrated cell ablation of >80% with a single 30-s exposure to a 2.7-W, 532-nm laser for the first time without bulk heating. We also confirmed the specificity and selectivity of prostate-specific membrane antigen targeting by assessing prostate-specific membrane antigen-null PC3 cell lines under the same conditions (<10% cell ablation). This suggests that we can achieve an extreme nearfield cell ablation effect, thus restricting potential tissue damage when transferred to in vivo clinical applications. Developing this new platform will introduce novel approaches toward current therapeutic modalities and will usher in a new age of effective cancer treatment squarely addressing tumoral heterogeneity.

  1. Evaluation of a high-resolution, breast-specific, small-field-of-view gamma camera for the detection of breast cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brem, R.F.; Kieper, D.A.; Rapelyea, J.A.; Majewski, S.

    2003-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of our study is to review the state of the art in nuclear medicine imaging of the breast (scintimammography) and to evaluate a novel, high-resolution, breast-specific gamma camera (HRBGC) for the detection of suspicious breast lesions. Materials and Methods: Fifty patients with 58 breast lesions in whom a scintimammogram was clinically indicated were prospectively evaluated with a general-purpose gamma camera and a HRBGC prototype. Nuclear studies were prospectively classified as negative (normal/benign) or positive (suspicious/malignant) by two radiologists, blinded to mammographic and histologic results with both the conventional and high-resolution. All lesions were confirmed by pathology. Results: Included in this study were 30 benign and 28 malignant lesions. The sensitivity for detection of breast cancer was 64.3% (18/28) with the conventional camera and 78.6% (22/28) with the HRBGC. Specificity of both systems was 93.3% (28/30). In the 18 nonpalpable cancers, sensitivity was 55.5% (10/18) and 72.2% (13/18) with the general-purpose camera and HRBGC, respectively. In cancers ≤ 1cm, 7 of 15 were detected with the general-purpose camera and 10 of 15 with the HRBGC. Four of the cancers (median size, 8.5 mm) detected with the HRBGC were missed by the conventional camera Conclusion: Evaluation of indeterminate breasts lesions with a high resolution, breast-specific gamma camera results in improved sensitivity for the detection of cancer with greater improvement demonstrated in nonpalpable and ≤1 cm cancers

  2. Skin Cancer (Including Melanoma)—Health Professional Version

    Science.gov (United States)

    Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are referred to as nonmelanoma skin cancers. Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes, which make the melanin. Find evidence-based information on skin cancer treatment, causes and prevention, screening, research, genetics, and statistics.

  3. Occupational cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alderson, M.

    1986-01-01

    This book aims to review the occurrence and causes of occupational cancer and is aimed at assisting medical and safety staff, management and health and safety representatives. It is presented in the following chapters: 1) Epidemiological method 2) Agents causing occupationally induced cancer, including radiation 3) Occupations associated with risk of cancer 4) Aetiology of cancer 5) Control of occupationally induced cancer, research, prevention, legislation, national and international bodies, control of specific occupational carcinogens, including irradiation. (U.K.)

  4. Interleukin-1 is required for cancer eradication mediated by tumor-specific Th1 cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haabeth, Ole Audun Werner; Lorvik, Kristina Berg; Yagita, Hideo; Bogen, Bjarne; Corthay, Alexandre

    The role of inflammation in cancer is controversial as both tumor-promoting and tumor-suppressive aspects of inflammation have been reported. In particular, it has been shown that pro-inflammatory cytokines, like interleukin-1α (IL-1α), IL-1β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα), may either promote or suppress cancer. However, the cellular and molecular basis underlying these opposing outcomes remains enigmatic. Using mouse models for myeloma and lymphoma, we have recently reported that inflammation driven by tumor-specific T helper 1 (Th1) cells conferred protection against B-cell cancer and that interferon-γ (IFN-γ) was essential for this process. Here, we have investigated the contribution of several inflammatory mediators. Myeloma eradication by Th1 cells was not affected by inhibition of TNF-α, TNF-related weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK), or TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL). In contrast, cancer elimination by tumor-specific Th1 cells was severely impaired by the in vivo neutralization of both IL-1α and IL-1β (collectively named IL-1) with IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra). The antitumor functions of tumor-specific Th1 cells and tumor-infiltrating macrophages were both affected by IL-1 neutralization. Secretion of the Th1-derived cytokines IL-2 and IFN-γ at the incipient tumor site was severely reduced by IL-1 blockade. Moreover, IL-1 was shown to synergize with IFN-γ for induction of tumoricidal activity in tumor-infiltrating macrophages. This synergy between IL-1 and IFN-γ may explain how inflammation, when driven by tumor-specific Th1 cells, represses rather than promotes cancer. Collectively, the data reveal a central role of inflammation, and more specifically of the canonical pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1, in enhancing Th1-mediated immunity against cancer.

  5. Brachytherapy boost and cancer-specific mortality in favorable high-risk versus other high-risk prostate cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vinayak Muralidhar

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Purpose : Recent retrospective data suggest that brachytherapy (BT boost may confer a cancer-specific survival benefit in radiation-managed high-risk prostate cancer. We sought to determine whether this survival benefit would extend to the recently defined favorable high-risk subgroup of prostate cancer patients (T1c, Gleason 4 + 4 = 8, PSA 20 ng/ml. Material and methods: We identified 45,078 patients in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database with cT1c-T3aN0M0 intermediate- to high-risk prostate cancer diagnosed 2004-2011 treated with external beam radiation therapy (EBRT only or EBRT plus BT. We used multivariable competing risks regression to determine differences in the rate of prostate cancer-specific mortality (PCSM after EBRT + BT or EBRT alone in patients with intermediate-risk, favorable high-risk, or other high-risk disease after adjusting for demographic and clinical factors. Results : EBRT + BT was not associated with an improvement in 5-year PCSM compared to EBRT alone among patients with favorable high-risk disease (1.6% vs. 1.8%; adjusted hazard ratio [AHR]: 0.56; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.21-1.52, p = 0.258, and intermediate-risk disease (0.8% vs. 1.0%, AHR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.59-1.16, p = 0.270. Others with high-risk disease had significantly lower 5-year PCSM when treated with EBRT + BT compared with EBRT alone (3.9% vs. 5.3%; AHR: 0.73; 95% CI: 0.55-0.95; p = 0.022. Conclusions : Brachytherapy boost is associated with a decreased rate of PCSM in some men with high-risk prostate cancer but not among patients with favorable high-risk disease. Our results suggest that the recently-defined “favorable high-risk” category may be used to personalize therapy for men with high-risk disease.

  6. Feasibility of minimally invasive radical prostatectomy in prostate cancer patients with high prostate-specific antigen. Feasibility and 1-year outcomes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Do, M.; Ragavan, N.; Dietel, A.; Liatsikos, E.; Stolzenburg, J.U.; Anderson, C.; McNeill, A.

    2012-01-01

    Urologists are cautious to offer minimally invasive radical prostatectomy in prostate cancer patients with high prostate-specific antigen (and therefore anticipated to have locally advanced or metastatic disease) because of concerns regarding lack of complete cure after minimally invasive radical prostatectomy and of worsening of continence if adjuvant radiotherapy is used. A retrospective review of our institutional database was carried out to identify patients with prostate specific antigen (PSA) ≥20 ng/mL who underwent minimally invasive radical prostatectomy between January 2002 and October 2010. Intraoperative, pathological, functional and short-term oncological outcomes were assessed. Overall, 233 patients met study criteria and were included in the analysis. The median prostate-specific antigen and prostate size were 28.5 ng/mL and 47 mL, respectively. Intraoperative complications were the following: rectal injury (0.86%) and blood transfusion (1.7%). Early postoperative complications included prolonged (>6 days) catheterization (9.4%), hematoma (4.7%), deep venous thrombosis (0.86%) and lymphocele (5.1%). Late postoperative complications included cerebrovascular accident (0.4%) and anastomotic stricture (0.8%). Pathology revealed poorly differentiated cancer in 48.9%, pT3/pT4 disease in 55.8%, positive margins in 28.3% and lymph node disease in 20.2% of the cases. Adverse pathological findings were more frequent in patients with prostate-specific antigen >40 ng/mL and (or) in those with locally advanced disease (pT3/pT4). In 62.2% of the cases, adjuvant radiotherapy was used. At 1-year follow up, 80% of patients did not show evidence of biochemical recurrence and 98.8% of them had good recovery of continence. Minimally invasive radical prostatectomy might represent a reasonable option in prostate cancer patients with high prostate-specific antigen as a part of a multimodality treatment approach. (author)

  7. Stage-specific predictive models for breast cancer survivability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kate, Rohit J; Nadig, Ramya

    2017-01-01

    Survivability rates vary widely among various stages of breast cancer. Although machine learning models built in past to predict breast cancer survivability were given stage as one of the features, they were not trained or evaluated separately for each stage. To investigate whether there are differences in performance of machine learning models trained and evaluated across different stages for predicting breast cancer survivability. Using three different machine learning methods we built models to predict breast cancer survivability separately for each stage and compared them with the traditional joint models built for all the stages. We also evaluated the models separately for each stage and together for all the stages. Our results show that the most suitable model to predict survivability for a specific stage is the model trained for that particular stage. In our experiments, using additional examples of other stages during training did not help, in fact, it made it worse in some cases. The most important features for predicting survivability were also found to be different for different stages. By evaluating the models separately on different stages we found that the performance widely varied across them. We also demonstrate that evaluating predictive models for survivability on all the stages together, as was done in the past, is misleading because it overestimates performance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. A new clinically applicable age-specific comorbidity index for preoperative risk assessment of ovarian cancer patients

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Noer, Mette Calundann; Sperling, Cecilie Dyg; Antonsen, Sofie Leisby

    2016-01-01

    Cancer Database between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2012. The study population was divided into a development cohort (n=2020) and a validation cohort (n=1975). Age-stratified multivariate Cox regression analyses were conducted to identify comorbidities significantly impacting five-year overall....... CONCLUSION: This new age-specific comorbidity index based on self-reported information is a significant predictor of overall and cancer-specific survival in ovarian cancer. It can be used to quickly identify those ovarian cancer patients requiring special attention in terms of preoperative optimization...

  9. Dispositional emotional expressivity, cancer-specific coping, and distress in socioeconomically-disadvantaged Latinas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moreno, Patricia I; Bauer, Margaret R; Yanez, Betina; Jorge, Alexandra; Maggard-Gibbons, Melinda; Stanton, Annette L

    2016-06-01

    Coping processes directed toward avoiding and approaching stressor-related thoughts and emotions predict psychological adjustment. However, few studies have examined how the relationship between dispositional emotional tendencies and stressor-specific coping affects outcomes. The aim of the current study was to examine the association of dispositional emotional expressivity (i.e., the propensity to experience and express emotions strongly) with cancer-specific coping through avoidance and emotional approach to predict intrusive thoughts and depressive symptoms in Latinas with breast cancer. Recently diagnosed Latina breast cancer patients receiving treatment completed standardized assessments via interview at 2 time points: within 18 months of diagnosis (Time 1; N = 95) and 3 months later (Time 2; N = 79). Most women were immigrants (93%), reported a combined household income of $20,000 or less (75%), did not graduate from high school (59%), and primarily spoke Spanish (88%). In path analyses, more recent immigration was associated with greater dispositional expressivity, which in turn was associated with coping with the cancer experience using both greater avoidance and emotional approach strategies. Only avoidance-oriented strategies predicted an increase in intrusive thoughts at 3 months. No significant effects on depressive symptoms were observed. Findings suggest that Latina breast cancer patients who have a propensity to experience and express emotions strongly may be initially overwhelmed by their cancer-related emotions and consequently turn to avoidance-oriented and emotional approach strategies to cope with their diagnosis. Avoidance-oriented coping in turn may uniquely predict an increase in cancer-related intrusive thoughts 3 months later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  10. Cause-specific colostomy rates after radiotherapy for anal cancer: a Danish multicentre cohort study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sunesen, Kåre G; Nørgaard, Mette; Lundby, Lilli; Havsteen, Hanne; Buntzen, Steen; Thorlacius-Ussing, Ole; Laurberg, Søren

    2011-09-10

    In anal cancer, colostomy-free survival is a measure of anal sphincter preservation after treatment with radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. Failure to control anal cancer and complications of treatment are alternative indications for colostomy. However, no data exist on cause-specific colostomy rates. We examined this in a cohort study. Through national registries and review of medical records, we identified patients with anal cancer diagnosed from 1995 to 2003 who had curative-intent radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy in four Danish centers. We computed cumulative incidence of tumor-related colostomy and therapy-related colostomy, treating colostomy and death as competing events. Follow-up started at completion of radiotherapy and continued throughout 2008. We used competing risk regression to compute hazard ratios (HRs) to compare the cumulative incidence of cause-specific colostomies between age, sex, tumor size, chemotherapy, and local excision before radiotherapy. We included 235 patients with anal cancer. The 5-year cumulative incidences of tumor-related and therapy-related colostomy were 26% (95% CI, 21% to 32%) and 8% (95% CI, 5% to 12%), respectively. Tumor size greater than 6 cm versus less than 4 cm was a risk factor for tumor-related colostomy (adjusted HR, 3.8; 95% CI, 1.7 to 8.1), and local excision before radiotherapy was a risk factor for therapy-related colostomy (adjusted HR, 4.5; 95% CI, 1.5 to 13.5). After curative-intent radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy, one third of patients had a colostomy, of which one third were related to therapy. Large tumor size was associated with a higher risk of tumor-related colostomy, whereas history of prior excision was associated with an increased incidence of therapy-related colostomy.

  11. Multiplex biomarker approach for determining risk of prostate-specific antigen-defined recurrence of prostate cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rhodes, Daniel R; Sanda, Martin G; Otte, Arie P; Chinnaiyan, Arul M; Rubin, Mark A

    2003-05-07

    Molecular signatures in cancer tissue may be useful for diagnosis and are associated with survival. We used results from high-density tissue microarrays (TMAs) to define combinations of candidate biomarkers associated with the rate of prostate cancer progression after radical prostatectomy that could identify patients at high risk for recurrence. Fourteen candidate biomarkers for prostate cancer for which antibodies are available included hepsin, pim-1 kinase, E-cadherin (ECAD; cell adhesion molecule), alpha-methylacyl-coenzyme A racemase, and EZH2 (enhancer of zeste homolog 2, a transcriptional repressor). TMAs containing more than 2000 tumor samples from 259 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy for localized prostate cancer were studied with these antibodies. Immunohistochemistry results were evaluated in conjunction with clinical parameters associated with prostate cancer progression, including tumor stage, Gleason score, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level. Recurrence was defined as a postsurgery PSA level of more than 0.2 ng/mL. All statistical tests were two-sided. Moderate or strong expression of EZH2 coupled with at most moderate expression of ECAD (i.e., a positive EZH2:ECAD status) was the biomarker combination that was most strongly associated with the recurrence of prostate cancer. EZH2:ECAD status was statistically significantly associated with prostate cancer recurrence in a training set of 103 patients (relative risk [RR] = 2.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.09 to 5.81; P =.021), in a validation set of 80 patients (RR = 3.72, 95% CI = 1.27 to 10.91; P =.009), and in the combined set of 183 patients (RR = 2.96, 95% CI = 1.56 to 5.61; P<.001). EZH2:ECAD status was statistically significantly associated with disease recurrence even after adjusting for clinical parameters, such as tumor stage, Gleason score, and PSA level (hazard ratio = 3.19, 95% CI = 1.50 to 6.77; P =.003). EZH2:ECAD status was statistically significantly associated

  12. Biocatalytically Oligomerized Epicatechin with Potent and Specific Anti-proliferative Activity for Human Breast Cancer Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ramaswamy Nagarajan

    2008-11-01

    Full Text Available Catechins, naturally occurring flavonoids derived from wine and green tea, are known to exhibit multiple health benefits. Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG is one of the most widely investigated catechins, but its efficacy in cancer therapy is still inconsistent and limited. The poor stability of EGCG has contributed to the disparity in the reported anti-cancer activity and other beneficial properties. Here we report an innovative enzymatic strategy for the oligomerization of catechins (specifically epicatechin that yields stable, water-soluble oligomerized epicatechins with enhanced and highly specific anti-proliferative activity for human breast cancer cells. This one-pot oxidative oligomerization is carried out in ambient conditions using Horseradish Peroxidase (HRP as a catalyst yielding water-soluble oligo(epicatechins. The oligomerized epicatechins obtained exhibit excellent growth inhibitory effects against human breast cancer cells with greater specificity towards growth-inhibiting cancer cells as opposed to normal cells, achieving a high therapeutic differential. Our studies indicate that water-soluble oligomeric epicatechins surpass EGCG in stability, selectivity and efficacy at lower doses.

  13. The value of prostate specific antigen and prostate specific antigen density in the diagnosis ad treatment of prostate cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hu Guoying; Yu Mingqi; Feng Xinli

    2001-01-01

    To study the clinical value of prostate specific antigen (PSA) and prostate specific antigen density (PSAD), the PSA levels of pre-and post-treatment were measured in 28 cases with prostate cancer (Pca) and 80 patients with being Prostate hyperplasia (BPH). PASD was measured in 18 cases Pca and 50 cases BPH of them. The results suggest that the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of diagnosis for Pca were 85.7%, 80.0% and 81.4%, respectively. The false positive rate was 20%. PSAD is superior to PSA in distinguishing prostate cancer from benign prostate hyperplasia. The false positive rate was only 6%. But in the clinical application, the authors should combine PASD with other materials. The regular observation of post therapeutic PSA is of great value to the earlier discovery of local recurrence and metastasis as well as the judgement of curative effect and prognosis

  14. Prostate-Specific G-Protein Coupled Receptor, an Emerging Biomarker Regulating Inflammation and Prostate Cancer Invasion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodriguez, M; Siwko, S; Liu, M

    2016-01-01

    Prostate cancer is highly prevalent among men in developed countries, but a significant proportion of detected cancers remain indolent, never progressing into aggressive carcinomas. This highlights the need to develop refined biomarkers that can distinguish between indolent and potentially dangerous cases. The prostate-specific G-protein coupled receptor (PSGR, or OR51E2) is an olfactory receptor family member with highly specific expression in human prostate epithelium that is highly overexpressed in PIN and prostate cancer. PSGR has been functionally implicated in prostate cancer cell invasiveness, suggesting a potential role in the transition to metastatic PCa. Recently, transgenic mice overexpressing PSGR in the prostate were reported to develop an acute inflammatory response followed by emergence of low grade PIN, whereas mice with compound PSGR overexpression and loss of PTEN exhibited accelerated formation of invasive prostate adenocarcinoma. This article will review recent PSGR findings with a focus on its role as a potential prostate cancer biomarker and regulator of prostate cancer invasion and inflammation.

  15. Estimation of age- and stage-specific Catalan breast cancer survival functions using US and Catalan survival data

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-01-01

    Background During the last part of the 1990s the chance of surviving breast cancer increased. Changes in survival functions reflect a mixture of effects. Both, the introduction of adjuvant treatments and early screening with mammography played a role in the decline in mortality. Evaluating the contribution of these interventions using mathematical models requires survival functions before and after their introduction. Furthermore, required survival functions may be different by age groups and are related to disease stage at diagnosis. Sometimes detailed information is not available, as was the case for the region of Catalonia (Spain). Then one may derive the functions using information from other geographical areas. This work presents the methodology used to estimate age- and stage-specific Catalan breast cancer survival functions from scarce Catalan survival data by adapting the age- and stage-specific US functions. Methods Cubic splines were used to smooth data and obtain continuous hazard rate functions. After, we fitted a Poisson model to derive hazard ratios. The model included time as a covariate. Then the hazard ratios were applied to US survival functions detailed by age and stage to obtain Catalan estimations. Results We started estimating the hazard ratios for Catalonia versus the USA before and after the introduction of screening. The hazard ratios were then multiplied by the age- and stage-specific breast cancer hazard rates from the USA to obtain the Catalan hazard rates. We also compared breast cancer survival in Catalonia and the USA in two time periods, before cancer control interventions (USA 1975–79, Catalonia 1980–89) and after (USA and Catalonia 1990–2001). Survival in Catalonia in the 1980–89 period was worse than in the USA during 1975–79, but the differences disappeared in 1990–2001. Conclusion Our results suggest that access to better treatments and quality of care contributed to large improvements in survival in Catalonia. On

  16. Study protocol: Rehabilitation including Social and Physical activity and Education in Children and Teenagers with Cancer (RESPECT).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thorsteinsson, Troels; Helms, Anne Sofie; Adamsen, Lis; Andersen, Lars Bo; Andersen, Karen Vitting; Christensen, Karl Bang; Hasle, Henrik; Heilmann, Carsten; Hejgaard, Nete; Johansen, Christoffer; Madsen, Marianne; Madsen, Svend Aage; Simovska, Venka; Strange, Birgit; Thing, Lone Friis; Wehner, Peder Skov; Schmiegelow, Kjeld; Larsen, Hanne Baekgaard

    2013-11-14

    During cancer treatment children have reduced contact with their social network of friends, and have limited participation in education, sports, and leisure activities. During and following cancer treatment, children describe school related problems, reduced physical fitness, and problems related to interaction with peers. The RESPECT study is a nationwide population-based prospective, controlled, mixed-methods intervention study looking at children aged 6-18 years newly diagnosed with cancer in eastern Denmark (n=120) and a matched control group in western Denmark (n=120). RESPECT includes Danish-speaking children diagnosed with cancer and treated at pediatric oncology units in Denmark. Primary endpoints are the level of educational achievement one year after the cessation of first-line cancer therapy, and the value of VO2max one year after the cessation of first-line cancer therapy. Secondary endpoints are quality of life measured by validated questionnaires and interviews, and physical performance. RESPECT includes a multimodal intervention program, including ambassador-facilitated educational, physical, and social interventions. The educational intervention includes an educational program aimed at the child with cancer, the child's schoolteachers and classmates, and the child's parents. Children with cancer will each have two ambassadors assigned from their class. The ambassadors visit the child with cancer at the hospital at alternating 2-week intervals and participate in the intervention program. The physical and social intervention examines the effect of early, structured, individualized, and continuous physical activity from diagnosis throughout the treatment period. The patients are tested at diagnosis, at 3 and 6 months after diagnosis, and one year after the cessation of treatment. The study is powered to quantify the impact of the combined educational, physical, and social intervention programs. RESPECT is the first population-based study to examine the

  17. Risk of sex-specific cancers in opposite-sex and same-sex twins in Denmark and Sweden

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ahrenfeldt, Linda Juel; Skytthe, Axel; Möller, Sören

    2015-01-01

    -scale prospective twin study compared opposite-sex (OS) and same-sex (SS) twins to test the impact of intrauterine exposures on cancer risk. Based on the Danish and Swedish twin and cancer registries, we calculated incidence rate ratios for OS and SS twins while standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) with 95......% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for OS/SS twins compared with the general population. RESULTS: A total of 18,001 cancers were identified during 1943-2009. No significant differences were observed between OS and SS twins, neither for the sex-specific cancers nor for cancer at all sites. All...... to prenatal testosterone - does not increase the risk of sex-specific cancers in OS females. Furthermore, the study supports that twinning per se is not a risk factor of cancer. IMPACT: Findings are reassuring as they fail to provide evidence for the hypothesis that endocrine or other difference...

  18. Prostate cancer prediction using the random forest algorithm that takes into account transrectal ultrasound findings, age, and serum levels of prostate-specific antigen

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li-Hong Xiao

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study is to evaluate the ability of the random forest algorithm that combines data on transrectal ultrasound findings, age, and serum levels of prostate-specific antigen to predict prostate carcinoma. Clinico-demographic data were analyzed for 941 patients with prostate diseases treated at our hospital, including age, serum prostate-specific antigen levels, transrectal ultrasound findings, and pathology diagnosis based on ultrasound-guided needle biopsy of the prostate. These data were compared between patients with and without prostate cancer using the Chi-square test, and then entered into the random forest model to predict diagnosis. Patients with and without prostate cancer differed significantly in age and serum prostate-specific antigen levels (P < 0.001, as well as in all transrectal ultrasound characteristics (P < 0.05 except uneven echo (P = 0.609. The random forest model based on age, prostate-specific antigen and ultrasound predicted prostate cancer with an accuracy of 83.10%, sensitivity of 65.64%, and specificity of 93.83%. Positive predictive value was 86.72%, and negative predictive value was 81.64%. By integrating age, prostate-specific antigen levels and transrectal ultrasound findings, the random forest algorithm shows better diagnostic performance for prostate cancer than either diagnostic indicator on its own. This algorithm may help improve diagnosis of the disease by identifying patients at high risk for biopsy.

  19. Targeted Regression of Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Cancer-Specific RNA Replacement through MicroRNA Regulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Juhyun; Won, Ranhui; Ban, Guyee; Ju, Mi Ha; Cho, Kyung Sook; Young Han, Sang; Jeong, Jin-Sook; Lee, Seong-Wook

    2015-07-20

    Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a high fatality rate and limited therapeutic options with side effects and low efficacy. Here, we proposed a new anti-HCC approach based on cancer-specific post-transcriptional targeting. To this end, trans-splicing ribozymes from Tetrahymena group I intron were developed, which can specifically induce therapeutic gene activity through HCC-specific replacement of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) RNA. To circumvent side effects due to TERT expression in regenerating liver tissue, liver-specific microRNA-regulated ribozymes were constructed by incorporating complementary binding sites for the hepatocyte-selective microRNA-122a (miR-122a), which is down-regulated in HCC. The ribozyme activity in vivo was assessed in mouse models orthotopically implanted with HCC. Systemic administration of adenovirus encoding the developed ribozymes caused efficient anti-cancer effect and the least hepatotoxicity with regulation of ribozyme expression by miR-122a in both xenografted and syngeneic orthotopic murine model of multifocal HCC. Of note, the ribozyme induced local and systemic antitumor immunity, thereby completely suppressing secondary tumor challenge in the syngeneic mouse. The cancer specific trans-splicing ribozyme system, which mediates tissue-specific microRNA-regulated RNA replacement, provides a clinically relevant, safe, and efficient strategy for HCC treatment.

  20. Cause-Specific Colostomy Rates After Radiotherapy for Anal Cancer: A Danish Multicentre Cohort Study

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sunesen, Kåre G; Nørgaard, Mette; Lundby, Lilli

    2011-01-01

    In anal cancer, colostomy-free survival is a measure of anal sphincter preservation after treatment with radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. Failure to control anal cancer and complications of treatment are alternative indications for colostomy. However, no data exist on cause-specific colostomy...

  1. Detection of prostate cancer-specific transcripts in extracellular vesicles isolated from post-DRE urine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pellegrini, Kathryn L; Patil, Dattatraya; Douglas, Kristen J S; Lee, Grace; Wehrmeyer, Kathryn; Torlak, Mersiha; Clark, Jeremy; Cooper, Colin S; Moreno, Carlos S; Sanda, Martin G

    2017-06-01

    The measurement of gene expression in post-digital rectal examination (DRE) urine specimens provides a non-invasive method to determine a patient's risk of prostate cancer. Many currently available assays use whole urine or cell pellets for the analysis of prostate cancer-associated genes, although the use of extracellular vesicles (EVs) has also recently been of interest. We investigated the expression of prostate-, kidney-, and bladder-specific transcripts and known prostate cancer biomarkers in urine EVs. Cell pellets and EVs were recovered from post-DRE urine specimens, with the total RNA yield and quality determined by Bioanalyzer. The levels of prostate, kidney, and bladder-associated transcripts in EVs were assessed by TaqMan qPCR and targeted sequencing. RNA was more consistently recovered from the urine EV specimens, with over 80% of the patients demonstrating higher RNA yields in the EV fraction as compared to urine cell pellets. The median EV RNA yield of 36.4 ng was significantly higher than the median urine cell pellet RNA yield of 4.8 ng. Analysis of the post-DRE urine EVs indicated that prostate-specific transcripts were more abundant than kidney- or bladder-specific transcripts. Additionally, patients with prostate cancer had significantly higher levels of the prostate cancer-associated genes PCA3 and ERG. Post-DRE urine EVs are a viable source of prostate-derived RNAs for biomarker discovery and prostate cancer status can be distinguished from analysis of these specimens. Continued analysis of urine EVs offers the potential discovery of novel biomarkers for pre-biopsy prostate cancer detection. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  2. Long-lasting complete response status of advanced stage IV gall bladder cancer and colon cancer after combined treatment including autologous formalin-fixed tumor vaccine: two case reports.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Imaoka, Yuki; Kuranishi, Fumito; Miyazaki, Tsubasa; Yasuda, Hiroko; Ohno, Tadao

    2017-09-11

    The prognosis of advanced (stage IV) cancer of the digestive organs is very poor. We have previously reported a case of advanced breast cancer with bone metastasis that was successfully treated with combined treatments including autologous formalin-fixed tumor vaccine (AFTV). Herein, we report the success of this approach in advanced stage IV (heavily metastasized) cases of gall bladder cancer and colon cancer. Case 1: A 61-year-old woman with stage IV gall bladder cancer (liver metastasis and lymph node metastasis) underwent surgery in May 2011, including partial resection of the liver. She was treated with AFTV as the first-line adjuvant therapy, followed by conventional chemotherapy. This patient is still alive without any recurrence, as confirmed with computed tomography, for more than 5 years. Case 2: A 64-year-old man with stage IV colon cancer (multiple para-aortic lymph node metastases and direct abdominal wall invasion) underwent non-curative surgery in May 2006. Following conventional chemotherapy, two courses of AFTV and radiation therapy were administered sequentially. This patient has had no recurrence for more than 5 years. We report the success of combination therapy including AFTV in cases of liver-metastasized gall bladder cancer and abdominal wall-metastasized colon cancer. Both patients experienced long-lasting, complete remission. Therefore, combination therapies including AFTV should be considered in patients with advanced cancer of the digestive organs.

  3. Specific microtubule-depolymerizing agents augment efficacy of dendritic cell-based cancer vaccines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chang Wei-Ting

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs are associated with immunogenic cell death and have the ability to enhance maturation and antigen presentation of dendritic cells (DCs. Specific microtubule-depolymerizing agents (MDAs such as colchicine have been shown to confer anti-cancer activity and also trigger activation of DCs. Methods In this study, we evaluated the ability of three MDAs (colchicine and two 2-phenyl-4-quinolone analogues to induce immunogenic cell death in test tumor cells, activate DCs, and augment T-cell proliferation activity. These MDAs were further evaluated for use as an adjuvant in a tumor cell lysate-pulsed DC vaccine. Results The three test phytochemicals considerably increased the expression of DAMPs including HSP70, HSP90 and HMGB1, but had no effect on expression of calreticulin (CRT. DC vaccines pulsed with MDA-treated tumor cell lysates had a significant effect on tumor growth, showed cytotoxic T-lymphocyte activity against tumors, and increased the survival rate of test mice. In vivo antibody depletion experiments suggested that CD8+ and NK cells, but not CD4+ cells, were the main effector cells responsible for the observed anti-tumor activity. In addition, culture of DCs with GM-CSF and IL-4 during the pulsing and stimulation period significantly increased the production of IL-12 and decreased production of IL-10. MDAs also induced phenotypic maturation of DCs and augmented CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell proliferation when co-cultured with DCs. Conclusions Specific MDAs including the clinical drug, colchicine, can induce immunogenic cell death in tumor cells, and DCs pulsed with MDA-treated tumor cell lysates (TCLs can generate potent anti-tumor immunity in mice. This approach may warrant future clinical evaluation as a cancer vaccine.

  4. [Precision medicine: A major step forward in specific situations, a myth in refractory cancers?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albin, Nicolas; Mc Leer, Anne; Sakhri, Linda

    2018-04-01

    In recent years, high-throughput sequencing techniques have been developed for cancerology and many clinical trials are currently structured around biomarkers that can guide specific treatment choices. This approach is characteristic of precision medicine, which is actually a concept initiated several decades ago with, for example, retinoic acid in promyelocytic leukemia. This paper will review the different types of molecular alterations and « -omics » biological analyses, bioinformatics tools, coupled drug/biomarkers already validated, the ethical issues of whole genomic sequencing of an individual as part of an inclusion in a clinical trial and finally the first results of precision medicine trials. The AcSé crizotinib program, supported by the Inca (french Cancer National Institute), is emblematic of a success of this personalized medicine illustrated by 4 points: the discovery of a cohort of patients with lung cancer with a ROS1 rearrangement characteristic of a sensitivity to crizotinib, a rapid availability of this innovation through the implementation of a temporary recommendation for use (ANSM), the obtention of a conditional marketing authorization by the pharmaceutical industry and finally, financial assumption of responsibility by French social security (HAS), despite preliminary and non-comparative data. In the case of cancers refractory to standard chemotherapy, and regarding our system of access to drugs illustrated by the PROFILER clinical trial, this approach allows the access to a therapeutic drug targeting specific biomarkers only in 7% of patients included. This does not bode well for efficient treatment and even less for survival. Allowing patients to be included in trials that identify molecular targets by molecular screening, and not being able to propose the drug of interest is a traumatic event for those patients who live in the hope of an immediate future. In refractory disease we must rethink precision medicine in a more humanistic

  5. A mixed-method study on the generic and ostomy-specific quality of life of cancer and non-cancer ostomy patients

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jansen, Femke; van Uden-Kraan, Cornelia F; Braakman, J Annemieke; van Keizerswaard, Paulina M; Witte, Birgit I; Verdonck-de Leeuw, Irma M

    PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to compare the generic and ostomy-specific quality of life (QoL) between cancer and non-cancer ostomy patients using a mixed-method design. METHODS: All patients with an ostomy participating in the Stomapanel of the Dutch Ostomy Association were asked to complete a

  6. A mixed-method study on the generic and ostomy-specific quality of life of cancer and non-cancer ostomy patients.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jansen, F.; van Uden-Kraan, C.F.; Braakman, J.A.; van Keizerswaard, P.M.; Witte, B.I.; de Leeuw, I.M.

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: The aim of this study is to compare the generic and ostomy-specific quality of life (QoL) between cancer and non-cancer ostomy patients using a mixed-method design. Methods: All patients with an ostomy participating in the Stomapanel of the Dutch Ostomy Association were asked to complete a

  7. Whole body MRI, including diffusion-weighted imaging in follow-up of patients with testicular cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mosavi, Firas; Laurell, Anna; Ahlström, Håkan

    2015-11-01

    Whole body (WB) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) has become increasingly utilized in cancer imaging, yet the clinical utility of these techniques in follow-up of testicular cancer patients has not been evaluated. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of WB MRI with continuous table movement (CTM) technique, including multistep DWI in follow-up of patients with testicular cancer. WB MRI including DWI was performed in follow-up of 71 consecutive patients (median age, 37 years; range 19-84) with histologically confirmed testicular cancer. WB MRI protocol included axial T1-Dixon and T2-BLADE sequences using CTM technique. Furthermore, multi-step DWI was performed using b-value 50 and 1000 s/mm(2). One criterion for feasibility was patient tolerance and satisfactory image quality. Another criterion was the accuracy in detection of any pathological mass, compared to standard of reference. Signal intensity in DWI was used for evaluation of residual mass activity. Clinical, laboratory and imaging follow-up were applied as standard of reference for the evaluation of WB MRI. WB MRI was tolerated in nearly all patients (69/71 patients, 97%) and the image quality was satisfactory. Metal artifacts deteriorated the image quality in six patients, but it did not influence the overall results. No case of clinical relapse was observed during the follow-up time. There was a good agreement between conventional WB MRI and standard of reference in all patients. Three patients showed residual masses and DWI signal was not restricted in these patients. Furthermore, DWI showed abnormally high signal intensity in a normal-sized retroperitoneal lymph node indicating metastasis. The subsequent (18)F-FDG PET/CT could verify the finding. WB MRI with CTM technique including multi-step DWI is feasible in follow-up of patients with testicular cancer. DWI may contribute to important added-value data to conventional MRI sequences

  8. Assessing cancer-specific anxiety in Chinese men with prostate cancer: psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of the Memorial Anxiety Scale for Prostate Cancer (MAX-PC).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Qingmei; Jiang, Ping; Zhang, Zijun; Luo, Jie; Dai, Yun; Zheng, Li; Wang, Wei

    2017-12-01

    The Memorial Anxiety Scale for Prostate Cancer (MAX-PC) was developed to identify and assess cancer-specific anxiety among men with prostate cancer (PCa); however, there is no Chinese version. The aim of our study was to translate the English version of MAX-PC into Chinese and evaluate the psychometric properties of it. The study cohort comprised 254 participants. Internal consistency including the Cronbach's alpha coefficient and item-total correlations were used to measure the reliability of the scale. Factor structure was analyzed by exploratory factor analysis and concurrent validity by comparing MAX-PC scores with anxiety subscale scores of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Divergent validity was assessed by correlating MAX-PC with HADS depression subscale, while discriminant ability by comparing differences in MAX-PC scores between different patient groups. The Chinese version of MAX-PC demonstrated good reliability; the Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the total and three subscales (prostate cancer anxiety, PSA anxiety, and fear of recurrence) being 0.94, 0.93, 0.82, and 0.85, respectively. Exploratory factor analysis supported the three-factor structure of the scale established in the original version. Despite the somewhat underperformed divergent validity, the scale demonstrated good concurrent validity with a strong correlation with the HADS anxiety subscale (r = 0.71, p anxiety in Chinese PCa patients.

  9. Prostatic specific antigen. From its early days until becoming a prostate cancer biomarker.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dellavedova, T

    2016-01-01

    Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has been since the mid 80's the most commonly used biomarker for measuring current and future risk of prostate cancer, for its early detection and to measure response to treatments and detecting recurrence in all stages of the disease. PSA's early development came along with progress in the field of immunology, which allowed detection and study of antigens from different tissues and fluids when injecting them into rabbits to promote immune response. Rubin Flocks in 1960 was the first to investigate and discover prostate-specific antigens in benign and malignant tissue. Some years later, Hara, a Japanese forensic investigator, found 'gamma seminoprotein', that he used to detect human semen in rape cases. However, his work published in Japanese did not reach the Englishspeaking scientific community. In 1970 Ablin discovered both in prostatic fluid and tissue what he called "prostate-specific antigen", but he didn't characterize or describe it. Investigators Li and Beling, and Sensabaugh, approached the current PSA, but they were limited by available technology at that time. Dr T Ming Chu led a research team on prostate cancer in New York, USA and published their results in 1979. He finally received the patent for the discovery of "human purified prostate antigen" in 1984. Due to this work, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in USA, approved the use of PSA for monitoring recurrence after treatment. It was later known that PSA was not prostate-specific since it was produced in other tissues and fluids, but it was recognized that it was human species-specific. Works by Papsidero and Stamey showed new indications and utilities for PSA, but it was Catalona who first used it as a marker for prostate cancer in 1991. Thanks to these advances FDA authorized in 1994 the clinical use of PSA for early detection of prostate cancer.

  10. Association between dietary nitrate and nitrite intake and site-specific cancer risk: evidence from observational studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jia, Hui-Xun; Liang, Fei; Yuan, Jing; Zhu, Ji

    2016-01-01

    Epidemiological studies have reported inconsistent findings on the association between dietary nitrate and nitrite intake and cancer risk. We performed a meta-analysis of epidemiological studies to summarize available evidence on the association between dietary nitrate and nitrite intake and cancer risk from published prospective and case-control studies. PubMed database was searched to identify eligible publications through April 30th, 2016. Study-specific relative risks (RRs) with corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) from individual studies were pooled by using random- or fixed- model, and heterogeneity and publication bias analyses were conducted. Data from 62 observational studies, 49 studies for nitrates and 51 studies for nitrites, including a total of 60,627 cancer cases were analyzed. Comparing the highest vs. lowest levels, dietary nitrate intake was inversely associated with gastric cancer risk (RR = 0.78; 95%CI = 0.67-0.91) with moderate heterogeneity (I2 = 42.3%). In contrast, dietary nitrite intake was positively associated with adult glioma and thyroid cancer risk with pooled RR of 1.21 (95%CI = 1.03-1.42) and 1.52 (95%CI = 1.12-2.05), respectively. No significant associations were found between dietary nitrate/nitrite and cancers of the breast, bladder, colorectal, esophagus, renal cell, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, ovarian, and pancreas. The present meta-analysis provided modest evidence that positive associations of dietary nitrate and negative associations of dietary nitrite with certain cancers. PMID:27486968

  11. Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) Targeted Bio-orthogonal Therapy for Metastatic Prostate Cancer

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-10-01

    AWARD NUMBER: W81XWH-16-1-0595 TITLE: Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) Targeted Bio -orthogonal Therapy for Metastatic Prostate Cancer...Sep 2016 - 14 Sep 2017 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) Targeted Bio -orthogonal Therapy for Metastatic Prostate

  12. Metformin and thiazolidinediones are associated with improved breast cancer-specific survival of diabetic women with HER2+ breast cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, X; Esteva, F J; Ensor, J; Hortobagyi, G N; Lee, M-H; Yeung, S-C J

    2012-07-01

    Insulin/insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) signaling is a mechanism mediating the promoting effect of type 2 diabetes (DM2) on cancer. Human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2), insulin receptor and IGF-I receptor involve the same PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling, and different antidiabetic pharmacotherapy may differentially affect this pathway, leading to different prognoses of HER2+ breast cancer. We reviewed 1983 consecutive patients with HER2+ breast cancer treated between 1 January 1998 and 30 September 2010. The overall survival, breast cancer-specific death rate, age, race, nuclear grade, stage, menopausal status, estrogen and progesterone receptor status, body mass index and classes of antidiabetic pharmacotherapy were analyzed. A Cox regression analysis showed that DM2 [P=0.026, hazard ratio (HR)=1.42, 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) 1.04-1.94] predicted poor survival of stage≥2 HER2+ breast cancer. In Kaplan-Meier analysis, metformin predicted lengthened survival and so did thiazolidinediones. Analyzing only the diabetics, Cox regression showed that metformin (P=0.041, HR=0.52, 95 % CI 0.28-0.97) and thiazolidinediones (P=0.036; HR=0.41, 95% CI 0.18-0.93) predicted lengthened survival, and competing risk analysis showed that metformin and thiazolidinediones were associated with decreased breast cancer-specific mortality (P=0.023, HR=0.47, 95% CI 0.24-0.90 and P=0.044, HR=0.42, 95 % CI 0.18-0.98, respectively). Thiazolidinediones and metformin users are associated with better clinical outcomes than nonusers in diabetics with stage≥2 HER2+ breast cancer. The choice of antidiabetic pharmacotherapy may influence prognosis of this group.

  13. Inference of cancer-specific gene regulatory networks using soft computing rules.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Xiaosheng; Gotoh, Osamu

    2010-03-24

    Perturbations of gene regulatory networks are essentially responsible for oncogenesis. Therefore, inferring the gene regulatory networks is a key step to overcoming cancer. In this work, we propose a method for inferring directed gene regulatory networks based on soft computing rules, which can identify important cause-effect regulatory relations of gene expression. First, we identify important genes associated with a specific cancer (colon cancer) using a supervised learning approach. Next, we reconstruct the gene regulatory networks by inferring the regulatory relations among the identified genes, and their regulated relations by other genes within the genome. We obtain two meaningful findings. One is that upregulated genes are regulated by more genes than downregulated ones, while downregulated genes regulate more genes than upregulated ones. The other one is that tumor suppressors suppress tumor activators and activate other tumor suppressors strongly, while tumor activators activate other tumor activators and suppress tumor suppressors weakly, indicating the robustness of biological systems. These findings provide valuable insights into the pathogenesis of cancer.

  14. Raising an Antibody Specific to Breast Cancer Subpopulations Using Phage Display on Tissue Sections

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Simon Asbjørn; Meldgaard, Theresa; Fridriksdottir, Agla Jael Rubner

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND/AIM: Primary tumors display a great level of intra-tumor heterogeneity in breast cancer. The current lack of prognostic and predictive biomarkers limits accurate stratification and the ability to predict response to therapy. The aim of the present study was to select recombinant antibody...... fragments specific against breast cancer subpopulations, aiding the discovery of novel biomarkers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Recombinant antibody fragments were selected by phage display. A novel shadowstick technology enabled the direct selection using tissue sections of antibody fragments specific against...

  15. Molecular-targeted nanotherapies in cancer: enabling treatment specificity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blanco, Elvin; Hsiao, Angela; Ruiz-Esparza, Guillermo U; Landry, Matthew G; Meric-Bernstam, Funda; Ferrari, Mauro

    2011-12-01

    Chemotherapy represents a mainstay and powerful adjuvant therapy in the treatment of cancer. The field has evolved from drugs possessing all-encompassing cell-killing effects to those with highly targeted, specific mechanisms of action; a direct byproduct of enhanced understanding of tumorigenic processes. However, advances regarding development of agents that target key molecules and dysregulated pathways have had only modest impacts on patient survival. Several biological barriers preclude adequate delivery of drugs to tumors, and remain a formidable challenge to overcome in chemotherapy. Currently, the field of nanomedicine is enabling the delivery of chemotherapeutics, including repositioned drugs and siRNAs, by giving rise to carriers that provide for protection from degradation, prolonged circulation times, and increased tumor accumulation, all the while resulting in reduced patient morbidity. This review aims to highlight several innovative, nanoparticle-based platforms with the potential of providing clinical translation of several novel chemotherapeutic agents. We will also summarize work regarding the development of a multistage drug delivery strategy, a robust carrier platform designed to overcome several biological barriers while en route to tumors. Copyright © 2011 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. LpMab-23: A Cancer-Specific Monoclonal Antibody Against Human Podoplanin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamada, Shinji; Ogasawara, Satoshi; Kaneko, Mika K; Kato, Yukinari

    2017-04-01

    Human podoplanin (hPDPN), the ligand of C-type lectin-like receptor-2, is involved in cancer metastasis. Until now, many monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been established against hPDPN. However, it is still difficult to develop a cancer-specific mAb (CasMab) against hPDPN because the protein sequence of hPDPN expressed in cancer cells is the same as that in normal cells. Herein, we report LpMab-23 of the mouse IgG 1 subclass, a novel CasMab against hPDPN. In an immunohistochemical analysis, LpMab-23 reacted with tumor cells of human oral cancer, but did not react with normal cells such as lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs). In contrast, LpMab-17, another anti-hPDPN mAb, reacted with both tumor cells and LECs. Furthermore, flow cytometric analysis revealed that LpMab-23 reacted with hPDPN-expressing cancer cell lines (LN319, RERF-LC-AI/hPDPN, Y-MESO-14/hPDPN, and HSC3/hPDPN) but showed little reaction with normal cells (LECs and HEK-293T), although another anti-hPDPN mAb, LpMab-7, reacted with both hPDPN-expressing cancer cells and normal cells, indicating that LpMab-23 is a CasMab against hPDPN.

  17. Functional heterogeneity of cancer-associated fibroblasts from human colon tumors shows specific prognostic gene expression signature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herrera, Mercedes; Islam, Abul B M M K; Herrera, Alberto; Martín, Paloma; García, Vanesa; Silva, Javier; Garcia, Jose M; Salas, Clara; Casal, Ignacio; de Herreros, Antonio García; Bonilla, Félix; Peña, Cristina

    2013-11-01

    Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) actively participate in reciprocal communication with tumor cells and with other cell types in the microenvironment, contributing to a tumor-permissive neighborhood and promoting tumor progression. The aim of this study is the characterization of how CAFs from primary human colon tumors promote migration of colon cancer cells. Primary CAF cultures from 15 primary human colon tumors were established. Their enrichment in CAFs was evaluated by the expression of various epithelial and myofibroblast specific markers. Coculture assays of primary CAFs with different colon tumor cells were performed to evaluate promigratory CAF-derived effects on cancer cells. Gene expression profiles were developed to further investigate CAF characteristics. Coculture assays showed significant differences in fibroblast-derived paracrine promigratory effects on cancer cells. Moreover, the association between CAFs' promigratory effects on cancer cells and classic fibroblast activation or stemness markers was observed. CAF gene expression profiles were analyzed by microarray to identify deregulated genes in different promigratory CAFs. The gene expression signature, derived from the most protumorogenic CAFs, was identified. Interestingly, this "CAF signature" showed a remarkable prognostic value for the clinical outcome of patients with colon cancer. Moreover, this prognostic value was validated in an independent series of 142 patients with colon cancer, by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), with a set of four genes included in the "CAF signature." In summary, these studies show for the first time the heterogeneity of primary CAFs' effect on colon cancer cell migration. A CAF gene expression signature able to classify patients with colon cancer into high- and low-risk groups was identified.

  18. Clinicopathological and Prognostic Significance of Cancer Antigen 15-3 and Carcinoembryonic Antigen in Breast Cancer: A Meta-Analysis including 12,993 Patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xuan Li

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Purpose. The prognostic role of serum cancer antigen 15-3 (CA15-3 and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA in breast cancer remains controversial. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the prognostic value of these two markers in breast cancer patients. Methods. After electronic databases were searched, 36 studies (31 including information regarding CA15-3 and 23 including information regarding CEA with 12,993 subjects were included. Based on the data directly or indirectly from the available studies, the hazard ratios (HRs and odds ratios (ORs and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs were pooled according to higher or lower marker levels. Results. Elevated CA15-3 or CEA was statistically significant with poorer DFS and OS in breast cancer (multivariate analysis of OS: HR = 2.03, 95% CI 1.76–2.33 for CA15-3; HR = 1.79, 95% CI 1.46–2.20 for CEA; multivariate analysis of DFS: HR = 1.56, 95% CI 1.06–1.55 for CA15-3; HR = 1.77, 95% CI 1.53–2.04 for CEA. Subgroup analysis showed that CA15-3 or CEA had significant predictive values in primary or metastasis types and different cut-offs and included sample sizes and even the study publication year. Furthermore, elevated CA15-3 was associated with advanced histological grade and younger age, while elevated CEA was related to the non-triple-negative tumor type and older age. These two elevated markers were all associated with a higher tumor burden. Conclusions. This meta-analysis showed that elevated serum CA15-3 or CEA was associated with poor DFS and OS in patients with breast cancer, and they should be tested anytime if possible.

  19. Specific immunotherapy in renal cancer: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirbod-Mobarakeh, Armin; Gordan, Hesam Addin; Zahiri, Zahra; Mirshahvalad, Mohammad; Hosseinverdi, Sima; Rini, Brian I; Rezaei, Nima

    2017-02-01

    Renal cell cancer (RCC) is the tenth most common malignancy in adults. In recent years, several approaches of active and passive immunotherapy have been studied extensively in clinical trials of patients with RCC. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the clinical efficacy of various approaches of specific immunotherapy in patients with RCC. We searched Medline, Scopus, CENTRAL, TRIP, DART, OpenGrey and ProQuest without any language filter through to 9 October 2015. One author reviewed search results for irrelevant and duplicate studies and two other authors independently extracted data from the studies. We collated study findings and calculated a weighted treatment effect across studies using Review Manager (version 5.3. Copenhagen: The Nordic Cochrane Centre, the Cochrane Collaboration). We identified 14 controlled studies with 4013 RCC patients after excluding irrelevant and duplicate studies from 11,319 references retrieved from a literature search. Overall, five autologous tumor cell vaccines, one peptide-based vaccine, one virus-based vaccine and one dendritic cell (DC)-based vaccine were studied in nine controlled studies of active specific immunotherapies. A total of three passive immunotherapies including autologous cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells, auto lymphocyte therapy (ALT) and autologous lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells were studied in four controlled studies. The clinical efficacy of tumor lysate-pulsed DCs, with CIK cells was studied in one controlled trial concurrently. The overall quality of studies was fair. Meta-analysis of seven studies showed that patients undergoing specific immunotherapy had significantly higher overall survival (OS) than those in the control group [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.72; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.58-0.89, p = 0.003]. In addition, a meta-analysis of four studies showed that there was a significant difference in progression-free survival (PFS) between patients undergoing specific immunotherapy

  20. Patient-specific radiation dose and cancer risk for pediatric chest CT.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Xiang; Samei, Ehsan; Segars, W Paul; Sturgeon, Gregory M; Colsher, James G; Frush, Donald P

    2011-06-01

    To estimate patient-specific radiation dose and cancer risk for pediatric chest computed tomography (CT) and to evaluate factors affecting dose and risk, including patient size, patient age, and scanning parameters. The institutional review board approved this study and waived informed consent. This study was HIPAA compliant. The study included 30 patients (0-16 years old), for whom full-body computer models were recently created from clinical CT data. A validated Monte Carlo program was used to estimate organ dose from eight chest protocols, representing clinically relevant combinations of bow tie filter, collimation, pitch, and tube potential. Organ dose was used to calculate effective dose and risk index (an index of total cancer incidence risk). The dose and risk estimates before and after normalization by volume-weighted CT dose index (CTDI(vol)) or dose-length product (DLP) were correlated with patient size and age. The effect of each scanning parameter was studied. Organ dose normalized by tube current-time product or CTDI(vol) decreased exponentially with increasing average chest diameter. Effective dose normalized by tube current-time product or DLP decreased exponentially with increasing chest diameter. Chest diameter was a stronger predictor of dose than weight and total scan length. Risk index normalized by tube current-time product or DLP decreased exponentially with both chest diameter and age. When normalized by DLP, effective dose and risk index were independent of collimation, pitch, and tube potential (chest CT protocols. http://radiology.rsna.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1148/radiol.11101900/-/DC1. RSNA, 2011

  1. Pathological Outcome following Radical Prostatectomy in Men with Prostate Specific Antigen Greater than 10 ng/ml and Histologically Favorable Risk Prostate Cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Jiwoong; Kwon, Young Suk; Kim, Sinae; Han, Christopher Sejong; Farber, Nicholas; Kim, Jongmyung; Byun, Seok Soo; Kim, Wun-Jae; Jeon, Seong Soo; Kim, Isaac Yi

    2016-05-01

    Active surveillance is now the treatment of choice in men with low risk prostate cancer. Although there is no consensus on which patients are eligible for active surveillance, prostate specific antigen above 10 ng/ml is generally excluded. In an attempt to determine the validity of using a prostate specific antigen cutoff of 10 ng/ml to counsel men considering active surveillance we analyzed a multi-institution database to determine the pathological outcome in men with prostate specific antigen greater than 10 ng/ml but histologically favorable risk prostate cancer. We queried a prospectively maintained database of men with histologically favorable risk prostate cancer who underwent radical prostatectomy between 2003 and 2015. The cohort was categorized into 3 groups based on prostate specific antigen level, including low-less than 10 ng/ml, intermediate-10 or greater to less than 20 and high-20 or greater. Associations of prostate specific antigen group with adverse pathological and oncologic outcomes were analyzed. Of 2,125 patients 1,327 were categorized with histologically favorable risk disease. However on multivariate analyses the rates of up staging and upgrading were similar between the intermediate and low prostate specific antigen groups. In contrast compared to the intermediate prostate specific antigen group the high group had higher incidences of up staging (p = 0.02) and upgrading to 4 + 3 or greater disease (p = 0.046). Biochemical recurrence-free survival rates revealed no pairwise intergroup differences except between the low and high groups. Patients with preoperatively elevated prostate specific antigen between 10 and less than 20 ng/ml who otherwise had histologically favorable risk prostate cancer were not at higher risk for adverse pathological outcomes than men with prostate specific antigen less than 10 ng/ml. Copyright © 2016 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Volatile organic compounds as biomarkers of bladder cancer: Sensitivity and specificity using trained sniffer dogs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Willis, Carolyn M; Britton, Lezlie E; Harris, Rob; Wallace, Joshua; Guest, Claire M

    In a previous canine study, we demonstrated that volatile organic compounds specific to bladder cancer are present in urine headspace, subsequently showing that up to 70% of tumours can be correctly classified using an electronic nose. This study aimed to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity which can be achieved by a group of four trained dogs. In a series of 30 double-blind test runs, each consisting of one bladder cancer urine sample placed alongside six controls, the highest sensitivity achieved by the best performing dog was 73% (95% CI 55-86%), with the group as a whole correctly identifying the cancer samples 64% (95% CI 55-73%) of the time. Specificity of the dogs individually ranged from 92% (95% CI 82-97%) for urine samples obtained from healthy, young volunteers down to 56% (95% CI 42-68%) for those taken from older patients with non-cancerous urological disease. Odds ratio comparisons confirmed a significant decrease in performance as the extent of urine dipstick abnormality and/or pathology amongst the control population increased. Importantly, however, statistical analysis indicated that covariates such as smoking, gender and age, as well as blood, protein and /or leucocytes in the urine did not significantly alter the odds of response to the cancer samples. Our results provide further evidence that volatile biomarkers for bladder cancer exist in urine headspace, and that these have the potential to be exploited for diagnosis.

  3. Role of prostate specific antigen and immediate confirmatory biopsy in predicting progression during active surveillance for low risk prostate cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adamy, Ari; Yee, David S; Matsushita, Kazuhito; Maschino, Alexandra; Cronin, Angel; Vickers, Andrew; Guillonneau, Bertrand; Scardino, Peter T; Eastham, James A

    2011-02-01

    We evaluated predictors of progression after starting active surveillance, especially the role of prostate specific antigen and immediate confirmatory prostate biopsy. A total of 238 men with prostate cancer met active surveillance eligibility criteria and were analyzed for progression with time. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate predictors of progression. Progression was evaluated using 2 definitions, including no longer meeting 1) full and 2) modified criteria, excluding prostate specific antigen greater than 10 ng/ml as a criterion. Using full criteria 61 patients progressed during followup. The 2 and 5-year progression-free probability was 80% and 60%, respectively. With prostate specific antigen included in progression criteria prostate specific antigen at confirmatory biopsy (HR 1.29, 95% CI 1.14-1.46, p <0.0005) and positive confirmatory biopsy (HR 1.75, 95% CI 1.01-3.04, p = 0.047) were independent predictors of progression. Of the 61 cases 34 failed due to increased prostate specific antigen, including only 5 with subsequent progression by biopsy criteria. When prostate specific antigen was excluded from progression criteria, only 32 cases progressed, and 2 and 5-year progression-free probability was 91% and 76%, respectively. Using modified criteria as an end point positive confirmatory biopsy was the only independent predictor of progression (HR 3.16, 95% CI 1.41-7.09, p = 0.005). Active surveillance is feasible in patients with low risk prostate cancer and most patients show little evidence of progression within 5 years. There is no clear justification for treating patients in whom prostate specific antigen increases above 10 ng/ml in the absence of other indications of tumor progression. Patients considering active surveillance should undergo confirmatory biopsy to better assess the risk of progression. Copyright © 2011 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Dose-response relationship between cigarette smoking and site-specific cancer risk: protocol for a systematic review with an original design combining umbrella and traditional reviews.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lugo, Alessandra; Bosetti, Cristina; Peveri, Giulia; Rota, Matteo; Bagnardi, Vincenzo; Gallus, Silvano

    2017-11-01

    Only a limited number of meta-analyses providing risk curve functions of dose-response relationships between various smoking-related variables and cancer-specific risk are available. To identify all relevant original publications on the issue, we will conduct a series of comprehensive systematic reviews based on three subsequent literature searches: (1) an umbrella review, to identify meta-analyses, pooled analyses and systematic reviews published before 28 April 2017 on the association between cigarette smoking and the risk of 28 (namely all) malignant neoplasms; (2) for each cancer site, an updated review of original publications on the association between cigarette smoking and cancer risk, starting from the last available comprehensive review identified through the umbrella review; and (3) a review of all original articles on the association between cigarette smoking and site-specific cancer risk included in the publications identified through the umbrella review and the updated reviews. The primary outcomes of interest will be (1) the excess incidence/mortality of various cancers for smokers compared with never smokers; and (2) the dose-response curves describing the association between smoking intensity, duration and time since stopping and incidence/mortality for various cancers. For each cancer site, we will perform a meta-analysis by pooling study-specific estimates for smoking status. We will also estimate the dose-response curves for other smoking-related variables through random-effects meta-regression models based on a non-linear dose-response relationship framework. Ethics approval is not required for this study. Main results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and will also be included in a publicly available website. We will provide therefore the most complete and updated estimates on the association between various measures of cigarette smoking and site-specific cancer risk. This will allow us to obtain precise estimates on the cancer burden

  5. Dietary Lycopene, Angiogenesis, and Prostate Cancer: A Prospective Study in the Prostate-Specific Antigen Era

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    Background The role of lycopene in prostate cancer prevention remains controversial. We examined the associations between dietary lycopene intake and prostate cancer, paying particular attention to the influence of prostate-specific antigen screening, and evaluated tissue biomarkers in prostate cancers in relation to lycopene intake. Methods Among 49898 male health professionals, we obtained dietary information through questionnaires and ascertained total and lethal prostate cancer cases from 1986 through January 31, 2010. Cox regression was used to estimate multivariable hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Tissue microarrays and immunohistochemistry were used to assess tumor biomarker expression in a subset of men. Two-sided χ2 tests were used to calculate the P values. Results Higher lycopene intake was inversely associated with total prostate cancer and more strongly with lethal prostate cancer (top vs bottom quintile: HR = 0.72; 95% CI = 0.56 to 0.94; P trend = .04). In a restricted population of screened participants, the inverse associations became markedly stronger (for lethal prostate cancer: HR = 0.47; 95% CI = 0.29 to 0.75; P trend = .009). Comparing different measures of dietary lycopene, early intake, but not recent intake, was inversely associated with prostate cancer. Higher lycopene intake was associated with biomarkers in the cancer indicative of less angiogenic potential. Conclusions Dietary intake of lycopene was associated with reduced risk of lethal prostate cancer and with a lesser degree of angiogenesis in the tumor. Because angiogenesis is a strong progression factor, an endpoint of lethal prostate cancer may be more relevant than an endpoint of indolent prostate cancer for lycopene in the era of highly prevalent prostate-specific antigen screening. PMID:24463248

  6. Organ-specific radiation-induced cancer risk estimates due to radiotherapy for benign pigmented villonodular synovitis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazonakis, Michalis; Tzedakis, Antonis; Lyraraki, Efrossyni; Damilakis, John

    2016-09-01

    Pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) is a benign disease affecting synovial membranes of young and middle-aged adults. The aggressive treatment of this disorder often involves external-beam irradiation. This study was motivated by the lack of data relating to the radiation exposure of healthy tissues and radiotherapy-induced cancer risk. Monte Carlo methodology was employed to simulate a patient’s irradiation for PVNS in the knee and hip joints with a 6 MV photon beam. The average radiation dose received by twenty-two out-of-field critical organs of the human body was calculated. These calculations were combined with the appropriate organ-, age- and gender-specific risk coefficients of the BEIR-VII model to estimate the lifetime probability of cancer development. The risk for carcinogenesis to colon, which was partly included in the treatment fields used for hip irradiation, was determined with a non-linear mechanistic model and differential dose-volume histograms obtained by CT-based 3D radiotherapy planning. Risk assessments were compared with the nominal lifetime intrinsic risk (LIR) values. Knee irradiation to 36 Gy resulted in out-of-field organ doses of 0.2-24.6 mGy. The corresponding range from hip radiotherapy was 1.2-455.1 mGy whereas the organ equivalent dose for the colon was up to 654.9 mGy. The organ-specific cancer risks from knee irradiation for PVNS were found to be inconsequential since they were at least 161.5 times lower than the LIRs irrespective of the patient’s age and gender. The bladder and colon cancer risk from radiotherapy in the hip joint was up to 3.2 and 6.6 times smaller than the LIR, respectively. These cancer risks may slightly elevate the nominal incidence rates and they should not be ignored during the patient’s treatment planning and follow-up. The probabilities for developing any other solid tumor were more than 20 times lower than the LIRs and, therefore, they may be considered as small.

  7. 7 CFR 1755.98 - List of telecommunications specifications included in other 7 CFR parts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false List of telecommunications specifications included in... (Continued) RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICIES ON SPECIFICATIONS, ACCEPTABLE MATERIALS, AND STANDARD CONTRACT FORMS § 1755.98 List of telecommunications specifications...

  8. Cancer Specific Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen as a Novel Diagnostic Marker for the Detection of Breast Cancer

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Hoelz, Derek

    2003-01-01

    ... (which is now referred to as the cancer-specific form of PCNA or csPCNA). Additionally, a basic form of PCNA was also observed in the malignant cells, but this isoform was the only isoform found in non-malignant cells and tissues...

  9. Colorectal cancer complicated by perforation. Specific features of surgical tactics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. N. Shchaeva

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective: to assess the immediate results of surgical interventions for colorectal cancer complicated by perforation.Materials and methods. The immediate results of surgical treatment were retrospectively analyzed in 56 patients with colorectal cancer complicated by perforated colon cancer, who had been treated at Smolensk surgical hospitals in 2001 to 2013. Patients with diastatic perforation of the colon in the presence of decompensated obturation intestinal obstruction of tumor genesis were not included into this investigation.Results. The immediate results of uni- and multistage surgical interventions were analyzed in relation to the extent of peritonitis and the stage of colon cancer. More satisfactory immediate results were observed after multistage surgical treatment. Following these interventions, a fatal outcome of disseminated peritonitis in the presence of performed colorectal cancer was recorded in 8 (53.3 % cases whereas after symptomatic surgery there were 11 (67.8 % deaths. A fatal outcome was noted in 1 case (7.7 % after multistage surgery.Discussion. The results of surgical treatment in the patients with perforated colorectal cancer are directly related to the degree of peritonitis and the choice of surgical tactics.

  10. Surviving colorectal cancer: long-term, persistent ostomy-specific concerns and adaptations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Virginia; Grant, Marcia; McMullen, Carmit K; Altschuler, Andrea; Mohler, M Jane; Hornbrook, Mark C; Herrinton, Lisa J; Baldwin, Carol M; Krouse, Robert S

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this article was to describe persistent ostomy-specific concerns and adaptations in long-term (>5 years) colorectal cancer survivors with ostomies. Thirty-three colorectal cancer survivors who participated in 8 gender- and health-related quality of life stratified focus groups and 130 colorectal cancer survivors who provided written comments to 2 open-ended questions on ostomy location and pouch problems participated in the study. Data were collected on health maintenance organization members in Oregon, southwestern Washington, and northern California. Qualitative data were analyzed for the 8 focus groups and written comments from 2 open-ended survey questions. Discussions from the focu s groups were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using content analysis. Written content from the open-ended questions was derived from a mailed questionnaire on health-related quality of life in survivors with ostomies and analyzed using content analysis. Discussions related to persistent ostomy-related issues more than 5 years after formation were common. Persistent ostomy-related issues were focused on clothing restrictions and adaptations, dietary concerns, issues related to ostomy equipment and self-care, and the constant need to find solutions to adjust and readjust to living with an ostomy. Ostomy-specific concerns persist 5 years and more for long-term colorectal cancer survivors after initial ostomy formation. Adaptations tend to be individualized and based on trial and error. Findings underscore the need to develop long-term support mechanisms that survivors can access to promote better coping and adjustment to living with an ostomy.

  11. Strict follow-up programme including CT and (18) F-FDG-PET after curative surgery for colorectal cancer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, N F; Jensen, A B; Wille-Jørgensen, P

    2010-01-01

    Aim The risk of local recurrence following curative surgery for colorectal cancer (CRC) is up to 50%. A rigorous follow-up program may increase survival. Guidelines on suitable methods for scheduled follow up examinations are needed. This study evaluates a strict follow-up program including...... supported a strict follow-up program following curative surgery for colorectal cancer. FDG-PET combined with CT should be included in control programs....

  12. Prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicine are specific to cancer types and adjustable to temperature changes.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pei-Hsun Chiu

    Full Text Available Targeted cancer therapies, with specific molecular targets, ameliorate the side effect issue of radiation and chemotherapy and also point to the development of personalized medicine. Combination of drugs targeting multiple pathways of carcinogenesis is potentially more fruitful. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM has been tailoring herbal mixtures for individualized healthcare for two thousand years. A systematic study of the patterns of TCM formulas and herbs prescribed to cancers is valuable. We analysed a total of 187,230 TCM prescriptions to 30 types of cancer in Taiwan in 2007, a year's worth of collection from the National Health Insurance reimbursement database (Taiwan. We found that a TCM cancer prescription consists on average of two formulas and four herbs. We show that the percentage weights of TCM formulas and herbs in a TCM prescription follow Zipf's law with an exponent around 0.6. TCM prescriptions to benign neoplasms have a larger Zipf's exponent than those to malignant cancers. Furthermore, we show that TCM prescriptions, via weighted combination of formulas and herbs, are specific to not only the malignancy of neoplasms but also the sites of origins of malignant cancers. From the effects of formulas and natures of herbs that were heavily prescribed to cancers, that cancers are a 'warm and stagnant' syndrome in TCM can be proposed, suggesting anti-inflammatory regimens for better prevention and treatment of cancers. We show that TCM incorporated relevant formulas to the prescriptions to cancer patients with a secondary morbidity. We compared TCM prescriptions made in different seasons and identified temperatures as the environmental factor that correlates with changes in TCM prescriptions in Taiwan. Lung cancer patients were among the patients whose prescriptions were adjusted when temperatures drop. The findings of our study provide insight to TCM cancer treatment, helping dialogue between modern western medicine and TCM for

  13. Prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicine are specific to cancer types and adjustable to temperature changes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chiu, Pei-Hsun; Hsieh, Hsin-Ying; Wang, Sun-Chong

    2012-01-01

    Targeted cancer therapies, with specific molecular targets, ameliorate the side effect issue of radiation and chemotherapy and also point to the development of personalized medicine. Combination of drugs targeting multiple pathways of carcinogenesis is potentially more fruitful. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been tailoring herbal mixtures for individualized healthcare for two thousand years. A systematic study of the patterns of TCM formulas and herbs prescribed to cancers is valuable. We analysed a total of 187,230 TCM prescriptions to 30 types of cancer in Taiwan in 2007, a year's worth of collection from the National Health Insurance reimbursement database (Taiwan). We found that a TCM cancer prescription consists on average of two formulas and four herbs. We show that the percentage weights of TCM formulas and herbs in a TCM prescription follow Zipf's law with an exponent around 0.6. TCM prescriptions to benign neoplasms have a larger Zipf's exponent than those to malignant cancers. Furthermore, we show that TCM prescriptions, via weighted combination of formulas and herbs, are specific to not only the malignancy of neoplasms but also the sites of origins of malignant cancers. From the effects of formulas and natures of herbs that were heavily prescribed to cancers, that cancers are a 'warm and stagnant' syndrome in TCM can be proposed, suggesting anti-inflammatory regimens for better prevention and treatment of cancers. We show that TCM incorporated relevant formulas to the prescriptions to cancer patients with a secondary morbidity. We compared TCM prescriptions made in different seasons and identified temperatures as the environmental factor that correlates with changes in TCM prescriptions in Taiwan. Lung cancer patients were among the patients whose prescriptions were adjusted when temperatures drop. The findings of our study provide insight to TCM cancer treatment, helping dialogue between modern western medicine and TCM for better cancer care.

  14. Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) Screening and New Biomarkers for Prostate Cancer (PCa).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stephan, Carsten; Rittenhouse, Harry; Hu, Xinhai; Cammann, Henning; Jung, Klaus

    2014-04-01

    PSA screening reduces PCa-mortality but the disadvantages overdiagnosis and overtreatment require multivariable risk-prediction tools to select appropriate treatment or active surveillance. This review explains the differences between the two largest screening trials and discusses the drawbacks of screening and its meta-analysisxs. The current American and European screening strategies are described. Nonetheless, PSA is one of the most widely used tumor markers and strongly correlates with the risk of harboring PCa. However, while PSA has limitations for PCa detection with its low specificity there are several potential biomarkers presented in this review with utility for PCa currently being studied. There is an urgent need for new biomarkers especially to detect clinically significant and aggressive PCa. From all PSA-based markers, the FDA-approved prostate health index (phi) shows improved specificity over percent free and total PSA. Another kallikrein panel, 4K, which includes KLK2 has recently shown promise in clinical research studies but has not yet undergone formal validation studies. In urine, prostate cancer gene 3 (PCA3) has also been validated and approved by the FDA for its utility to detect PCa. The potential correlation of PCA3 with cancer aggressiveness requires more clinical studies. The detection of the fusion of androgen-regulated genes with genes of the regulatory transcription factors in tissue of (~)50% of all PCa-patients is a milestone in PCa research. A combination of the urinary assays for TMPRSS2:ERG gene fusion and PCA3 shows an improved accuracy for PCa detection. Overall, the field of PCa biomarker discovery is very exciting and prospective.

  15. Patient-specific radiation dose and cancer risk estimation in CT: Part II. Application to patients

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Li Xiang; Samei, Ehsan; Segars, W. Paul; Sturgeon, Gregory M.; Colsher, James G.; Toncheva, Greta; Yoshizumi, Terry T.; Frush, Donald P. [Medical Physics Graduate Program, Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, Department of Radiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705 (United States); Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, Department of Radiology, Medical Physics Graduate Program, Department of Physics, and Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705 (United States); Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, Department of Radiology, Medical Physics Graduate Program, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705 (United States); Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, Department of Radiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705 and Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599 (United States); Department of Radiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705 (United States); Duke Radiation Dosimetry Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705 (United States); Duke Radiation Dosimetry Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Medical Physics Graduate Program, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705 (United States); Division of Pediatric Radiology, Department of Radiology, Medical Physics Graduate Program, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710 (United States)

    2011-01-15

    Purpose: Current methods for estimating and reporting radiation dose from CT examinations are largely patient-generic; the body size and hence dose variation from patient to patient is not reflected. Furthermore, the current protocol designs rely on dose as a surrogate for the risk of cancer incidence, neglecting the strong dependence of risk on age and gender. The purpose of this study was to develop a method for estimating patient-specific radiation dose and cancer risk from CT examinations. Methods: The study included two patients (a 5-week-old female patient and a 12-year-old male patient), who underwent 64-slice CT examinations (LightSpeed VCT, GE Healthcare) of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis at our institution in 2006. For each patient, a nonuniform rational B-spine (NURBS) based full-body computer model was created based on the patient's clinical CT data. Large organs and structures inside the image volume were individually segmented and modeled. Other organs were created by transforming an existing adult male or female full-body computer model (developed from visible human data) to match the framework defined by the segmented organs, referencing the organ volume and anthropometry data in ICRP Publication 89. A Monte Carlo program previously developed and validated for dose simulation on the LightSpeed VCT scanner was used to estimate patient-specific organ dose, from which effective dose and risks of cancer incidence were derived. Patient-specific organ dose and effective dose were compared with patient-generic CT dose quantities in current clinical use: the volume-weighted CT dose index (CTDI{sub vol}) and the effective dose derived from the dose-length product (DLP). Results: The effective dose for the CT examination of the newborn patient (5.7 mSv) was higher but comparable to that for the CT examination of the teenager patient (4.9 mSv) due to the size-based clinical CT protocols at our institution, which employ lower scan techniques for smaller

  16. Comparative mRNA and microRNA expression profiling of three genitourinary cancers reveals common hallmarks and cancer-specific molecular events.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xianxin Li

    Full Text Available Genome-wide gene expression profile using deep sequencing technologies can drive the discovery of cancer biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Such efforts are often limited to profiling the expression signature of either mRNA or microRNA (miRNA in a single type of cancer.Here we provided an integrated analysis of the genome-wide mRNA and miRNA expression profiles of three different genitourinary cancers: carcinomas of the bladder, kidney and testis.Our results highlight the general or cancer-specific roles of several genes and miRNAs that may serve as candidate oncogenes or suppressors of tumor development. Further comparative analyses at the systems level revealed that significant aberrations of the cell adhesion process, p53 signaling, calcium signaling, the ECM-receptor and cell cycle pathways, the DNA repair and replication processes and the immune and inflammatory response processes were the common hallmarks of human cancers. Gene sets showing testicular cancer-specific deregulation patterns were mainly implicated in processes related to male reproductive function, and general disruptions of multiple metabolic pathways and processes related to cell migration were the characteristic molecular events for renal and bladder cancer, respectively. Furthermore, we also demonstrated that tumors with the same histological origins and genes with similar functions tended to group together in a clustering analysis. By assessing the correlation between the expression of each miRNA and its targets, we determined that deregulation of 'key' miRNAs may result in the global aberration of one or more pathways or processes as a whole.This systematic analysis deciphered the molecular phenotypes of three genitourinary cancers and investigated their variations at the miRNA level simultaneously. Our results provided a valuable source for future studies and highlighted some promising genes, miRNAs, pathways and processes that may be useful for diagnostic or

  17. Prostate-specific antigen bounce following stereotactic body radiation therapy for prostate cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Charles C. Vu

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Prostate-specific antigen (PSA bounce after brachytherapy has been well-documented. This phenomenon has also been identified in patients undergoing stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT. While the parameters that predict PSA bounce have been extensively studied in prostate brachytherapy patients, this study is the first to analyze the clinical and pathologic predictors of PSA bounce in prostate SBRT patients. Materials and Methods: Our institution has maintained a prospective database of patients undergoing SBRT for prostate cancer since 2006. Our study population includes patients between May 2006 and November 2011 who have at least 18 months of follow-up. All patients were treated using the CyberKnife treatment system. The prescription dose was 3500-3625cGy in 5 fractions.Results: 120 patients were included in our study. Median PSA follow-up was 24 months (range 18-78 months. 34 (28% patients had a PSA bounce. The median time to PSA bounce was 9 months, and the median bounce size was 0.50ng/mL. On univariate analysis, only younger age (p = .011 was shown to be associated with an increased incidence of PSA bounce. Other patient factors, including race, prostate size, prior treatment by hormones, and family history of prostate cancer, did not predict PSA bounces. None of the tumor characteristics studied, including Gleason score, pre-treatment PSA, T-stage, or risk classification by NCCN guidelines, was associated with increased incidence of PSA bounces. Younger age was the only statistically significant predictor of PSA bounce on multivariate analysis (OR = 0.937, p = 0.009.Conclusion: PSA bounce, which has been reported after prostate brachytherapy, is also seen in a significant percentage of patients after CyberKnife SBRT. Close observation rather than biopsy can be considered for these patients. Younger age was the only factor that predicted PSA bounce.

  18. Wavenumber selection based analysis in Raman spectroscopy improves skin cancer diagnostic specificity at high sensitivity levels (Conference Presentation)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Jianhua; Zeng, Haishan; Kalia, Sunil; Lui, Harvey

    2017-02-01

    Background: Raman spectroscopy is a non-invasive optical technique which can measure molecular vibrational modes within tissue. A large-scale clinical study (n = 518) has demonstrated that real-time Raman spectroscopy could distinguish malignant from benign skin lesions with good diagnostic accuracy; this was validated by a follow-up independent study (n = 127). Objective: Most of the previous diagnostic algorithms have typically been based on analyzing the full band of the Raman spectra, either in the fingerprint or high wavenumber regions. Our objective in this presentation is to explore wavenumber selection based analysis in Raman spectroscopy for skin cancer diagnosis. Methods: A wavenumber selection algorithm was implemented using variably-sized wavenumber windows, which were determined by the correlation coefficient between wavenumbers. Wavenumber windows were chosen based on accumulated frequency from leave-one-out cross-validated stepwise regression or least and shrinkage selection operator (LASSO). The diagnostic algorithms were then generated from the selected wavenumber windows using multivariate statistical analyses, including principal component and general discriminant analysis (PC-GDA) and partial least squares (PLS). A total cohort of 645 confirmed lesions from 573 patients encompassing skin cancers, precancers and benign skin lesions were included. Lesion measurements were divided into training cohort (n = 518) and testing cohort (n = 127) according to the measurement time. Result: The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) improved from 0.861-0.891 to 0.891-0.911 and the diagnostic specificity for sensitivity levels of 0.99-0.90 increased respectively from 0.17-0.65 to 0.20-0.75 by selecting specific wavenumber windows for analysis. Conclusion: Wavenumber selection based analysis in Raman spectroscopy improves skin cancer diagnostic specificity at high sensitivity levels.

  19. 99MTC Alpha-Fetoprotein: A Novel, Specific Agent for the Detection of Human Breast Cancer

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Line, Bruce

    1998-01-01

    .... We have demonstrated that technetium-99m radiolabeled human alpha-fetoprotein (99mTc AFP) localizes in human breast cancer cells in-vivo, most likely concentrating in breast cancer cells due to a specific receptor not found in normal adult breast tissue...

  20. 99MTC Alpha-Fetoprotein: A Novel, Specific Agent for the Detection of Human Breast Cancer

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Line, Bruce

    1999-01-01

    .... We have demonstrated that technetium-99m radiolabeled human alpha-fetoprotein (99mTc AFP) localizes in human breast cancer cells in-vivo, most likely concentrating in breast cancer cells due to a specific receptor not found in normal adult breast tissue...

  1. Serum biomarkers reflecting specific tumor tissue remodeling processes are valuable diagnostic tools for lung cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Willumsen, Nicholas; Bager, Cecilie L; Leeming, Diana J; Smith, Victoria; Christiansen, Claus; Karsdal, Morten A; Dornan, David; Bay-Jensen, Anne-Christine

    2014-01-01

    Extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, such as collagen type I and elastin, and intermediate filament (IMF) proteins, such as vimentin are modified and dysregulated as part of the malignant changes leading to disruption of tissue homeostasis. Noninvasive biomarkers that reflect such changes may have a great potential for cancer. Levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) generated fragments of type I collagen (C1M), of elastin (ELM), and of citrullinated vimentin (VICM) were measured in serum from patients with lung cancer (n = 40), gastrointestinal cancer (n = 25), prostate cancer (n = 14), malignant melanoma (n = 7), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (n = 13), and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) (n = 10), as well as in age-matched controls (n = 33). The area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) was calculated and a diagnostic decision tree generated from specific cutoff values. C1M and VICM were significantly elevated in lung cancer patients as compared with healthy controls (AUROC = 0.98, P < 0.0001) and other cancers (AUROC = 0.83 P < 0.0001). A trend was detected when comparing lung cancer with COPD+IPF. No difference could be seen for ELM. Interestingly, C1M and VICM were able to identify patients with lung cancer with a positive predictive value of 0.9 and an odds ratio of 40 (95% CI = 8.7–186, P < 0.0001). Biomarkers specifically reflecting degradation of collagen type I and citrullinated vimentin are applicable for lung cancer patients. Our data indicate that biomarkers reflecting ECM and IMF protein dysregulation are highly applicable in the lung cancer setting. We speculate that these markers may aid in diagnosing and characterizing patients with lung cancer

  2. Is there racial/ethnic variance in cervical cancer- specific survival of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    incident cervical carcinoma, between 1992 and 1999, in the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Data was linked with Medicare to examine the impact of race/ethnicity on overall and cancer-specific survival, using Kaplan Meier survival estimates and multivariable Cox Regression model. Results: There was ...

  3. Prostate-specific antigen-positive extramammary Paget's disease--association with prostate cancer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hammer, Anne; Hager, Henrik; Steiniche, Torben

    2008-01-01

    Extramammary Paget's disease (EMPD) is a rare intraepidermal adenocarcinoma that primarily affects the anogenital region. Cases of EMPD reacting with PSA (prostate-specific antigen) have previously been associated with underlying prostate cancer. However, a recent case of EMPD in our department has...... led us to question the value of PSA as an indicator of underlying prostate cancer. Clinical and pathological data were obtained for 16 cases of EMPD. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks from the primary skin lesions were investigated using PSA and other immunohistochemical markers. 5...... of the 16 cases of EMPD stained positive for PSA (2 women and 3 men). However, no reactivity was seen for the prostatic marker P501S. Three of the five patients had been diagnosed with internal malignant disease-two with prostate cancer, stage 1. Immunohistochemical investigations of the tumour specimens...

  4. Inference of Cancer-specific Gene Regulatory Networks Using Soft Computing Rules

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaosheng Wang

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Perturbations of gene regulatory networks are essentially responsible for oncogenesis. Therefore, inferring the gene regulatory networks is a key step to overcoming cancer. In this work, we propose a method for inferring directed gene regulatory networks based on soft computing rules, which can identify important cause-effect regulatory relations of gene expression. First, we identify important genes associated with a specific cancer (colon cancer using a supervised learning approach. Next, we reconstruct the gene regulatory networks by inferring the regulatory relations among the identified genes, and their regulated relations by other genes within the genome. We obtain two meaningful findings. One is that upregulated genes are regulated by more genes than downregulated ones, while downregulated genes regulate more genes than upregulated ones. The other one is that tumor suppressors suppress tumor activators and activate other tumor suppressors strongly, while tumor activators activate other tumor activators and suppress tumor suppressors weakly, indicating the robustness of biological systems. These findings provide valuable insights into the pathogenesis of cancer.

  5. Targeted nanodiamonds as phenotype-specific photoacoustic contrast agents for breast cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Ti; Cui, Huizhong; Fang, Chia-Yi; Cheng, Kun; Yang, Xinmai; Chang, Huan-Cheng; Forrest, M Laird

    2015-03-01

    The aim is to develop irradiated nanodiamonds (INDs) as a molecularly targeted contrast agent for high-resolution and phenotype-specific detection of breast cancer with photoacoustic (PA) imaging. The surface of acid treated radiation-damaged nanodiamonds was grafted with PEG to improve its stability and circulation time in blood, followed by conjugation to an anti-HER2 peptide with a final nanoparticle size of approximately 92 nm. Immunocompetent mice bearing orthotopic HER2-positive or negative tumors were administered INDs and PA imaged using an 820-nm near-infrared laser. PA images demonstrated that INDs accumulate in tumors and completely delineated the entire tumor within 10 h. HER2 targeting significantly enhanced imaging of HER2-positive tumors. Pathological examination demonstrated INDs are nontoxic. PA technology is adaptable to low-cost bedside medicine, and with new contrast agents described herein, PA can achieve high-resolution (sub-mm) and phenotype-specific monitoring of cancer growth.

  6. Screening and Identification of Peptides Specifically Targeted to Gastric Cancer Cells from a Phage Display Peptide Library

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sahin, Deniz; Taflan, Sevket Onur; Yartas, Gizem; Ashktorab, Hassan; Smoot, Duane T

    2018-04-25

    Background: Gastric cancer is the second most common cancer among the malign cancer types. Inefficiency of traditional techniques both in diagnosis and therapy of the disease makes the development of alternative and novel techniques indispensable. As an alternative to traditional methods, tumor specific targeting small peptides can be used to increase the efficiency of the treatment and reduce the side effects related to traditional techniques. The aim of this study is screening and identification of individual peptides specifically targeted to human gastric cancer cells using a phage-displayed peptide library and designing specific peptide sequences by using experimentally-eluted peptide sequences. Methods: Here, MKN-45 human gastric cancer cells and HFE-145 human normal gastric epithelial cells were used as the target and control cells, respectively. 5 rounds of biopannning with a phage display 12-peptide library were applied following subtraction biopanning with HFE-145 control cells. The selected phage clones were established by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunofluorescence detection. We first obtain random phage clones after five biopanning rounds, determine the binding levels of each individual clone. Then, we analyze the frequencies of each amino acid in best binding clones to determine positively overexpressed amino acids for designing novel peptide sequences. Results: DE532 (VETSQYFRGTLS) phage clone was screened positive, showing specific binding on MKN-45 gastric cancer cells. DE-Obs (HNDLFPSWYHNY) peptide, which was designed by using amino acid frequencies of experimentally selected peptides in the 5th round of biopanning, showed specific binding in MKN-45 cells. Conclusion: Selection and characterization of individual clones may give us specifically binding peptides, but more importantly, data extracted from eluted phage clones may be used to design theoretical peptides with better binding properties than even experimentally selected ones

  7. Risk of Cause-Specific Death in Individuals with Cancer-Modifying Role Diabetes, Statins and Metformin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haukka, Jari; Niskanen, Leo; Auvinen, Anssi

    2017-12-15

    Both diabetes mellitus (DM) and cancer are common diseases and they frequently occur in the same patients. We investigated the all-cause and cause-specific mortality dynamics in relation to baseline DM, statin use and metformin use. The study population consisted of 39,900 incident cancer cases from Finland, 19,822 patients were free of DM at the start of follow-up and 20,078 had DM. Mortality from all causes, and cancer, cardiovascular (CVD) and other causes was analysed using Poisson regression model with the following variables: sex, age, DM, statin and metformin usage in baseline, cancer type and stage and calendar period. Statin usage was associated with a reduced cancer-specific mortality with incidence rate ratio (IRR) 0.72 (95% confidence interval 0.69-0.74), IRR for CVD mortality was 0.95 (0.88-1.02) and for other causes 0.64 (0.56-0.74). In a sub-population of DM patients, IRR for metformin in all-cause mortality was 0.74 (0.71-0.78), in cancer mortality 0.75 (0.72-0.79), in CVD mortality 0.75 (0.68-0.83) and other causes 0.68 (0.60-0.78). In conclusion, our register-based study of survival after cancer diagnosis showed that patients with diabetes had substantially poorer outcome in all measures. An association between baseline statin usage and lower all-cause, cancer and cardiovascular mortality was modified by cancer type. The effect of statin use was largest for breast and colorectal cancer. Metformin usage in a subpopulation of oral antidiabetic users was in general associated with lower mortality, but this association was modified by cancer type. The association was strongest for liver, colorectal and breast cancer. © 2017 UICC.

  8. Functional genomics identifies specific vulnerabilities in PTEN-deficient breast cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Yew Chung; Ho, Szu-Chi; Tan, Elisabeth; Ng, Alvin Wei Tian; McPherson, John R; Goh, Germaine Yen Lin; Teh, Bin Tean; Bard, Frederic; Rozen, Steven G

    2018-03-22

    -SSL patterns of activity in a large proportion of PTEN-deficient breast cancer cell lines and are potential specific vulnerabilities in PTEN-deficient breast cancer. Furthermore, the NUAK1 PTEN-SSL vulnerability identified by RNA interference techniques can be recapitulated and exploited using the small molecule kinase inhibitor HTH-01-015. Thus, NUAK1 inhibition may be an effective strategy for precision treatment of PTEN-deficient breast tumors.

  9. Generation of an inducible colon-specific Cre enzyme mouse line for colon cancer research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tetteh, Paul W; Kretzschmar, Kai; Begthel, Harry; van den Born, Maaike; Korving, Jeroen; Morsink, Folkert; Farin, Henner; van Es, Johan H; Offerhaus, G Johan A; Clevers, Hans

    2016-10-18

    Current mouse models for colorectal cancer often differ significantly from human colon cancer, being largely restricted to the small intestine. Here, we aim to develop a colon-specific inducible mouse model that can faithfully recapitulate human colon cancer initiation and progression. Carbonic anhydrase I (Car1) is a gene expressed uniquely in colonic epithelial cells. We generated a colon-specific inducible Car1 CreER knock-in (KI) mouse with broad Cre activity in epithelial cells of the proximal colon and cecum. Deletion of the tumor suppressor gene Apc using the Car1 CreER KI caused tumor formation in the cecum but did not yield adenomas in the proximal colon. Mutation of both Apc and Kras yielded microadenomas in both the cecum and the proximal colon, which progressed to macroadenomas with significant morbidity. Aggressive carcinomas with some invasion into lymph nodes developed upon combined induction of oncogenic mutations of Apc, Kras, p53, and Smad4 Importantly, no adenomas were observed in the small intestine. Additionally, we observed tumors from differentiated Car1-expressing cells with Apc/Kras mutations, suggesting that a top-down model of intestinal tumorigenesis can occur with multiple mutations. Our results establish the Car1 CreER KI as a valuable mouse model to study colon-specific tumorigenesis and metastasis as well as cancer-cell-of-origin questions.

  10. Systemic approaches identify a garlic-derived chemical, Z-ajoene, as a glioblastoma multiforme cancer stem cell-specific targeting agent.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jung, Yuchae; Park, Heejoo; Zhao, Hui-Yuan; Jeon, Raok; Ryu, Jae-Ha; Kim, Woo-Young

    2014-07-01

    Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most common brain malignancies and has a very poor prognosis. Recent evidence suggests that the presence of cancer stem cells (CSC) in GBM and the rare CSC subpopulation that is resistant to chemotherapy may be responsible for the treatment failure and unfavorable prognosis of GBM. A garlic-derived compound, Z-ajoene, has shown a range of biological activities, including anti-proliferative effects on several cancers. Here, we demonstrated for the first time that Z-ajoene specifically inhibits the growth of the GBM CSC population. CSC sphere-forming inhibition was achieved at a concentration that did not exhibit a cytotoxic effect in regular cell culture conditions. The specificity of this inhibitory effect on the CSC population was confirmed by detecting CSC cell surface marker CD133 expression and biochemical marker ALDH activity. In addition, stem cell-related mRNA profiling and real-time PCR revealed the differential expression of CSC-specific genes, including Notch, Wnt, and Hedgehog, upon treatment with Z-ajoene. A proteomic approach, i.e., reverse-phase protein array (RPPA) and Western blot analysis, showed decreased SMAD4, p-AKT, 14.3.3 and FOXO3A expression. The protein interaction map (http://string-db.org/) of the identified molecules suggested that the AKT, ERK/p38 and TGFβ signaling pathways are key mediators of Z-ajoene's action, which affects the transcriptional network that includes FOXO3A. These biological and bioinformatic analyses collectively demonstrate that Z-ajoene is a potential candidate for the treatment of GBM by specifically targeting GBM CSCs. We also show how this systemic approach strengthens the identification of new therapeutic agents that target CSCs.

  11. Propranolol and survival from breast cancer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cardwell, Chris R; Pottegård, Anton; Vaes, Evelien

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Preclinical studies have demonstrated that propranolol inhibits several pathways involved in breast cancer progression and metastasis. We investigated whether breast cancer patients who used propranolol, or other non-selective beta-blockers, had reduced breast cancer-specific or all......-cause mortality in eight European cohorts. METHODS: Incident breast cancer patients were identified from eight cancer registries and compiled through the European Cancer Pharmacoepidemiology Network. Propranolol and non-selective beta-blocker use was ascertained for each patient. Breast cancer-specific and all......-analysis techniques. Dose-response analyses by number of prescriptions were also performed. Analyses were repeated investigating propranolol use before cancer diagnosis. RESULTS: The combined study population included 55,252 and 133,251 breast cancer patients in the analysis of breast cancer-specific and all...

  12. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy elicits tumor specific T cell responses in a breast cancer patient

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bernal-Estévez, David; Sánchez, Ramiro; Tejada, Rafael E.; Parra-López, Carlos

    2016-01-01

    Experimental evidence and clinical studies in breast cancer suggest that some anti-tumor therapy regimens generate stimulation of the immune system that accounts for tumor clinical responses, however, demonstration of the immunostimulatory power of these therapies on cancer patients continues to be a formidable challenge. Here we present experimental evidence from a breast cancer patient with complete clinical response after 7 years, associated with responsiveness of tumor specific T cells. T cells were obtained before and after anti-tumor therapy from peripheral blood of a 63-years old woman diagnosed with ductal breast cancer (HER2/neu+++, ER-, PR-, HLA-A*02:01) treated with surgery, followed by paclitaxel, trastuzumab (suspended due to cardiac toxicity), and radiotherapy. We obtained a leukapheresis before surgery and after 8 months of treatment. Using in vitro cell cultures stimulated with autologous monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) that produce high levels of IL-12, we characterize by flow cytometry the phenotype of tumor associated antigens (TAAs) HER2/neu and NY-ESO 1 specific T cells. The ex vivo analysis of the TCR-Vβ repertoire of TAA specific T cells in blood and Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TILs) were performed in order to correlate both repertoires prior and after therapy. We evidence a functional recovery of T cell responsiveness to polyclonal stimuli and expansion of TAAs specific CD8+ T cells using peptide pulsed DCs, with an increase of CTLA-4 and memory effector phenotype after anti-tumor therapy. The ex vivo analysis of the TCR-Vβ repertoire of TAA specific T cells in blood and TILs showed that whereas the TCR-Vβ04-02 clonotype is highly expressed in TILs the HER2/neu specific T cells are expressed mainly in blood after therapy, suggesting that this particular TCR was selectively enriched in blood after anti-tumor therapy. Our results show the benefits of anti-tumor therapy in a breast cancer patient with clinical complete response in

  13. Effectiveness of the combined evaluation of KLK3 genetics and free-to-total prostate specific antigen ratio for prostate cancer diagnosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zambon, Carlo-Federico; Prayer-Galetti, Tommaso; Basso, Daniela; Padoan, Andrea; Rossi, Elisa; Secco, Silvia; Pelloso, Michela; Fogar, Paola; Navaglia, Filippo; Moz, Stefania; Zattoni, Filiberto; Plebani, Mario

    2012-10-01

    Of serum prostate specific antigen variability 40% depends on inherited factors. We ascertained whether the knowledge of KLK3 genetics would enhance prostate specific antigen diagnostic performance in patients with clinical suspicion of prostate cancer. We studied 1,058 men who consecutively underwent prostate biopsy for clinical suspicion of prostate cancer. At histology prostate cancer was present in 401 cases and absent in 657. Serum total prostate specific antigen and the free-to-total prostate specific antigen ratio were determined. Four polymorphisms of the KLK3 gene (rs2569733, rs2739448, rs925013 and rs2735839) and 1 polymorphism of the SRD5A2 gene (rs523349) were studied. The influence of genetics on prostate specific antigen variability was evaluated by multivariate linear regression analysis. The performance of total prostate specific antigen and the free-to-total prostate specific antigen ratio alone or combined with a genetically based patient classification were defined by ROC curve analyses. For prostate cancer diagnosis the free-to-total prostate specific antigen ratio index alone (cutoff 11%) was superior to total prostate specific antigen (cutoff 4 ng/ml) and to free-to-total prostate specific antigen ratio reflex testing (positive predictive value 61%, 43% and 54%, respectively). Prostate specific antigen correlated with KLK3 genetics (rs2735839 polymorphism p = 0.001, and rs2569733, rs2739448 and rs925013 haplotype combination p = 0.003). In patients with different KLK3 genetics 2 optimal free-to-total prostate specific antigen ratio cutoffs (11% and 14.5%) were found. For free-to-total prostate specific antigen ratio values between 11% and 14.5% the prostate cancer probability ranged from 30.0% to 47.4% according to patient genetics. The free-to-total prostate specific antigen ratio is superior to total prostate specific antigen for prostate cancer diagnosis, independent of total prostate specific antigen results. Free-to-total prostate

  14. A System Dynamics Model of Serum Prostate-Specific Antigen Screening for Prostate Cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palma, Anton; Lounsbury, David W; Schlecht, Nicolas F; Agalliu, Ilir

    2016-02-01

    Since 2012, US guidelines have recommended against prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening for prostate cancer. However, evidence of screening benefit from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening trial and the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer has been inconsistent, due partly to differences in noncompliance and contamination. Using system dynamics modeling, we replicated the PLCO trial and extrapolated follow-up to 20 years. We then simulated 3 scenarios correcting for contamination in the PLCO control arm using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) incidence and survival data collected prior to the PSA screening era (scenario 1), SEER data collected during the PLCO trial period (1993-2001) (scenario 2), and data from the European trial's control arm (1991-2005) (scenario 3). In all scenarios, noncompliance was corrected using incidence and survival rates for men with screen-detected cancer in the PLCO screening arm. Scenarios 1 and 3 showed a benefit of PSA screening, with relative risks of 0.62 (95% confidence interval: 0.53, 0.72) and 0.70 (95% confidence interval: 0.59, 0.83) for cancer-specific mortality after 20 years, respectively. In scenario 2, however, there was no benefit of screening. This simulation showed that after correcting for noncompliance and contamination, there is potential benefit of PSA screening in reducing prostate cancer mortality. It also demonstrates the utility of system dynamics modeling for synthesizing epidemiologic evidence to inform public policy. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  15. Different patterns in the prognostic value of age for bladder cancer-specific survival depending on tumor stages.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, Huan; Zhang, Wei; Li, Jiajun; Lu, Xiaozhe

    2015-01-01

    To compare the pathological features and long-term survival of bladder cancer (BCa) in young patients with elderly counterparts. Using the U.S. National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) population-based data, we identified 93115 patients with non-metastatic bladder cancer diagnosed between 1988 and 2003. Patients were categorized into young (50 years and under) and elderly groups (over 50 years of age). The overall and five-year bladder cancer specific survival (BCSS) data were obtained using Kaplan-Meier plots. Multivariable Cox regression models were built for the analysis of long-term survival outcomes and risk factors. There were significant differences between the two groups in primary site, pathologic grading, histologic type, AJCC stage (pstage patients. The study findings show different patterns in the prognostic value of age for determining BCSS, depending on the tumor stages. Compared with elderly patients, young patients with bladder cancer surgery appear to have unique characteristics and a higher overall and cancer specific survival rate.

  16. Subtype and pathway specific responses to anticancer compounds in breast cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heiser, Laura M; Sadanandam, Anguraj; Kuo, Wen-Lin; Benz, Stephen C; Goldstein, Theodore C; Ng, Sam; Gibb, William J; Wang, Nicholas J; Ziyad, Safiyyah; Tong, Frances; Bayani, Nora; Hu, Zhi; Billig, Jessica I; Dueregger, Andrea; Lewis, Sophia; Jakkula, Lakshmi; Korkola, James E; Durinck, Steffen; Pepin, François; Guan, Yinghui; Purdom, Elizabeth; Neuvial, Pierre; Bengtsson, Henrik; Wood, Kenneth W; Smith, Peter G; Vassilev, Lyubomir T; Hennessy, Bryan T; Greshock, Joel; Bachman, Kurtis E; Hardwicke, Mary Ann; Park, John W; Marton, Laurence J; Wolf, Denise M; Collisson, Eric A; Neve, Richard M; Mills, Gordon B; Speed, Terence P; Feiler, Heidi S; Wooster, Richard F; Haussler, David; Stuart, Joshua M; Gray, Joe W; Spellman, Paul T

    2012-02-21

    Breast cancers are comprised of molecularly distinct subtypes that may respond differently to pathway-targeted therapies now under development. Collections of breast cancer cell lines mirror many of the molecular subtypes and pathways found in tumors, suggesting that treatment of cell lines with candidate therapeutic compounds can guide identification of associations between molecular subtypes, pathways, and drug response. In a test of 77 therapeutic compounds, nearly all drugs showed differential responses across these cell lines, and approximately one third showed subtype-, pathway-, and/or genomic aberration-specific responses. These observations suggest mechanisms of response and resistance and may inform efforts to develop molecular assays that predict clinical response.

  17. TISSUE POLYPEPTIDE-SPECIFIC ANTIGEN - A DISCRIMINATIVE PARAMETER BETWEEN PROSTATE-CANCER AND BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERTROPHY

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    MARRINK, J; OOSTEROM, R; BONFRER, HMG; SCHRODER, FH; MENSINK, HJA

    1993-01-01

    The serum concentration of the cell proliferation marker TPS (tissue polypeptide-specific antigen) was compared with the tumour marker PSA (prostate specific antigen). PSA was found elevated in 50% of the benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) patients, in 88% of the patients with active prostate cancer

  18. Prostate-specific antigen and long-term prediction of prostate cancer incidence and mortality in the general population

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ørsted, David Dynnes; Nordestgaard, Børge G; Jensen, Gorm B

    2012-01-01

    It is largely unknown whether prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level at first date of testing predicts long-term risk of prostate cancer (PCa) incidence and mortality in the general population.......It is largely unknown whether prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level at first date of testing predicts long-term risk of prostate cancer (PCa) incidence and mortality in the general population....

  19. Cardiac Glycoside Glucoevatromonoside Induces Cancer Type-Specific Cell Death

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Naira F. Z. Schneider

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Cardiac glycosides (CGs are natural compounds used traditionally to treat congestive heart diseases. Recent investigations repositioned CGs as potential anticancer agents. To discover novel cytotoxic CG scaffolds, we selected the cardenolide glucoevatromonoside (GEV out of 46 CGs for its low nanomolar anti-lung cancer activity. GEV presented reduced toxicity toward non-cancerous cell types (lung MRC-5 and PBMC and high-affinity binding to the Na+/K+-ATPase α subunit, assessed by computational docking. GEV-induced cell death was caspase-independent, as investigated by a multiparametric approach, and culminates in severe morphological alterations in A549 cells, monitored by transmission electron microscopy, live cell imaging and flow cytometry. This non-canonical cell death was not preceded or accompanied by exacerbation of autophagy. In the presence of GEV, markers of autophagic flux (e.g. LC3I-II conversion were impacted, even in presence of bafilomycin A1. Cell death induction remained unaffected by calpain, cathepsin, parthanatos, or necroptosis inhibitors. Interestingly, GEV triggered caspase-dependent apoptosis in U937 acute myeloid leukemia cells, witnessing cancer-type specific cell death induction. Differential cell cycle modulation by this CG led to a G2/M arrest, cyclin B1 and p53 downregulation in A549, but not in U937 cells. We further extended the anti-cancer potential of GEV to 3D cell culture using clonogenic and spheroid formation assays and validated our findings in vivo by zebrafish xenografts. Altogether, GEV shows an interesting anticancer profile with the ability to exert cytotoxic effects via induction of different cell death modalities.

  20. Oncogenic cancer/testis antigens

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gjerstorff, Morten F; Andersen, Mads H; Ditzel, Henrik J

    2015-01-01

    Recent developments have set the stage for immunotherapy as a supplement to conventional cancer treatment. Consequently, a significant effort is required to further improve efficacy and specificity, particularly the identification of optimal therapeutic targets for clinical testing. Cancer....../testis antigens are immunogenic, highly cancer-specific, and frequently expressed in various types of cancer, which make them promising candidate targets for cancer immunotherapy, including cancer vaccination and adoptive T-cell transfer with chimeric T-cell receptors. Our current understanding of tumor...... immunology and immune escape suggests that targeting oncogenic antigens may be beneficial, meaning that identification of cancer/testis antigens with oncogenic properties is of high priority. Recent work from our lab and others provide evidence that many cancer/testis antigens, in fact, have oncogenic...

  1. Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) Screening and New Biomarkers for Prostate Cancer (PCa)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rittenhouse, Harry; Hu, Xinhai; Cammann, Henning; Jung, Klaus

    2014-01-01

    Abstract PSA screening reduces PCa-mortality but the disadvantages overdiagnosis and overtreatment require multivariable risk-prediction tools to select appropriate treatment or active surveillance. This review explains the differences between the two largest screening trials and discusses the drawbacks of screening and its meta-analysisxs. The current American and European screening strategies are described. Nonetheless, PSA is one of the most widely used tumor markers and strongly correlates with the risk of harboring PCa. However, while PSA has limitations for PCa detection with its low specificity there are several potential biomarkers presented in this review with utility for PCa currently being studied. There is an urgent need for new biomarkers especially to detect clinically significant and aggressive PCa. From all PSA-based markers, the FDA-approved prostate health index (phi) shows improved specificity over percent free and total PSA. Another kallikrein panel, 4K, which includes KLK2 has recently shown promise in clinical research studies but has not yet undergone formal validation studies. In urine, prostate cancer gene 3 (PCA3) has also been validated and approved by the FDA for its utility to detect PCa. The potential correlation of PCA3 with cancer aggressiveness requires more clinical studies. The detection of the fusion of androgen-regulated genes with genes of the regulatory transcription factors in tissue of ~50% of all PCa-patients is a milestone in PCa research. A combination of the urinary assays for TMPRSS2:ERG gene fusion and PCA3 shows an improved accuracy for PCa detection. Overall, the field of PCa biomarker discovery is very exciting and prospective. PMID:27683457

  2. Specific genomic regions are differentially affected by copy number alterations across distinct cancer types, in aggregated cytogenetic data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, Nitin; Cai, Haoyang; von Mering, Christian; Baudis, Michael

    2012-01-01

    Regional genomic copy number alterations (CNA) are observed in the vast majority of cancers. Besides specifically targeting well-known, canonical oncogenes, CNAs may also play more subtle roles in terms of modulating genetic potential and broad gene expression patterns of developing tumors. Any significant differences in the overall CNA patterns between different cancer types may thus point towards specific biological mechanisms acting in those cancers. In addition, differences among CNA profiles may prove valuable for cancer classifications beyond existing annotation systems. We have analyzed molecular-cytogenetic data from 25579 tumors samples, which were classified into 160 cancer types according to the International Classification of Disease (ICD) coding system. When correcting for differences in the overall CNA frequencies between cancer types, related cancers were often found to cluster together according to similarities in their CNA profiles. Based on a randomization approach, distance measures from the cluster dendrograms were used to identify those specific genomic regions that contributed significantly to this signal. This approach identified 43 non-neutral genomic regions whose propensity for the occurrence of copy number alterations varied with the type of cancer at hand. Only a subset of these identified loci overlapped with previously implied, highly recurrent (hot-spot) cytogenetic imbalance regions. Thus, for many genomic regions, a simple null-hypothesis of independence between cancer type and relative copy number alteration frequency can be rejected. Since a subset of these regions display relatively low overall CNA frequencies, they may point towards second-tier genomic targets that are adaptively relevant but not necessarily essential for cancer development.

  3. Identification of Cell Type-Specific Differences in Erythropoietin Receptor Signaling in Primary Erythroid and Lung Cancer Cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruth Merkle

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Lung cancer, with its most prevalent form non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC, is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and is commonly treated with chemotherapeutic drugs such as cisplatin. Lung cancer patients frequently suffer from chemotherapy-induced anemia, which can be treated with erythropoietin (EPO. However, studies have indicated that EPO not only promotes erythropoiesis in hematopoietic cells, but may also enhance survival of NSCLC cells. Here, we verified that the NSCLC cell line H838 expresses functional erythropoietin receptors (EPOR and that treatment with EPO reduces cisplatin-induced apoptosis. To pinpoint differences in EPO-induced survival signaling in erythroid progenitor cells (CFU-E, colony forming unit-erythroid and H838 cells, we combined mathematical modeling with a method for feature selection, the L1 regularization. Utilizing an example model and simulated data, we demonstrated that this approach enables the accurate identification and quantification of cell type-specific parameters. We applied our strategy to quantitative time-resolved data of EPO-induced JAK/STAT signaling generated by quantitative immunoblotting, mass spectrometry and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR in CFU-E and H838 cells as well as H838 cells overexpressing human EPOR (H838-HA-hEPOR. The established parsimonious mathematical model was able to simultaneously describe the data sets of CFU-E, H838 and H838-HA-hEPOR cells. Seven cell type-specific parameters were identified that included for example parameters for nuclear translocation of STAT5 and target gene induction. Cell type-specific differences in target gene induction were experimentally validated by qRT-PCR experiments. The systematic identification of pathway differences and sensitivities of EPOR signaling in CFU-E and H838 cells revealed potential targets for intervention to selectively inhibit EPO-induced signaling in the tumor cells but leave the responses in

  4. Autoantibody signatures as biomarkers to distinguish prostate cancer from benign prostatic hyperplasia in patients with increased serum prostate specific antigen.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Rourke, Dennis J; DiJohnson, Daniel A; Caiazzo, Robert J; Nelson, James C; Ure, David; O'Leary, Michael P; Richie, Jerome P; Liu, Brian C-S

    2012-03-22

    Serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) concentrations lack the specificity to differentiate prostate cancer from benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), resulting in unnecessary biopsies. We identified 5 autoantibody signatures to specific cancer targets which might be able to differentiate prostate cancer from BPH in patients with increased serum PSA. To identify autoantibody signatures as biomarkers, a native antigen reverse capture microarray platform was used. Briefly, well-characterized monoclonal antibodies were arrayed onto nanoparticle slides to capture native antigens from prostate cancer cells. Prostate cancer patient serum samples (n=41) and BPH patient samples (collected starting at the time of initial diagnosis) with a mean follow-up of 6.56 y without the diagnosis of cancer (n=39) were obtained. One hundred micrograms of IgGs were purified and labeled with a Cy3 dye and incubated on the arrays. The arrays were scanned for fluorescence and the intensity was quantified. Receiver operating characteristic curves were produced and the area under the curve (AUC) was determined. Using our microarray platform, we identified autoantibody signatures capable of distinguishing between prostate cancer and BPH. The top 5 autoantibody signatures were TARDBP, TLN1, PARK7, LEDGF/PSIP1, and CALD1. Combining these signatures resulted in an AUC of 0.95 (sensitivity of 95% at 80% specificity) compared to AUC of 0.5 for serum concentration PSA (sensitivity of 12.2% at 80% specificity). Our preliminary results showed that we were able to identify specific autoantibody signatures that can differentiate prostate cancer from BPH, and may result in the reduction of unnecessary biopsies in patients with increased serum PSA. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Ability of preoperative 3.0-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging to predict the absence of side-specific extracapsular extension of prostate cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hara, Tomohiko; Nakanishi, Hiroyuki; Nakagawa, Tohru; Komiyama, Motokiyo; Kawahara, Takashi; Manabe, Tomoko; Miyake, Mototaka; Arai, Eri; Kanai, Yae; Fujimoto, Hiroyuki

    2013-10-01

    Recent studies have shown an improvement in prostate cancer diagnosis with the use of 3.0-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging. We retrospectively assessed the ability of this imaging technique to predict side-specific extracapsular extension of prostate cancer. From October 2007 to August 2011, prostatectomy was carried out in 396 patients after preoperative 3.0-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging. Among these, 132 (primary sample) and 134 patients (validation sample) underwent 12-core prostate biopsy at the National Cancer Center Hospital of Tokyo, Japan, and at other institutions, respectively. In the primary dataset, univariate and multivariate analyses were carried out to predict side-specific extracapsular extension using variables determined preoperatively, including 3.0-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging findings (T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted imaging). A prediction model was then constructed and applied to the validation study sample. Multivariate analysis identified four significant independent predictors (P Tesla diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging findings, ≥2 positive biopsy cores on each side and a maximum percentage of positive cores ≥31% on each side. The negative predictive value was 93.9% in the combination model with these four predictors, meanwhile the positive predictive value was 33.8%. Good reproducibility of these four significant predictors and the combination model was observed in the validation study sample. The side-specific extracapsular extension prediction by the biopsy Gleason score and factors associated with tumor location, including a positive 3.0-Tesla diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging finding, have a high negative predictive value, but a low positive predictive value. © 2013 The Japanese Urological Association.

  6. Polymeric nanoparticles as cancer-specific DNA delivery vectors to human hepatocellular carcinoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zamboni, Camila G; Kozielski, Kristen L; Vaughan, Hannah J; Nakata, Maisa M; Kim, Jayoung; Higgins, Luke J; Pomper, Martin G; Green, Jordan J

    2017-10-10

    Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third most deadly cancer in the US, with a meager 5-year survival rate of effective and cancer-specific DNA delivery to human HCC using biodegradable poly(beta-amino ester) (PBAE) nanoparticles (NPs). Varied PBAE NP formulations were evaluated for transfection efficacy and cytotoxicity to a range of human HCC cells as well as healthy human hepatocytes. To address HCC heterogeneity, nine different sources of human HCC cells were utilized. The polymeric NPs composed of 2-((3-aminopropyl)amino) ethanol end-modified poly(1,5-pentanediol diacrylate-co-3-amino-1-propanol) ('536') at a 25 polymer-to-DNA weight-to-weight ratio led to high transfection efficacy to all of the liver cancer lines, but not to hepatocytes. Each individual HCC line had a significantly higher percentage of exogenous gene expression than the healthy liver cells (Peffective DNA transfection in vivo. PBAE-based NPs enabled high and preferential DNA delivery to HCC cells, sparing healthy hepatocytes. These biodegradable and liver cancer-selective NPs are a promising technology to deliver therapeutic genes to liver cancer. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Multidisciplinary treatment including chemoradiotherapy for advanced esophageal cancer

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kobayashi, Kenji; Fukuda, Kazuhiro; Kikkawa, Nobuteru; Kobayashi, Tetsurou; Yagyu, Toshio; Hasuike, Yasunori; Mishima, Hideyuki; Shin, Eisei [Osaka National Hospital (Japan)

    1997-03-01

    Over 3 years, concurrent chemoradiotherapy was performed in 16 patients with advanced esophageal cancer (clinical Stage IV) and suspected noncurative resection. The subjects were {>=}A3 or N3, or were stage IV with distant metastasis on preoperative diagnosis. Two courses of 5FU and CDDP were given with concurrent radiotherapy. The predominant side effects were nausea, vomiting and anorexia. Mild or moderate leukopenia also occurred. The response was complete remission (CR) in two patients, partial remission (PR) in eight, minor response (MR) in two, no change (NC) in two and progressive disease (PD) in two. The overall response rate was 62.5%. Esophagectomy was performed in four patients (histological stage II in one, stage III in one, and stage IV in two). Two of 4 resected patients are alive (33.8 months), while the other died of unrelated causes. One of the 6 non-resected PR patients has survived for 18 months, but all other patients died of cancer within nine months of starting treatment. The survival rate of 16 patients undergoing chemoradiotherapy was 16.7% at one and two years. Thus, chemoradiotherapy may improve the prognosis of advanced esophageal cancer with suspected noncurative resection by increasing the response rate and the curative resection rate. (author)

  8. Targeted Nanodiamonds as Phenotype Specific Photoacoustic Contrast Agents for Breast Cancer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Ti; Cui, Huizhong; Fang, Chia-Yi; Cheng, Kun; Yang, Xinmai; Chang, Huan-Cheng; Forrest, M. Laird

    2015-01-01

    Aim The aim is to develop irradiated nanodiamonds (INDs) as a molecularly-targeted contrast agent for high resolution and phenotype-specific detection of breast cancer with photoacoustic (PA) imaging. Materials & Methods The surface of acid treated radiation-damaged nanodiamonds was grafted with polyethylene glycol (PEG) to improve its stability and circulation time in blood, followed by conjugation to an anti-Human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) peptide (KCCYSL) with a final nanoparticle size of ca. 92 nm. Immunocompetent mice bearing orthotopic HER2 positive or negative tumors were administered INDs and PA imaged using an 820-nm near infrared laser. Results PA images demonstrated that INDs accumulate in tumors and completely delineated the entire tumor within 10 hours. HER2 targeting significantly enhanced imaging of HER2-positive tumors. Pathological examination demonstrated INDs are non-toxic. Conclusions PA technology is adaptable to low-cost bedside medicine, and with new contrast agents described herein, PA can achieve high resolution (sub-mm) and phenotype specific monitoring of cancer growth. PMID:25723091

  9. MO-DE-207B-03: Improved Cancer Classification Using Patient-Specific Biological Pathway Information Via Gene Expression Data

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Young, M; Craft, D [Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States)

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: To develop an efficient, pathway-based classification system using network biology statistics to assist in patient-specific response predictions to radiation and drug therapies across multiple cancer types. Methods: We developed PICS (Pathway Informed Classification System), a novel two-step cancer classification algorithm. In PICS, a matrix m of mRNA expression values for a patient cohort is collapsed into a matrix p of biological pathways. The entries of p, which we term pathway scores, are obtained from either principal component analysis (PCA), normal tissue centroid (NTC), or gene expression deviation (GED). The pathway score matrix is clustered using both k-means and hierarchical clustering, and a clustering is judged by how well it groups patients into distinct survival classes. The most effective pathway scoring/clustering combination, per clustering p-value, thus generates various ‘signatures’ for conventional and functional cancer classification. Results: PICS successfully regularized large dimension gene data, separated normal and cancerous tissues, and clustered a large patient cohort spanning six cancer types. Furthermore, PICS clustered patient cohorts into distinct, statistically-significant survival groups. For a suboptimally-debulked ovarian cancer set, the pathway-classified Kaplan-Meier survival curve (p = .00127) showed significant improvement over that of a prior gene expression-classified study (p = .0179). For a pancreatic cancer set, the pathway-classified Kaplan-Meier survival curve (p = .00141) showed significant improvement over that of a prior gene expression-classified study (p = .04). Pathway-based classification confirmed biomarkers for the pyrimidine, WNT-signaling, glycerophosphoglycerol, beta-alanine, and panthothenic acid pathways for ovarian cancer. Despite its robust nature, PICS requires significantly less run time than current pathway scoring methods. Conclusion: This work validates the PICS method to improve

  10. Screening of specific nucleic acid aptamers binding tumor markers in the serum of the lung cancer patients and identification of their activities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Kun; Xiu, Chen-Lin; Gao, Li-Ming; Liang, Hua-Gang; Xu, Shu-Feng; Shi, Ming; Li, Jian; Liu, Zhi-Wei

    2017-07-01

    Lung cancer is by far the leading cause of cancer death in the world. Despite the improvements in diagnostic methods, the status of early detection was not achieved. So, a new diagnostic method is needed. The aim of this study is to obtain the highly specific nucleic acid aptamers with strong affinity to tumor markers in the serum of the lung cancer patients for targeting the serum. Aptamers specifically binding to tumor markers in the serum of the lung cancer patients were screened from the random single-stranded DNA library with agarose beads as supports and the serum as a target by target-substituting subtractive SELEX technique and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction technique. Subsequently, the secondary single-stranded DNA library obtained by 10 rounds of screening was amplified to double-stranded DNA, followed by high-throughput genome sequence analysis to screen aptamers with specific affinity to tumor markers in the serum of the lung cancer patients. Finally, six aptamers obtained by 10 rounds of screening were identified with high specific affinity to tumor markers in the serum of the lung cancer patients. Compared with other five aptamers, the aptamer 43 was identified both with the highest specificity to bind target molecule and without any obvious affinity to non-specific proteins. The screened aptamers have relatively high specificity to combine tumor markers in the serum of the lung cancer patients, which provides breakthrough points for early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.

  11. Tumor specific lung cancer diagnostics with multiplexed FRET immunoassays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geißler, D.; Hill, D.; Löhmannsröben, H.-G.; Thomas, E.; Lavigne, A.; Darbouret, B.; Bois, E.; Charbonnière, L. J.; Ziessel, R. F.; Hildebrandt, N.

    2010-02-01

    An optical multiplexed homogeneous (liquid phase) immunoassay based on FRET from a terbium complex to eight different fluorescent dyes is presented. We achieved highly sensitive parallel detection of four different lung cancer specific tumor markers (CEA, NSE, SCC and CYFRA21-1) within a single assay and show a proof-of-principle for 5- fold multiplexing. The method is well suited for fast and low-cost miniaturized point-of-care testing as well as for highthroughput screening in a broad range of in-vitro diagnostic applications.

  12. Usefulness of breast-specific gamma imaging as an adjunct modality in breast cancer patients with dense breast. A comparative study with MRI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Bom Sahn

    2012-01-01

    The aim of this study was to evaluate the adjunctive benefits of breast-specific gamma imaging (BSGI) versus magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in breast cancer patients with dense breasts. This study included a total of 66 patients (44.1±8.2 years) with dense breasts (breast density >50%) and already biopsy-confirmed breast cancer. All of the patients underwent BSGI and MRI as part of an adjunct modality before the initial therapy. Of 66 patients, the 97 undetermined breast lesions were newly detected and correlated with the biopsy results. Twenty-six of the 97 breast lesions proved to be malignant tumors (invasive ductal cancer, n=16; ductal carcinoma in situ, n=6; mixed or other malignancies, n=4); the remaining 71 lesions were diagnosed as benign tumors. The sensitivity and specificity of BSGI were 88.8% (confidence interval (CI), 69.8-97.6%) and 90.1% (CI, 80.7-95.9%), respectively, while the sensitivity and specificity of MRI were 92.3% (CI, 74.9-99.1%) and 39.4% (CI, 28.0-51.7%), respectively (p<0.0001). MRI detected 43 false-positive breast lesions, 37 (86.0%) of which were correctly diagnosed as benign lesions using BSGI. In 12 malignant lesions <1 cm, the sensitivities of BSGI and MR imaging were 83.3% (CI, 51.6-97.9%) and 91.7% (CI, 61.5-99.8%), respectively. BSGI showed an equivocal sensitivity and a high specificity compared to MRI in the diagnosis of breast lesions. In addition, BSGI had a good sensitivity in discriminating breast cancers ≤1 cm. The results of this study suggest that BSGI could play a crucial role as an adjunctive imaging modality which can be used to evaluate breast cancer patients with dense breasts. (author)

  13. [Treatment Strategy for Liver Metastasis of Colorectal Cancer - Including Treatment for Oligometastasis].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sato, Takeo; Nakamura, Takatoshi; Yamanashi, Takahiro; Miura, Hirohisa; Tsutsui, Atsuko; Shimazu, Masashi; Watanabe, Masahiko

    2017-10-01

    The mainstay of treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer is surgery. Therefore, colorectal cancer metastasis is distinctive, compared to other cancer types in which chemotherapy is the main treatment. Initially, Japan experienced medical druglag compared with western countries. However, the use of oxaliplatin for unresectable recurrent metastatic colorectal cancer became available in Japan, as well as in western countries, in 2005. We have since shifted chemotherapeutic regimens from monotherapy to combination therapy with molecular targeted agents. The combination therapy has rapidly become a standard therapy for unresectable metastatic colorectal cancer, and prognosis has dramatically increased for patients with this condition. Herein, we describe the treatment of liver metastasis of colorectal cancer, and surgery and adjuvant or neoadjuvant therapy options for resectable cancer. Furthermore, we focus on conversion therapy for unresectable cancer.

  14. Immunohistochemical staining of precursor forms of prostate-specific antigen (proPSA) in metastatic prostate cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parwani, Anil V; Marlow, Cameron; Demarzo, Angelo M; Mikolajczyk, Stephen D; Rittenhouse, Harry G; Veltri, Robert W; Chan, Theresa Y

    2006-10-01

    Precursors of prostate-specific antigen (proPSA) have been previously shown to be more concentrated in prostate cancer tissue. This study characterizes the immunohistochemical staining (IHS) of proPSA forms in metastatic prostate cancer compared with prostate specific antigen (PSA) and prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP). A tissue microarray, consisting of 74 cases of metastatic prostate carcinoma and control tissues, was used. IHS, using monoclonal antibodies against proPSA with a truncated proleader peptide containing 2 amino acids ([-2]pPSA), native ([-5/-7]pPSA), PSA, and PAP, was analyzed. The monoclonal antibodies were specific for both benign and malignant prostatic glandular tissue. IHS with [-5/-7]pPSA showed the least number of cases with negative staining (3%), and the most number of cases with moderate or strong staining (76%). In the 60 cases where all 4 stains could be evaluated, none of them were negative for proPSA and positive for PSA or PAP, and all 7 cases that were negative for both PSA and PAP showed IHS to proPSA. [-5/-7]pPSA (native proPSA) may be a better marker than PSA and PAP in characterizing metastatic prostate adenocarcinoma, with most of the cases showing positivity for the marker. Even cases that were negative for PSA and PAP, were reactive for proPSA. Such enhanced detection is particularly important in poorly differentiated carcinomas involving metastatic sites where prostate carcinoma is a consideration. A panel of markers, including proPSA, should be performed when metastatic prostate carcinoma is in the differential diagnosis.

  15. Use of Digital Rectal Examination as an Adjunct to Prostate Specific Antigen in the Detection of Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halpern, Joshua A; Oromendia, Clara; Shoag, Jonathan E; Mittal, Sameer; Cosiano, Michael F; Ballman, Karla V; Vickers, Andrew J; Hu, Jim C

    2018-04-01

    Guidelines from the NCCN ® (National Comprehensive Cancer Network®) advocate digital rectal examination screening only in men with elevated prostate specific antigen. We investigated the effect of prostate specific antigen on the association of digital rectal examination and clinically significant prostate cancer in a large American cohort. We evaluated the records of the 35,350 men who underwent digital rectal examination in the screening arm of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening trial for the development of clinically significant prostate cancer (Gleason 7 or greater). Followup was 343,273 person-years. The primary outcome was the rate of clinically significant prostate cancer among men with vs without suspicious digital rectal examination. We performed competing risks regression to evaluate the interaction between time varying suspicious digital rectal examination and prostate specific antigen. A total of 1,713 clinically significant prostate cancers were detected with a 10-year cumulative incidence of 5.9% (95% CI 5.6-6.2). Higher risk was seen for suspicious vs nonsuspicious digital rectal examination. Increases in absolute risk were small and clinically irrelevant for normal (less than 2 ng/ml) prostate specific antigen (1.5% vs 0.7% risk of clinically significant prostate cancer at 10 years), clinically relevant for elevated (3 ng/ml or greater) prostate specific antigen (23.0% vs 13.7%) and modestly clinically relevant for equivocal (2 to 3 ng/ml) prostate specific antigen (6.5% vs 3.5%). Digital rectal examination demonstrated prognostic usefulness when prostate specific antigen was greater than 3 ng/ml, limited usefulness for less than 2 ng/ml and marginal usefulness for 2 to 3 ng/ml. These findings support the restriction of digital rectal examination to men with higher prostate specific antigen as a reflex test to improve specificity. It should not be used as a primary screening modality to improve sensitivity. Copyright

  16. A retrospective cohort study of shift work and risk of cancer-specific mortality in German male chemical workers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yong, Mei; Nasterlack, Michael; Messerer, Peter; Oberlinner, Christoph; Lang, Stefan

    2014-02-01

    Human evidence of carcinogenicity concerning shift work is inconsistent. In a previous study, we observed no elevated risk of total mortality in shift workers followed up until the end of 2006. The present study aimed to investigate cancer-specific mortality, relative to shift work. The cohort consisted of male production workers (14,038 shift work and 17,105 day work), employed at BASF Ludwigshafen for at least 1 year between 1995 and 2005. Vital status was followed from 2000 to 2009. Cause-specific mortality was obtained from death certificates. Exposure to shift work was measured both as a dichotomous and continuous variable. While lifetime job history was not available, job duration in the company was derived from personal data, which was then categorized at the quartiles. Cox proportional hazard model was used to adjust for potential confounders, in which job duration was treated as a time-dependent covariate. Between 2000 and 2009, there were 513 and 549 deaths among rotating shift and day work employees, respectively. Risks of total and cancer-specific mortalities were marginally lower among shift workers when taking age at entry and job level into consideration and were statistically significantly lower when cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, job duration, and chronic disease prevalence at entry to follow-up were included as explanatory factors. With respect to mortality risks in relation to exposure duration, no increased risks were found in any of the exposure groups after full adjustment and there was no apparent trend suggesting an exposure-response relation with duration of shift work. The present analysis extends and confirms our previous finding of no excess risk of mortality associated with work in the shift system employed at BASF Ludwigshafen. More specifically, there is also no indication of an increased risk of mortality due to cancer.

  17. Prostate cancer volume adds significantly to prostate-specific antigen in the prediction of early biochemical failure after external beam radiation therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    D'Amico, Anthony V.; Propert, Kathleen J.

    1996-01-01

    Purpose: A new clinical pretreatment quantity that closely approximates the true prostate cancer volume is defined. Methods and Materials: The cancer-specific prostate-specific antigen (PSA), PSA density, prostate cancer volume (V Ca ), and the volume fraction of the gland involved with carcinoma (V Ca fx) were calculated for 227 prostate cancer patients managed definitively with external beam radiation therapy. 1. PSA density PSA/ultrasound prostate gland volume 2. Cancer-specific PSA = PSA - [PSA from benign epithelial tissue] 3. V Ca = Cancer-specific PSA/[PSA in serum per cm 3 of cancer] 4. V Ca fx = V Ca /ultrasound prostate gland volume A Cox multiple regression analysis was used to test whether any of these-clinical pretreatment parameters added significantly to PSA in predicting early postradiation PSA failure. Results: The prostate cancer volume (p = 0.039) and the volume fraction of the gland involved by carcinoma (p = 0.035) significantly added to the PSA in predicting postradiation PSA failure. Conversely, the PSA density and the cancer-specific PSA did not add significantly (p > 0.05) to PSA in predicting postradiation PSA failure. The 20-month actuarial PSA failure-free rates for patients with calculated tumor volumes of ≤0.5 cm 3 , 0.5-4.0 cm 3 , and >4.0 cm 3 were 92, 80, and 47%, respectively (p = 0.00004). Conclusion: The volume of prostate cancer (V Ca ) and the resulting volume fraction of cancer both added significantly to PSA in their ability to predict for early postradiation PSA failure. These new parameters may be used to select patients in prospective randomized trials that examine the efficacy of combining radiation and androgen ablative therapy in patients with clinically localized disease, who are at high risk for early postradiation PSA failure

  18. Impact of Preoperative Radiotherapy on General and Disease-Specific Health Status of Rectal Cancer Survivors: A Population-Based Study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thong, Melissa S.Y.; Mols, Floortje; Lemmens, Valery E.P.P.; Rutten, Harm J.T.; Roukema, Jan A.; Martijn, Hendrik; Poll-Franse, Lonneke V. van de

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: To date, few studies have evaluated the impact of preoperative radiotherapy (pRT) on long-term health status of rectal cancer survivors. Using a population-based sample, we assessed the impact of pRT on general and disease-specific health status of rectal cancer survivors up to 10 years postdiagnosis. The health status of older (≥75 years old at diagnosis) pRT survivors was also compared with that of younger survivors. Methods and Materials: Survivors identified from the Eindhoven Cancer Registry treated with surgery only (SU) or with pRT between 1998 and 2007 were included. Survivors completed the Short Form-36 (SF-36) health survey questionnaire and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Colorectal 38 (EORTC QLQ-CR38) questionnaire. The SF-36 and EORTC QLQ-CR38 (sexuality subscale) scores of the survivors were compared to an age- and sex-matched Dutch normal population. Results: A total of 340 survivors (response, 85%; pRT survivors, 71%) were analyzed. Overall, survivors had similar general health status. Both short-term (<5 years) and long-term (≥5 years) pRT survivors had significantly poorer body image and more problems with gastrointestinal function, male sexual dysfunction, and defecation than SU survivors. Survivors had comparable general health status but greater sexual dysfunction than the normal population. Older pRT survivors had general and disease-specific health status comparable to that of younger pRT survivors. Conclusions: For better survivorship care, rectal cancer survivors could benefit from increased clinical and psychological focus on the possible long-term morbidity of treatment and its effects on health status.

  19. Cancer immunotherapy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cairns, Linda; Aspeslagh, Sandrine; Anichini, Andrea

    2016-01-01

    This report covers the Immunotherapy sessions of the 2016 Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI) Oncology Days meeting, which was held on 15th-17th June 2016 in Brussels, Belgium. Immunotherapy is a potential cancer treatment that uses an individual's immune system to fight the tumour....... In recent years significant advances have been made in this field in the treatment of several advanced cancers. Cancer immunotherapies include monoclonal antibodies that are designed to attack a very specific part of the cancer cell and immune checkpoint inhibitors which are molecules that stimulate...... or block the inhibition of the immune system. Other cancer immunotherapies include vaccines and T cell infusions. This report will summarise some of the research that is going on in this field and will give us an update on where we are at present....

  20. [New Radiopharmaceuticals Based on Prostate-Specific Inhibitors of Membrane Antigen for Diagnostics and Therapy of Metastatic Prostate Cancer].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vlasova, O P; German, K E; Krilov, V V; Petriev, V M; Epstein, N B

    2015-01-01

    About 10.7% cases of prostate cancer were registered in Russia in 2011 (40,000 patients). More than half of cancer cases were revealed in advanced (III-IV) stages when metastases inevitably developed quickly. Clinical problem of early diagnostics and treatment of metastatic prostate cancer is still not solved. Anatomical imaging techniques have low sensitivity and specificity for the detection of this disease. Metabolic visualization methods which use prostate specific antigen (PSA) as a marker are also ineffective. This article describes prostate-specific membrane antigens (PSMA) that are proposed as a marker for diagnostics and therapy of prostate cancer. The most promising PSMA-based radiopharmaceutical agent for diagnostics has been developed and clinically tested in the European countries. These pharmaceuticals are based on small peptide molecules modified with urea, and have the highest affinity to PSMA. Favorable phannacokinetics, rapid accumulation in the tumor and rapid excretion from the body are beneficial features of these pharmaceuticals.

  1. Post-translationally modified muscle-specific ubiquitin ligases as circulating biomarkers in experimental cancer cachexia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mota, Roberto; Rodríguez, Jessica E; Bonetto, Andrea; O’Connell, Thomas M; Asher, Scott A; Parry, Traci L; Lockyer, Pamela; McCudden, Christopher R; Couch, Marion E; Willis, Monte S

    2017-01-01

    Cancer cachexia is a severe wasting syndrome characterized by the progressive loss of lean body mass and systemic inflammation. Up to 80% of cancer patients experience cachexia, with 20-30% of cancer-related deaths directly linked to cachexia. Despite efforts to identify early cachexia and cancer relapse, clinically useful markers are lacking. Recently, we identified the role of muscle-specific ubiquitin ligases Atrogin-1 (MAFbx, FBXO32) and Muscle Ring Finger-1 in the pathogenesis of cardiac atrophy and hypertrophy. We hypothesized that during cachexia, the Atrogin-1 and MuRF1 ubiquitin ligases are released from muscle and migrate to the circulation where they could be detected and serve as a cachexia biomarker. To test this, we induced cachexia in mice using the C26 adenocarcinoma cells or vehicle (control). Body weight, tumor volume, and food consumption were measured from inoculation until ~day 14 to document cachexia. Western blot analysis of serum identified the presence of Atrogin-1 and MuRF1 with unique post-translational modifications consistent with mono- and poly- ubiquitination of Atrogin-1 and MuRF1 found only in cachectic serum. These findings suggest that both increased Atrogin-1 and the presence of unique post-translational modifications may serve as a surrogate marker specific for cachexia. PMID:28979816

  2. Patient characteristics and cancer prevalence in the Danish cancer patient pathway for patients with serious non-specific symptoms and signs of cancer-A nationwide, population-based cohort study

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Moseholm, E; Lindhardt, B Ø

    2017-01-01

    of included patients who were diagnosed with cancer after completing a NSSC-CPP diagnostic course. Associations between patient characteristics and cancer diagnosis were estimated in a multivariate logistic regression model. RESULTS: The mean age of the 23,934 patients included in the analysis was 64.6 years...

  3. Age-Specific Patient Navigation Preferences Among Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pannier, Samantha T; Warner, Echo L; Fowler, Brynn; Fair, Douglas; Salmon, Sara K; Kirchhoff, Anne C

    2017-11-23

    Patient navigation is increasingly being directed at adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients. This study provides a novel description of differences in AYA cancer patients' preferences for navigation services by developmental age at diagnosis. Eligible patients were diagnosed with cancer between ages 15 and 39 and had completed at least 1 month of treatment. Between October 2015 and January 2016, patients completed semi-structured interviews about navigation preferences. Summary statistics of demographic and cancer characteristics were generated. Differences in patient navigation preferences were examined through qualitative analyses by developmental age at diagnosis. AYAs were interviewed (adolescents 15-18 years N = 8; emerging adults 19-25 years N = 8; young adults 26-39 years N = 23). On average, participants were 4.5 years from diagnosis. All age groups were interested in face-to-face connection with a navigator and using multiple communication platforms (phone, text, email) to follow-up. Three of the most frequently cited needs were insurance, finances, and information. AYAs differed in support, healthcare, and resource preferences by developmental age; only adolescents preferred educational support. While all groups preferred financial and family support, the specific type of assistance (medical versus living expenses, partner/spouse, child, or parental assistance) varied by age group. AYAs with cancer have different preferences for patient navigation by developmental age at diagnosis. AYAs are not a one-size-fits-all population, and navigation programs can better assist AYAs when services are targeted to appropriate developmental ages. Future research should examine fertility and navigation preferences by time since diagnosis. While some navigation needs to span the AYA age range, other needs are specific to developmental age.

  4. Lung Cancer Signature Biomarkers: tissue specific semantic similarity based clustering of Digital Differential Display (DDD data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Srivastava Mousami

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The tissue-specific Unigene Sets derived from more than one million expressed sequence tags (ESTs in the NCBI, GenBank database offers a platform for identifying significantly and differentially expressed tissue-specific genes by in-silico methods. Digital differential display (DDD rapidly creates transcription profiles based on EST comparisons and numerically calculates, as a fraction of the pool of ESTs, the relative sequence abundance of known and novel genes. However, the process of identifying the most likely tissue for a specific disease in which to search for candidate genes from the pool of differentially expressed genes remains difficult. Therefore, we have used ‘Gene Ontology semantic similarity score’ to measure the GO similarity between gene products of lung tissue-specific candidate genes from control (normal and disease (cancer sets. This semantic similarity score matrix based on hierarchical clustering represents in the form of a dendrogram. The dendrogram cluster stability was assessed by multiple bootstrapping. Multiple bootstrapping also computes a p-value for each cluster and corrects the bias of the bootstrap probability. Results Subsequent hierarchical clustering by the multiple bootstrapping method (α = 0.95 identified seven clusters. The comparative, as well as subtractive, approach revealed a set of 38 biomarkers comprising four distinct lung cancer signature biomarker clusters (panel 1–4. Further gene enrichment analysis of the four panels revealed that each panel represents a set of lung cancer linked metastasis diagnostic biomarkers (panel 1, chemotherapy/drug resistance biomarkers (panel 2, hypoxia regulated biomarkers (panel 3 and lung extra cellular matrix biomarkers (panel 4. Conclusions Expression analysis reveals that hypoxia induced lung cancer related biomarkers (panel 3, HIF and its modulating proteins (TGM2, CSNK1A1, CTNNA1, NAMPT/Visfatin, TNFRSF1A, ETS1, SRC-1, FN1, APLP2, DMBT1

  5. Boswellia sacra essential oil induces tumor cell-specific apoptosis and suppresses tumor aggressiveness in cultured human breast cancer cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    Background Gum resins obtained from trees of the Burseraceae family (Boswellia sp.) are important ingredients in incense and perfumes. Extracts prepared from Boswellia sp. gum resins have been shown to possess anti-inflammatory and anti-neoplastic effects. Essential oil prepared by distillation of the gum resin traditionally used for aromatic therapy has also been shown to have tumor cell-specific anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activities. The objective of this study was to optimize conditions for preparing Boswellea sacra essential oil with the highest biological activity in inducing tumor cell-specific cytotoxicity and suppressing aggressive tumor phenotypes in human breast cancer cells. Methods Boswellia sacra essential oil was prepared from Omani Hougari grade resins through hydrodistillation at 78 or 100 oC for 12 hours. Chemical compositions were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; and total boswellic acids contents were quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography. Boswellia sacra essential oil-mediated cell viability and death were studied in established human breast cancer cell lines (T47D, MCF7, MDA-MB-231) and an immortalized normal human breast cell line (MCF10-2A). Apoptosis was assayed by genomic DNA fragmentation. Anti-invasive and anti-multicellular tumor properties were evaluated by cellular network and spheroid formation models, respectively. Western blot analysis was performed to study Boswellia sacra essential oil-regulated proteins involved in apoptosis, signaling pathways, and cell cycle regulation. Results More abundant high molecular weight compounds, including boswellic acids, were present in Boswellia sacra essential oil prepared at 100 oC hydrodistillation. All three human breast cancer cell lines were sensitive to essential oil treatment with reduced cell viability and elevated cell death, whereas the immortalized normal human breast cell line was more resistant to essential oil treatment. Boswellia sacra

  6. Human lactoferricin derived di-peptides deploying loop structures induce apoptosis specifically in cancer cells through targeting membranous phosphatidylserine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riedl, Sabrina; Leber, Regina; Rinner, Beate; Schaider, Helmut; Lohner, Karl; Zweytick, Dagmar

    2015-11-01

    Host defense-derived peptides have emerged as a novel strategy for the development of alternative anticancer therapies. In this study we report on characteristic features of human lactoferricin (hLFcin) derivatives which facilitate specific killing of cancer cells of melanoma, glioblastoma and rhabdomyosarcoma compared with non-specific derivatives and the synthetic peptide RW-AH. Changes in amino acid sequence of hLFcin providing 9-11 amino acids stretched derivatives LF11-316, -318 and -322 only yielded low antitumor activity. However, the addition of the repeat (di-peptide) and the retro-repeat (di-retro-peptide) sequences highly improved cancer cell toxicity up to 100% at 20 μM peptide concentration. Compared to the complete parent sequence hLFcin the derivatives showed toxicity on the melanoma cell line A375 increased by 10-fold and on the glioblastoma cell line U-87mg by 2-3-fold. Reduced killing velocity, apoptotic blebbing, activation of caspase 3/7 and formation of apoptotic DNA fragments proved that the active and cancer selective peptides, e.g. R-DIM-P-LF11-322, trigger apoptosis, whereas highly active, though non-selective peptides, such as DIM-LF11-318 and RW-AH seem to kill rapidly via necrosis inducing membrane lyses. Structural studies revealed specific toxicity on cancer cells by peptide derivatives with loop structures, whereas non-specific peptides comprised α-helical structures without loop. Model studies with the cancer membrane mimic phosphatidylserine (PS) gave strong evidence that PS only exposed by cancer cells is an important target for specific hLFcin derivatives. Other negatively charged membrane exposed molecules as sialic acid, heparan and chondroitin sulfate were shown to have minor impact on peptide activity. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  7. Clinical utility of the percentage of positive prostate biopsies in predicting prostate cancer-specific and overall survival after radiotherapy for patients with localized prostate cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    D'Amico, Anthony V.; Keshaviah, Aparna; Manola, Judith; Cote, Kerri; Loffredo, Marian; Iskrzytzky, Olga; Renshaw, Andrew A.

    2002-01-01

    Purpose: To determine whether the percentage of positive prostate biopsies provides clinically relevant information to a previously established risk stratification system with respect to the end points of prostate cancer-specific survival (PCSS) and overall survival after radiotherapy for patients with clinically localized prostate cancer. Methods and Materials: A Cox regression multivariable analysis was used to evaluate the ability of the percentage of positive prostate biopsies to predict PCSS and overall survival for 381 men who underwent radiotherapy for localized prostate cancer during the prostate-specific antigen era. Results: At a median follow-up of 4.3 years (range 0.8-13.3), the presence of ≤50% positive biopsies vs. >50% positive biopsies provided a clinically relevant stratification of the 7-year estimates of PCSS (100% vs. 57%, p=0.004) in intermediate-risk patients. Moreover, all patients could be stratified into a minimal or high-risk cohort on the basis of the 10-year estimates of PCSS (100% vs. 55%, p 50%] intermediate-risk + high-risk) cohort for prostate cancer-specific death after conventional dose radiotherapy. Additional follow-up and independent validation are needed to confirm these findings

  8. A novel and effective cancer immunotherapy mouse model using antigen-specific B cells selected in vitro.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatsuya Moutai

    Full Text Available Immunotherapies such as adoptive transfer of T cells or natural killer cells, or monoclonal antibody (MoAb treatment have recently been recognized as effective means to treat cancer patients. However, adoptive transfer of B cells or plasma cells producing tumor-specific antibodies has not been applied as a therapy because long-term culture and selective expansion of antigen-specific B cells has been technically very difficult. Here, we describe a novel cancer immunotherapy that uses B-cell adoptive transfer. We demonstrate that germinal-center-like B cells (iGB cells induced in vitro from mouse naïve B cells become plasma cells and produce IgG antibodies for more than a month in the bone marrow of non-irradiated recipient mice. When transferred into mice, iGB cells producing antibody against a surrogate tumor antigen suppressed lung metastasis and growth of mouse melanoma cells expressing the same antigen and prolonged survival of the recipients. In addition, we have developed a novel culture system called FAIS to selectively expand antigen-specific iGB cells utilizing the fact that iGB cells are sensitive to Fas-induced cell death unless their antigen receptors are ligated by membrane-bound antigens. The selected iGB cells efficiently suppressed lung metastasis of melanoma cells in the adoptive immunotherapy model. As human blood B cells can be propagated as iGB cells using culture conditions similar to the mouse iGB cell cultures, our data suggest that it will be possible to treat cancer-bearing patients by the adoptive transfer of cancer-antigen-specific iGB cells selected in vitro. This new adoptive immunotherapy should be an alternative to the laborious development of MoAb drugs against cancers for which no effective treatments currently exist.

  9. Methylation screening of the TGFBI promoter in human lung and prostate cancer by methylation-specific PCR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shah, Jinesh N; Shao, Genze; Hei, Tom K; Zhao, Yongliang

    2008-01-01

    Hypermethylation of the TGFBI promoter has been shown to correlate with decreased expression of this gene in human tumor cell lines. In this study, we optimized a methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) method and investigated the methylation status of the TGFBI promoter in human lung and prostate cancer specimens. Methylation-specific primers were designed based on the methylation profiles of the TGFBI promoter in human tumor cell lines, and MSP conditions were optimized for accurate and efficient amplification. Genomic DNA was isolated from lung tumors and prostatectomy tissues of prostate cancer patients, bisulfite-converted, and analyzed by MSP. Among 50 lung cancer samples, 44.0% (22/50) harbored methylated CpG sites in the TGFBI promoter. An analysis correlating gene methylation status with clinicopathological cancer features revealed that dense methylation of the TGFBI promoter was associated with a metastatic phenotype, with 42.9% (6/14) of metastatic lung cancer samples demonstrating dense methylation vs. only 5.6% (2/36) of primary lung cancer samples (p < 0.05). Similar to these lung cancer results, 82.0% (41/50) of prostate cancer samples harbored methylated CpG sites in the TGFBI promoter, and dense methylation of the promoter was present in 38.9% (7/18) of prostate cancer samples with the feature of locoregional invasiveness vs. only 19.4% (6/31) of prostate cancer samples without locoregional invasiveness (p < 0.05). Furthermore, promoter hypermethylation correlated with highly reduced expression of the TGFBI gene in human lung and prostate tumor cell lines. We successfully optimized a MSP method for the precise and efficient screening of TGFBI promoter methylation status. Dense methylation of the TGFBI promoter correlated with the extent of TGFBI gene silencing in tumor cell lines and was related to invasiveness of prostate tumors and metastatic status of lung cancer tumors. Thus, TGFBI promoter methylation can be used as a potential

  10. Posttreatment prostatic-specific antigen doubling time as a surrogate endpoint for prostate cancer-specific survival: An analysis of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Protocol 92-02

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Valicenti, Richard K.; DeSilvio, Michelle; Hanks, Gerald E.; Porter, Arthur; Brereton, Harmar; Rosenthal, Seth A.; Shipley, William U.; Sandler, Howard M.

    2006-01-01

    Purpose: We evaluated whether posttreatment prostatic-specific antigen doubling time (PSADT) was predictive of prostate cancer mortality by testing the Prentice requirements for a surrogate endpoint. Methods and Materials: We analyzed posttreatment PSA measurements in a cohort of 1,514 men with localized prostate cancer (T2c-4 and PSA level Cox = 0.002), PSADT Cox Cox Cox Cox = 0.4). The significant posttreatment PSADTs were also significant predictors of CSS (p Cox < 0.001). After adjusting for T stage, Gleason score and PSA, all of Prentice's requirements were not met, indicating that the effect of PSADT on CSS was not independent of the randomized treatment. Conclusions: Prostatic specific antigen doubling time is significantly associated with CSS, but did not meet all of Prentice's requirements for a surrogate endpoint of CSS. Thus, the risk of dying of prostate cancer is not fully explained by PSADT

  11. FoxA1 as a lineage-specific oncogene in luminal type breast cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamaguchi, Noritaka; Ito, Emi; Azuma, Sakura; Honma, Reiko; Yanagisawa, Yuka; Nishikawa, Akira; Kawamura, Mika; Imai, Jun-ichi

    2008-01-01

    The forkhead transcription factor FoxA1 is thought to be involved in mammary tumorigenesis. However, the precise role of FoxA1 in breast cancer development is controversial. We examined expression of FoxA1 in 35 human breast cancer cell lines and compared it with that of ErbB2, a marker of poor prognosis in breast cancer. We found that FoxA1 is expressed at high levels in all ErbB2-positive cell lines and a subset of ErbB2-negative cell lines. Down-regulation of FoxA1 by RNA interference significantly suppressed proliferation of ErbB2-negative and FoxA1-positive breast cancer cell lines. Down-regulation of FoxA1 also enhanced the toxic effect of Herceptin on ErbB2-positive cell lines through induction of apoptosis. Taken together with previous data that FoxA1 is a marker of luminal cells in mammary gland, our present results suggest that FoxA1 plays an important role as a lineage-specific oncogene in proliferation of cancer cells derived from mammary luminal cells

  12. Cell-type-specific enrichment of risk-associated regulatory elements at ovarian cancer susceptibility loci.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coetzee, Simon G; Shen, Howard C; Hazelett, Dennis J; Lawrenson, Kate; Kuchenbaecker, Karoline; Tyrer, Jonathan; Rhie, Suhn K; Levanon, Keren; Karst, Alison; Drapkin, Ronny; Ramus, Susan J; Couch, Fergus J; Offit, Kenneth; Chenevix-Trench, Georgia; Monteiro, Alvaro N A; Antoniou, Antonis; Freedman, Matthew; Coetzee, Gerhard A; Pharoah, Paul D P; Noushmehr, Houtan; Gayther, Simon A

    2015-07-01

    Understanding the regulatory landscape of the human genome is a central question in complex trait genetics. Most single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with cancer risk lie in non-protein-coding regions, implicating regulatory DNA elements as functional targets of susceptibility variants. Here, we describe genome-wide annotation of regions of open chromatin and histone modification in fallopian tube and ovarian surface epithelial cells (FTSECs, OSECs), the debated cellular origins of high-grade serous ovarian cancers (HGSOCs) and in endometriosis epithelial cells (EECs), the likely precursor of clear cell ovarian carcinomas (CCOCs). The regulatory architecture of these cell types was compared with normal human mammary epithelial cells and LNCaP prostate cancer cells. We observed similar positional patterns of global enhancer signatures across the three different ovarian cancer precursor cell types, and evidence of tissue-specific regulatory signatures compared to non-gynecological cell types. We found significant enrichment for risk-associated SNPs intersecting regulatory biofeatures at 17 known HGSOC susceptibility loci in FTSECs (P = 3.8 × 10(-30)), OSECs (P = 2.4 × 10(-23)) and HMECs (P = 6.7 × 10(-15)) but not for EECs (P = 0.45) or LNCaP cells (P = 0.88). Hierarchical clustering of risk SNPs conditioned on the six different cell types indicates FTSECs and OSECs are highly related (96% of samples using multi-scale bootstrapping) suggesting both cell types may be precursors of HGSOC. These data represent the first description of regulatory catalogues of normal precursor cells for different ovarian cancer subtypes, and provide unique insights into the tissue specific regulatory variation with respect to the likely functional targets of germline genetic susceptibility variants for ovarian cancer. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  13. Stage-specific analysis of plasma protein profiles in ovarian cancer: Difference in-gel electrophoresis analysis of pooled clinical samples

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mark J Bailey

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecological cancer. Non-specific symptoms early in disease and the lack of specific biomarkers hinder early diagnosis. Multi-marker blood screening tests have shown promise for improving identification of early stage disease; however, available tests lack sensitivity, and specificity. Materials and Methods: In this study, pooled deeply-depleted plasma from women with Stage 1, 2 or 3 ovarian cancer and healthy controls were used to compare the 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE protein profiles and identify potential novel markers of ovarian cancer progression. Results/Discussion: Stage-specific variation in biomarker expression was observed. For example, apolipoprotein A1 expression is relatively low in control and Stage 1, but shows a substantial increase in Stage 2 and 3, thus, potential of utility for disease confirmation rather than early detection. A better marker for early stage disease was tropomyosin 4 (TPM4. The expression of TPM4 increased by 2-fold in Stage 2 before returning to "normal" levels in Stage 3 disease. Multiple isoforms were also identified for some proteins and in some cases, displayed stage-specific expression. An interesting example was fibrinogen alpha, for which 8 isoforms were identified. Four displayed a moderate increase at Stage 1 and a substantial increase for Stages 2 and 3 while the other 4 showed only moderate increases. Conclusion: Herein is provided an improved summary of blood protein profiles for women with ovarian cancer stratified by stage.

  14. Cancer survival among Alaska Native people.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nash, Sarah H; Meisner, Angela L W; Zimpelman, Garrett L; Barry, Marc; Wiggins, Charles L

    2018-03-26

    Recent cancer survival trends among American Indian and Alaska Native (AN) people are not well understood; survival has not been reported among AN people since 2001. This study examined cause-specific survival among AN cancer patients for lung, colorectal, female breast, prostate, and kidney cancers. It evaluated whether survival differed between cancers diagnosed in 1992-2002 (the earlier period) and cancers diagnosed in 2003-2013 (the later period) and by the age at diagnosis (<65 vs ≥65 years), stage at diagnosis (local or regional/distant/unknown), and sex. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate univariate and multivariate-adjusted cause-specific survival for each cancer. An improvement was observed in 5-year survival over time from lung cancer (hazard ratio [HR] for the later period vs the earlier period, 0.83; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.72-0.97), and a marginally nonsignificant improvement was observed for colorectal cancer (HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.66-1.01). Site-specific differences in survival were observed by age and stage at diagnosis. This study presents the first data on cancer survival among AN people in almost 2 decades. During this time, AN people have experienced improvements in survival from lung and colorectal cancers. The reasons for these improvements may include increased access to care (including screening) as well as improvements in treatment. Improving cancer survival should be a priority for reducing the burden of cancer among AN people and eliminating cancer disparities. Cancer 2018. © 2018 American Cancer Society. © 2018 American Cancer Society.

  15. Improvement of the projection models for radiogenic cancer risk

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tong Jian

    2005-01-01

    Calculations of radiogenic cancer risk are based on the risk projection models for specific cancer sites. Improvement has been made for the parameters used in the previous models including introductions of mortality and morbidity risk coefficients, and age-/ gender-specific risk coefficients. These coefficients have been applied to calculate the radiogenic cancer risks for specific organs and radionuclides under different exposure scenarios. (authors)

  16. Proteasome-associated deubiquitinase ubiquitin-specific protease 14 regulates prostate cancer proliferation by deubiquitinating and stabilizing androgen receptor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liao, Yuning; Liu, Ningning; Hua, Xianliang; Cai, Jianyu; Xia, Xiaohong; Wang, Xuejun; Huang, Hongbiao; Liu, Jinbao

    2017-02-02

    Androgen receptor (AR) is frequently over-expressed and plays a critical role in the growth and progression of human prostate cancer. The therapy attempting to target AR signalling was established in decades ago but the treatment of prostate cancer is far from being satisfactory. The assignable cause is that our understanding of the mechanism of AR regulation and re-activation remains incomplete. Increasing evidence suggests that deubiquitinases are involved in the regulation of cancer development and progression but the specific underlying mechanism often is not elucidated. In the current study, we have identified ubiquitin-specific protease 14 (USP14) as a novel regulator of AR, inhibiting the degradation of AR via deubiquitinating this oncoprotein in the androgen-responsive prostate cancer cells. We found that (i) USP14 could bind to AR, and additionally, both genetic and pharmacological inhibition of USP14 accelerated the ubiquitination and degradation of AR; (ii) downregulation or inhibition of USP14 suppressed cell proliferation and colony formation of LNcap cells and, conversely, overexpression of USP14 promoted the proliferation; and (iii) reduction or inhibition of USP14 induced G0/G1 phase arrest in LNcap prostate cancer cells. Hence, we conclude that USP14 promotes prostate cancer progression likely through stabilization of AR, suggesting that USP14 could be a promising therapeutic target for prostate cancer.

  17. Other biomarkers for detecting prostate cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nogueira, Lucas; Corradi, Renato; Eastham, James A

    2010-01-01

    Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has been used for detecting prostate cancer since 1994. Although it is the best cancer biomarker available, PSA is not perfect. It lacks both the sensitivity and specificity to accurately detect the presence of prostate cancer. None of the PSA thresholds currently in use consistently identify patients with prostate cancer and exclude patients without cancer. Novel approaches to improve our ability to detect prostate cancer and predict the course of the disease are needed. Additional methods for detecting prostate cancer have been evaluated. Despite the discovery of many new biomarkers, only a few have shown some clinical value. These markers include human kallikrein 2, urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor, prostate-specific membrane antigen, early prostate cancer antigen, PCA3, alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase and glutathione S-transferase pi hypermethylation. We review the reports on biomarkers for prostate cancer detection, and their possible role in the clinical practice.

  18. Consistent metagenes from cancer expression profiles yield agent specific predictors of chemotherapy response

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Li, Qiyuan; Eklund, Aron Charles; Birkbak, Nicolai Juul

    2011-01-01

    in four similar but independent cohorts and found strong associations between three of the metagenes and agent-specific response to neoadjuvant therapy. Furthermore, we applied the method to ovarian and early stage lung cancer, two tumor types that lack reliable predictors of outcome, and found...

  19. Male Pattern Baldness in Relation to Prostate Cancer-Specific Mortality: A Prospective Analysis in the NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-up Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Cindy Ke; Levine, Paul H; Cleary, Sean D; Hoffman, Heather J; Graubard, Barry I; Cook, Michael B

    2016-02-01

    We used male pattern baldness as a proxy for long-term androgen exposure and investigated the association of dermatologist-assessed hair loss with prostate cancer-specific mortality in the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Epidemiologic Follow-up Study. From the baseline survey (1971-1974), we included 4,316 men who were 25-74 years of age and had no prior cancer diagnosis. We estimated hazard ratios and used Cox proportional hazards regressions with age as the time metric and baseline hazard stratified by baseline age. A hybrid framework was used to account for stratification and clustering of the sample design, with adjustment for the variables used to calculate sample weights. During follow-up (median, 21 years), 3,284 deaths occurred; prostate cancer was the underlying cause of 107. In multivariable models, compared with no balding, any baldness was associated with a 56% higher risk of fatal prostate cancer (hazard ratio = 1.56; 95% confidence interval: 1.02, 2.37), and moderate balding specifically was associated with an 83% higher risk (hazard ratio = 1.83; 95% confidence interval: 1.15, 2.92). Conversely, patterned hair loss was not statistically significantly associated with all-cause mortality. Our analysis suggests that patterned hair loss is associated with a higher risk of fatal prostate cancer and supports the hypothesis of overlapping pathophysiological mechanisms. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 2016. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

  20. Prostate-specific antigen velocity is not better than total prostate-specific antigen in predicting prostate biopsy diagnosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorday, William; Sadrzadeh, Hossein; de Koning, Lawrence; Naugler, Christopher T

    2015-12-01

    1.) Identify whether prostate-specific antigen velocity improves the ability to predict prostate biopsy diagnosis. 2.) Test whether there is an increase in the predictive capability of models when Gleason 7 prostate cancers are separated into a 3+4 and a 4+3 group. Calgary Laboratory Services' Clinical Laboratory Information System was searched for prostate biopsies reported between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2013. Total prostate-specific antigen tests were recorded for each patient from January 1, 2007 to the most recent test before their recorded prostate biopsy. The data set was divided into the following three groups for comparison; benign, all prostate cancer and Gleason 7-10. The Gleason grade 7-10 group was further divided into 4+3 and 3+4 Gleason 7 prostate cancers. Prostate-specific antigen velocity was calculated using four different methods found in the literature. Receiver operator curves were used to assess operational characteristics of the tests. 4622 men between the ages of 40-89 with a prostate biopsy were included for analysis. Combining prostate-specific antigen velocity with total prostate-specific antigen (AUC=0.570-0.712) resulted in small non-statistically significant changes to the area under the curve compared to the area under the curve of total prostate-specific antigen alone (AUC=0.572-0.699). There were marked increases in the area under curves when 3+4 and 4+3 Gleason 7 cancers were separated. Prostate-specific antigen velocity does not add predictive value for prostate biopsy diagnosis. The clinical significance of the prostate specific antigen test can be improved by separating Gleason 7 prostate cancers into a 3+4 and 4+3 group. Copyright © 2015 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Impact of short course hormonal therapy on overall and cancer specific survival after permanent prostate brachytherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Beyer, David C.; McKeough, Timothy; Thomas, Theresa

    2005-01-01

    Purpose: To review the impact of prior hormonal therapy on 10-year overall and prostate cancer specific survival after primary brachytherapy. Methods and Materials: A retrospective review was performed on the Arizona Oncology Services tumor registry for 2,378 consecutive permanent prostate brachytherapy cases from 1988 through 2001. Hormonal therapy was administered before the implant in 464 patients for downsizing of the prostate or at the discretion of the referring physician. All deceased patients with known clinical recurrence were considered to have died of prostate cancer, irrespective of the immediate cause of death. Risk groups were defined, with 1,135 favorable (prostate-specific antigen [PSA] 70 years (p = 0.0013), Gleason score ≥ 7 (p = 0.0005), and prior hormone use (p = 0.0065) on overall survival. Conclusions: At 10 years, in prostate cancer patients receiving brachytherapy, overall survival is worse in men receiving neoadjuvant hormonal therapy, compared with hormone naive patients. This does not appear to be due to other known risk factors for survival (i.e., stage, grade, PSA, age) on multivariate analysis. The leading causes of death were cardiovascular, prostate cancer, and other cancers with no obvious discrepancy between the two groups. This finding is unexpected and requires confirmation from other centers

  2. Conditional cancer-specific mortality in T4, N1, or M1 prostate cancer: implications for long-term prognosis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muralidhar, Vinayak; Mahal, Brandon A.; Nguyen, Paul L.

    2015-01-01

    The risk of prostate cancer-specific mortality (PCSM) following a diagnosis of prostate cancer may improve after patients have survived a number of years after diagnosis. We sought to determine long-term conditional PCSM for patients with stage T4, N1, or M1 prostate cancer. We identified 66,817 patients diagnosed with stage IV (T4N0M0, N1M0, or M1) prostate cancer between 1973 and 2011 using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Conditional five-year PCSM was evaluated for each group of patients at 5, 10, and 15 years of survival according to the Fine & Gray model for competing risks after adjusting for tumor grade, age, income level, and marital status. Race-stratified analyses were also performed. There were 13,345 patients with T4 disease, 12,450 patients with N1 disease, and 41,022 patients with M1 disease. Median follow-up among survivors in the three groups was 123 months (range: 0–382 months), 61 months (range: 0–410 months), and 30 months (range: 0–370 months), respectively. Conditional PCSM improved in all three groups over time. Among patients with T4 disease, 5-year PCSM improved from 13.9 % at diagnosis to 11.2, 8.1, and 6.5 % conditioned on 5, 10, or 15 years of survival, respectively (p < 0.001 in all cases). In patients with N1 disease, 5-year PCSM increased within the first five years and decreased thereafter, from 18.9 % at diagnosis to 21.4 % (p < 0.001), 17.6 % (p = 0.055), and 13.8 % (p < 0.001), respectively. In patients with metastatic disease, 5-year PCSM improved from 57.2 % at diagnosis to 41.1, 28.8, and 20.8 %, respectively (p < 0.001). White race was associated with a greater increase in conditional survival compared to non-white race among those with T4 or N1 disease. While patients with T4, N1, or M1 prostate cancer are never “cured,” their odds of cancer-specific survival increase substantially after they have survived for 5 or more years. Physicians who take care of patients with prostate cancer

  3. Prescriptions of Traditional Chinese Medicine Are Specific to Cancer Types and Adjustable to Temperature Changes

    OpenAIRE

    Chiu, Pei-Hsun; Hsieh, Hsin-Ying; Wang, Sun-Chong

    2012-01-01

    Targeted cancer therapies, with specific molecular targets, ameliorate the side effect issue of radiation and chemotherapy and also point to the development of personalized medicine. Combination of drugs targeting multiple pathways of carcinogenesis is potentially more fruitful. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been tailoring herbal mixtures for individualized healthcare for two thousand years. A systematic study of the patterns of TCM formulas and herbs prescribed to cancers is valuabl...

  4. Breast density and mode of detection in relation to breast cancer specific survival: a cohort study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Olsson, Åsa; Sartor, Hanna; Borgquist, Signe; Zackrisson, Sophia; Manjer, Jonas

    2014-01-01

    The aim of this study was to examine breast density in relation to breast cancer specific survival and to assess if this potential association was modified by mode of detection. An additional aim was to study whether the established association between mode of detection and survival is modified by breast density. The study included 619 cases from a prospective cohort, The Malmö Diet and Cancer Study. Breast density estimated qualitatively, was analyzed in relation to breast cancer death, in non-symptomatic and symptomatic women, using Cox regression calculating hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals. Adjustments were made in several steps for; diagnostic age, tumour size, axillary lymph node involvement, grade, hormone receptor status, body mass index (baseline), diagnostic period, use of hormone replacement therapy at diagnosis and mode of detection. Detection mode in relation to survival was analyzed stratified for breast density. Differences in HR following different adjustments were analyzed by Freedmans%. After adjustment for age and other prognostic factors, women with dense, as compared to fatty breasts, had an increased risk of breast cancer death, HR 2.56:1.07-6.11, with a statistically significant trend over density categories, p = 0.04. In the stratified analysis, the effect was less pronounced in non-symptomatic women, HR 2.04:0.49-8.49 as compared to symptomatic, HR 3.40:1.06-10.90. In the unadjusted model, symptomatic women had a higher risk of breast cancer death, regardless of breast density. Analyzed by Freedmans%, age, tumour size, lymph nodes, grade, diagnostic period, ER and PgR explained 55.5% of the observed differences in mortality between non-symptomatic and symptomatic cases. Additional adjustment for breast density caused only a minor change. High breast density at diagnosis may be associated with decreased breast cancer survival. This association appears to be stronger in women with symptomatic cancers but breast density could

  5. Prospective Population-Based Study of the Association between Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin-D Levels and the Incidence of Specific Types of Cancer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Skaaby, Tea; Husemoen, Lise Lotte Nystrup; Thuesen, Betina Heinsbæk

    2014-01-01

    nmol/L higher baseline vitamin D level were: for all cancers (HR = 1.02; 95% CI, 0.99-1.04), all cancers excluding non-melanoma skin cancer, NMSC (HR = 1.00; 95% CI, 0.97-1.03), head and neck cancer (HR = 0.97; 95% CI, 0.84-1.12), colorectal cancer (HR = 0.95; 95% CI, 0.88-1.02), cancer of bronchus......BACKGROUND: Observational studies have suggested an inverse association between vitamin D status and cancer. We investigated the prospective associations between vitamin D status and the total and specific type of cancer in three cohorts from the general Danish population. METHODS: A total of 12...... melanoma (HR = 1.06; 95% CI, 0.95-1.17). CONCLUSIONS: Apart from a significantly higher risk for NMSC with higher vitamin D status, we found no statistically significant associations between vitamin D status and total or specific cancers. IMPACT: Our results do not indicate that there is an impact...

  6. Differential microRNA expression signatures and cell type-specific association with Taxol resistance in ovarian cancer cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kim YW

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Yong-Wan Kim,1 Eun Young Kim,1 Doin Jeon,1 Juinn-Lin Liu,2 Helena Suhyun Kim,3 Jin Woo Choi,4 Woong Shick Ahn5 1Cancer Research Institute of Medical Science, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea; 2Brain Tumor Center, Department of Neuro-Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, TX, USA; 3Cancer Rehab Laboratory, RH Healthcare Systems Inc, TX, USA; 4Harvard Medical School and Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Cambridge, MA, USA; 5Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea Abstract: Paclitaxel (Taxol resistance remains a major obstacle for the successful treatment of ovarian cancer. MicroRNAs (miRNAs have oncogenic and tumor suppressor activity and are associated with poor prognosis phenotypes. miRNA screenings for this drug resistance are needed to estimate the prognosis of the disease and find better drug targets. miRNAs that were differentially expressed in Taxol-resistant ovarian cancer cells, compared with Taxol-sensitive cells, were screened by Illumina Human MicroRNA Expression BeadChips. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR was used to identify target genes of selected miRNAs. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was applied to identify dysregulated miRNAs in ovarian cancer patients using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas. A total of 82 miRNAs were identified in ovarian carcinoma cells compared to normal ovarian cells. miR-141, miR-106a, miR-200c, miR-96, and miR-378 were overexpressed, and miR-411, miR-432, miR-494, miR-409-3p, and miR-655 were underexpressed in ovarian cancer cells. Seventeen miRNAs were overexpressed in Taxol-resistant cells, including miR-663, miR-622, and HS_188. Underexpressed miRNAs in Taxol-sensitive cells included miR-497, miR-187, miR-195, and miR-107. We further showed miR-663 and miR-622 as significant prognosis markers of the chemo-resistant patient group. In particular, the

  7. The diagnostic value of transrectal ultrasonography combined with prostate specific antigen density in prostate cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shen Weidong; Zha Yueqin; Wang Ajun; Hou Jianquan; Ouyang Jun

    2008-01-01

    Objective: To discuss the value of transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) and prostate specific antigen density (PSAD) and prostate specific antigen density of transition zone (PSATZ) for diagnosing prostate cancer. Methods: Chose cases of prostate cancer(PCa) and benign prostate hyperplasia(BPH), each was 19, all the eases were authenticated by pathology. Then compared the characteristic of prostate cancer with prostate specific antigen (PSA) and homologous PSAD, PSATZ. Results: Fourteen cases were discovered by ultrasound among the 19 PCa, the others were only diagnosed as BPH.Among the 14 cases, diffuse pathological changing was found in 1 patient, nodular changing in 13 patients (16 nodules were found). Among the 16 nodules, there were 13 hypoechoic nodules (75%) and 3 hyper echoic or compound echoic nodules (25%), and there were 13 nodules in outer zone and 3 nodules in transition zone.The PSA of PCa and BPH was 8.61-98.65 ng/ml [(48.79±25.34)ng/ml] and 0.58-28.36 ng/ml [(9.73±8.19)ng/ml]. There were no significant differences between the volume of prostate and prostate transition zone (P>0.05), but there were significant differences between the PSAD and PSATZ (P<0.01). That the PCa group was higher than that in the BPH group. Conclusion: It is higher sensitive but bess specific in diagonosis PCa by means of transrectal ultrasound. If it is combined with PSAD and PSATZ, the diagnostic rate of PCa is highly raised. (authors)

  8. A novel classifier based on three preoperative tumor markers predicting the cancer-specific survival of gastric cancer (CEA, CA19-9 and CA72-4).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Jing; Chen, Shangxiang; Li, Shun; Sun, Xiaowei; Li, Wei; Zhou, Zhiwei; Chen, Yingbo; Xu, Dazhi

    2018-01-12

    Several studies have highlighted the prognostic value of the individual and the various combinations of the tumor markers for gastric cancer (GC). Our study was designed to assess establish a new novel model incorporating carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), carbohydrate antigen 72-4 (CA72-4). A total of 1,566 GC patients (Primary cohort) between Jan 2000 and July 2013 were analyzed. The Primary cohort was randomly divided into Training set (n=783) and Validation set (n=783). A three-tumor marker classifier was developed in the Training set and validated in the Validation set by multivariate regression and risk-score analysis. We have identified a three-tumor marker classifier (including CEA, CA19-9 and CA72-4) for the cancer specific survival (CSS) of GC (ptumor marker classifier is closely associated with the CSS of GC and may serve as a novel model for future decisions concerning treatments.

  9. Associations of parity-related reproductive histories with ER± and HER2± receptor-specific breast cancer aetiology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Anderson, William F; Pfeiffer, Ruth M; Wohlfahrt, Jan

    2017-01-01

    ± expression. Methods: We linked a cancer registry covering nearly 95% of the primary breast cancer diagnoses in Denmark with a research parity database to assess associations for parity, number of live births and age at first live birth (AFLB) with receptor-specific risk. Relative risks (RRs) for associations...

  10. The role of serum prostate specific antigen assayed by TRFIA in diagnosis of prostate cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Deng Yongmei; Zhang Jinshan; Li Min

    2002-01-01

    The authors evaluate the diagnostic value of serum free prostate specific antigen (F-PSA), total-PSA(T-PSA) and free/total (F/T) PSA ratio in differentiation between benign and malignant prostatic diseases. Serum samples were measured by time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay (TRFIA), there were 86 patients whose T-PSA levels were limited within 2-20 ng/mL, from the results of prostate biopsies after operation, the patients were classified into two groups: the group with prostate hyperplasia (68 patients) and the group with prostate cancer (18 patients). The serum F-PSA and T-PSA of the two groups were analysed and compared, and the F/T PSA ratio was calculated. Results were: 1) the means of F-PSA and T-PSA were not significantly different between patients with prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and with prostate cancer (P>0.05), but the mean of F/T PSA ratio for prostate cancer was significantly lower than that for BPH (P<0.001); 2) sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value for prostate cancer detection at a cutoff value of 0.18 for the F/T PSA ratio were 85%, 72.5% and 43.6%, respectively. Conclusion is the F/T PSA ratio may be used in differentiation prostate cancer from BPH, and when T-PSA level is within the range of 2-20 ng/mL, selecting 0.18 as the cutoff value has great clinical value

  11. Second cancers following radiotherapy for early stage head and neck cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shibuya, Hitoshi; Yoshimura, Ryo-ichi; Oota, Sayako; Watanabe, Hiroshi; Miura, Masahiko

    2005-01-01

    Different site specificity of second primary cancer following treatment for early stage squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck was found in the analysis of post-treatment long-term follow up cases. The highest risk of second primary cancer was observed in the oro-hypo-pharynx cancer groups, and the lowest risks were observed in the epi-pharynx cancer and maxillary sinus cancer groups. Squamous cell carcinoma in the irradiated head and neck region with long latency periods could be included in the radiation induced cancer from comparison with post-irradiation cases for malignant lymphoma, benign diseases as well as breast cancers. (author)

  12. Systematic drug screening reveals specific vulnerabilities and co-resistance patterns in endocrine-resistant breast cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kangaspeska, Sara; Hultsch, Susanne; Jaiswal, Alok; Edgren, Henrik; Mpindi, John-Patrick; Eldfors, Samuli; Brück, Oscar; Aittokallio, Tero; Kallioniemi, Olli

    2016-07-04

    The estrogen receptor (ER) inhibitor tamoxifen reduces breast cancer mortality by 31 % and has served as the standard treatment for ER-positive breast cancers for decades. However, 50 % of advanced ER-positive cancers display de novo resistance to tamoxifen, and acquired resistance evolves in 40 % of patients who initially respond. Mechanisms underlying resistance development remain poorly understood and new therapeutic opportunities are urgently needed. Here, we report the generation and characterization of seven tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer cell lines from four parental strains. Using high throughput drug sensitivity and resistance testing (DSRT) with 279 approved and investigational oncology drugs, exome-sequencing and network analysis, we for the first time, systematically determine the drug response profiles specific to tamoxifen resistance. We discovered emerging vulnerabilities towards specific drugs, such as ERK1/2-, proteasome- and BCL-family inhibitors as the cells became tamoxifen-resistant. Co-resistance to other drugs such as the survivin inhibitor YM155 and the chemotherapeutic agent paclitaxel also occurred. This study indicates that multiple molecular mechanisms dictate endocrine resistance, resulting in unexpected vulnerabilities to initially ineffective drugs, as well as in emerging co-resistances. Thus, combatting drug-resistant tumors will require patient-tailored strategies in order to identify new drug vulnerabilities, and to understand the associated co-resistance patterns.

  13. Specificity of choline metabolites for in vivo diagnosis of breast cancer using 1H MRS at 1.5 T

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stanwell, Peter; Gluch, Laurence; Lean, Cynthia; Malycha, Peter; Mountford, Carolyn; Clark, David; Tomanek, Boguslaw; Baker, Luke; Giuffre, Bruno

    2005-01-01

    The purpose was to determine if in vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 1 H MRS) at 1.5 T can accurately provide the correct pathology of breast disease. Forty-three asymptomatic volunteers including three lactating mothers were examined and compared with 21 breast cancer patients. Examinations were undertaken at 1.5 T using a purpose-built transmit-receive single breast coil. Single voxel spectroscopy was undertaken using echo times of 135 and 350 ms. The broad composite resonance at 3.2 ppm, which includes contributions from choline, phosphocholine (PC), glycerophosphocholine (GPC), myo-inositol and taurine, was found not to be a unique marker for malignancy providing a diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of 80.0 and 86.0%, respectively. This was due to three of the asymptomatic volunteers and all of the lactating mothers also generating the broad composite resonance at 3.2 ppm. Optimised post-acquisitional processing of the spectra resolved a resonance at 3.22 ppm, consistent with PC, in patients with cancer. In contrast the spectra recorded for three false-positive volunteers, and the three lactating mothers had a resonance centred at 3.28 ppm (possibly taurine, myo-inositol or GPC). This improved the specificity of the test to 100%. Careful referencing of the spectra and post-acquisitional processing intended to optimise spectral resolution of in vivo MR proton spectra from human breast tissue resolves the composite choline resonance. This allows the distinction of patients with malignant disease from volunteers with a sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 100%. Therefore, resolution of the composite choline resonance into its constituent components improves the specificity of the in vivo 1 H MRS method, but does not overcome the problem of 20% false-negatives. (orig.)

  14. HPV16 early gene E5 specifically reduces miRNA-196a in cervical cancer cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Chanzhen; Lin, Jianfei; Li, Lianqin; Zhang, Yonggang; Chen, Weiling; Cao, Zeyi; Zuo, Huancong; Chen, Chunling; Kee, Kehkooi

    2015-01-01

    High-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16, which is responsible for greater than 50% of cervical cancer cases, is the most prevalent and lethal HPV type. However, the molecular mechanisms of cervical carcinogenesis remain elusive, particularly the early steps of HPV infection that may transform normal cervical epithelium into a pre-neoplastic state. Here, we report that a group of microRNAs (microRNAs) were aberrantly decreased in HPV16-positive normal cervical tissues, and these groups of microRNAs are further reduced in cervical carcinoma. Among these miRNAs, miR196a expression is the most reduced in HPV16-infected tissues. Interestingly, miR196a expression is low in HPV16-positive cervical cancer cell lines but high in HPV16-negative cervical cancer cell lines. Furthermore, we found that only HPV16 early gene E5 specifically down-regulated miRNA196a in the cervical cancer cell lines. In addition, HoxB8, a known miR196a target gene, is up-regulated in the HPV16 cervical carcinoma cell line but not in HPV18 cervical cancer cell lines. Various doses of miR196a affected cervical cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis. Altogether, these results suggested that HPV16 E5 specifically down-regulates miR196a upon infection of the human cervix and initiates the transformation of normal cervix cells to cervical carcinoma. PMID:25563170

  15. Adherence to the cancer prevention recommendations of the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research and mortality: a census-linked cohort.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lohse, Tina; Faeh, David; Bopp, Matthias; Rohrmann, Sabine

    2016-09-01

    Modifiable lifestyle factors linked to cancer offer great potential for prevention. Previous studies suggest an association between adherence to recommendations on healthy lifestyle and cancer mortality. The aim of this study was to examine whether adherence to the cancer prevention recommendations of the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) is associated with reduced all-cause, total cancer, and specific cancer type mortality. We built a lifestyle score that included 3 categories, based on the recommendations of the WCRF/AICR. Applying Cox regression models, we investigated the association with all-cause, total cancer, and specific cancer type mortality; in addition, we included cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. We used census- and death registry-linked survey data allowing a mortality follow-up for ≤32 y. Our analysis included 16,722 participants. Information on lifestyle score components and confounders was collected at baseline. Over a mean follow-up of 21.7 y, 3730 deaths were observed (1332 cancer deaths). Comparing best with poorest category of the lifestyle score showed an inverse association with all-cause (HR: 0.82; 95% CI: 0.75, 0.89) and total cancer (men only, HR: 0.69; 95% CI: 0.57, 0.84) mortality. We estimated that ∼13% of premature cancer deaths in men would have been preventable if lifestyle score levels had been high. Inverse associations were observed for lung, upper aerodigestive tract, stomach, and prostate cancer mortality [men and women combined, HR: 0.72; 95% CI: 0.51, 0.99; HR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.26, 0.92; HR: 0.34; 95% CI: 0.14, 0.83; HR: 0.48; 95% CI: 0.28, 0.82 (men only), respectively]. CVD mortality was not associated with the lifestyle score (men and women combined, HR: 0.96; 95% CI: 0.82, 1.13). Our results support the importance of adhering to recommendations for a healthy lifestyle with regard to all-cause and cancer mortality. To reduce the burden of cancer in the

  16. How reassuring is a normal breast ultrasound in assessment of a screen-detected mammographic abnormality? A review of interval cancers after assessment that included ultrasound evaluation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bennett, M.L. [Breastscreen WA, Perth (Australia); Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth (Australia); Welman, C.J. [Breastscreen WA, Perth (Australia); Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth (Australia); Department of Radiology, Fremantle Hospital and Health Service, Fremantle (Australia); Celliers, L.M., E-mail: liesl.celliers@health.wa.gov.au [Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth (Australia); Department of Radiology, Fremantle Hospital and Health Service, Fremantle (Australia)

    2011-10-15

    Aim: To review factors resulting in a false-negative outcome or delayed cancer diagnosis in women recalled for further evaluation, including ultrasound, after an abnormal screening mammogram. Materials and methods: Of 646,692 screening mammograms performed between 1 January 1995 and 31 December 2004, 34,533 women were recalled for further assessment. Nine hundred and sixty-four interval cancers were reported in this period. Forty-six of these women had been recalled for further assessment, which specifically included ultrasound evaluation in the preceding 24 months, and therefore, met the inclusion criteria for this study. Screening mammograms, further mammographic views, ultrasound scans, clinical findings, and histopathology results were retrospectively reviewed by two consultant breast radiologists. Results: The interval cancer developed in the contralateral breast (n = 9), ipsilateral breast, but different site (n = 6), and ipsilateral breast at the same site (n = 31) as the abnormality for which they had recently been recalled. In the latter group, 10 were retrospectively classified as a false-negative outcome, nine had a delay in obtaining a biopsy, and 12 had a delay due to a non-diagnostic initial biopsy. Various factors relating to these outcomes are discussed. Conclusion: Out of 34,533 women who attended for an assessment visit and the 46 women who subsequently developed an interval breast cancer, 15 were true interval cancers, 10 had a false-negative assessment outcome, and 21 had a delay to cancer diagnosis on the basis of a number of factors. When there is discrepancy between the imaging and histopathology results, a repeat biopsy rather than early follow-up would have avoided a delay in some cases. A normal ultrasound examination should not deter the radiologist from proceeding to stereotactic biopsy, if the index mammographic lesion is suspicious of malignancy.

  17. Extracellular thiol-assisted selenium uptake dependent on the x(c)(-) cystine transporter explains the cancer-specific cytotoxicity of selenite

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olm, E.; Fernandes, A. P.; Hebert, C.

    2009-01-01

    The selenium salt selenite (SeO32-) is cytotoxic in low to moderate concentrations, with a remarkable specificity for cancer cells resistant to conventional chemotherapy. Our data show that selenium uptake and accumulation, rather than intracellular events, are crucial to the specific selenite...... cytotoxicity observed in resistant cancer cells. We show that selenium uptake depends on extracellular reduction, and that the extracellular environment is a key factor specific to selenite cytotoxicity. The extracellular reduction is mediated by cysteine, and the efficacy is determined by the uptake...

  18. [Gender-specific influences on incidence, screening, treatment, and outcome of colorectal cancer].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grundmann, R T; Meyer, F

    2013-08-01

    This overview comments on potential gender-specific differences in incidence, anatomic site, screening, treatment, and outcome in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). For the literature review, the Medline database (PubMed) was searched under the key words "colorectal carcinoma AND gender" and "gender differences AND colorectal cancer". Publications of the last 9 years (2005-2013) were firstly retrieved. CRC is more commonly observed in men than in women, with the higher tumour risk for men being limited to the distal colon and rectum. Risk factors for the development of CRC include overweight and obesity, this relationship is more pronounced for men than for women. The extent to which gender is a prognostic factor for patient survival is controversial. A better survival of women compared to men is found especially in the younger age groups, from which can be derived a protective effect of oestrogens on the development of CRC. As for the frequency with which men and women undergo a screening of CRC, sometimes higher screening rates have been reported for men than women, however, the socio-economic status of persons invited to participate has much more influence on screening attendance than gender. An analysis of surgical procedures indicates that it is more difficult to perform the low anterior resection of the rectum in men than women, with the result that men managed by less experienced surgeons are more likely to receive abdominoperineal excision. Furthermore, the risk of anastomotic leakage is higher in men than women. The essential gender difference, however, is the longer life expectancy of women compared to men which has been not always clearly (risk adjusted) elaborated in the studies available so far. This difference alone can already explain at a high rate the poorer prognosis of right-sided colon cancers compared to left-sided cancers. Comparable levels of CRC risk are reached in women as compared to men at a higher age. This may influence the

  19. A retrospective study to rule out possible association of genetic and non-genetic risk factors with specific brca mutation positive breast cancers is some Pakistani females

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Malik, S.; Imran, M.; Hanif, A.; Bilal, M.

    2009-01-01

    Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among Asian women including Pakistan where recurrent mutations among certain sub-ethnic groups predisposing to breast cancer have recently been established. Study Design: The current retrospective study involves identification of genetic and non-genetic risk factors in 27 specific mutation positive females out of a. total of 100 females diagnosed with breast cancer, representing a sample from the Punjabi ethnic population of the city of Lahore. The study has been carried out by telephonic communication with the mutation positive patients or their relatives. Results: Out of the total 27% patients positive for specific BRCA mutations, 23% were positive for BRCAI mutations and 4% for BRCA2. Among a total of 100 breast cancer patients the BRCAI-IVS14, lG>A mutation was identified in 5 Punjabi ethnic females with Rajput sub ethnicity, BRCAI-3889delAG in 10 (8 with Mughal and 2 with Khan sub ethnicity), BRCAI-2080insA in 8 (Rajput sub ethnics) and BRCA2-3337C>T in 4 (Minhas sub ethnic) subjects. Two BRCAI mutations, namely 3889delAG and 2080insA were found to coexist in only one study case (with Mughal sub ethnicity). All the mutation positive breast cancers had unilateral ductal carcinoma. Of the 23 cases positive for screened BRCAI mutations, 17 were diagnosed for breast cancer at a relatively early age (age<40) and 6 were diagnosed at late age (age<41) whereas all cases positive for single BRCA2 mutation under consideration were diagnosed at late age. Furthermore, 24 of 27 patients with specific BRCA mutations had a positive family history of breast cancer. The high prevalence of the screened BRCA mutations in certain Punjabi sub-ethnicities indicates the importance of counseling. It is suggested that consanguinity may be a risk factor for recurrent population specific mutations. Hormonal factors including use of oral contraceptives, polycystic ovaries, central obesity, nulliparity, late age at first pregnancy, lack of

  20. Stage-specific incidence rates and trends of prostate cancer by age, race, and ethnicity, United States, 2004-2014.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jun; Siegel, David A; King, Jessica B

    2018-05-01

    Current literature shows different findings on the contemporary trends of distant-stage prostate cancer incidence, in part, due to low study population coverage and wide age groupings. This study aimed to examine the stage-specific incidence rates and trends of prostate cancer by age (5-year grouping), race, and ethnicity using nationwide cancer registry data. Data on prostate cancer cases came from the 2004-2014 United States Cancer Statistics data set. We calculated stage-specific incidence and 95% confidence intervals by age (5-year age grouping), race, and ethnicity. To measure the changes in rates over time, we calculated annual percentage change (APC). We identified 2,137,054 incident prostate cancers diagnosed during 2004-2014, with an age-adjusted incidence rate of 453.8 per 100,000. Distant-stage prostate cancer incidence significantly decreased during 2004-2010 (APC = -1.2) and increased during 2010-2014 (APC = 3.3). Significant increases in distant prostate cancer incidence also occurred in men aged older than or equal to 50 years except men aged 65-74 and older than or equal to 85 years, in men with white race (APC = 3.9), and non-Hispanic ethnicity (APC = 3.5). Using data representing over 99% of U.S. population, we found that incidence rates of distant-stage prostate cancer significantly increased during 2010-2014 among men in certain ages, in white, and with non-Hispanic ethnicity. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  1. Upregulation of bacterial-specific Th1 and Th17 responses that are enriched in CXCR5+CD4+ T cells in non-small cell lung cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Qin-Yun; Huang, Da-Yu; Zhang, Hui-Jun; Wang, Shaohua; Chen, Xiao-Feng

    2017-11-01

    The microbial community in the mucosal surfaces is involved in the development of human cancers, including gastric cancer and colorectal cancer. The respiratory tract in the lung also hosts a distinctive microbial community, but the correlation between this community and lung cancer is largely unknown. Here, we examined the Th1 and Th17 responses toward several bacterial antigens, in CD4 + T cells sourced from the peripheral blood (PB), the lung cancer (LC) tissue, and the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Compared to healthy controls, the NSCLC patients presented significantly higher frequencies of Th1 and Th17 cells reacting to Streptococcus salivarius and S. agalactiae, in the PB, LC, and GI tract. Further investigation showed that the upregulation in anti-bacteria response was likely antigen-specific for two reasons. Firstly, the frequencies of Th1 and Th17 cells reacting to Escherichia coli, a typical GI bacterium, were not upregulated in the PB and the LC of NSCLC patients. Secondly, the S. salivarius and S. agalactiae responses could be partially blocked by Tü39, a MHC class II blocking antibody, suggesting that antigen-specific interaction between CD4 + T cells and antigen-presenting cells was required. We also found that S. salivarius and S. agalactiae could potently activate the monocytes to secrete higher levels of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-12, and tumor necrosis factor, which were Th1- and Th17-skewing cytokines. Interestingly, whereas CXCR5 + CD4 + T cells represented <20% of total CD4 + T cells, they represented 17%-82% of bacteria-specific Th1 or Th17 cells. Together, these data demonstrated that NSCLC patients presented a significant upregulation of bacterial-specific Th1 and Th17 responses that were enriched in CXCR5 + CD4 + T cells. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Nutrition impact symptoms in advanced cancer patients: frequency and specific interventions, a case?control study

    OpenAIRE

    Omlin, Aurelius; Blum, David; Wierecky, Jan; Haile, Sarah R.; Ottery, Faith D.; Strasser, Florian

    2013-01-01

    Background Involuntary weight loss (IWL) is frequent in advanced cancer patients causing compromised anticancer treatment outcomes and function. Cancer cachexia is influenced by nutrition impact symptoms (NIS). The aim of this study was to explore the frequency of NIS in advanced patients and to assess specific interventions guided by a 12-item NIS checklist. Methods Consecutive patients from an outpatient nutrition-fatigue clinic completed the NIS checklist. The NIS checklist was developed b...

  3. Decrease in specific micronutrient intake in colorectal cancer patients with tumors presenting Ki-ras mutation

    OpenAIRE

    JORDI SALAS; NURIA LASO; SERGI MAS; M. JOSE LAFUENTE; XAVIER CASTERAD; MANUEL TRIAS; ANTONIO BALLESTA; RAFAEL MOLINA; CARLOS ASCASO; SHICHUN ZHENG; JOHN K. WIENCKE; AMALIA LAFUENTE

    2004-01-01

    Decrease in specific micronutrient intake in colorectal cancer patients with tumors presenting Ki-ras mutation BACKGROUND: The diversity of the Mediterranean diet and the heterogeneity of acquired genetic alterations in colorectal cancer (CRC) led us to examine the possible association between dietary factors and mutations, such as Ki-ras mutations, in genes implicated in the pathogenesis of these neoplasms. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study was based on 246 cases and 296 controls. For th...

  4. Rapid enrichment of human papillomavirus (HPV)-specific polyclonal T cell populations for adoptive immunotherapy of cervical cancer

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Jong, Annemieke; van der Hulst, Jeanette M.; Kenter, Gemma G.; Drijfhout, Jan Wouter; Franken, Kees L. M. C.; Vermeij, Pieter; Offringa, Rienk; van der Burg, Sjoerd H.; Melief, Cornelis J. M.

    2005-01-01

    The majority of cervical cancers are caused by human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16). Cervical cancer is associated with an ineffective host immune response against the HPV16 oncoproteins, characterized by the lack of the strong E6-specific T-helper type 1 (Th1) immunity that is generally present in

  5. Methylation profiling identified novel differentially methylated markers including OPCML and FLRT2 in prostate cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Yu; Davison, Jerry; Qu, Xiaoyu; Morrissey, Colm; Storer, Barry; Brown, Lisha; Vessella, Robert; Nelson, Peter; Fang, Min

    2016-04-02

    To develop new methods to distinguish indolent from aggressive prostate cancers (PCa), we utilized comprehensive high-throughput array-based relative methylation (CHARM) assay to identify differentially methylated regions (DMRs) throughout the genome, including both CpG island (CGI) and non-CGI regions in PCa patients based on Gleason grade. Initially, 26 samples, including 8 each of low [Gleason score (GS) 6] and high (GS ≥7) grade PCa samples and 10 matched normal prostate tissues, were analyzed as a discovery cohort. We identified 3,567 DMRs between normal and cancer tissues, and 913 DMRs distinguishing low from high-grade cancers. Most of these DMRs were located at CGI shores. The top 5 candidate DMRs from the low vs. high Gleason comparison, including OPCML, ELAVL2, EXT1, IRX5, and FLRT2, were validated by pyrosequencing using the discovery cohort. OPCML and FLRT2 were further validated in an independent cohort consisting of 20 low-Gleason and 33 high-Gleason tissues. We then compared patients with biochemical recurrence (n=70) vs. those without (n=86) in a third cohort, and they showed no difference in methylation at these DMR loci. When GS 3+4 cases and GS 4+3 cases were compared, OPCML-DMR methylation showed a trend of lower methylation in the recurrence group (n=30) than in the no-recurrence (n=52) group. We conclude that whole-genome methylation profiling with CHARM revealed distinct patterns of differential DNA methylation between normal prostate and PCa tissues, as well as between different risk groups of PCa as defined by Gleason scores. A panel of selected DMRs may serve as novel surrogate biomarkers for Gleason score in PCa.

  6. Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen Targeted Therapy of Prostate Cancer Using a DUPA-Paclitaxel Conjugate.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lv, Qingzhi; Yang, Jincheng; Zhang, Ruoshi; Yang, Zimeng; Yang, Zhengtao; Wang, Yongjun; Xu, Youjun; He, Zhonggui

    2018-05-07

    Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most prevalent cancer among men in the United States and remains the second-leading cause of cancer mortality in men. Paclitaxel (PTX) is the first line chemotherapy for PCa treatment, but its therapeutic efficacy is greatly restricted by the nonspecific distribution in vivo. Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is overexpressed on the surface of most PCa cells, and its expression level increases with cancer aggressiveness, while being present at low levels in normal cells. The high expression level of PSMA in PCa cells offers an opportunity for target delivery of nonspecific cytotoxic drugs to PCa cells, thus improving therapeutic efficacy and reducing toxicity. PSMA has high affinity for DUPA, a glutamate urea ligand. Herein, a novel DUPA-PTX conjugate is developed using DUPA as the targeting ligand to deliver PTX specifically for treatment of PSMA expressing PCa. The targeting ligand DUPA enhances the transport capability and selectivity of PTX to tumor cells via PSMA mediated endocytosis. Besides, DUPA is conjugated with PTX via a disulfide bond, which facilitates the rapid and differential drug release in tumor cells. The DUPA-PTX conjugate exhibits potent cytotoxicity in PSMA expressing cell lines and induces a complete cessation of tumor growth with no obvious toxicity. Our findings give new insight into the PSMA-targeted delivery of chemotherapeutics and provide an opportunity for the development of novel active targeting drug delivery systems for PCa therapy.

  7. Evaluation of the Quality of Life in Adult Cancer Survivors (QLACS scale for long-term cancer survivors in a sample of breast cancer survivors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Foley Kristie

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background This paper evaluates psychometric properties of a recently developed measure focusing on the health-related quality of life (HRQL of long-term cancer survivors, the Quality of Life in Adult Survivors scale (QLACS, in a sample of breast cancer survivors. This represents an important area of study, given the large number of breast cancer patients surviving many years post diagnosis. Methods Analyses are based on an 8-year follow-up of a sample of breast cancer survivors who participated in an earlier study conducted in 1995. Participants were re-contacted in 2003 and those who were reachable and agreed to participate (n = 94 were surveyed using a variety of measures including the QLACS. Additional follow-up surveys were conducted 2 weeks and one year later. Psychometric tests of the QLACS included test-retest reliability, concurrent and retrospective validity, and responsiveness. Results The QLACS domain and summary scores showed good test-retest reliability (all test-retest correlations were above .7 and high internal consistency. The Generic Summary Score showed convergent validity with other measures designed to assess generic HRQL. The Cancer-Specific Summary score exhibited divergent validity with generic HRQL measures, but not a cancer-related specific measure. The QLACS Cancer-Specific Summary Score demonstrated satisfactory predictive validity for factors that were previously shown to be correlated with HRQL. The QLACS generally demonstrated a high level of responsiveness to life changes. Conclusion The QLACS may serve as a useful measure for assessing HRQL among long-term breast cancer survivors that are not otherwise captured by generic measures or those specifically designed for newly diagnosed patients.

  8. Promoter Hypermethylation of the Eyes Absent 4 Gene is a Tumor-Specific Epigenetic Biomarker in Iranian Colorectal Cancer Patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matineh Barati Bagerabad

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study was to investigate whether hypermethylation of Eyes Absent 4 (EYA4 is also implicated in Iranian Colorectal Cancer (CRC patients or not. From fresh frozen tissues, samples from 38 paired (cancer and normal CRC tissue specimens were used in this study, the DNA was isolated, sodium bisulfite treated and analyzed by methylation-specific polymerase (MSP chain reaction using primers specific for unmethylated or methylated promoter sequences of the EYA4 gene. We also analyzed EYA4 mRNA expression using real time RT-PCR. Demographic characteristics of these patients including age, sex, tumor grade, location, stage, and TNM classification were evaluated and the relationship between methylation status of the gene and clinicopathological features was analyzed. Current study indicated that EYA4 promoter hypermethylation has a sensitivity of 81.57% and specificity of 78.94%. Findings showed lower expression of EYA-4 in methylated samples in comparison with its normal adjacent tissue, although it was not significant (P>0.05. No significant associations were observed between EYA4 hypermethylation and the clinicopathological characteristics. Although the clinical patient outcome of our 38 CRC patients was not associated with EYA4 promoter hypermethylation, the high frequency of this methylation and its high sensitivity and specificity to neoplastic cells may qualify EYA4 promoter methylation as a potential candidate screening marker in Iranian population and may help to improve early detection of CRC.

  9. Locus-Specific Databases and Recommendations to Strengthen Their Contribution to the Classification of Variants in Cancer Susceptibility Genes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Greenblatt, Marc S.; Brody, Lawrence C.; Foulkes, William D.; Genuardi, Maurizio; Hofstra, Robert M. W.; Olivier, Magali; Plon, Sharon E.; Sijmons, Rolf H.; Sinilnikova, Olga; Spurdle, Amanda B.

    2008-01-01

    Locus-specific databases (LSDBs) are curated collections of sequence variants in genes associated with disease. LSDBs of cancer-related genes often serve as a critical resource to researchers, diagnostic laboratories, clinicians, and others in the cancer genetics community. LSDBs are poised to play

  10. The Danish Prostate Cancer Database

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nguyen-Nielsen, Mary; Høyer, Søren; Friis, Søren

    2016-01-01

    variables include Gleason scores, cancer staging, prostate-specific antigen values, and therapeutic measures (active surveillance, surgery, radiotherapy, endocrine therapy, and chemotherapy). DESCRIPTIVE DATA: In total, 22,332 patients with prostate cancer were registered in DAPROCAdata as of April 2015......AIM OF DATABASE: The Danish Prostate Cancer Database (DAPROCAdata) is a nationwide clinical cancer database that has prospectively collected data on patients with incident prostate cancer in Denmark since February 2010. The overall aim of the DAPROCAdata is to improve the quality of prostate cancer...... care in Denmark by systematically collecting key clinical variables for the purposes of health care monitoring, quality improvement, and research. STUDY POPULATION: All Danish patients with histologically verified prostate cancer are included in the DAPROCAdata. MAIN VARIABLES: The DAPROCAdata...

  11. Relation of prostatic specific antigen, bone scan and Gleason score in prostate cancer Nuclear Medicine Center IPEN - INEN, 1993-1995

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mendoza Perez, German E.

    2006-01-01

    Objectives: To establish the relationship of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA), Gleason score and bone scan, to determine bone metastases in prostate cancer patients (PC). Material and Methods: A retrospective cases and series study was performed in patients with prostate cancer derived to the Centre of Nuclear Medicine IPEN-INEN from 1993 to 1995. 165 patients were included. Frequency charts were done for every study variable, quantitative variables were expressed by mean ± SD; for qualitative variables percentages were used. To confirm relations a Chi-square (χ2) test was applied. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for a 20 ng/mL cut off point of PSA and a Gleason score of 8 were carried out using contingency charts. Diagnostic performance of this tests were performed applying R.O.C. curve. Results: Mean age was 71.27 ± 7.6 years. Bone metastases were found in 84 (50.9%) patients. For a 20 ng/mL PSA, sensitivity was of 0.92, specificity of 0.47, PPV of 0.64 and NPV of 0.84; for a Gleason score of 8, sensitivity was 0.59, specificity 0.69, PPV O.67 and NPV 0.62. The probability to have a positive bone scan with a Gleason score of 8 is up to 10% for ≤ 4 ng/mL PSA; 15% for ≤ 10 ng/mL PSA, and 20% if PSA level is ≤ 20 ng/mL. Conclusions: We conclude, for the studied population, that it is necessary to perform a bone scan in all recently diagnosed prostate cancer patients, independently of PSA levels and Gleason score, in order to determine if bone metastases are present. (author)

  12. Cancer morbidity in British military veterans included in chemical warfare agent experiments at Porton Down: cohort study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linsell, L; Brooks, C; Keegan, T J; Langdon, T; Doyle, P; Maconochie, N E S; Fletcher, T; Nieuwenhuijsen, M J; Beral, V

    2009-01-01

    Objective To determine cancer morbidity in members of the armed forces who took part in tests of chemical warfare agents from 1941 to 1989. Design Historical cohort study, with cohort members followed up to December 2004. Data source Archive of UK government research facility at Porton Down, UK military personnel records, and national death and cancer records. Participants All veterans included in the cohort study of mortality, excluding those known to have died or been lost to follow-up before 1 January 1971 when the UK cancer registration system commenced: 17 013 male members of the UK armed forces who took part in tests (Porton Down veterans) and a similar group of 16 520 men who did not (non-Porton Down veterans). Main outcome measures Cancer morbidity in each group of veterans; rate ratios, with 95% confidence intervals, adjusted for age group and calendar period. Results 3457 cancers were reported in the Porton Down veterans compared with 3380 cancers in the non-Porton Down veterans. While overall cancer morbidity was the same in both groups (rate ratio 1.00, 95% confidence interval 0.95 to 1.05), Porton Down veterans had higher rates of ill defined malignant neoplasms (1.12, 1.02 to 1.22), in situ neoplasms (1.45, 1.06 to 2.00), and those of uncertain or unknown behaviour (1.32, 1.01 to 1.73). Conclusion Overall cancer morbidity in Porton Down veterans was no different from that in non-Porton Down veterans. PMID:19318700

  13. Combined determination of circulating miR-196a and miR-196b levels produces high sensitivity and specificity for early detection of oral cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Ya-Ching; Chang, Joseph Tung-Chieh; Huang, Yu-Chen; Huang, Chi-Che; Chen, Wen-Ho; Lee, Li-Yu; Huang, Bing-Shen; Chen, Yin-Ju; Li, Hsiao-Fang; Cheng, Ann-Joy

    2015-02-01

    The aim of this study was to determine whether the oncogenic microRNA family members miR-196a and miR-196b can be circulating biomarkers for the early detection of oral cancer. To determine the stability of circulating miRNA, the blood sample was aliquot and stored at different temperature conditions for analysis. To assess the diagnostic efficacy, we determined the levels of miR-196s in plasma samples, including 53 from healthy individuals, 16 from pre-cancer patients, and 90 from oral cancer patients. In general, circulating miRNA was very stable when storing plasma samples at -20°C or below. In clinical study, both circulating miR-196a and miR-196b were substantially up-regulated in patients with oral pre-cancer lesions (5.9- and 14.8-fold, respectively; P oral cancer patients (9.3- and 17.0-fold, respectively; P cancer patients (AUC = 0.764 or 0.840, miR-196a or miR-196b, respectively), and between normal and cancer patients (AUC = 0.864 or 0.960, miR-196a or miR-196b, respectively). The combined determination of miR-196a and miR-196b levels produces excellent sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of patients with oral pre-cancer (AUC = 0.845) or oral cancer (AUC = 0.963), as well as in the prediction of potential malignancy (AUC = 0.950, sensitivity = 91%, specificity = 85%). Combined determination of circulating miR-196a and miR-196b levels may serve as panel plasma biomarkers for the early detection of oral cancer. Copyright © 2014 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. ALERT. Adverse late effects of cancer treatment. Vol. 1. General concepts and specific precepts

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rubin, Philip; Constine, Louis S. [Univ. Rochester Medical Center, NY (United States). Dept. of Radiation Oncology; Marks, Lawrence B. (ed.) [Univ. North Carolina and Lineberger, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Chapel Hill, NC (United States). Dept. of Radiation Oncology

    2014-09-01

    Considers in detail the general concepts and principles relevant to the adverse late effects of cancer treatment. Explains the molecular, cytologic and histopathologic events that lead to altered physiologic and metabolic functions and their clinical manifestations. Includes chapters on legal issues, economic aspects, nursing, psychological issues and quality of life. The literature on the late effects of cancer treatment is widely scattered in different journals since all major organ systems are affected and management is based on a variety of medical and surgical treatments. The aim of ALERT - Adverse Late Effects of Cancer Treatment is to offer a coherent multidisciplinary approach to the care of cancer survivors. The central paradigm is that cytotoxic multimodal therapy results in a perpetual cascade of events that affects each major organ system differently and is expressed continually over time. Essentially, radiation and chemotherapy are intense biologic modifiers that allow for cancer cure and cancer survivorship but accelerate senescence of normal tissues and increase the incidence of age-related diseases and second malignant tumors. Volume 1 of this two-volume work focuses on the general concepts and principles relevant to late effects and on the dynamic interplay of molecular, cytologic and histopathologic events that lead to altered physiologic and metabolic functions and their clinical manifestations. Chapters are also included on legal issues, economic aspects, nursing, psychological issues and quality of life.

  15. ALERT. Adverse late effects of cancer treatment. Vol. 1. General concepts and specific precepts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rubin, Philip; Constine, Louis S.; Marks, Lawrence B.

    2014-01-01

    Considers in detail the general concepts and principles relevant to the adverse late effects of cancer treatment. Explains the molecular, cytologic and histopathologic events that lead to altered physiologic and metabolic functions and their clinical manifestations. Includes chapters on legal issues, economic aspects, nursing, psychological issues and quality of life. The literature on the late effects of cancer treatment is widely scattered in different journals since all major organ systems are affected and management is based on a variety of medical and surgical treatments. The aim of ALERT - Adverse Late Effects of Cancer Treatment is to offer a coherent multidisciplinary approach to the care of cancer survivors. The central paradigm is that cytotoxic multimodal therapy results in a perpetual cascade of events that affects each major organ system differently and is expressed continually over time. Essentially, radiation and chemotherapy are intense biologic modifiers that allow for cancer cure and cancer survivorship but accelerate senescence of normal tissues and increase the incidence of age-related diseases and second malignant tumors. Volume 1 of this two-volume work focuses on the general concepts and principles relevant to late effects and on the dynamic interplay of molecular, cytologic and histopathologic events that lead to altered physiologic and metabolic functions and their clinical manifestations. Chapters are also included on legal issues, economic aspects, nursing, psychological issues and quality of life.

  16. Evaluation of Urinary Nuclear Matrix Protein-22 as Tumor Marker Versus Tissue Polypeptide Specific Antigen in Bilharzial and Bladder Cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ahmed, W.A.; El-Kabany, H.

    2004-01-01

    Urinary nuclear matrix protein-22 (NMP-22) and tissue polypeptide specific antigen (TPS) were determined as potential marker for early detection of bladder tumors in patients with high risk (Bilharzial-patients), monitoring and follow up bladder cancer patients. The objective was to determine sensitivity and specificity of markers for bilharzial and cancer lesions. The levels of two parameters were determined pre and post operation. A total of 110 individuals, 20 healthy, 20 bilharzial patients and 70 bladder cancer patients with confirmed diagnosis were investigated. Urine samples were assayed for NMP-22 and TPS test kits. Some bladder cancer patients were selected to follow up. NMP-22 showed highly significant increase (P,0.001) more than TPS (P<0.01) in bladder cancer patients when compared with bilharzial and control group. Overall sensitivity is 7.8% for TPS and 98.5% for NMP-22

  17. Thymosin β10 expression driven by the human TERT promoter induces ovarian cancer-specific apoptosis through ROS production.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Young-Chae Kim

    Full Text Available Thymosin β(10 (Tβ(10 regulates actin dynamics as a cytoplasm G-actin sequestering protein. Previously, we have shown that Tβ(10 diminishes tumor growth, angiogenesis, and proliferation by disrupting actin and by inhibiting Ras. However, little is known about its mechanism of action and biological function. In the present study, we establish a new gene therapy model using a genetically modified adenovirus, referred to as Ad.TERT.Tβ(10, that can overexpress the Tβ(10 gene in cancer cells. This was accomplished by replacing the native Tβ(10 gene promoter with the human TERT promoter in Ad.TERT.Tβ(10. We investigated the cancer suppression activity of Tβ(10 and found that Ad.TERT.Tβ(10 strikingly induced cancer-specific expression of Tβ(10 as well as apoptosis in a co-culture model of human primary ovarian cancer cells and normal fibroblasts. Additionally, Ad.TERT.Tβ(10 decreased mitochondrial membrane potential and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS production. These effects were amplified by co-treatment with anticancer drugs, such as paclitaxel and cisplatin. These findings indicate that the rise in ROS production due to actin disruption by Tβ(10 overexpression increases apoptosis of human ovarian cancer cells. Indeed, the cancer-specific overexpression of Tβ(10 by Ad.TERT.Tβ(10 could be a valuable anti-cancer therapeutic for the treatment of ovarian cancer without toxicity to normal cells.

  18. Update on Sporadic Colorectal Cancer Genetics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hardiman, Karin M

    2018-05-01

    Our understanding of the genetics of colorectal cancer has changed dramatically over recent years. Colorectal cancer can be classified in multiple different ways. Along with the advent of whole-exome sequencing, we have gained an understanding of the scale of the genetic changes found in sporadic colorectal cancer. We now know that there are multiple pathways that are commonly involved in the evolution of colorectal cancer including Wnt/β-catenin, RAS, EGFR, and PIK3 kinase. Another recent leap in our understanding of colorectal cancer genetics is the recognition that many, if not all tumors, are actually genetically heterogeneous within individual tumors and also between tumors. Recent research has revealed the prognostic and possibly therapeutic implications of various specific mutations, including specific mutations in BRAF and KRAS . There is increasing interest in the use of mutation testing for screening and surveillance through stool and circulating DNA testing. Recent advances in translational research in colorectal cancer genetics are dramatically changing our understanding of colorectal cancer and will likely change therapy and surveillance in the near future.

  19. In silico analysis of stomach lineage specific gene set expression pattern in gastric cancer

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pandi, Narayanan Sathiya, E-mail: sathiyapandi@gmail.com; Suganya, Sivagurunathan; Rajendran, Suriliyandi

    2013-10-04

    Highlights: •Identified stomach lineage specific gene set (SLSGS) was found to be under expressed in gastric tumors. •Elevated expression of SLSGS in gastric tumor is a molecular predictor of metabolic type gastric cancer. •In silico pathway scanning identified estrogen-α signaling is a putative regulator of SLSGS in gastric cancer. •Elevated expression of SLSGS in GC is associated with an overall increase in the survival of GC patients. -- Abstract: Stomach lineage specific gene products act as a protective barrier in the normal stomach and their expression maintains the normal physiological processes, cellular integrity and morphology of the gastric wall. However, the regulation of stomach lineage specific genes in gastric cancer (GC) is far less clear. In the present study, we sought to investigate the role and regulation of stomach lineage specific gene set (SLSGS) in GC. SLSGS was identified by comparing the mRNA expression profiles of normal stomach tissue with other organ tissue. The obtained SLSGS was found to be under expressed in gastric tumors. Functional annotation analysis revealed that the SLSGS was enriched for digestive function and gastric epithelial maintenance. Employing a single sample prediction method across GC mRNA expression profiles identified the under expression of SLSGS in proliferative type and invasive type gastric tumors compared to the metabolic type gastric tumors. Integrative pathway activation prediction analysis revealed a close association between estrogen-α signaling and SLSGS expression pattern in GC. Elevated expression of SLSGS in GC is associated with an overall increase in the survival of GC patients. In conclusion, our results highlight that estrogen mediated regulation of SLSGS in gastric tumor is a molecular predictor of metabolic type GC and prognostic factor in GC.

  20. In silico analysis of stomach lineage specific gene set expression pattern in gastric cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pandi, Narayanan Sathiya; Suganya, Sivagurunathan; Rajendran, Suriliyandi

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: •Identified stomach lineage specific gene set (SLSGS) was found to be under expressed in gastric tumors. •Elevated expression of SLSGS in gastric tumor is a molecular predictor of metabolic type gastric cancer. •In silico pathway scanning identified estrogen-α signaling is a putative regulator of SLSGS in gastric cancer. •Elevated expression of SLSGS in GC is associated with an overall increase in the survival of GC patients. -- Abstract: Stomach lineage specific gene products act as a protective barrier in the normal stomach and their expression maintains the normal physiological processes, cellular integrity and morphology of the gastric wall. However, the regulation of stomach lineage specific genes in gastric cancer (GC) is far less clear. In the present study, we sought to investigate the role and regulation of stomach lineage specific gene set (SLSGS) in GC. SLSGS was identified by comparing the mRNA expression profiles of normal stomach tissue with other organ tissue. The obtained SLSGS was found to be under expressed in gastric tumors. Functional annotation analysis revealed that the SLSGS was enriched for digestive function and gastric epithelial maintenance. Employing a single sample prediction method across GC mRNA expression profiles identified the under expression of SLSGS in proliferative type and invasive type gastric tumors compared to the metabolic type gastric tumors. Integrative pathway activation prediction analysis revealed a close association between estrogen-α signaling and SLSGS expression pattern in GC. Elevated expression of SLSGS in GC is associated with an overall increase in the survival of GC patients. In conclusion, our results highlight that estrogen mediated regulation of SLSGS in gastric tumor is a molecular predictor of metabolic type GC and prognostic factor in GC

  1. Advanced generation anti-prostate specific membrane antigen designer T cells for prostate cancer immunotherapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Qiangzhong; Gomes, Erica M; Lo, Agnes Shuk-Yee; Junghans, Richard P

    2014-02-01

    Adoptive immunotherapy by infusion of designer T cells (dTc) engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) for tumoricidal activity represents a potentially highly specific modality for the treatment of cancer. In this study, 2nd generation (gen) anti-prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) dTc were developed for improving the efficacy of previously developed 1st gen dTc for prostate cancer immunotherapy. The 1st gen dTc are modified with chimeric immunoglobulin-T cell receptor (IgTCR) while the 2nd gen dTc are engineered with an immunoglobulin-CD28-T cell receptor (IgCD28TCR), which incorporates a CD28 costimulatory signal for optimal T cell activation. A 2nd gen anti-PSMA IgCD28TCR CAR was constructed by inserting the CD28 signal domain into the 1st gen CAR. 1st and 2nd gen anti-PSMA dTc were created by transducing human T cells with anti-PSMA CARs and their antitumor efficacy was compared for specific activation on PSMA-expressing tumor contact, cytotoxicity against PSMA-expressing tumor cells in vitro, and suppression of tumor growth in an animal model. The 2nd gen dTc can be optimally activated to secrete larger amounts of cytokines such as IL2 and IFNγ than 1st gen and to proliferate more vigorously on PSMA-expressing tumor contact. More importantly, the 2nd gen dTc preserve the PSMA-specific cytotoxicity in vitro and suppress tumor growth in animal models with significant higher potency. Our results demonstrate that 2nd gen anti-PSMA designer T cells exhibit superior antitumor functions versus 1st gen, providing a rationale for advancing this improved agent toward clinical application in prostate cancer immunotherapy. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  2. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as a possible biomarker in non-prostatic cancer: A review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pérez-Ibave, Diana Cristina; Burciaga-Flores, Carlos Horacio; Elizondo-Riojas, Miguel-Ángel

    2018-06-01

    Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a serine protease produced by epithelial prostatic cells and its main function is to liquefy seminal coagulum. Currently, PSA is a biomarker for the diagnosis and screening of prostate cancer and it was the first cancer biomarker approved by the FDA. The quantity and serum isoforms of male PSA, allows distinguishing between carcinoma and benign inflammatory disease of the prostate. Initially, it was thought that PSA was produced only by the prostate, and thus, a protein that was expressed exclusively in men. However, several authors report that PSA is a protein that is expressed by multiple non-prostatic tissues not only in men but also in women. Some authors also report that in women, the expression of this protein is highly related to breast and colon cancer and therefore can act as a possible biomarker for early detection, diagnosis and prognosis of these cancers in women. In this review, we will focus on the characteristics of the PSA at a molecular level, its current clinical implications, the expression of this protein in non-prostatic tissues, and its relationship with cancer, especially in women. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. A meta-analysis including dose-response relationship between night shift work and the risk of colorectal cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Xiao; Ji, Alin; Zhu, Yi; Liang, Zhen; Wu, Jian; Li, Shiqi; Meng, Shuai; Zheng, Xiangyi; Xie, Liping

    2015-09-22

    A meta-analysis was conducted to quantitatively evaluate the correlation between night shift work and the risk of colorectal cancer. We searched for publications up to March 2015 using PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, EMBASE and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases, and the references of the retrieved articles and relevant reviews were also checked. OR and 95% CI were used to assess the degree of the correlation between night shift work and risk of colorectal cancer via fixed- or random-effect models. A dose-response meta-analysis was performed as well. The pooled OR estimates of the included studies illustrated that night shift work was correlated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer (OR = 1.318, 95% CI 1.121-1.551). No evidence of publication bias was detected. In the dose-response analysis, the rate of colorectal cancer increased by 11% for every 5 years increased in night shift work (OR = 1.11, 95% CI 1.03-1.20). In conclusion, this meta-analysis indicated that night shift work was associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer. Further researches should be conducted to confirm our findings and clarify the potential biological mechanisms.

  4. False-positive findings in mammography screening induces short-term distress - breast cancer-specific concern prevails longer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aro, A R; Pilvikki Absetz, S; van Elderen, T M

    2000-01-01

    -ups at 2 and 12 months postscreening. At 2 months, there was a moderate multivariate effect of group on distress; and intrusive thinking and worry about breast cancer, in particular, were most frequent amongst the false positives. Intrusive thinking still prevailed at 12 months, in addition to a higher...... findings (n=1407), false-positive findings (n=492) and referents from outside the screening programme (n=1718, age 48-49 years). Distress was measured as illness worry, anxiety, depression, cancer beliefs and early detection behaviour. Measurements were one month before screening invitation with follow...... perceived breast cancer risk and susceptibility. Distress related to screening and false-positive findings seems to be moderate, but prevailing cancer-specific concerns call for improvements in screening programmes....

  5. SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF BRAIN METASTASIZING IN PATIENTS WITH LUMINAL SUBTYPE OF BREAST CANCER

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. S. Balkanov

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: More than half of female patients with breast cancer are diagnosed with a  luminal subtype of the disease; however, specific characteristics of its metastases to the brain have been not well studied, unlike those of HER2 positive and triple negative subtypes. Aim: A  comparative analysis of characteristics of metastatic brain lesions in patients with luminal breast cancer. Materials and methods: The time from surgery for breast cancer to the first recurrence and to metastatic brain lesions (assessed by contrast-enhanced MRI imaging was measured in 41 patients with luminal subtype of breast cancer (median age, 49.5±9.6  years, depending on a  diameter of the primary tumor and numbers of involved axillary lymph nodes. Results: The time interval to occurrence of brain metastases in luminal subtype of breast cancer is not associated with the size of the tumor. If≥4  axillary lymph nodes are involved (N2–3, brain metastases are identified much earlier (p<0.05 than in patients with N0–1 (34.5±23.9 months and 62.7±50 months, respectively. Neither the size nor the involvement of axillary lymph nodes has any impact on the rates of metastatic lesion to the brain during the first recurrence. Conclusion: Brain metastases occur at a much shorter time in those patients of luminal subtype of breast cancer who have metastases in≥4  axillary lymph nodes. Brain metastases develop in 50% of patients with the first recurrence of the luminal subtype of breast cancer.

  6. Specific TP53 Mutants Overrepresented in Ovarian Cancer Impact CNV, TP53 Activity, Responses to Nutlin-3a, and Cell Survival

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lisa K. Mullany

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Evolutionary Action analyses of The Cancer Gene Atlas data sets show that many specific p53 missense and gain-of-function mutations are selectively overrepresented and functional in high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC. As homozygous alleles, p53 mutants are differentially associated with specific loss of heterozygosity (R273; chromosome 17; copy number variation (R175H; chromosome 9; and up-stream, cancer-related regulatory pathways. The expression of immune-related cytokines was selectively related to p53 status, showing for the first time that specific p53 mutants impact, and are related to, the immune subtype of ovarian cancer. Although the majority (31% of HGSCs exhibit loss of heterozygosity, a significant number (24% maintain a wild-type (WT allele and represent another HGSC subtype that is not well defined. Using human and mouse cell lines, we show that specific p53 mutants differentially alter endogenous WT p53 activity; target gene expression; and responses to nutlin-3a, a small molecular that activates WT p53 leading to apoptosis, providing “proof of principle” that ovarian cancer cells expressing WT and mutant alleles represent a distinct ovarian cancer subtype. We also show that siRNA knock down of endogenous p53 in cells expressing homozygous mutant alleles causes apoptosis, whereas cells expressing WT p53 (or are heterozygous for WT and mutant p53 alleles are highly resistant. Therefore, despite different gene regulatory pathways associated with specific p53 mutants, silencing mutant p53 might be a suitable, powerful, global strategy for blocking ovarian cancer growth in those tumors that rely on mutant p53 functions for survival. Knowing p53 mutational status in HGSC should permit new strategies tailored to control this disease.

  7. ChLpMab-23: Cancer-Specific Human-Mouse Chimeric Anti-Podoplanin Antibody Exhibits Antitumor Activity via Antibody-Dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaneko, Mika K; Nakamura, Takuro; Kunita, Akiko; Fukayama, Masashi; Abe, Shinji; Nishioka, Yasuhiko; Yamada, Shinji; Yanaka, Miyuki; Saidoh, Noriko; Yoshida, Kanae; Fujii, Yuki; Ogasawara, Satoshi; Kato, Yukinari

    2017-06-01

    Podoplanin is expressed in many cancers, including oral cancers and brain tumors. The interaction between podoplanin and its receptor C-type lectin-like receptor 2 (CLEC-2) has been reported to be involved in cancer metastasis and tumor malignancy. We previously established many monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against human podoplanin using the cancer-specific mAb (CasMab) technology. LpMab-23 (IgG 1 , kappa), one of the mouse anti-podoplanin mAbs, was shown to be a CasMab. However, we have not shown the usefulness of LpMab-23 for antibody therapy against podoplanin-expressing cancers. In this study, we first determined the minimum epitope of LpMab-23 and revealed that Gly54-Leu64 peptide, especially Gly54, Thr55, Ser56, Glu57, Asp58, Arg59, Tyr60, and Leu64 of podoplanin, is a critical epitope of LpMab-23. We further produced human-mouse chimeric LpMab-23 (chLpMab-23) and investigated whether chLpMab-23 exerts antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and antitumor activity. In flow cytometry, chLpMab-23 showed high sensitivity against a podoplanin-expressing glioblastoma cell line, LN319, and an oral cancer cell line, HSC-2. chLpMab-23 also showed ADCC activity against podoplanin-expressing CHO cells (CHO/podoplanin). In xenograft models with HSC-2 and CHO/podoplanin, chLpMab-23 exerts antitumor activity using human natural killer cells, indicating that chLpMab-23 could be useful for antibody therapy against podoplanin-expressing cancers.

  8. Cancer stem cells in colorectal cancer: a review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Munro, Matthew J; Wickremesekera, Susrutha K; Peng, Lifeng; Tan, Swee T; Itinteang, Tinte

    2018-02-01

    Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cancer in women and the third most common in men. Adenocarcinoma accounts for 90% of CRC cases. There has been accumulating evidence in support of the cancer stem cell (CSC) concept of cancer which proposes that CSCs are central in the initiation of cancer. CSCs have been the focus of study in a range of cancers, including CRC. This has led to the identification and understanding of genes involved in the induction and maintenance of pluripotency of stem cells, and markers for CSCs, including those investigated specifically in CRC. Knowledge of the expression pattern of CSCs in CRC has been increasing in recent years, revealing a heterogeneous population of cells within CRC ranging from pluripotent to differentiated cells, with overlapping and sometimes unique combinations of markers. This review summarises current literature on the understanding of CSCs in CRC, including evidence of the presence of CSC subpopulations, and the stem cell markers currently used to identify and localise these CSC subpopulations. Future research into this field may lead to improved methods for early detection of CRC, novel therapy and monitoring of treatment for CRC and other cancer types. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  9. Specificity of choline metabolites for in vivo diagnosis of breast cancer using {sup 1}H MRS at 1.5 T

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stanwell, Peter; Gluch, Laurence; Lean, Cynthia; Malycha, Peter; Mountford, Carolyn [Royal North Shore Hospital, Institute for Magnetic Resonance Research and Department of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, University of Sydney, St Leonards, NSW (Australia); Clark, David [Breast Centre, Waratah, NSW (Australia); Tomanek, Boguslaw [National Research Council Canada, Institute for Biodiagnostics, Winnipeg, MB (Canada); Baker, Luke [Sydney Adventist Hospital, Department of Radiology, Wahroonga, NSW (Australia); Giuffre, Bruno [Royal North Shore Hospital, Department of Radiology, St Leonards, NSW (Australia)

    2005-05-01

    The purpose was to determine if in vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ({sup 1}H MRS) at 1.5 T can accurately provide the correct pathology of breast disease. Forty-three asymptomatic volunteers including three lactating mothers were examined and compared with 21 breast cancer patients. Examinations were undertaken at 1.5 T using a purpose-built transmit-receive single breast coil. Single voxel spectroscopy was undertaken using echo times of 135 and 350 ms. The broad composite resonance at 3.2 ppm, which includes contributions from choline, phosphocholine (PC), glycerophosphocholine (GPC), myo-inositol and taurine, was found not to be a unique marker for malignancy providing a diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of 80.0 and 86.0%, respectively. This was due to three of the asymptomatic volunteers and all of the lactating mothers also generating the broad composite resonance at 3.2 ppm. Optimised post-acquisitional processing of the spectra resolved a resonance at 3.22 ppm, consistent with PC, in patients with cancer. In contrast the spectra recorded for three false-positive volunteers, and the three lactating mothers had a resonance centred at 3.28 ppm (possibly taurine, myo-inositol or GPC). This improved the specificity of the test to 100%. Careful referencing of the spectra and post-acquisitional processing intended to optimise spectral resolution of in vivo MR proton spectra from human breast tissue resolves the composite choline resonance. This allows the distinction of patients with malignant disease from volunteers with a sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 100%. Therefore, resolution of the composite choline resonance into its constituent components improves the specificity of the in vivo {sup 1}H MRS method, but does not overcome the problem of 20% false-negatives. (orig.)

  10. Kidney cancer in Lebanon: a specific histological distribution?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khafaja, Sarah; Kourie, Hampig Raphael; Matar, Dany; Sader-Ghorra, Claude; Kattan, Joseph

    2015-01-01

    Kidney cancer is the third most frequent urologic cancer in Lebanon after prostate and bladder cancer, accounting for 1.5% of all diagnosed cancers. In this paper, we report the histologic characteristics and distribution of kidney cancer, never described in Lebanon or the Middle East. Pathology results of operated kidney cancer were collected during a two year period (2010-2011) from two different Lebanese hospitals (Hotel-Dieu de France University Hospital and Saint Joseph Hospital). A total of 124 reports were reviewed and analyzed according to WHO classification of 2009. The 124 patients diagnosed with kidney cancer had a median age of 62.4 [18-86], 75% being men and 25% women. Some 71 % of the lesions were renal cell carcinoma (RCC), 25.8% had a urothelial histology, 1.6% were lymphomas and 1.6% were metastases to the kidney. Patients having RCC had a median age of 60.3 [18-85], 77.3% were men and 22.7% women. Of the RCCs, 59.1% were clear cell carcinoma, 22.7% papillary, 11.4% chromophobic, 3.4% rom the collecting ducts of Bellini and 3.4% were not otherwise classified. Histological distribution of Lebanese kidney cancer seems unusual when compared to the literature. The percentage of urothelial renal pelvis tumors is strikingly high. Moreover, clear cell carcinoma accounts for only 59.1% of RCCS in contrast to the 75% described elsewhere, while papillary carcinoma represents more than 22.7% compared to 10%.

  11. Synergistic co-targeting of prostate-specific membrane antigen and androgen receptor in prostate cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murga, Jose D; Moorji, Sameer M; Han, Amy Q; Magargal, Wells W; DiPippo, Vincent A; Olson, William C

    2015-02-15

    Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are an emerging class of cancer therapies that have demonstrated favorable activity both as single agents and as components of combination regimens. Phase 2 testing of an ADC targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) in advanced prostate cancer has shown antitumor activity. The present study examined PSMA ADC used in combination with potent antiandrogens (enzalutamide and abiraterone) and other compounds. Antiproliferative activity and expression of PSMA, prostate-specific antigen and androgen receptor were evaluated in the prostate cancer cell lines LNCaP and C4-2. Cells were tested for susceptibility to antiandrogens or other inhibitors, used alone and in combination with PSMA ADC. Potential drug synergy or antagonism was evaluated using the Bliss independence method. Enzalutamide and abiraterone demonstrated robust, statistically significant synergy when combined with PSMA ADC. Largely additive activity was observed between the antiandrogens and the individual components of the ADC (free drug and unmodified antibody). Rapamycin also synergized with PSMA ADC in certain settings. Synergy was linked in part to upregulation of PSMA expression. In androgen-dependent LNCaP cells, enzalutamide and abiraterone each inhibited proliferation, upregulated PSMA expression, and synergized with PSMA ADC. In androgen-independent C4-2 cells, enzalutamide and abiraterone showed no measurable antiproliferative activity on their own but increased PSMA expression and synergized with PSMA ADC nonetheless. PSMA expression increased progressively over 3 weeks with enzalutamide and returned to baseline levels 1 week after enzalutamide removal. The findings support exploration of clinical treatment regimens that combine potent antiandrogens and PSMA-targeted therapies for prostate cancer. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  12. Functional Time Series Models to Estimate Future Age-Specific Breast Cancer Incidence Rates for Women in Karachi, Pakistan

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Farah Yasmeen[1; Sidra Zaheer[2

    2014-01-01

    Background: Breast cancer is the most common female cancer in Pakistan. The incidence of breast cancer in Pakistan is about 2.5 times higher than that in the neighboring countries India and Iran. In Karachi, the most populated city of Pakistan, the age-standardized rate of breast cancer was 69.1 per 100,000 women during 1998-2002, which is the highest recorded rate in Asia. The carcinoma of breast in Pakistan is an enormous public health concern. In this study, we examined the recent trends of breast cancer incidence rates among the women in Karachi. Methods: We obtained the secondary data of breast cancer incidence from various hospitals. They included Jinnah Hospital, KIRAN (Karachi Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine), and Civil hospital, where the data were available for the years 2004-2011. A total of 5331 new cases of female breast cancer were registered during this period. We analyzed the data in 5-year age groups 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75+. Nonparametric smoothing were used to obtained age-specific incidence curves, and then the curves are decomposed using principal components analysis to fit FTS (functional time series) model. We then used exponential smoothing statspace models to estimate the forecasts of incidence curve and construct prediction intervals. Results: The breast cancer incidence rates in Karachi increased with age for all available years. The rates increased monotonically and are relatively sharp with the age from 15 years to 50 years and then they show variability after the age of 50 years. 10-year forecasts for the female breast cancer incidence rates in Karachi show that the future rates are expected to remain stable for the age-groups 15-50 years, but they will increase for the females of 50-years and over. Hence in future, the newly diagnosed breast cancer cases in the older women in Karachi are expected to increase. Conclusion: Prediction of age

  13. Diabetes mellitus type 2 and subsite-specific colorectal cancer risk in men and women: results from the Netherlands Cohort Study on diet and cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Kort, Sander; Simons, C C J M; van den Brandt, Piet A; Goldbohm, R Alexandra Sandra; Arts, Ilja C W; de Bruine, Adriaan P; Janssen-Heijnen, Maryska L G; Sanduleanu, Silvia; Masclee, Ad A M; Weijenberg, Matty P

    2016-08-01

    Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer (CRC); however, studies differentiating between subsites of CRC are limited. We investigated how diabetes mellitus (DM) was associated with subsite-specific CRC risk in men and women. The Netherlands Cohort Study on diet and cancer is a prospective study among 120 852 men and women aged 55-69 years old at baseline in 1986. Information on DM, anthropometric, dietary and lifestyle factors was self-reported at baseline. T2DM was defined as the diagnosis of DM after 30 years of age. Incident CRC cases were identified by record linkage with the Netherlands cancer registry and the Dutch pathology registry. After 17.3 years of follow-up, 1735 incident male CRC cases and 1321 female CRC cases were available for analyses. Subsite-specific hazard ratios (HRs) for CRC were estimated in case-cohort analyses using Cox regression. At baseline, 3.1% of subcohort members reported T2DM, of whom 80% were diagnosed after 50 years of age. Multivariable-adjusted models showed that the risk of proximal colon cancer was significantly increased in women with T2DM versus women without T2DM (HR=1.80, 95% confidence interval: 1.10-2.94). There was no association between T2DM and the risk of overall CRC, distal colon cancer and rectal cancer in women. In men, T2DM was not associated with overall CRC (HR=0.98, 95% confidence interval: 0.64-1.50), or with risk at any subsite. This prospective study showed an increased risk of proximal colon cancer in women with T2DM compared with non-T2DM women.

  14. Undergoing Diagnostic Evaluation for Possible Cancer Affects the Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients Presenting with Non-Specific Symptoms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Ellen Frøsig Moseholm; Rydahl Hansen, Susan; Lindhardt, Bjarne Ørskov

    2016-01-01

    Aim Undergoing diagnostic evaluation for possible cancer can affect health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aims of this study were to examine the HRQoL in patients undergoing a diagnostic evaluation for possible cancer due to non-specific symptoms and further to investigate the impact of socio...... diagnosis had the greatest effect on HRQoL around the time of diagnosis. Conclusions Patients with non-specific symptoms reported an affected HRQoL while undergoing a diagnostic evaluation for possible cancer. Morbidity, being unemployed and receiving a cancer diagnosis had the greatest effect on HRQo...... in the study; 680 (81%) also completed follow-up. Twenty-two percent of the patients received a cancer diagnosis at the end of follow-up. Patients presented initially with a high burden of symptoms, less role and emotional functioning and a lower global health/QoL. Most domains improved after diagnosis...

  15. Methylated genes as new cancer biomarkers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brunner, Nils; Duffy, M.J; Napieralski, R.

    2009-01-01

    Aberrant hypermethylation of promoter regions in specific genes is a key event in the formation and progression of cancer. In at least some situations, these aberrant alterations occur early in the formation of malignancy and appear to be tumour specific. Multiple reports have suggested that meas......Aberrant hypermethylation of promoter regions in specific genes is a key event in the formation and progression of cancer. In at least some situations, these aberrant alterations occur early in the formation of malignancy and appear to be tumour specific. Multiple reports have suggested...... that measurement of the methylation status of the promoter regions of specific genes can aid early detection of cancer, determine prognosis and predict therapy responses. Promising DNA methylation biomarkers include the use of methylated GSTP1 for aiding the early diagnosis of prostate cancer, methylated PITX2...... for predicting outcome in lymph node-negative breast cancer patients and methylated MGMT in predicting benefit from alkylating agents in patients with glioblastomas. However, prior to clinical utilisation, these findings require validation in prospective clinical studies. Furthermore, assays for measuring gene...

  16. The Role of Dietary Fat throughout the Prostate Cancer Trajectory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katie M. Di Sebastiano

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosed world-wide; however, patients demonstrate exceptionally high survival rates. Many lifestyle factors, including obesity and diet, are considered risk factors for advanced prostate cancer. Dietary fat is a fundamental contributor to obesity and may be specifically important for prostate cancer patients. Prostate cancer treatment can result in changes in body composition, affecting quality of life for survivors by increasing the risk of co-morbidities, like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. We aim to examine dietary fat throughout the prostate cancer treatment trajectory, including risk, cancer development and survivorship. Focusing on one specific nutrient throughout the prostate cancer trajectory provides a unique perspective of dietary fat in prostate cancer and the mechanisms that may exacerbate prostate cancer risk, progression and recurrence. Through this approach, we noted that high intake of dietary fat, especially, high intake of animal and saturated fats, may be associated with increased prostate cancer risk. In contrast, a low-fat diet, specifically low in saturated fat, may be beneficial for prostate cancer survivors by reducing tumor angiogenesis and cancer recurrence. The insulin-like growth factor (IGF/Akt signaling pathway appears to be the key pathway moderating dietary fat intake and prostate cancer development and progression.

  17. Skin cancer interventions across the cancer control continuum: Review of technology, environment, and theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taber, Jennifer M; Dickerman, Barbra A; Okhovat, Jean-Phillip; Geller, Alan C; Dwyer, Laura A; Hartman, Anne M; Perna, Frank M

    2018-06-01

    The National Cancer Institute's Skin Cancer Intervention across the Cancer Control Continuum model was developed to summarize research and identify gaps concerning skin cancer interventions. We conducted a mapping review to characterize whether behavioral interventions addressing skin cancer prevention and control from 2000 to 2015 included (1) technology, (2) environmental manipulations (policy and/or built environment), and (3) a theoretical basis. We included 86 studies with a randomized controlled or quasi-experimental design that targeted behavioral intervention in skin cancer for children and/or adults; seven of these were dissemination or implementation studies. Of the interventions described in the remaining 79 articles, 57 promoted only prevention behaviors (e.g., ultraviolet radiation protection), five promoted only detection (e.g., skin examinations), 10 promoted both prevention and detection, and seven focused on survivorship. Of the 79 non-dissemination studies, two-thirds used some type of technology (n=52; 65.8%). Technology specific to skin cancer was infrequently used: UVR photography was used in 15.2% of studies (n=12), reflectance spectroscopy was used in 12.7% (n=10), and dermatoscopes (n=1) and dosimeters (n=2) were each used in less than 3%. Ten studies (12.7%) targeted the built environment. Fifty-two (65.8%) of the studies included theory-based interventions. The most common theories were Social Cognitive Theory (n=20; 25.3%), Health Belief Model (n=17; 21.5%), and the Theory of Planned Behavior/Reasoned Action (n=12; 15.2%). Results suggest that skin cancer specific technology and environmental manipulations are underutilized in skin cancer behavioral interventions. We discuss implications of these results for researchers developing skin cancer behavioral interventions. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  18. Breast-cancer-specific mortality in patients treated based on the 21-gene assay: a SEER population-based study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petkov, Valentina I; Miller, Dave P; Howlader, Nadia; Gliner, Nathan; Howe, Will; Schussler, Nicola; Cronin, Kathleen; Baehner, Frederick L; Cress, Rosemary; Deapen, Dennis; Glaser, Sally L; Hernandez, Brenda Y; Lynch, Charles F; Mueller, Lloyd; Schwartz, Ann G; Schwartz, Stephen M; Stroup, Antoinette; Sweeney, Carol; Tucker, Thomas C; Ward, Kevin C; Wiggins, Charles; Wu, Xiao-Cheng; Penberthy, Lynne; Shak, Steven

    2016-01-01

    The 21-gene Recurrence Score assay is validated to predict recurrence risk and chemotherapy benefit in hormone-receptor-positive (HR+) invasive breast cancer. To determine prospective breast-cancer-specific mortality (BCSM) outcomes by baseline Recurrence Score results and clinical covariates, the National Cancer Institute collaborated with Genomic Health and 14 population-based registries in the the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program to electronically supplement cancer surveillance data with Recurrence Score results. The prespecified primary analysis cohort was 40-84 years of age, and had node-negative, HR+, HER2-negative, nonmetastatic disease diagnosed between January 2004 and December 2011 in the entire SEER population, and Recurrence Score results ( N =38,568). Unadjusted 5-year BCSM were 0.4% ( n =21,023; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.3-0.6%), 1.4% ( n =14,494; 95% CI, 1.1-1.7%), and 4.4% ( n =3,051; 95% CI, 3.4-5.6%) for Recurrence Score <18, 18-30, and ⩾31 groups, respectively ( P <0.001). In multivariable analysis adjusted for age, tumor size, grade, and race, the Recurrence Score result predicted BCSM ( P <0.001). Among patients with node-positive disease (micrometastases and up to three positive nodes; N =4,691), 5-year BCSM (unadjusted) was 1.0% ( n =2,694; 95% CI, 0.5-2.0%), 2.3% ( n =1,669; 95% CI, 1.3-4.1%), and 14.3% ( n =328; 95% CI, 8.4-23.8%) for Recurrence Score <18, 18-30, ⩾31 groups, respectively ( P <0.001). Five-year BCSM by Recurrence Score group are reported for important patient subgroups, including age, race, tumor size, grade, and socioeconomic status. This SEER study represents the largest report of prospective BCSM outcomes based on Recurrence Score results for patients with HR+, HER2-negative, node-negative, or node-positive breast cancer, including subgroups often under-represented in clinical trials.

  19. Occult Breast Cancer: Scintimammography with High-Resolution Breast-specific Gamma Camera in Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rachel F. Brem; Jocelyn A. Rapelyea; , Gilat Zisman; Kevin Mohtashemi; Joyce Raub; Christine B. Teal; Stan Majewski; Benjamin L. Welch

    2005-08-01

    To prospectively evaluate a high-resolution breast-specific gamma camera for depicting occult breast cancer in women at high risk for breast cancer but with normal mammographic and physical examination findings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Institutional Review Board approval and informed consent were obtained. The study was HIPAA compliant. Ninety-four high-risk women (age range, 36-78 years; mean, 55 years) with normal mammographic (Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System [BI-RADS] 1 or 2) and physical examination findings were evaluated with scintimammography. After injection with 25-30 mCi (925-1110 MBq) of technetium 99m sestamibi, patients were imaged with a high-resolution small-field-of-view breast-specific gamma camera in craniocaudal and mediolateral oblique projections. Scintimammograms were prospectively classified according to focal radiotracer uptake as normal (score of 1), with no focal or diffuse uptake; benign (score of 2), with minimal patchy uptake; probably benign (score of 3), with scattered patchy uptake; probably abnormal (score of 4), with mild focal radiotracer uptake; and abnormal (score of 5), with marked focal radiotracer uptake. Mammographic breast density was categorized according to BI-RADS criteria. Patients with normal scintimammograms (scores of 1, 2, or 3) were followed up for 1 year with an annual mammogram, physical examination, and repeat scintimammography. Patients with abnormal scintimammograms (scores of 4 or 5) underwent ultrasonography (US), and those with focal hypoechoic lesions underwent biopsy. If no lesion was found during US, patients were followed up with scintimammography. Specific pathologic findings were compared with scintimammographic findings. RESULTS: Of 94 women, 78 (83%) had normal scintimammograms (score of 1, 2, or 3) at initial examination and 16 (17%) had abnormal scintimammograms (score of 4 or 5). Fourteen (88%) of the 16 patients had either benign findings at biopsy or no focal abnormality at US; in two

  20. Occult Breast Cancer: Scintimammography with High-Resolution Breast-specific Gamma Camera in Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rachel F. Brem; Jocelyn A. Rapelyea; , Gilat Zisman; Kevin Mohtashemi; Joyce Raub; Christine B. Teal; Stan Majewski; Benjamin L. Welch

    2005-01-01

    To prospectively evaluate a high-resolution breast-specific gamma camera for depicting occult breast cancer in women at high risk for breast cancer but with normal mammographic and physical examination findings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Institutional Review Board approval and informed consent were obtained. The study was HIPAA compliant. Ninety-four high-risk women (age range, 36-78 years; mean, 55 years) with normal mammographic (Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System [BI-RADS] 1 or 2) and physical examination findings were evaluated with scintimammography. After injection with 25-30 mCi (925-1110 MBq) of technetium 99m sestamibi, patients were imaged with a high-resolution small-field-of-view breast-specific gamma camera in craniocaudal and mediolateral oblique projections. Scintimammograms were prospectively classified according to focal radiotracer uptake as normal (score of 1), with no focal or diffuse uptake; benign (score of 2), with minimal patchy uptake; probably benign (score of 3), with scattered patchy uptake; probably abnormal (score of 4), with mild focal radiotracer uptake; and abnormal (score of 5), with marked focal radiotracer uptake. Mammographic breast density was categorized according to BI-RADS criteria. Patients with normal scintimammograms (scores of 1, 2, or 3) were followed up for 1 year with an annual mammogram, physical examination, and repeat scintimammography. Patients with abnormal scintimammograms (scores of 4 or 5) underwent ultrasonography (US), and those with focal hypoechoic lesions underwent biopsy. If no lesion was found during US, patients were followed up with scintimammography. Specific pathologic findings were compared with scintimammographic findings. RESULTS: Of 94 women, 78 (83%) had normal scintimammograms (score of 1, 2, or 3) at initial examination and 16 (17%) had abnormal scintimammograms (score of 4 or 5). Fourteen (88%) of the 16 patients had either benign findings at biopsy or no focal abnormality at US; in two

  1. Prostate Cancer Detection and Prognosis: From Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) to Exosomal Biomarkers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Filella, Xavier; Foj, Laura

    2016-10-26

    Prostate specific antigen (PSA) remains the most used biomarker in the management of early prostate cancer (PCa), in spite of the problems related to false positive results and overdiagnosis. New biomarkers have been proposed in recent years with the aim of increasing specificity and distinguishing aggressive from non-aggressive PCa. The emerging role of the prostate health index and the 4Kscore is reviewed in this article. Both are blood-based tests related to the aggressiveness of the tumor, which provide the risk of suffering PCa and avoiding negative biopsies. Furthermore, the use of urine has emerged as a non-invasive way to identify new biomarkers in recent years, including the PCA3 and TMPRSS2:ERG fusion gene. Available results about the PCA3 score showed its usefulness to decide the repetition of biopsy in patients with a previous negative result, although its relationship with the aggressiveness of the tumor is controversial. More recently, aberrant microRNA expression in PCa has been reported by different authors. Preliminary results suggest the utility of circulating and urinary microRNAs in the detection and prognosis of PCa. Although several of these new biomarkers have been recommended by different guidelines, large prospective and comparative studies are necessary to establish their value in PCa detection and prognosis.

  2. A novel Trojan-horse targeting strategy to reduce the non-specific uptake of nanocarriers by non-cancerous cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Zheyu; Wu, Hao; Yang, Sugeun; Ma, Xuehua; Li, Zihou; Tan, Mingqian; Wu, Aiguo

    2015-11-01

    One big challenge with active targeting of nanocarriers is non-specific binding between targeting molecules and non-target moieties expressed on non-cancerous cells, which leads to non-specific uptake of nanocarriers by non-cancerous cells. Here, we propose a novel Trojan-horse targeting strategy to hide or expose the targeting molecules of nanocarriers on-demand. The non-specific uptake by non-cancerous cells can be reduced because the targeting molecules are hidden in hydrophilic polymers. The nanocarriers are still actively targetable to cancer cells because the targeting molecules can be exposed on-demand at tumor regions. Typically, Fe3O4 nanocrystals (FN) as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents were encapsulated into albumin nanoparticles (AN), and then folic acid (FA) and pH-sensitive polymers (PP) were grafted onto the surface of AN-FN to construct PP-FA-AN-FN nanoparticles. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) results confirm successful construction of PP-FA-AN-FN. According to difference of nanoparticle-cellular uptake between pH 7.4 and 5.5, the weight ratio of conjugated PP to nanoparticle FA-AN-FN (i.e. graft density) and the molecular weight of PP (i.e. graft length) are optimized to be 1.32 and 5.7 kDa, respectively. In vitro studies confirm that the PP can hide ligand FA to prevent it from binding to cells with FRα at pH 7.4 and shrink to expose FA at pH 5.5. In vivo studies demonstrate that our Trojan-horse targeting strategy can reduce the non-specific uptake of the PP-FA-AN-FN by non-cancerous cells. Therefore, our PP-FA-AN-FN might be used as an accurately targeted MRI contrast agent. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Engineering a prostate-specific membrane antigen-activated tumor endothelial cell prodrug for cancer therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Denmeade, Samuel R; Mhaka, Annastasiah M; Rosen, D Marc; Brennen, W Nathaniel; Dalrymple, Susan; Dach, Ingrid; Olesen, Claus; Gurel, Bora; Demarzo, Angelo M; Wilding, George; Carducci, Michael A; Dionne, Craig A; Møller, Jesper V; Nissen, Poul; Christensen, S Brøgger; Isaacs, John T

    2012-06-27

    Heterogeneous expression of drug target proteins within tumor sites is a major mechanism of resistance to anticancer therapies. We describe a strategy to selectively inhibit, within tumor sites, the function of a critical intracellular protein, the sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum calcium adenosine triphosphatase (SERCA) pump, whose proper function is required by all cell types for viability. To achieve targeted inhibition, we took advantage of the unique expression of the carboxypeptidase prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) by tumor endothelial cells within the microenvironment of solid tumors. We generated a prodrug, G202, consisting of a PSMA-specific peptide coupled to an analog of the potent SERCA pump inhibitor thapsigargin. G202 produced substantial tumor regression against a panel of human cancer xenografts in vivo at doses that were minimally toxic to the host. On the basis of these data, a phase 1 dose-escalation clinical trial has been initiated with G202 in patients with advanced cancer.

  4. False-positive findings in mammography screening induces short-term distress - breast cancer-specific concern prevails longer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aro, A R; Pilvikki Absetz, S; van Elderen, T M

    2000-01-01

    The aim of this study was to examine psychological distress in a mammography screening process as a consequence of screening after adjusting for background, personality and prescreening distress. Subjects, aged 50 years, were invitees at their first screening. There were three groups; normal find...... perceived breast cancer risk and susceptibility. Distress related to screening and false-positive findings seems to be moderate, but prevailing cancer-specific concerns call for improvements in screening programmes....

  5. Insights from Epidemiology into Dichloromethane and Cancer Risk

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cheryl Siegel Scott

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Dichloromethane (methylene chloride is a widely used chlorinated solvent. We review the available epidemiology studies (five cohort studies, 13 case-control studies, including seven of hematopoietic cancers, focusing on specific cancer sites. There was little indication of an increased risk of lung cancer in the cohort studies (standardized mortality ratios ranging from 0.46 to 1.21. These cohorts are relatively small, and variable effects (e.g., point estimates ranging from 0.5 to 2.0 were seen for the rarer forms of cancers such as brain cancer and specific hematopoietic cancers. Three large population-based case-control studies of incident non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Europe and the United States observed odds ratios between 1.5 and 2.2 with dichloromethane exposure (ever exposed or highest category of exposure, with higher risk seen in specific subsets of disease. More limited indications of associations with brain cancer, breast cancer, and liver and biliary cancer were also seen in this collection of studies. Existing cohort studies, given their size and uneven exposure information, are unlikely to resolve questions of cancer risks and dichloromethane exposure. More promising approaches are population-based case-control studies of incident disease, and the combination of data from such studies, with robust exposure assessments that include detailed occupational information and exposure assignment based on industry-wide surveys or direct exposure measurements.

  6. Systematic drug screening reveals specific vulnerabilities and co-resistance patterns in endocrine-resistant breast cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kangaspeska, Sara; Hultsch, Susanne; Jaiswal, Alok; Edgren, Henrik; Mpindi, John-Patrick; Eldfors, Samuli; Brück, Oscar; Aittokallio, Tero; Kallioniemi, Olli

    2016-01-01

    The estrogen receptor (ER) inhibitor tamoxifen reduces breast cancer mortality by 31 % and has served as the standard treatment for ER-positive breast cancers for decades. However, 50 % of advanced ER-positive cancers display de novo resistance to tamoxifen, and acquired resistance evolves in 40 % of patients who initially respond. Mechanisms underlying resistance development remain poorly understood and new therapeutic opportunities are urgently needed. Here, we report the generation and characterization of seven tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer cell lines from four parental strains. Using high throughput drug sensitivity and resistance testing (DSRT) with 279 approved and investigational oncology drugs, exome-sequencing and network analysis, we for the first time, systematically determine the drug response profiles specific to tamoxifen resistance. We discovered emerging vulnerabilities towards specific drugs, such as ERK1/2-, proteasome- and BCL-family inhibitors as the cells became tamoxifen-resistant. Co-resistance to other drugs such as the survivin inhibitor YM155 and the chemotherapeutic agent paclitaxel also occurred. This study indicates that multiple molecular mechanisms dictate endocrine resistance, resulting in unexpected vulnerabilities to initially ineffective drugs, as well as in emerging co-resistances. Thus, combatting drug-resistant tumors will require patient-tailored strategies in order to identify new drug vulnerabilities, and to understand the associated co-resistance patterns. The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-016-2452-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

  7. Improved Activation toward Primary Colorectal Cancer Cells by Antigen-Specific Targeting Autologous Cytokine-Induced Killer Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudia Schlimper

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Adoptive therapy of malignant diseases with cytokine-induced killer (CIK cells showed promise in a number of trials; the activation of CIK cells from cancer patients towards their autologous cancer cells still needs to be improved. Here, we generated CIK cells ex vivo from blood lymphocytes of colorectal cancer patients and engineered those cells with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR with an antibody-defined specificity for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA. CIK cells thereby gained a new specificity as defined by the CAR and showed increase in activation towards CEA+ colon carcinoma cells, but less in presence of CEA− cells, indicated by increased secretion of proinflammatory cytokines. Redirected CIK activation was superior by CAR-mediated CD28-CD3ζ than CD3ζ signaling only. CAR-engineered CIK cells from colon carcinoma patients showed improved activation against their autologous, primary carcinoma cells from biopsies resulting in more efficient tumour cell lysis. We assume that adoptive therapy with CAR-modified CIK cells shows improved selectivity in targeting autologous tumour lesions.

  8. L1 Cell Adhesion Molecule-Specific Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Redirected Human T Cells Exhibit Specific and Efficient Antitumor Activity against Human Ovarian Cancer in Mice.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hao Hong

    Full Text Available New therapeutic modalities are needed for ovarian cancer, the most lethal gynecologic malignancy. Recent clinical trials have demonstrated the impressive therapeutic potential of adoptive therapy using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-redirected T cells to target hematological cancers, and emerging studies suggest a similar impact may be achieved for solid cancers. We sought determine whether genetically-modified T cells targeting the CE7-epitope of L1-CAM, a cell adhesion molecule aberrantly expressed in several cancers, have promise as an immunotherapy for ovarian cancer, first demonstrating that L1-CAM was highly over-expressed on a panel of ovarian cancer cell lines, primary ovarian tumor tissue specimens, and ascites-derived primary cancer cells. Human central memory derived T cells (TCM were then genetically modified to express an anti-L1-CAM CAR (CE7R, which directed effector function upon tumor antigen stimulation as assessed by in vitro cytokine secretion and cytotoxicity assays. We also found that CE7R+ T cells were able to target primary ovarian cancer cells. Intraperitoneal (i.p. administration of CE7R+ TCM induced a significant regression of i.p. established SK-OV-3 xenograft tumors in mice, inhibited ascites formation, and conferred a significant survival advantage compared with control-treated animals. Taken together, these studies indicate that adoptive transfer of L1-CAM-specific CE7R+ T cells may offer a novel and effective immunotherapy strategy for advanced ovarian cancer.

  9. Prostate-Specific Antigen and Prostate-Specific Antigen Velocity as Threshold Indicators in 11C-Acetate PET/CTAC Scanning for Prostate Cancer Recurrence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dusing, Reginald W.; Peng, Warner; Lai, Sue-Min; Grado, Gordon L.; Holzbeierlein, Jeffrey M.; Thrasher, J. Brantley; Hill, Jacqueline; Van Veldhuizen, Peter J.

    2014-01-01

    Purpose The aim of this study was to identify which patient characteristics are associated with the highest likelihood of positive findings on 11C-acetate PET/computed tomography attenuation correction (CTAC) (PET/CTAC) scan when imaging for recurrent prostate cancer. Methods From 2007 to 2011, 250 11C-acetate PET/CTAC scans were performed at a single institution on patients with prostate cancer recurrence after surgery, brachytherapy, or external beam radiation. Of these patients, 120 met our inclusion criteria. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between predictability of positive findings and patients’ characteristics, such as prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level at the time of scan, PSA kinetics, Gleason score, staging, and type of treatment before scan. Results In total, 68.3% of the 120 11C-acetate PET/CTAC scans were positive. The percentage of positive scans and PSA at the time of scanning and PSA velocity (PSAV) had positive correlations. The putative sensitivity and specificity were 86.6% and 65.8%, respectively, when a PSA level greater than 1.24 ng/mL was used as the threshold for scanning. The putative sensitivity and specificity were 74% and 75%, respectively, when a PSAV level greater than 1.32 ng/mL/y was used as the threshold. No significant associations were found between scan positivity and age, PSA doubling time, Gleason score, staging, or type of treatment before scanning. Conclusions This retrospective study suggests that threshold models of PSA greater than 1.24 ng/mL or PSAV greater than 1.32 ng/mL per year are independent predictors of positive findings in 11C-acetate PET/CTAC imaging of recurrent prostate cancer. PMID:25036021

  10. In Vivo Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Monitors Binding of Specific Probes to Cancer Biomarkers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ardeshirpour, Yasaman; Chernomordik, Victor; Zielinski, Rafal; Capala, Jacek; Griffiths, Gary; Vasalatiy, Olga; Smirnov, Aleksandr V.; Knutson, Jay R.; Lyakhov, Ilya; Achilefu, Samuel; Gandjbakhche, Amir; Hassan, Moinuddin

    2012-01-01

    One of the most important factors in choosing a treatment strategy for cancer is characterization of biomarkers in cancer cells. Particularly, recent advances in Monoclonal Antibodies (MAB) as primary-specific drugs targeting tumor receptors show that their efficacy depends strongly on characterization of tumor biomarkers. Assessment of their status in individual patients would facilitate selection of an optimal treatment strategy, and the continuous monitoring of those biomarkers and their binding process to the therapy would provide a means for early evaluation of the efficacy of therapeutic intervention. In this study we have demonstrated for the first time in live animals that the fluorescence lifetime can be used to detect the binding of targeted optical probes to the extracellular receptors on tumor cells in vivo. The rationale was that fluorescence lifetime of a specific probe is sensitive to local environment and/or affinity to other molecules. We attached Near-InfraRed (NIR) fluorescent probes to Human Epidermal Growth Factor 2 (HER2/neu)-specific Affibody molecules and used our time-resolved optical system to compare the fluorescence lifetime of the optical probes that were bound and unbound to tumor cells in live mice. Our results show that the fluorescence lifetime changes in our model system delineate HER2 receptor bound from the unbound probe in vivo. Thus, this method is useful as a specific marker of the receptor binding process, which can open a new paradigm in the “image and treat” concept, especially for early evaluation of the efficacy of the therapy. PMID:22384092

  11. In vivo fluorescence lifetime imaging monitors binding of specific probes to cancer biomarkers.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasaman Ardeshirpour

    Full Text Available One of the most important factors in choosing a treatment strategy for cancer is characterization of biomarkers in cancer cells. Particularly, recent advances in Monoclonal Antibodies (MAB as primary-specific drugs targeting tumor receptors show that their efficacy depends strongly on characterization of tumor biomarkers. Assessment of their status in individual patients would facilitate selection of an optimal treatment strategy, and the continuous monitoring of those biomarkers and their binding process to the therapy would provide a means for early evaluation of the efficacy of therapeutic intervention. In this study we have demonstrated for the first time in live animals that the fluorescence lifetime can be used to detect the binding of targeted optical probes to the extracellular receptors on tumor cells in vivo. The rationale was that fluorescence lifetime of a specific probe is sensitive to local environment and/or affinity to other molecules. We attached Near-InfraRed (NIR fluorescent probes to Human Epidermal Growth Factor 2 (HER2/neu-specific Affibody molecules and used our time-resolved optical system to compare the fluorescence lifetime of the optical probes that were bound and unbound to tumor cells in live mice. Our results show that the fluorescence lifetime changes in our model system delineate HER2 receptor bound from the unbound probe in vivo. Thus, this method is useful as a specific marker of the receptor binding process, which can open a new paradigm in the "image and treat" concept, especially for early evaluation of the efficacy of the therapy.

  12. In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluations of A High Affinity and Specificity Photoacoustic Nanoparticle Targeting to Cancer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ma, Lixin; Xu, Hang; Lee, Li Ean

    oxide (SIO) nanoparticle as a potent cancer cell selective PA contrast agent, with a high binding affinity and selectivity to the gastrin releasing peptide receptor (GRPR) which is overexpressed in many human cancers including prostate cancer, breast cancer and small cell lung cancer etc.......Photoacoustic (PA) imaging uses a short-pulsed laser to create ultrasound signals for the high resolution acoustic imaging. The development of targeting PA contrast agents offers a unique opportunity to improve the early detection of cancer cells. This work aims to develop a silica coated iron...

  13. HdhQ111 Mice Exhibit Tissue Specific Metabolite Profiles that Include Striatal Lipid Accumulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carroll, Jeffrey B.; Deik, Amy; Fossale, Elisa; Weston, Rory M.; Guide, Jolene R.; Arjomand, Jamshid; Kwak, Seung; Clish, Clary B.; MacDonald, Marcy E.

    2015-01-01

    The HTT CAG expansion mutation causes Huntington’s Disease and is associated with a wide range of cellular consequences, including altered metabolism. The mutant allele is expressed widely, in all tissues, but the striatum and cortex are especially vulnerable to its effects. To more fully understand this tissue-specificity, early in the disease process, we asked whether the metabolic impact of the mutant CAG expanded allele in heterozygous B6.HdhQ111/+ mice would be common across tissues, or whether tissues would have tissue-specific responses and whether such changes may be affected by diet. Specifically, we cross-sectionally examined steady state metabolite concentrations from a range of tissues (plasma, brown adipose tissue, cerebellum, striatum, liver, white adipose tissue), using an established liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry pipeline, from cohorts of 8 month old mutant and wild-type littermate mice that were fed one of two different high-fat diets. The differential response to diet highlighted a proportion of metabolites in all tissues, ranging from 3% (7/219) in the striatum to 12% (25/212) in white adipose tissue. By contrast, the mutant CAG-expanded allele primarily affected brain metabolites, with 14% (30/219) of metabolites significantly altered, compared to wild-type, in striatum and 11% (25/224) in the cerebellum. In general, diet and the CAG-expanded allele both elicited metabolite changes that were predominantly tissue-specific and non-overlapping, with evidence for mutation-by-diet interaction in peripheral tissues most affected by diet. Machine-learning approaches highlighted the accumulation of diverse lipid species as the most genotype-predictive metabolite changes in the striatum. Validation experiments in cell culture demonstrated that lipid accumulation was also a defining feature of mutant HdhQ111 striatal progenitor cells. Thus, metabolite-level responses to the CAG expansion mutation in vivo were tissue specific and most evident

  14. HdhQ111 Mice Exhibit Tissue Specific Metabolite Profiles that Include Striatal Lipid Accumulation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jeffrey B Carroll

    Full Text Available The HTT CAG expansion mutation causes Huntington's Disease and is associated with a wide range of cellular consequences, including altered metabolism. The mutant allele is expressed widely, in all tissues, but the striatum and cortex are especially vulnerable to its effects. To more fully understand this tissue-specificity, early in the disease process, we asked whether the metabolic impact of the mutant CAG expanded allele in heterozygous B6.HdhQ111/+ mice would be common across tissues, or whether tissues would have tissue-specific responses and whether such changes may be affected by diet. Specifically, we cross-sectionally examined steady state metabolite concentrations from a range of tissues (plasma, brown adipose tissue, cerebellum, striatum, liver, white adipose tissue, using an established liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry pipeline, from cohorts of 8 month old mutant and wild-type littermate mice that were fed one of two different high-fat diets. The differential response to diet highlighted a proportion of metabolites in all tissues, ranging from 3% (7/219 in the striatum to 12% (25/212 in white adipose tissue. By contrast, the mutant CAG-expanded allele primarily affected brain metabolites, with 14% (30/219 of metabolites significantly altered, compared to wild-type, in striatum and 11% (25/224 in the cerebellum. In general, diet and the CAG-expanded allele both elicited metabolite changes that were predominantly tissue-specific and non-overlapping, with evidence for mutation-by-diet interaction in peripheral tissues most affected by diet. Machine-learning approaches highlighted the accumulation of diverse lipid species as the most genotype-predictive metabolite changes in the striatum. Validation experiments in cell culture demonstrated that lipid accumulation was also a defining feature of mutant HdhQ111 striatal progenitor cells. Thus, metabolite-level responses to the CAG expansion mutation in vivo were tissue specific and

  15. Betulinic acid selectively increases protein degradation and enhances prostate cancer-specific apoptosis: possible role for inhibition of deubiquitinase activity.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Teresita Reiner

    Full Text Available Inhibition of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS of protein degradation is a valid anti-cancer strategy and has led to the approval of bortezomib for the treatment of multiple myeloma. However, the alternative approach of enhancing the degradation of oncoproteins that are frequently overexpressed in cancers is less developed. Betulinic acid (BA is a plant-derived small molecule that can increase apoptosis specifically in cancer but not in normal cells, making it an attractive anti-cancer agent. Our results in prostate cancer suggested that BA inhibited multiple deubiquitinases (DUBs, which resulted in the accumulation of poly-ubiquitinated proteins, decreased levels of oncoproteins, and increased apoptotic cell death. In normal fibroblasts, however, BA did not inhibit DUB activity nor increased total poly-ubiquitinated proteins, which was associated with a lack of effect on cell death. In the TRAMP transgenic mouse model of prostate cancer, treatment with BA (10 mg/kg inhibited primary tumors, increased apoptosis, decreased angiogenesis and proliferation, and lowered androgen receptor and cyclin D1 protein. BA treatment also inhibited DUB activity and increased ubiquitinated proteins in TRAMP prostate cancer but had no effect on apoptosis or ubiquitination in normal mouse tissues. Overall, our data suggests that BA-mediated inhibition of DUBs and induction of apoptotic cell death specifically in prostate cancer but not in normal cells and tissues may provide an effective non-toxic and clinically selective agent for chemotherapy.

  16. Quantitation of circulating tumor cells in blood samples from ovarian and prostate cancer patients using tumor-specific fluorescent ligands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Wei; Kularatne, Sumith A; Kalli, Kimberly R; Prendergast, Franklyn G; Amato, Robert J; Klee, George G; Hartmann, Lynn C; Low, Philip S

    2008-10-15

    Quantitation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) can provide information on the stage of a malignancy, onset of disease progression and response to therapy. In an effort to more accurately quantitate CTCs, we have synthesized fluorescent conjugates of 2 high-affinity tumor-specific ligands (folate-AlexaFluor 488 and DUPA-FITC) that bind tumor cells >20-fold more efficiently than fluorescent antibodies. Here we determine whether these tumor-specific dyes can be exploited for quantitation of CTCs in peripheral blood samples from cancer patients. A CTC-enriched fraction was isolated from the peripheral blood of ovarian and prostate cancer patients by an optimized density gradient centrifugation protocol and labeled with the aforementioned fluorescent ligands. CTCs were then quantitated by flow cytometry. CTCs were detected in 18 of 20 ovarian cancer patients (mean 222 CTCs/ml; median 15 CTCs/ml; maximum 3,118 CTCs/ml), whereas CTC numbers in 16 gender-matched normal volunteers were negligible (mean 0.4 CTCs/ml; median 0.3 CTCs/ml; maximum 1.5 CTCs/ml; p < 0.001, chi(2)). CTCs were also detected in 10 of 13 prostate cancer patients (mean 26 CTCs/ml, median 14 CTCs/ml, maximum 94 CTCs/ml) but not in 18 gender-matched healthy donors (mean 0.8 CTCs/ml, median 1, maximum 3 CTC/ml; p < 0.0026, chi(2)). Tumor-specific fluorescent antibodies were much less efficient in quantitating CTCs because of their lower CTC labeling efficiency. Use of tumor-specific fluorescent ligands to label CTCs in peripheral blood can provide a simple, accurate and sensitive method for determining the number of cancer cells circulating in the bloodstream.

  17. Acute kidney injury in the cancer patient.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campbell, G Adam; Hu, Daniel; Okusa, Mark D

    2014-01-01

    Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequent and significant complication of cancer and cancer therapy. Cancer patients frequently encounter risk factors for AKI including older age, CKD, prerenal conditions, sepsis, exposure to nephrotoxins, and obstructive physiology. AKI can also be secondary to paraneoplastic conditions, including glomerulonephritis and microangiopathic processes. This complication can have significant consequences, including effects on patients' ability to continue to receive therapy for their malignancy. This review will serve to summarize potential etiologies of AKI that present in patients with cancer as well as to highlight specific patient populations, such as the critically ill cancer patient. Copyright © 2014 National Kidney Foundation, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Endogenous and exogenous testosterone and the risk of prostate cancer and increased prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level: a meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boyle, Peter; Koechlin, Alice; Bota, Maria; d'Onofrio, Alberto; Zaridze, David G; Perrin, Paul; Fitzpatrick, John; Burnett, Arthur L; Boniol, Mathieu

    2016-11-01

    To review and quantify the association between endogenous and exogenous testosterone and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostate cancer. Literature searches were performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Prospective cohort studies that reported data on the associations between endogenous testosterone and prostate cancer, and placebo-controlled randomized trials of testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) that reported data on PSA and/or prostate cancer cases were retained. Meta-analyses were performed using random-effects models, with tests for publication bias and heterogeneity. Twenty estimates were included in a meta-analysis, which produced a summary relative risk (SRR) of prostate cancer for an increase of 5 nmol/L of testosterone of 0.99 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.96, 1.02) without heterogeneity (I² = 0%). Based on 26 trials, the overall difference in PSA levels after onset of use of TRT was 0.10 ng/mL (-0.28, 0.48). Results were similar when conducting heterogeneity analyses by mode of administration, region, age at baseline, baseline testosterone, trial duration, type of patients and type of TRT. The SRR of prostate cancer as an adverse effect from 11 TRT trials was 0.87 (95% CI 0.30; 2.50). Results were consistent across studies. Prostate cancer appears to be unrelated to endogenous testosterone levels. TRT for symptomatic hypogonadism does not appear to increase PSA levels nor the risk of prostate cancer development. The current data are reassuring, although some caution is essential until multiple studies with longer follow-up are available. © 2016 The Authors BJU International © 2016 BJU International Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  19. Reassessing the NTCTCS Staging Systems for Differentiated Thyroid Cancer, Including Age at Diagnosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLeod, Donald S A; Jonklaas, Jacqueline; Brierley, James D; Ain, Kenneth B; Cooper, David S; Fein, Henry G; Haugen, Bryan R; Ladenson, Paul W; Magner, James; Ross, Douglas S; Skarulis, Monica C; Steward, David L; Xing, Mingzhao; Litofsky, Danielle R; Maxon, Harry R; Sherman, Steven I

    2015-10-01

    Thyroid cancer is unique for having age as a staging variable. Recently, the commonly used age cut-point of 45 years has been questioned. This study assessed alternate staging systems on the outcome of overall survival, and compared these with current National Thyroid Cancer Treatment Cooperative Study (NTCTCS) staging systems for papillary and follicular thyroid cancer. A total of 4721 patients with differentiated thyroid cancer were assessed. Five potential alternate staging systems were generated at age cut-points in five-year increments from 35 to 70 years, and tested for model discrimination (Harrell's C-statistic) and calibration (R(2)). The best five models for papillary and follicular cancer were further tested with bootstrap resampling and significance testing for discrimination. The best five alternate papillary cancer systems had age cut-points of 45-50 years, with the highest scoring model using 50 years. No significant difference in C-statistic was found between the best alternate and current NTCTCS systems (p = 0.200). The best five alternate follicular cancer systems had age cut-points of 50-55 years, with the highest scoring model using 50 years. All five best alternate staging systems performed better compared with the current system (p = 0.003-0.035). There was no significant difference in discrimination between the best alternate system (cut-point age 50 years) and the best system of cut-point age 45 years (p = 0.197). No alternate papillary cancer systems assessed were significantly better than the current system. New alternate staging systems for follicular cancer appear to be better than the current NTCTCS system, although they require external validation.

  20. Reassessing the NTCTCS Staging Systems for Differentiated Thyroid Cancer, Including Age at Diagnosis

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLeod, Donald S.A.; Jonklaas, Jacqueline; Brierley, James D.; Ain, Kenneth B.; Cooper, David S.; Fein, Henry G.; Haugen, Bryan R.; Ladenson, Paul W.; Magner, James; Ross, Douglas S.; Skarulis, Monica C.; Steward, David L.; Xing, Mingzhao; Litofsky, Danielle R.; Maxon, Harry R.

    2015-01-01

    Background: Thyroid cancer is unique for having age as a staging variable. Recently, the commonly used age cut-point of 45 years has been questioned. Objective: This study assessed alternate staging systems on the outcome of overall survival, and compared these with current National Thyroid Cancer Treatment Cooperative Study (NTCTCS) staging systems for papillary and follicular thyroid cancer. Methods: A total of 4721 patients with differentiated thyroid cancer were assessed. Five potential alternate staging systems were generated at age cut-points in five-year increments from 35 to 70 years, and tested for model discrimination (Harrell's C-statistic) and calibration (R2). The best five models for papillary and follicular cancer were further tested with bootstrap resampling and significance testing for discrimination. Results: The best five alternate papillary cancer systems had age cut-points of 45–50 years, with the highest scoring model using 50 years. No significant difference in C-statistic was found between the best alternate and current NTCTCS systems (p = 0.200). The best five alternate follicular cancer systems had age cut-points of 50–55 years, with the highest scoring model using 50 years. All five best alternate staging systems performed better compared with the current system (p = 0.003–0.035). There was no significant difference in discrimination between the best alternate system (cut-point age 50 years) and the best system of cut-point age 45 years (p = 0.197). Conclusions: No alternate papillary cancer systems assessed were significantly better than the current system. New alternate staging systems for follicular cancer appear to be better than the current NTCTCS system, although they require external validation. PMID:26203804

  1. Cause-specific mortality in long-term survivors of breast cancer: A 25-year follow-up study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hooning, Maartje J.; Aleman, Berthe M.P.; Rosmalen, Agnes J.M. van; Kuenen, Marianne A.; Klijn, Jan G.M.; Leeuwen, Flora E. van

    2006-01-01

    Purpose: To assess long-term cause-specific mortality in breast cancer patients. Patients and Methods: We studied mortality in 7425 patients treated for early breast cancer between 1970 and 1986. Follow-up was 94% complete until January 2000. Treatment-specific mortality was evaluated by calculating standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) based on comparison with general population rates and by using Cox proportional hazards regression. Results: After a median follow-up of 13.8 years, 4160 deaths were observed, of which 76% were due to breast cancer. Second malignancies showed a slightly increased SMR of 1.2 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0-1.3). Radiotherapy (RT) as compared with surgery was associated with a 1.7-fold (95% CI, 1.2-2.5) increased mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD). After postlumpectomy RT, no increased mortality from CVD was observed (hazard ratio, 1.0; 95% CI, 0.5-1.9). Postmastectomy RT administered before 1979 and between 1979 and 1986 was associated with a 2-fold (95% CI, 1.2-3.4) and 1.5-fold (95% CI, 0.9-2.7) increase, respectively. Patients treated before age 45 experienced a higher SMR (2.0) for both solid tumors (95% CI, 1.6-2.7) and CVD (95% CI, 1.3-3.1). Conclusion: Currently, a large population of breast cancer survivors is at increased risk of death from CVDs and second cancers, especially when treated with RT at a young age. Patients irradiated after 1979 experience low (postmastectomy RT) or no (postlumpectomy RT) excess mortality from CVD

  2. Physical Activity, Biomarkers, and Disease Outcomes in Cancer Survivors: A Systematic Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Friedenreich, Christine M.; Courneya, Kerry S.; Siddiqi, Sameer M.; McTiernan, Anne; Alfano, Catherine M.

    2012-01-01

    Background Cancer survivors often seek information about how lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, may influence their prognosis. We systematically reviewed studies that examined relationships between physical activity and mortality (cancer-specific and all-cause) and/or cancer biomarkers. Methods We identified 45 articles published from January 1950 to August 2011 through MEDLINE database searches that were related to physical activity, cancer survival, and biomarkers potentially relevant to cancer survival. We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Statement to guide this review. Study characteristics, mortality outcomes, and biomarker-relevant and subgroup results were abstracted for each article that met the inclusion criteria (ie, research articles that included participants with a cancer diagnosis, mortality outcomes, and an assessment of physical activity). Results There was consistent evidence from 27 observational studies that physical activity is associated with reduced all-cause, breast cancer–specific, and colon cancer–specific mortality. There is currently insufficient evidence regarding the association between physical activity and mortality for survivors of other cancers. Randomized controlled trials of exercise that included biomarker endpoints suggest that exercise may result in beneficial changes in the circulating level of insulin, insulin-related pathways, inflammation, and, possibly, immunity; however, the evidence is still preliminary. Conclusions Future research directions identified include the need for more observational studies on additional types of cancer with larger sample sizes; the need to examine whether the association between physical activity and mortality varies by tumor, clinical, or risk factor characteristics; and the need for research on the biological mechanisms involved in the association between physical activity and survival after a cancer diagnosis. Future randomized

  3. Numerical Treatment of Two-phase Flow in Porous Media Including Specific Interfacial Area

    KAUST Repository

    El-Amin, Mohamed

    2015-06-01

    In this work, we present a numerical treatment for the model of two-phase flow in porous media including specific interfacial area. For numerical discretization we use the cell-centered finite difference (CCFD) method based on the shifting-matrices method which can reduce the time-consuming operations. A new iterative implicit algorithm has been developed to solve the problem under consideration. All advection and advection-like terms that appear in saturation equation and interfacial area equation are treated using upwind schemes. Selected simulation results such as pc–Sw–awn surface, capillary pressure, saturation and specific interfacial area with various values of model parameters have been introduced. The simulation results show a good agreement with those in the literature using either pore network modeling or Darcy scale modeling.

  4. Treatment Outcomes in Non-Metastatic Prostate Cancer Patients With Ultra-High Prostate-Specific Antigen

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tai, Patricia; Tonita, Jon; Woitas, Carla; Zhu Tong; Joseph, Kurian; Skarsgard, David

    2012-01-01

    Purpose: It is commonly believed that prostate cancer patients with very high prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels are unlikely to benefit from definitive local treatment, and patients with very high PSA are often underrepresented in, or excluded from, randomized clinical trials. Consequently, little is known about their optimal treatment or prognosis. We performed a registry-based analysis of management and outcome in this population of patients. Methods and Materials: Our provincial Cancer Registry was used to identify all men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer from 1990 to 2001. A retrospective chart review provided information on stage, Gleason score, PSA at diagnosis, and treatment. In this study, ultra-high PSA was defined as PSA of ≥50 ng/ml. For a more complete perspective, treatment outcomes of patients with PSA of 20 to 49.9 ng/ml were also studied. Results: Of the 8378 men diagnosed with prostate cancer during this period, 6,449 had no known nodal or distant metastatic disease. The median follow-up of this group was 67.2 months (range, 0–192 months). A total of 1534 patients had PSA of ≥20 ng/ml. Among the 995 patients with PSA 20 to 49.9 ng/ml, 85 had radical prostatectomy (RP), and their 5- and 10-year cause-specific survivals (CSS) were 95% and 84%, respectively. The 497 patients treated with radiotherapy (RT) had 5- and 10-year CSS of 92% and 71%. For the 332 patients with PSA 50–99.9 ng/ml, RT was associated with 5- and 10-year CSS of 81% and 55%. For the 207 patients with PSA of ≥100 ng/ml, RT was associated with 5- and 10-year CSS of 80% and 54%. Conclusions: This is the largest series in the world on non metastatic cancer patients with ultra-high PSA at diagnosis. Even in the setting of a very high presenting PSA level, prostatectomy and radiotherapy are often associated with prolonged survival.

  5. Reduction of Cancer-Specific Thought Intrusions and Anxiety Symptoms With a Stress Management Intervention Among Women Undergoing Treatment for Breast Cancer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antoni, Michael H.; Wimberly, Sarah R.; Lechner, Suzanne C.; Kazi, Aisha; Sifre, Tammy; Urcuyo, Kenya R.; Phillips, Kristin; Smith, Roselyn G.; Petronis, Vida M.; Guellati, Sophie; Wells, Kurrie A.; Blomberg, Bonnie; Carver, Charles S.

    2017-01-01

    Objective After surgery for breast cancer, many women experience anxiety relating to the cancer that can adversely affect quality of life and emotional functioning during the year postsurgery. Symptoms such as intrusive thoughts may be ameliorated during this period with a structured, group-based cognitive behavior intervention. Method A 10-week group cognitive behavior stress management intervention that included anxiety reduction (relaxation training), cognitive restructuring, and coping skills training was tested among 199 women newly treated for stage 0-III breast cancer. They were then followed for 1 year after recruitment. Results The intervention reduced reports of thought intrusion, interviewer ratings of anxiety, and emotional distress across 1 year significantly more than was seen with the control condition. The beneficial effects were maintained well past the completion of adjuvant therapy. Conclusions Structured, group-based cognitive behavior stress management may ameliorate cancer-related anxiety during active medical treatment for breast cancer and for 1 year following treatment. Group-based cognitive behavior stress management is a clinically useful adjunct to offer to women treated for breast cancer. PMID:17012691

  6. Prostate-specific antigen testing accuracy in community practice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adams-Cameron Meg

    2002-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Most data on prostate-specific antigen (PSA testing come from urologic cohorts comprised of volunteers for screening programs. We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of PSA testing for detecting prostate cancer in community practice. Methods PSA testing results were compared with a reference standard of prostate biopsy. Subjects were 2,620 men 40 years and older undergoing (PSA testing and biopsy from 1/1/95 through 12/31/98 in the Albuquerque, New Mexico metropolitan area. Diagnostic measures included the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve, sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios. Results Cancer was detected in 930 subjects (35%. The area under the ROC curve was 0.67 and the PSA cutpoint of 4 ng/ml had a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 33%. The likelihood ratio for a positive test (LR+ was 1.28 and 0.42 for a negative test (LR-. PSA testing was most sensitive (90% but least specific (27% in older men. Age-specific reference ranges improved specificity in older men (49% but decreased sensitivity (70%, with an LR+ of 1.38. Lowering the PSA cutpoint to 2 ng/ml resulted in a sensitivity of 95%, a specificity of 20%, and an LR+ of 1.19. Conclusions PSA testing had fair discriminating power for detecting prostate cancer in community practice. The PSA cutpoint of 4 ng/ml was sensitive but relatively non-specific and associated likelihood ratios only moderately revised probabilities for cancer. Using age-specific reference ranges and a PSA cutpoint below 4 ng/ml improved test specificity and sensitivity, respectively, but did not improve the overall accuracy of PSA testing.

  7. Sex disparities in cancer incidence in Jiashan County, China, 1995-2014.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Xiyi; Cai, Shaofang; Hu, Yunqing; Ye, Ding; Li, Qilong; Chen, Kun; Jin, Mingjuan

    2017-10-01

    To describe the sex-specific incidence rates and the male-to-female incidence-rate ratios (IRRs) of different cancer types, and to explore the corresponding sex disparities in an area of Eastern China. We used data from the Cancer Registry in Jiashan County, and calculated the sex-specific age-standardized (2010 China standard population) incidence rates and the male-to-female IRRs for different cancer types during the period 1995-2014. The age-standardized incidence rates of all cancers for the whole period 1995-2014 were 151.48 per 100,000 person-years for males and 83.75 per 100,000 person-years for females, and the corresponding male-to-female IRR was 1.81 (95% confidence interval: 1.77-1.85). Specifically, males presented higher incidences in most types of cancer with the exceptions of cancers of connective and other soft tissues, gallbladder (including extrahepatic bile ducts), and thyroid gland. In addition, the age-specific incidences of the ten most common cancers in males were higher than those in females in most age groups. Our results reveal a male predominance in incidence for a majority of cancers in Jiashan County, Eastern China. Possible explanations for these sex disparities in cancer incidence may include lifestyle factors, particularly smoking. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  8. The Serum Concentrations of Chemokine CXCL12 and Its Specific Receptor CXCR4 in Patients with Esophageal Cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marta Łukaszewicz-Zając

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Objectives. Recent investigations have suggested that upregulated levels of inflammatory biomarkers, such as chemokines, may be associated with development of many malignancies, including esophageal cancer (EC. Based on our knowledge, this study is the first to assess the serum concentration of chemokine CXCL12 and its specific receptor CXCR4 in the diagnosis of EC patients. Material and Methods. The present study included 79 subjects: 49 patients with EC and 30 healthy volunteers. The serum concentrations of CXCL12 and CXCR4 and classical tumor markers such as carcinoembryonal antigen (CEA and squamous cell cancer antigen (SCC-Ag were measured using immunoenzyme assays, while C-reactive protein (CRP levels were assessed by immunoturbidimetric method. Moreover, diagnostic criteria of all proteins tested and the survival of EC patients were assessed. Results. The serum concentrations of CXCL12 were significantly higher, while those of its receptor CXCR4 were significantly lower in EC patients compared to healthy controls. The diagnostic sensitivity, negative predictive value, and accuracy of CXCR4 were the highest among all analyzed proteins and increased for combined analysis with classical tumor markers and CRP levels. Conclusion. Our findings suggest that serum CXCR4 may improve the diagnosis of EC patients, especially in combination with classical tumor markers.

  9. 18F-DCFBC Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen-Targeted PET/CT Imaging in Localized Prostate Cancer: Correlation With Multiparametric MRI and Histopathology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turkbey, Baris; Mena, Esther; Lindenberg, Liza; Adler, Stephen; Bednarova, Sandra; Berman, Rose; Ton, Anita T; McKinney, Yolanda; Eclarinal, Philip; Hill, Craig; Afari, George; Bhattacharyya, Sibaprasad; Mease, Ronnie C; Merino, Maria J; Jacobs, Paula M; Wood, Bradford J; Pinto, Peter A; Pomper, Martin G; Choyke, Peter L

    2017-10-01

    To assess the ability of (N-[N-[(S)-1,3-dicarboxypropyl]carbamoyl]-4-F-fluorobenzyl-L-cysteine) (F-DCFBC), a prostate-specific membrane antigen-targeted PET agent, to detect localized prostate cancer lesions in correlation with multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) and histopathology. This Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996-compliant, prospective, institutional review board-approved study included 13 evaluable patients with localized prostate cancer (median age, 62.8 years [range, 51-74 years]; median prostate-specific antigen, 37.5 ng/dL [range, 3.26-216 ng/dL]). Patients underwent mpMRI and F-DCFBC PET/CT within a 3 months' window. Lesions seen on mpMRI were biopsied under transrectal ultrasound/MRI fusion-guided biopsy, or a radical prostatectomy was performed. F-DCFBC PET/CT and mpMRI were evaluated blinded and separately for tumor detection on a lesion basis. For PET image analysis, MRI and F-DCFBC PET images were fused by using software registration; imaging findings were correlated with histology, and uptake of F-DCFBC in tumors was compared with uptake in benign prostatic hyperplasia nodules and normal peripheral zone tissue using the 80% threshold SUVmax. A total of 25 tumor foci (mean size, 1.8 cm; median size, 1.5 cm; range, 0.6-4.7 cm) were histopathologically identified in 13 patients. Sensitivity rates of F-DCFBC PET/CT and mpMRI were 36% and 96%, respectively, for all tumors. For index lesions, the largest tumor with highest Gleason score, sensitivity rates of F-DCFBC PET/CT and mpMRI were 61.5% and 92%, respectively. The average SUVmax for primary prostate cancer was higher (5.8 ± 4.4) than that of benign prostatic hyperplasia nodules (2.1 ± 0.3) or that of normal prostate tissue (2.1 ± 0.4) at 1 hour postinjection (P = 0.0033). The majority of index prostate cancers are detected with F-DCFBC PET/CT, and this may be a prognostic indicator based on uptake and staging. However, for detecting prostate cancer with high sensitivity, it

  10. Long-term Prostate-specific Antigen Velocity in Improved Classification of Prostate Cancer Risk and Mortality

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ørsted, David Dynnes; Bojesen, Stig E; Kamstrup, Pia R

    2013-01-01

    BACKGROUND: It remains unclear whether adding long-term prostate-specific antigen velocity (PSAV) to baseline PSA values improves classification of prostate cancer (PCa) risk and mortality in the general population. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether long-term PSAV improves classification of PCa risk...

  11. Active surveillance for clinically localized prostate cancer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thomsen, Frederik B; Brasso, Klaus; Klotz, Laurence H

    2014-01-01

    Active surveillance (AS) has been introduced as an observational strategy to delay or avoid curative treatment without compromising long-term cancer-specific survival. The 10 studies included in this review, published between 2008 and 2013, generally agreed upon patients selection for the AS stra......Active surveillance (AS) has been introduced as an observational strategy to delay or avoid curative treatment without compromising long-term cancer-specific survival. The 10 studies included in this review, published between 2008 and 2013, generally agreed upon patients selection...

  12. Age- and Sex-Specific Trends in Lung Cancer Mortality over 62 Years in a Nation with a Low Effort in Cancer Prevention

    Science.gov (United States)

    John, Ulrich; Hanke, Monika

    2016-01-01

    Background: A decrease in lung cancer mortality among females below 50 years of age has been reported for countries with significant tobacco control efforts. The aim of this study was to describe the lung cancer deaths, including the mortality rates and proportions among total deaths, for females and males by age at death in a country with a high smoking prevalence (Germany) over a time period of 62 years. Methods: The vital statistics data were analyzed using a joinpoint regression analysis stratified by age and sex. An age-period-cohort analysis was used to estimate the potential effects of sex and school education on mortality. Results: After an increase, lung cancer mortality among women aged 35–44 years remained stable from 1989 to 2009 and decreased by 10.8% per year from 2009 to 2013. Conclusions: Lung cancer mortality among females aged 35–44 years has decreased. The potential reasons include an increase in the number of never smokers, following significant increases in school education since 1950, particularly among females. PMID:27023582

  13. Analysis of 10-year cause-specific mortality of patients with breast cancer treated in New South Wales in 1995

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Wei; Stuart, Kirsty; Boyages, John; O'Connell, Dianne

    2011-01-01

    The objective of this study is to assess cause-specific mortality for patients with breast cancer and to determine if excess cardiac death was associated with radiation therapy (RT). We obtained 10-year cause-specific mortality information from the New South Wales (NSW) Central Cancer Registry and National Death Index on 1242 patients with unilateral stage I–III invasive breast cancer in NSW, Australia, diagnosed over a 6-month period in 1995. We compared actuarial cause-specific mortality (breast cancer, cardiac, other cancers and other causes) for patients who received left-sided, right-sided or no RT. Mortality due to breast cancer or due to other cancers was not significantly different (P = 0.30 and P = 0.11) between the three subgroups. Mortality due to cardiac and other causes was higher in patients who did not have radiotherapy (P = 0.001 and P < 0.001). A total of 52 cardiac deaths in 1242 patients (4.2%) occurred – six of 274 patients (2.2%) in the left-sided radiotherapy group, four of 245 patients (1.6%) in the right-sided radiotherapy group (P = 0.63) and 42 of 723 patients (5.8%) in the no radiotherapy group. Most cardiac deaths (46 of 52 cases) occurred in patients aged 70 years or older at the time of diagnosis. There were no differences in cardiac mortality between the three treatment groups for those aged 70 years or older (P = 0.22, log-rank test), suggesting that the higher overall cardiac mortality rate in the no-RT group is due to a higher percentage of patients aged 70 years or older. Of the 10 patients who died from cardiac causes and who had received RT, none had received chemotherapy or irradiation to the internal mammary chain. There is no excess cardiac mortality due to RT within the first decade in a population series of patients with breast cancer treated with modern radiotherapy.

  14. The DNA-instability test as a specific marker of malignancy and its application to detect cancer clones in borderline malignancy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M Fukuda

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Recent progress in cytogenetic and biochemical mutator assay technologies has enabled us to detect single gene alterations and gross chromosomal rearrangements, and it became clear that all cancer cells are genetically unstable. In order to detect the genome-wide instability of cancer cells, a new simple method, the DNA-instability test, was developed. The methods to detect genomic instability so far reported have only demonstrated the presence of qualitative and quantitative alterations in certain specific genomic loci. In contrast to these commonly used methods to reveal the genomic instability at certain specific DNA regions, the newly introduced DNA-instability test revealed the presence of physical DNA-instability in the entire DNA molecule of a cancer cell nucleus as revealed by increased liability to denature upon HCl hydrolysis or formamide exposure. When this test was applied to borderline malignancies, cancer clones were detected in all cases at an early-stage of cancer progression. We proposed a new concept of “procancer” clones to define those cancer clones with “functional atypia” showing positivities for various cancer markers, as well as DNA-instability testing, but showing no remarkable ordinary “morphological atypia” which is commonly used as the basis of histopathological diagnosis of malignancy.

  15. Impact of tumor architecture on disease recurrence and cancer-specific mortality of upper tract urothelial carcinoma treated with radical nephroureterectomy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Bo; Hu, Bin; Yuan, Qingmin; Wen, Shuang; Liu, Tianqing; Bai, Shanshan; Qi, Xiaofeng; Wang, Xin; Yang, Deyong; Sun, Xiuzhen; Song, Xishuang

    2017-07-01

    Upper tract urinary carcinoma (UTUC) is a relatively uncommon but aggressive disease. Recent publications have assessed the prognostic significance of tumor architecture in UTUC, but there is still controversy regarding the significance and importance of tumor architecture on disease recurrence. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 101 patients with clinical UTUC who had undergone surgery. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with disease recurrence and cancer-specific mortality. As our single center study and the limited sample size may influence the clinical significance, we further quantitatively combined the results with those of existing published literature through a meta-analysis compiled from searching several databases. At a median follow-up of 41.3 months, 25 patients experienced disease recurrence. Spearman's correlation analysis showed that tumor architecture was found to be positively correlated with the tumor location and the histological grade. Kaplan-Meier curves showed that patients with sessile tumor architecture had significantly poor recurrence free survival (RFS) and cancer specific survival (CSS). Furthermore, multivariate analysis suggested that tumor architecture was independent prognostic factors for RFS (Hazard ratio, HR = 2.648) and CSS (HR = 2.072) in UTUC patients. A meta-analysis of investigating tumor architecture and its effects on UTUC prognosis was conducted. After searching PubMed, Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library and Scopus databases, 17 articles met the eligibility criteria for this analysis. The eligible studies included a total of 14,368 patients and combined results showed that sessile tumor architecture was associated with both disease recurrence with a pooled HR estimate of 1.454 and cancer-specific mortality with a pooled HR estimate of 1.416. Tumor architecture is an independent predictor for disease recurrence after radical nephroureterectomy for UTUC

  16. SMRT has tissue-specific isoform profiles that include a form containing one CoRNR box

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Short, Stephen; Malartre, Marianne; Sharpe, Colin

    2005-01-01

    SMRT acts as a corepressor for a range of transcription factors. The amino-terminal part of the protein includes domains that mainly mediate transcriptional repression whilst the carboxy-terminal part includes domains that interact with nuclear receptors using up to three motifs called CoRNR boxes. The region of the SMRT primary transcript encoding the interaction domains is subject to alternative splicing that varies the inclusion of the third CoRNR box. The profile in mice includes an abundant, novel SMRT isoform that possesses just one CoRNR box. Mouse tissues therefore express SMRT isoforms containing one, two or three CoRNR boxes. In frogs, the SMRT isoform profile is tissue-specific. The mouse also shows distinct profiles generated by differential expression levels of the SMRT transcript isoforms. The formation of multiple SMRT isoforms and their tissue-specific regulation indicates a mechanism, whereby cells can define the repertoire of transcription factors regulated by SMRT

  17. Linkage specific fucosylation of alpha-1-antitrypsin in liver cirrhosis and cancer patients: implications for a biomarker of hepatocellular carcinoma.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mary Ann Comunale

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available We previously reported increased levels of protein-linked fucosylation with the development of liver cancer and identified many of the proteins containing the altered glycan structures. One such protein is alpha-1-antitrypsin (A1AT. To advance these studies, we performed N-linked glycan analysis on the five major isoforms of A1AT and completed a comprehensive study of the glycosylation of A1AT found in healthy controls, patients with hepatitis C- (HCV induced liver cirrhosis, and in patients infected with HCV with a diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC.Patients with liver cirrhosis and liver cancer had increased levels of triantennary glycan-containing outer arm (alpha-1,3 fucosylation. Increases in core (alpha-1,6 fucosylation were observed only on A1AT from patients with cancer. We performed a lectin fluorophore-linked immunosorbent assay using Aleuria Aurantia lectin (AAL, specific for core and outer arm fucosylation in over 400 patients with liver disease. AAL-reactive A1AT was able to detect HCC with a sensitivity of 70% and a specificity of 86%, which was greater than that observed with the current marker of HCC, alpha-fetoprotein. Glycosylation analysis of the false positives was performed; results indicated that these patients had increases in outer arm fucosylation but not in core fucosylation, suggesting that core fucosylation is cancer specific.This report details the stepwise change in the glycosylation of A1AT with the progression from liver cirrhosis to cancer and identifies core fucosylation on A1AT as an HCC specific modification.

  18. P1 promoter-driven HNF4α isoforms are specifically repressed by β-catenin signaling in colorectal cancer cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Babeu, Jean-Philippe; Jones, Christine; Geha, Sameh; Carrier, Julie C; Boudreau, François

    2018-06-13

    HNF4α is a key nuclear receptor for regulating gene expression in the gut. While both P1 and P2 isoform classes of HNF4α are expressed in colonic epithelium, specific inhibition of P1 isoforms is commonly found in colorectal cancer. Previous studies have suggested that P1 and P2 isoforms may regulate different cellular functions. Despite these advances, it remains unclear whether these isoform classes are functionally divergent in the context of human biology. Here, the consequences of specific inhibition of P1 or P2 isoform expression was measured in a human colorectal cancer cell transcriptome. Results indicate that P1 isoforms were specifically associated with the control of cell metabolism while P2 isoforms globally supported aberrant oncogenic signalization, promoting cancer cell survival and progression. P1 promoter-driven isoform expression was found to be repressed by β-catenin, one of the earliest oncogenic pathways to be activated during colon tumorigenesis. These findings identify a novel cascade by which the expression of P1 isoforms are rapidly shut down in the early stages of colon tumorigenesis, allowing a change in HNF4α-dependent transcriptome thereby promoting colorectal cancer progression. © 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

  19. Clinical target volume delineation including elective nodal irradiation in preoperative and definitive radiotherapy of pancreatic cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Caravatta Luciana

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Radiotherapy (RT is widely used in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Currently, recommendation has been given for the delineation of the clinical target volume (CTV in adjuvant RT. Based on recently reviewed pathologic data, the aim of this study is to propose criteria for the CTV definition and delineation including elective nodal irradiation (ENI in the preoperative and definitive treatment of pancreatic cancer. Methods The anatomical structures of interest, as well as the abdominal vasculature were identified on intravenous contrast-enhanced CT scans of two different patients with pancreatic cancer of the head and the body. To delineate the lymph node area, a margin of 10 mm was added to the arteries. Results We proposed a set of guidelines for elective treatment of high-risk nodal areas and CTV delineation. Reference CT images were provided. Conclusions The proposed guidelines could be used for preoperative or definitive RT for carcinoma of the head and body of the pancreas. Further clinical investigations are needed to validate the defined CTVs.

  20. Prospective Study of Alcohol Consumption Quantity and Frequency and Cancer-Specific Mortality in the US Population

    Science.gov (United States)

    Breslow, Rosalind A.; Chen, Chiung M.; Graubard, Barry I.; Mukamal, Kenneth J.

    2011-01-01

    Prospective associations between quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption and cancer-specific mortality were studied using a nationally representative sample with pooled data from the 1988, 1990, 1991, and 1997–2004 administrations of the National Health Interview Survey (n = 323,354). By 2006, 8,362 participants had died of cancer. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate relative risks. Among current alcohol drinkers, for all-site cancer mortality, higher-quantity drinking (≥3 drinks on drinking days vs. 1 drink on drinking days) was associated with increased risk among men (relative risk (RR) = 1.24, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.09, 1.41; P for linear trend = 0.001); higher-frequency drinking (≥3 days/week vs. cancer mortality results were similar, but among never smokers, results were null. For colorectal cancer mortality, higher-quantity drinking was associated with increased risk among women (RR = 1.93, 95% CI: 1.17, 3.18; P-trend = 0.03). Higher-frequency drinking was associated with increased risk of prostate cancer (RR = 1.55, 95% CI: 1.01, 2.38; P for quadratic effect = 0.03) and tended to be associated with increased risk of breast cancer (RR = 1.44, 95% CI: 0.96, 2.17; P-trend = 0.06). Epidemiologic studies of alcohol and cancer mortality should consider the independent effects of quantity and frequency. PMID:21965184

  1. Prostate-specific membrane antigen-based imaging in prostate cancer: impact on clinical decision making process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demirkol, Mehmet Onur; Acar, Ömer; Uçar, Burcu; Ramazanoğlu, Sultan Rana; Sağlıcan, Yeşim; Esen, Tarık

    2015-05-01

    There is an ongoing need for an accurate imaging modality which can be used for staging purposes, metastatic evaluation, predicting biologic aggresiveness and investigating recurrent disease in prostate cancer. Prostate specific membrane antigen, given its favorable molecular characteristics, holds a promise as an ideal target for prostate cancer-specific nuclear imaging. In this study, we evaluated our initial results of PSMA based PET/CT imaging in prostate cancer. A total of 22 patients with a median age and serum PSA level of 68 years and 4.15 ng/ml, respectively underwent Ga-68 PSMA PET/CT in our hospital between Februrary and August 2014. Their charts were retrospectively reviewed in order to document the clinical characteristics, the indications for and the results of PSMA based imaging and the impact of Ga-68 PSMA PET/CT findings on disease management. The most common indications were rising PSA after local ± adjuvant treatment followed by staging and metastatic evaluation before definitive or salvage treatment. All except 2 patients had prostatic ± extraprostatic PSMA positive lesions. For those who had a positive result; treatment strategies were tailored accordingly. Above the PSA level of 2 ng/ml, none of the PSMA based nuclear imaging studies revealed negative results. PSMA based nuclear imaging has significantly impacted our way of handling patients with prostate cancer. Its preliminary performance in different clinical scenarios and ability to detect lesions even in low PSA values seems fairly promising and deserves to be supplemented with further clinical studies. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  2. Methylated genes as new cancer biomarkers.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Duffy, M J

    2012-02-01

    Aberrant hypermethylation of promoter regions in specific genes is a key event in the formation and progression of cancer. In at least some situations, these aberrant alterations occur early in the formation of malignancy and appear to be tumour specific. Multiple reports have suggested that measurement of the methylation status of the promoter regions of specific genes can aid early detection of cancer, determine prognosis and predict therapy responses. Promising DNA methylation biomarkers include the use of methylated GSTP1 for aiding the early diagnosis of prostate cancer, methylated PITX2 for predicting outcome in lymph node-negative breast cancer patients and methylated MGMT in predicting benefit from alkylating agents in patients with glioblastomas. However, prior to clinical utilisation, these findings require validation in prospective clinical studies. Furthermore, assays for measuring gene methylation need to be standardised, simplified and evaluated in external quality assurance programmes. It is concluded that methylated genes have the potential to provide a new generation of cancer biomarkers.

  3. Engineering a prostate-specific membrane antigen-activated tumor endothelial cell prodrug for cancer therapy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Denmeade, Samuel R; Mhaka, Annastasiah M; Rosen, D Marc

    2012-01-01

    adenosine triphosphatase (SERCA) pump, whose proper function is required by all cell types for viability. To achieve targeted inhibition, we took advantage of the unique expression of the carboxypeptidase prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) by tumor endothelial cells within the microenvironment...... of solid tumors. We generated a prodrug, G202, consisting of a PSMA-specific peptide coupled to an analog of the potent SERCA pump inhibitor thapsigargin. G202 produced substantial tumor regression against a panel of human cancer xenografts in vivo at doses that were minimally toxic to the host...

  4. Correlation of serum prostate specific antigen levels and Tc-99m mdp bone scintigraphy in newly diagnosed patients with prostrate cancer (abstract)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rauf, M.; Khan, S.M.; Khan, A.A.; Ahmad, S.; Knob, G.; Shah, S.; Khan, A.A.

    1998-01-01

    The aim of the study was to evaluate the correlation between serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) level and bone scintigraphy in newly diagnosed untreated prostate cancer patients. The probability of a positive bone scan for metastases was analyzed for different threshold values of prostate specific antigen (PSA), acid phosphastase and alkaline phosphates. Fifty four newly diagnosed untreated prostate cancer patients (mean age, 67 years range, 41 to 94) were included in this study. In each case serum PSA, acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase measurements were performed followed by whole body Technetium-99m MDP bone scan. The positive predictive value of serum PSA level for bone metastases at the threshold of 10 ng/ml was 70% whereas the same threshold level of PSA gave a negative predictive value of 100%. We used receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis to examine the power of predictive value of each serum test, in predicting the results of the bone scan. We also applied regression analysis for the assessment of correlation between the levels of tumor markers and the extent of bone pathology. It was concluded that bone scintigraphy seems to be unnecessary in evaluation of newly diagnosed untreated prostate cancer in patients with no clinical signs of bone pathology and serum PSA levels of equal to or less than 10 ng/ml. (author)

  5. Cell-Type-Specific Gene Programs of the Normal Human Nephron Define Kidney Cancer Subtypes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindgren, David; Eriksson, Pontus; Krawczyk, Krzysztof; Nilsson, Helén; Hansson, Jennifer; Veerla, Srinivas; Sjölund, Jonas; Höglund, Mattias; Johansson, Martin E; Axelson, Håkan

    2017-08-08

    Comprehensive transcriptome studies of cancers often rely on corresponding normal tissue samples to serve as a transcriptional reference. In this study, we performed in-depth analyses of normal kidney tissue transcriptomes from the TCGA and demonstrate that the histological variability in cellularity, inherent in the kidney architecture, lead to considerable transcriptional differences between samples. This should be considered when comparing expression profiles of normal and cancerous kidney tissues. We exploited these differences to define renal-cell-specific gene signatures and used these as a framework to analyze renal cell carcinoma (RCC) ontogeny. Chromophobe RCCs express FOXI1-driven genes that define collecting duct intercalated cells, whereas HNF-regulated genes, specific for proximal tubule cells, are an integral part of clear cell and papillary RCC transcriptomes. These networks may be used as a framework for understanding the interplay between genomic changes in RCC subtypes and the lineage-defining regulatory machinery of their non-neoplastic counterparts. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Targeted Nanotechnology for Cancer Imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Toy, Randall; Bauer, Lisa; Hoimes, Christopher; Ghaghada, Ketan B.; Karathanasis, Efstathios

    2014-01-01

    Targeted nanoparticle imaging agents provide many benefits and new opportunities to facilitate accurate diagnosis of cancer and significantly impact patient outcome. Due to the highly engineerable nature of nanotechnology, targeted nanoparticles exhibit significant advantages including increased contrast sensitivity, binding avidity and targeting specificity. Considering the various nanoparticle designs and their adjustable ability to target a specific site and generate detectable signals, nanoparticles can be optimally designed in terms of biophysical interactions (i.e., intravascular and interstitial transport) and biochemical interactions (i.e., targeting avidity towards cancer-related biomarkers) for site-specific detection of very distinct microenvironments. This review seeks to illustrate that the design of a nanoparticle dictates its in vivo journey and targeting of hard-to-reach cancer sites, facilitating early and accurate diagnosis and interrogation of the most aggressive forms of cancer. We will report various targeted nanoparticles for cancer imaging using X-ray computed tomography, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear imaging and optical imaging. Finally, to realize the full potential of targeted nanotechnology for cancer imaging, we will describe the challenges and opportunities for the clinical translation and widespread adaptation of targeted nanoparticles imaging agents. PMID:25116445

  7. Selection and Characterization of Single Chain Antibody Fragments Specific for Hsp90 as a Potential Cancer Targeting Molecule

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edyta Petters

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Heat shock proteins play an essential role in facilitating malignant transformation and they have been recognized as important factors in human cancers. One of the key elements of the molecular chaperones machinery is Hsp90 and it has recently become a target for anticancer therapeutic approaches. The potential and importance of Hsp90-directed agents becomes apparent when one realizes that disruption of Hsp90 function may influence over 200 oncogenic client proteins. Here, we described the selection and characterization of Hsp90-specific antibody fragments from commercially available Tomlinson I and J phage display libraries. The affinities of Hsp90-binding scFv variants were measured using SPR method. Then, based on the best clone selected, we performed the affinity maturation procedure and obtained valuable Hsp90-specific clones. The selected binders were expressed and applied for immunostaining, ELISA and SPR analysis using model cancer cell lines. All performed experiments confirmed the ability of selected antibodies to interact with the Hsp90. Therefore, the presented Hsp90-specific scFv, might be a starting point for the development of a novel antibody-based strategy targeting cancer.

  8. Breast Cancer Immunotherapy

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Juhua Zhou; Yin Zhong

    2004-01-01

    Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide. Although tumorectomy,radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormone replacement therapy have been used for the treatment of breast cancer, there is no effective therapy for patients with invasive and metastatic breast cancer. Immunotherapy may be proved effective in treating patients with advanced breast cancer. Breast cancer immunotherapy includes antibody based immunotherapy, cancer vaccine immunotherapy, adoptive T cell transfer immunotherapy and T cell receptor gene transfer immunotherapy. Antibody based immunotherapy such as the monoclonal antibody against HER-2/neu (trastuzumab) is successfully used in the treatment of breast cancer patients with over-expressed HER-2/neu, however, HER-2/neu is over-expressed only in 25-30% of breast cancer patients. Cancer vaccine immunotherapy is a promising method to treat cancer patients. Cancer vaccines can be used to induce specific anti-tumor immunity in breast cancer patients, but cannot induce objective tumor regression. Adoptive T cell transfer immunotherapy is an effective method in the treatment of melanoma patients. Recent advances in anti-tumor T cell generation ex vivo and limited clinical trial data have made the feasibility of adoptive T cell transfer immunotherapy in the treatment of breast cancer patients. T cell receptor gene transfer can redirect the specificity of T cells. Chimeric receptor, scFv(anti-HER-2/neu)/zeta receptor, was successfully used to redirect cytotoxic T lymphocyte hybridoma cells to obtain anti-HER-2/neu positive tumor cells, suggesting the feasibility of treatment of breast cancer patients with T cell receptor gene transfer immunotherapy. Clinical trials will approve that immunotherapy is an effective method to cure breast cancer disease in the near future.

  9. Breast Cancer Immunotherapy

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    JuhuaZhou; YinZhong

    2004-01-01

    Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide. Although tumorectomy, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormone replacement therapy have been used for the treatment of breast cancer, there is no effective therapy for patients with invasive and metastatic breast cancer. Immunotherapy may be proved effective in treating patients with advanced breast cancer. Breast cancer immunotherapy includes antibody based immunotherapy, cancer vaccine immunotherapy, adoptive T cell transfer immunotherapy and T cell receptor gene transfer immunotherapy. Antibody based immunotherapy such as the monoclonal antibody against HER-2/neu (trastuzumab) is successfully used in the treatment of breast cancer patients with over-expressed HER-2/neu, however, HER-2/neu is over-expressed only in 25-30% of breast cancer patients. Cancer vaccine immunotherapy is a promising method to treat cancer patients. Cancer vaccines can be used to induce specific anti-tumor immunity in breast cancer patients, but cannot induce objective tumor regression. Adoptive T cell transfer immunotherapy is an effective method in the treatment of melanoma patients. Recent advances in anti-tumor T cell generation ex vivo and limited clinical trial data have made the feasibility of adoptive T cell transfer immunotherapy in the treatment of breast cancer patients. T cell receptor gene transfer can redirect the specificity of T cells. Chimeric receptor, scFv(anti-HER-2/neu)/zeta receptor, was successfully used to redirect cytotoxic T lymphocyte hybridoma cells to obtain anti-HER-2/neu positive tumor cells, suggesting the feasibility of treatment of breast cancer patients with T cell receptor gene transfer immunotherapy. Clinical trials will approve that immunotherapy is an effective method to cure breast cancer disease in the near future. Cellular & Molecular Immunology.

  10. Nuclear-specific AR-V7 Protein Localization is Necessary to Guide Treatment Selection in Metastatic Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scher, Howard I; Graf, Ryon P; Schreiber, Nicole A; McLaughlin, Brigit; Lu, David; Louw, Jessica; Danila, Daniel C; Dugan, Lyndsey; Johnson, Ann; Heller, Glenn; Fleisher, Martin; Dittamore, Ryan

    2017-06-01

    Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) expressing AR-V7 protein localized to the nucleus (nuclear-specific) identify metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients with improved overall survival (OS) on taxane therapy relative to the androgen receptor signaling inhibitors (ARSi) abiraterone acetate, enzalutamide, and apalutamide. To evaluate if expanding the positivity criteria to include both nuclear and cytoplasmic AR-V7 localization ("nuclear-agnostic") identifies more patients who would benefit from a taxane over an ARSi. The study used a cross-sectional cohort. Between December 2012 and March 2015, 193 pretherapy blood samples, 191 of which were evaluable, were collected and processed from 161 unique mCRPC patients before starting a new line of systemic therapy for disease progression at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The association between two AR-V7 scoring criteria, post-therapy prostate-specific antigen (PSA) change (PTPC) and OS following ARSi or taxane treatment, was explored. One criterion required nuclear-specific AR-V7 localization, and the other required an AR-V7 signal but was agnostic to protein localization in CTCs. Correlation of AR-V7 status to PTPC and OS was investigated. Relationships with survival were analyzed using multivariable Cox regression and log-rank analyses. A total of 34 (18%) samples were AR-V7-positive using nuclear-specific criteria, and 56 (29%) were AR-V7-positive using nuclear-agnostic criteria. Following ARSi treatment, none of the 16 nuclear-specific AR-V7-positive samples and six of the 32 (19%) nuclear-agnostic AR-V7-positive samples had ≥50% PTPC at 12 weeks. The strongest baseline factor influencing OS was the interaction between the presence of nuclear-specific AR-V7-positive CTCs and treatment with a taxane (hazard ratio 0.24, 95% confidence interval 0.078-0.79; p=0.019). This interaction was not significant when nuclear-agnostic criteria were used. To reliably inform treatment selection

  11. Zone-specific logistic regression models improve classification of prostate cancer on multi-parametric MRI

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dikaios, Nikolaos; Halligan, Steve; Taylor, Stuart; Atkinson, David; Punwani, Shonit [University College London, Centre for Medical Imaging, London (United Kingdom); University College London Hospital, Departments of Radiology, London (United Kingdom); Alkalbani, Jokha; Sidhu, Harbir Singh [University College London, Centre for Medical Imaging, London (United Kingdom); Abd-Alazeez, Mohamed; Ahmed, Hashim U.; Emberton, Mark [University College London, Research Department of Urology, Division of Surgery and Interventional Science, London (United Kingdom); Kirkham, Alex [University College London Hospital, Departments of Radiology, London (United Kingdom); Freeman, Alex [University College London Hospital, Department of Histopathology, London (United Kingdom)

    2015-09-15

    To assess the interchangeability of zone-specific (peripheral-zone (PZ) and transition-zone (TZ)) multiparametric-MRI (mp-MRI) logistic-regression (LR) models for classification of prostate cancer. Two hundred and thirty-one patients (70 TZ training-cohort; 76 PZ training-cohort; 85 TZ temporal validation-cohort) underwent mp-MRI and transperineal-template-prostate-mapping biopsy. PZ and TZ uni/multi-variate mp-MRI LR-models for classification of significant cancer (any cancer-core-length (CCL) with Gleason > 3 + 3 or any grade with CCL ≥ 4 mm) were derived from the respective cohorts and validated within the same zone by leave-one-out analysis. Inter-zonal performance was tested by applying TZ models to the PZ training-cohort and vice-versa. Classification performance of TZ models for TZ cancer was further assessed in the TZ validation-cohort. ROC area-under-curve (ROC-AUC) analysis was used to compare models. The univariate parameters with the best classification performance were the normalised T2 signal (T2nSI) within the TZ (ROC-AUC = 0.77) and normalized early contrast-enhanced T1 signal (DCE-nSI) within the PZ (ROC-AUC = 0.79). Performance was not significantly improved by bi-variate/tri-variate modelling. PZ models that contained DCE-nSI performed poorly in classification of TZ cancer. The TZ model based solely on maximum-enhancement poorly classified PZ cancer. LR-models dependent on DCE-MRI parameters alone are not interchangeable between prostatic zones; however, models based exclusively on T2 and/or ADC are more robust for inter-zonal application. (orig.)

  12. Immediate in vivo target-specific cancer cell death after near infrared photoimmunotherapy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mitsunaga Makoto

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Near infrared (NIR photoimmunotherapy (PIT is a new type of cancer treatment based on a monoclonal antibody (mAb-NIR phthalocyanine dye, (IR700 conjugate. In vitro cancer-specific cell death occurs during NIR light exposure in cells previously incubated with mAb-IR700 conjugates. However, documenting rapid cell death in vivo is more difficult. Methods A luciferase-transfected breast cancer cell (epidermal growth factor receptor+, MDA-MB-468luc cells was produced and used for both in vitro and in vivo experiments for monitoring the cell killing effect of PIT. After validation of cytotoxicity with NIR exposure up to 8 J/cm2in vitro, we employed an orthotopic breast cancer model of bilateral MDA-MB-468luc tumors in female athymic mice, which subsequently received a panitumumab-IR700 conjugate in vivo. One side was used as a control, while the other was treated with NIR light of dose ranging from 50 to 150 J/cm2. Bioluminescence imaging (BLI was performed before and after PIT. Results Dose-dependent cell killing and regrowth was successfully monitored by the BLI signal in vitro. Although tumor sizes were unchanged, BLI signals decreased by >95% immediately after PIT in vivo when light intensity was high (>100 J/cm2, however, in mice receiving lower intensity NIR (50 J/cm2, tumors recurred with gradually increasing BLI signal. Conclusion PIT induced massive cell death of targeted tumor cells immediately after exposure of NIR light that was demonstrated with BLI in vivo.

  13. Specific sensitivity of small cell lung cancer cell lines to the snake venom toxin taipoxin

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Poulsen, Thomas T; Pedersen, Nina; Perin, Mark S

    2005-01-01

    and relatively specifically expressed in SCLC, consistent with the neuroendocrine features of this cancer. Normally, NPR is exclusively expressed in neurons, where it associates with the homologous proteins neuronal pentraxins 1 and 2 (NP1 and NP2) in complexes capable of binding the snake venom neurotoxin...

  14. Cancer in the Elderly

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buntinx, F.; Akker, M. V. D.; Buntinx, F.; Akker, M. V. D.; Campbell, C.

    2014-01-01

    The incidence of cancer rises among older populations [1,2] and continuous improvement in treatment outcomes is resulting in even greater increases in the prevalence of cancer survivors in this age group [3]. There is considerable variation in cancer mortality rates in the elderly among high-income countries, with the UK having poorer outcomes compared to the USA and Western and Northern European countries [4]. The diagnosis of cancer and treatment decisions following diagnosis at an older age bring specific challenges to health care providers. Further, living with cancer has specific characteristics and consequences for older people. The five papers (three from North America, two from Europe) included in this special issue address some of these topics: increasing awareness of breast cancer symptoms, management of patients with lung and breast cancers, and survivorship issues specific to older patients. There is good evidence that age is a risk factor for the delay in presentation with breast cancer [5]. L. J. L. Forbes et al. describe the implementation into routine clinical practice of an evidence-based brief intervention designed to promote earlier symptomatic presentation of breast cancer among older women. The authors have previously reported on the effectiveness of the intervention in a randomised control trial [6]; this further work shows that its introduction into routine mammography appointments at four pilot areas within the UK’s Breast Screening Programme results in similar levels of breast cancer awareness among participating women (mean age 71 years, 4 months) as in the trial setting. The intervention was acceptable to women and to mammography providers. Given the low awareness of age-related cancer risk within the UK compared to a number of other countries [7], interventions of this nature, conveying key cancer messages as patients are entering the age group with highest risk of breast cancer, have the potential to contribute to earlier health

  15. Metastasis in urothelial carcinoma mimicking prostate cancer metastasis in Ga-68 prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography-computed tomography in a case of synchronous malignancy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gupta, Manoj; Choudhury, Partha Sarathi; Gupta, Gurudutt; Gandhi, Jatin

    2016-01-01

    Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in man. It commonly presents with urinary symptoms, bone pain, or diagnosed with elevated prostate-specific antigen.(PSA) levels. Correct staging and early diagnosis of recurrence by a precise imaging tool are the keys for optimum management. Molecular imaging of prostate cancer with Ga-68 prostate-specific membrane antigen.(PSMA), positron emission tomography-computed tomography.(PET-CT) has recently received significant attention and frequently used with a signature to prostate cancer-specific remark. However, this case will highlight the more cautious use of it. A-72-year-old male treated earlier for synchronous double malignancy.(invasive papillary urothelial carcinoma right ureter and carcinoma prostate) presented with rising PSA.(0.51.ng/ml) and referred for Ga-68 PSMA PET-CT, which showed a positive enlarged left supraclavicular lymph node. Lymph node biopsy microscopic and immunohistochemistry examination revealed metastatic carcinoma favoring urothelial origin. Specificity of PSMA scan to prostate cancer has been seen to be compromised in a certain situation mostly due to neoangiogenesis, and false positives emerged in renal cell cancer, differentiated thyroid cancer, glioblastoma, breast cancer brain metastasis, and paravertebral schwannomas. Understanding the causes of false positive will further enhance the confidence of interpretating PSMA scans

  16. Understanding Cancer Prognosis

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... to know more, the doctor who knows the most about your situation is in the best position ... statistics may be used to estimate prognosis. The most commonly used statistics include: Cancer-specific survival This ...

  17. Tumor infiltrating BRAFV600E-specific CD4 T cells correlated with complete clinical response in melanoma. | Office of Cancer Genomics

    Science.gov (United States)

    T cells specific for neoantigens encoded by mutated genes in cancers are increasingly recognized as mediators of tumor destruction after immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy or adoptive cell transfer. Unfortunately, most neoantigens result from random mutations and are patient specific, and some cancers contain few mutations to serve as potential antigens. We describe a patient with stage IV acral melanoma who obtained a complete response following adoptive transfer of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL).

  18. CNT Nanobombs for Specific Eradication of Cancer Cells: A New Concept in Cancer Theranosticss

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yadollah Omidi

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Whole extermination of cancerous cells/tissue seems no longer to be a dream. Exploiting advanced photoactive nanomaterials such as functionalized fullerenes and carbon nanotubes (CNTs can act as CNT nanobombs (CNT-NBs when exposed to the near infrared (NIR radiation. PEGylated CNTs tagged with an antibody/aptamer can target cancer cells. Once attached to cancer cells, the NIR emission (700-1100 nm, in which body tissues are mostly transparent, can be applied to CNT-NBs which can absorb the light and get heated up. The resultant enhanced temperature can abolish the cancer. Once stealth CNT-NBs are tagged with imaging moieties, it would be a matter of computer gaming for physician who can inject it for real time visualization and destruction of cancer by activation of the NIR laser. While, many nanosystems (NSs are still in waiting list for clinical translation, our dreams may come true by applying stealth CNT-NBs against cancer.

  19. Multimodal approaches including three-dimensional conformal re-irradiation for recurrent or persistent esophageal cancer. Preliminary results

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamaguchi, Shinsaku; Ohguri, Takayuki; Imada, Hajime

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to assess the toxicity and efficacy of multimodal approaches, including three-dimensional conformal re-irradiation, for patients with recurrent or persistent esophageal cancer after radiotherapy. Thirty-one patients with esophageal cancer treated with three-dimensional conformal re-irradiation were retrospectively analyzed. Of the 31 patients, 27 patients received concurrent chemotherapy, and 14 patients underwent regional hyperthermia during the re-irradiation. We divided the patients into two groups on the basis of their clinical condition: the curative group (n=11) or the palliative group (n=20). Severe toxicities were detected in one patient with Grade 3 esophageal perforation in the curative group, and 5 patients had a Grade 3 or higher toxicity of the esophagus in the palliative group. Advanced T stage at the time of re-irradiation was found to be significantly correlated with Grade 3 or higher toxicity in the esophagus. For the curative group, 10 (91%) of 11 patients had an objective response. For the palliative group, symptom relief was recognized in 8 (57%) of 14 patients with obvious swallowing difficulty. In conclusion, in the curative group with early-stage recurrent or persistent esophageal cancer, the multimodal approaches, including three-dimensional conformal re-irradiation, may be feasible, showing acceptable toxicity and a potential value of promising results, although further evaluations especially for the toxicities of the organs at risk are required. In the palliative group, the benefit of our therapy may be restrictive because severe esophageal toxicities were not uncommon in the patients with advanced T stage at the time of re-irradiation. (author)

  20. Selenium for preventing cancer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vinceti, Marco; Dennert, Gabriele; Crespi, Catherine M; Zwahlen, Marcel; Brinkman, Maree; Zeegers, Maurice PA; Horneber, Markus; D'Amico, Roberto; Del Giovane, Cinzia

    2015-01-01

    Background This review is an update of the first Cochrane publication on selenium for preventing cancer (Dennert 2011). Selenium is a metalloid with both nutritional and toxicological properties. Higher selenium exposure and selenium supplements have been suggested to protect against several types of cancers. Objectives Two research questions were addressed in this review: What is the evidence for: an aetiological relation between selenium exposure and cancer risk in humans? andthe efficacy of selenium supplementation for cancer prevention in humans? Search methods We conducted electronic searches of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, 2013, Issue 1), MEDLINE (Ovid, 1966 to February 2013 week 1), EMBASE (1980 to 2013 week 6), CancerLit (February 2004) and CCMed (February 2011). As MEDLINE now includes the journals indexed in CancerLit, no further searches were conducted in this database after 2004. Selection criteria We included prospective observational studies (cohort studies including sub-cohort controlled studies and nested case-control studies) and randomised controlled trials (RCTs) with healthy adult participants (18 years of age and older). Data collection and analysis For observational studies, we conducted random effects meta-analyses when five or more studies were retrieved for a specific outcome. For RCTs, we performed random effects meta-analyses when two or more studies were available. The risk of bias in observational studies was assessed using forms adapted from the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale for cohort and case-control studies; the criteria specified in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions were used to evaluate the risk of bias in RCTs. Main results We included 55 prospective observational studies (including more than 1,100,000 participants) and eight RCTs (with a total of 44,743 participants). For the observational studies, we found lower cancer incidence (summary odds ratio (OR) 0

  1. Body mass index in relation to serum prostate-specific antigen levels and prostate cancer risk.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonn, Stephanie E; Sjölander, Arvid; Tillander, Annika; Wiklund, Fredrik; Grönberg, Henrik; Bälter, Katarina

    2016-07-01

    High Body mass index (BMI) has been directly associated with risk of aggressive or fatal prostate cancer. One possible explanation may be an effect of BMI on serum levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA). To study the association between BMI and serum PSA as well as prostate cancer risk, a large cohort of men without prostate cancer at baseline was followed prospectively for prostate cancer diagnoses until 2015. Serum PSA and BMI were assessed among 15,827 men at baseline in 2010-2012. During follow-up, 735 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer with 282 (38.4%) classified as high-grade cancers. Multivariable linear regression models and natural cubic linear regression splines were fitted for analyses of BMI and log-PSA. For risk analysis, Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) and natural cubic Cox regression splines producing standardized cancer-free probabilities were fitted. Results showed that baseline Serum PSA decreased by 1.6% (95% CI: -2.1 to -1.1) with every one unit increase in BMI. Statistically significant decreases of 3.7, 11.7 and 32.3% were seen for increasing BMI-categories of 25 prostate cancer risk although results were indicative of a positive association to incidence rates of high-grade disease and an inverse association to incidence of low-grade disease. However, findings regarding risk are limited by the short follow-up time. In conclusion, BMI was inversely associated to PSA-levels. BMI should be taken into consideration when referring men to a prostate biopsy based on serum PSA-levels. © 2016 UICC.

  2. Intracellular actions of steroid hormones and their therapeutic value, including the potential of radiohalosteroids against ovarian cancer

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Holt, J.A. (Chicago Univ. (United States). Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology); Scharl, A. (Koeln Univ., Cologne (Germany). Frauen-Klinik); Kullander, S. (Lund Univ. (Sweden). Womens Hospital Malmoe); Beckmann, M.W. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Univ., Frankfurt am Main (Germany). Zentrum fuer Frauenheilkunde und Geburtshilfe)

    1992-01-01

    With recombinant cDNA technology, yeast and cultured animal cells can be made to express mammalian cDNA steroid receptors from cDNA clones that contain deletions and substitutions. Among the leading problems addressed in these models is the characterization of sequences that promote association or interaction with other transcription regulating molecules, including oncogene products. Recently it has been found that heat shock proteins may serve not only to stabilize the receptor proteins but also to precondition the activation imparted by ligand binding. Aberrant receptor proteins can be found in ovarian cancer. Whether aberrant receptor proteins are associated with transformation in general or with a variable clinical response to steroidal or anti-steroidal therapy is not known. Even after chemotherapy, steroid receptors are expressed in the metastases of ovarian cancers seen clinically, and they may have potential use for localization and treatment of receptor-rich cancers. Radioligand pharmaceuticals appropriate for imaging or for site-directed radiocytotoxicity can be sequestered to the nuclei of receptor-rich cancers. Initial clinical imaging and therapy trials with such pharmaceuticals have been approved and begun. In the use of halogenated estrogen radiopharmaceuticals, liver metabolism and enterohepatic recirculation are important considerations. Ascites prolongs retention of radiohalogenated estrogen in the abdominal cavity. Distant metastases have been localized with [[sup 123]I]-estrogen in breast cancer patients in pre-operative procedures. Receptor-mediated cytotoxicity occurs when estrogen receptor radioligand pharmaceuticals that are Auger electron emitters are used in vitro. (au) (119 refs., 3 figs.).

  3. Human Thyroid Cancer-1 (TC-1 is a vertebrate specific oncogenic protein that protects against copper and pro-apoptotic genes in yeast

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natalie K. Jones

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available The human Thyroid Cancer-1 (hTC-1 protein, also known as C8orf4 was initially identified as a gene that was up-regulated in human thyroid cancer. Here we show that hTC-1 is a peptide that prevents the effects of over-expressing Bax in yeast. Analysis of the 106 residues of hTC-1 in available protein databases revealed direct orthologues in jawed-vertebrates, including mammals, frogs, fish and sharks. No TC-1 orthologue was detected in lower organisms, including yeast. Here we show that TC-1 is a general pro-survival peptide since it prevents the growth- and cell death-inducing effects of copper in yeast. Human TC-1 also prevented the deleterious effects that occur due to the over-expression of a number of key pro-apoptotic peptides, including YCA1, YBH3, NUC1, and AIF1. Even though the protective effects were more pronounced with the over-expression of YBH3 and YCA1, hTC-1 could still protect yeast mutants lacking YBH3 and YCA1 from the effects of copper sulfate. This suggests that the protective effects of TC-1 are not limited to specific pathways or processes. Taken together, our results indicate that hTC-1 is a pro-survival protein that retains its function when heterologously expressed in yeast. Thus yeast is a useful model to characterize the potential roles in cell death and survival of cancer related genes.

  4. How much do cancer-related symptoms contribute to health-related quality of life in lung and colorectal cancer patients? A report from the Cancer Care Outcomes Research and Surveillance (CanCORS) Consortium.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kenzik, Kelly M; Ganz, Patricia A; Martin, Michelle Y; Petersen, Laura; Hays, Ron D; Arora, Neeraj; Pisu, Maria

    2015-08-15

    The objective of this study was to examine associations of symptoms with physical and mental health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and in patients with lung cancer. Patients with newly diagnosed CRC (n = 3040) or lung cancer (n = 2297) who were participating in the Cancer Care Outcomes Research and Surveillance Consortium study completed surveys on general HRQOL and symptoms. HRQOL was measured by using physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) scores on the Medical Outcomes Study 12-item short-form heath survey. Nonspecific cancer symptoms were measured using items from the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer core quality-of-life questionnaire. Cancer type-specific modules developed by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer were used to assess CRC-specific and lung cancer-specific symptoms. For both cancer types, linear regression models that were controlled for demographic and clinical information were used to examine correlations of nonspecific and cancer-specific symptoms with PCS and MCS scores. PCS scores for patients with CRC and lung cancer were below the general population norm of 50 (43 and 37, respectively), and MCS scores were at the population norm. For the CRC sample, in the model that included both symptom indices, an increase in nonspecific symptoms was more strongly associated with lower PCS and MCS scores than an increase in CRC-specific symptoms (PCS, standardized coefficient [β] = -0.41 vs -0.09; MCS, β = -0.38 vs -0.08). In a similar model for lung cancer, increases in lung cancer-specific symptoms were more strongly associated with lower PCS scores (β = -0.34 vs -0.20), whereas nonspecific symptoms were more strongly associated with lower MCS scores (β = -0.34 vs -0.14). Symptoms were associated with HRQOL impairments in recently diagnosed patients. Additional supportive care implemented early in cancer care

  5. Identification of nine new susceptibility loci for testicular cancer, including variants near DAZL and PRDM14

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruark, Elise; Seal, Sheila; McDonald, Heather; Zhang, Feng; Elliot, Anna; Lau, KingWai; Perdeaux, Elizabeth; Rapley, Elizabeth; Eeles, Rosalind; Peto, Julian; Kote-Jarai, Zsofia; Muir, Kenneth; Nsengimana, Jeremie; Shipley, Janet; Bishop, D. Timothy; Stratton, Michael R; Easton, Douglas F; Huddart, Robert A; Rahman, Nazneen; Turnbull, Clare

    2013-01-01

    Testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) is the most common cancer in young men and is notable for its high familial risks1,2. To date, six loci associated with TGCT have been reported3-7. From GWAS analysis of 307,291 SNPs in 986 cases and 4,946 controls, we selected for follow-up 694 SNPs, which we genotyped in a further 1,064 TGCT cases and 10,082 controls from the UK. We identified SNPs at nine new loci showing association with TGCT (P<5×10−8), at 1q22, 1q24.1, 3p24.3, 4q24, 5q31.1, 8q13.3, 16q12.1, 17q22 and 21q22.3, which together account for an additional 4-6% of the familial risk of TGCT. The loci include genes plausibly related to TGCT development. PRDM14, at 8q13.3, is essential for early germ cell specification8 whilst DAZL, at 3p24.3, is required for regulation of germ cell development9. Furthermore, PITX1, at 5q31.1 regulates TERT expression, and is the third TGCT locus implicated in telomerase regulation10. PMID:23666240

  6. Specific CDK4/6 inhibition in breast cancer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Polk, Anne; Kolmos, Ida Lykke; Kümler, Iben

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Loss of cell cycle control is a hallmark of cancer, and aberrations in the cyclin-dependent kinase-retinoblastoma (CDK-Rb) pathway are common in breast cancer (BC). Consequently, inhibition of this pathway is an attractive therapeutic strategy. The present review addresses efficacy...

  7. Fulfilling the potential of cancer prevention and early detection

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Curry, Susan J; Byers, Tim; Hewitt, Maria Elizabeth

    2003-01-01

    .... The National Cancer Policy Board, part of the Institute of Medicine, outlines a national strategy to realize the promise of cancer prevention and early detection, including specific and wide-ranging recommendations...

  8. Problems faced returning to work after cancer: a focus on breast cancer and its specificities

    OpenAIRE

    Asselain, David

    2011-01-01

    Introduction: Life after cancer is one of the major issues of the 2nd "Cancer Plan" in France. In this context, our study aims at analyzing professional consequences of breast cancer, which has a relatively good prognosis and is the most common cancer in the working population. Methods: Medical and professional information about 402 workers from the Paris region who had cancer in 2005/2006 was collected by occupational physicians using a self-administered questionnaire. Multifactorial analysi...

  9. Factors associated with disease-specific survival of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Souza, Mirian Carvalho de; Cruz, Oswaldo Gonçalves; Vasconcelos, Ana Glória Godoi

    2016-01-01

    Lung cancer is a global public health problem and is associated with high mortality. Lung cancer could be largely avoided by reducing the prevalence of smoking. The objective of this study was to analyze the effects of social, behavioral, and clinical factors on the survival time of patients with non-small cell lung cancer treated at Cancer Hospital I of the José Alencar Gomes da Silva National Cancer Institute, located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between 2000 and 2003. This was a retrospective hospital cohort study involving 1,194 patients. The 60-month disease-specific survival probabilities were calculated with the Kaplan-Meier method for three stage groups. The importance of the studied factors was assessed with a hierarchical theoretical model after adjustment by Cox multiple regression. The estimated 60-month specific-disease lethality rate was 86.0%. The 60-month disease-specific survival probability ranged from 25.0% (stages I/II) to 2.5% (stage IV). The performance status, the intention to treat, and the initial treatment modality were the major prognostic factors identified in the study population. In this cohort of patients, the disease-specific survival probabilities were extremely low. We identified no factors that could be modified after the diagnosis in order to improve survival. Primary prevention, such as reducing the prevalence of smoking, is still the best method to reduce the number of people who will suffer the consequences of lung cancer. O câncer de pulmão é um problema de saúde pública global e é associado a elevada mortalidade. Ele poderia ser evitado em grande parte com a redução da prevalência do tabagismo. O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar os efeitos de fatores sociais, comportamentais e clínicos sobre o tempo de sobrevida de pacientes com câncer de pulmão de células não pequenas atendidos, entre 2000 e 2003, no Hospital do Câncer I do Instituto Nacional de Câncer José Alencar Gomes da Silva, localizado na

  10. Sensitive and Specific Biomimetic Lipid Coated Microfluidics to Isolate Viable Circulating Tumor Cells and Microemboli for Cancer Detection.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jia-Yang Chen

    Full Text Available Here we presented a simple and effective membrane mimetic microfluidic device with antibody conjugated supported lipid bilayer (SLB "smart coating" to capture viable circulating tumor cells (CTCs and circulating tumor microemboli (CTM directly from whole blood of all stage clinical cancer patients. The non-covalently bound SLB was able to promote dynamic clustering of lipid-tethered antibodies to CTC antigens and minimized non-specific blood cells retention through its non-fouling nature. A gentle flow further flushed away loosely-bound blood cells to achieve high purity of CTCs, and a stream of air foam injected disintegrate the SLB assemblies to release intact and viable CTCs from the chip. Human blood spiked cancer cell line test showed the ~95% overall efficiency to recover both CTCs and CTMs. Live/dead assay showed that at least 86% of recovered cells maintain viability. By using 2 mL of peripheral blood, the CTCs and CTMs counts of 63 healthy and colorectal cancer donors were positively correlated with the cancer progression. In summary, a simple and effective strategy utilizing biomimetic principle was developed to retrieve viable CTCs for enumeration, molecular analysis, as well as ex vivo culture over weeks. Due to the high sensitivity and specificity, it is the first time to show the high detection rates and quantity of CTCs in non-metastatic cancer patients. This work offers the values in both early cancer detection and prognosis of CTC and provides an accurate non-invasive strategy for routine clinical investigation on CTCs.

  11. Fluorescent humanized anti-CEA antibody specifically labels metastatic pancreatic cancer in a patient-derived orthotopic xenograft (PDOX) mouse model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lwin, Thinzar M.; Miyake, Kentaro; Murakami, Takashi; DeLong, Jonathan C.; Yazaki, Paul J.; Shivley, John E.; Clary, Bryan; Hoffman, Robert M.; Bouvet, Michael

    2018-03-01

    Specific tumor targeting can result in selective labeling of cancer in vivo for surgical navigation. In the present study, we show that the use of an anti-CEA antibody conjugated to the near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent dye, IRDye800CW, can selectively target and label pancreatic cancer and its metastases in a clinically relevant patient derived xenograft mouse model.

  12. Competitive inhibition of survivin using a cell-permeable recombinant protein induces cancer-specific apoptosis in colon cancer model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roy K

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Kislay Roy,1 Rupinder K Kanwar,1 Subramanian Krishnakumar,2,3 Chun Hei Antonio Cheung,4 Jagat R Kanwar1 1Nanomedicine-Laboratory of Immunology and Molecular Biomedical Research (NLIMBR, Molecular and Medical Research (MMR Strategic Research Centre, School of Medicine (SoM, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, VIC, Australia; 2Department of Nanobiotechnology, 3Larsen & Toubro (L&T Ocular Pathology Department, Vision Research Foundation, Kamalnayan Bajaj Institute for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Chennai, India; 4Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China Abstract: Endogenous survivin expression has been related with cancer survival, drug resistance, and metastasis. Therapies targeting survivin have been shown to significantly inhibit tumor growth and recurrence. We found out that a cell-permeable dominant negative survivin (SurR9-C84A, referred to as SR9 competitively inhibited endogenous survivin and blocked the cell cycle at the G1/S phase. Nanoencapsulation in mucoadhesive chitosan nanoparticles (CHNP substantially increased the bioavailability and serum stability of SR9. The mechanism of nanoparticle uptake was studied extensively in vitro and in ex vivo models. Our results confirmed that CHNP–SR9 protected primary cells from autophagy and successfully induced tumor-specific apoptosis via both extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathways. CHNP–SR9 significantly reduced the tumor spheroid size (three-dimensional model by nearly 7-fold. Effects of SR9 and CHNP–SR9 were studied on 35 key molecules involved in the apoptotic pathway. Highly significant (4.26-fold, P≤0.005 reduction in tumor volume was observed using an in vivo mouse xenograft colon cancer model. It was also observed that net apoptotic (6.25-fold, P≤0.005 and necrotic indexes (3.5-fold, P≤0.05 were comparatively higher in CHNP–SR9 when compared to void CHNP and CHNP–SR9

  13. Precision Oncology Medicine: The Clinical Relevance of Patient-Specific Biomarkers Used to Optimize Cancer Treatment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, Keith T; Chau, Cindy H; Price, Douglas K; Figg, William D

    2016-12-01

    Precision medicine in oncology is the result of an increasing awareness of patient-specific clinical features coupled with the development of genomic-based diagnostics and targeted therapeutics. Companion diagnostics designed for specific drug-target pairs were the first to widely utilize clinically applicable tumor biomarkers (eg, HER2, EGFR), directing treatment for patients whose tumors exhibit a mutation susceptible to an FDA-approved targeted therapy (eg, trastuzumab, erlotinib). Clinically relevant germline mutations in drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters (eg, TPMT, DPYD) have been shown to impact drug response, providing a rationale for individualized dosing to optimize treatment. The use of multigene expression-based assays to analyze an array of prognostic biomarkers has been shown to help direct treatment decisions, especially in breast cancer (eg, Oncotype DX). More recently, the use of next-generation sequencing to detect many potential "actionable" cancer molecular alterations is further shifting the 1 gene-1 drug paradigm toward a more comprehensive, multigene approach. Currently, many clinical trials (eg, NCI-MATCH, NCI-MPACT) are assessing novel diagnostic tools with a combination of different targeted therapeutics while also examining tumor biomarkers that were previously unexplored in a variety of cancer histologies. Results from ongoing trials such as the NCI-MATCH will help determine the clinical utility and future development of the precision-medicine approach. © 2016, The American College of Clinical Pharmacology.

  14. Renal transplantation across the donor-specific antibody barrier: Graft outcome and cancer risk after desensitization therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Ching-Yao; Lee, Chih-Yuan; Yeh, Chi-Chuan; Tsai, Meng-Kun

    2016-06-01

    Desensitization regimens including use of intravenous immune globulin and rituximab have been reported to overcome renal transplant hyperacute rejection. A retrospective case-control study was performed to assess the results and complications of renal transplantation with desensitization therapy for donor-specific antibody (DSA) in a transplant center in Asia, where donor exchange was usually not allowed. Between January 2007 and December 2013, 22 patients with DSA received live-donor renal transplantation after desensitization (DSA group). During the same period, the DSA group was compared to the NSA group (152 renal transplants) who had no specific antibody to the donors (66 from deceased donors and 86 from living relatives). Rejection, renal function, graft and patient survival rates, infection, and cancer incidence were reviewed and analyzed from medical records. The DSA group (46.8%) had significantly higher acute rejection rates than the NSA group (13.7%) at the 1-year follow-up. The estimated renal function, 5-year graft, and patient survival rates were comparable between the groups. The DSA group (19.6%) had significantly higher 5-year de novo cancer incidence than the NSA group (8.5%; p = 0.028); three patients of the DSA group developed urothelial carcinoma 17.0 ± 3.0 months after transplantation. By using stepwise Cox regression analysis, desensitization therapy was identified as the sole independent risk factor for post-transplant urothelial carcinoma. When compared to renal transplantation without DSA, desensitization therapy for DSA resulted in equivalent renal transplant outcome but potentially increased risk of urothelial carcinoma after transplantation. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  15. Multiple imaging procedures including MRI for the bladder cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mikata, Noriharu; Suzuki, Makoto; Takeuchi, Takumi; Kunisawa, Yositaka; Fukutani, Keiko; Kawabe, Kazuki

    1986-01-01

    Endoscopic photography, double contrast cystography, transurethral echography, X-ray CT scan, and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) were utilized for the staging diagnosis of the four patients with carcinoma of the bladder. In the first case, a 70-year-old man, since all of the five imaging procedures suggested a superficial and pedunculated tumor, his bladder cancer was considered T1. The classification of stage T3 carcinoma was made for the second 86-year-old male. Because all of his imaging examinations showed a tumor infiltrating deep muscle and penetrating the bladder wall. The third case was a 36-year-old male. His clinical stage was diagnosed as T2 or T3a by cystophotography, double contrast cystogram, ultrasonography, and X-ray CT scan. However, MRI showed only thickened bladder wall and the infiltrating tumor could not be distinguished from the hypertrophic wall. The last patient, a 85-year-old female, had a smaller Ta cancer. Her double contrast cystography revealed the small tumor at the lateral bladder wall. But, the tumor could not be detected by transaxial, sagittal and coronal scans. Multiple imaging procedures combining MRI and staging diagnosis of the bladder carcinoma were discussed. (author)

  16. Cancer Pain Physiology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Falk, Sarah; Bannister, Kirsty; Dickenson, Anthony

    2014-01-01

    Mechanisms of inflammatory and neuropathic pains have been elucidated and translated to patient care by the use of animal models of these pain states. Cancer pain has lagged behind since early animal models of cancer-induced bone pain were based on the systemic injection of carcinoma cells....... This precluded systematic investigation of specific neuronal and pharmacological alterations that occur in cancer-induced bone pain. In 1999, Schwei et al. described a murine model of cancer-induced bone pain that paralleled the clinical condition in terms of pain development and bone destruction, confined...... to the mouse femur. This model prompted related approaches and we can now state that cancer pain may include elements of inflammatory and neuropathic pains but also unique changes in sensory processing. Cancer induced bone pain results in progressive bone destruction, elevated osteoclast activity...

  17. Prostate cancer screening by prostate-specific antigen (PSA); a relevant approach for the small population of the Cayman Islands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jyoti, Shravana Kumar; Blacke, Camille; Patil, Pallavi; Amblihalli, Vibha P; Nicholson, Amanda

    2018-01-01

    The common tool for diagnosing prostate cancer is prostate-specific antigen (PSA), but the high sensitivity and low specificity of PSA testing are the problems in clinical practice. There are no proper guidelines to investigate the suspected prostate cancer in the Cayman Islands. We correlated PSA levels with the incidence of prostate cancers by tissue diagnosis and proposed logical protocol for prostate screening by using PSA test in this small population. A total of 165 Afro Caribbean individuals who had prostate biopsy done after the investigations for PSA levels from year 2005 to 2015 were studied retrospectively. The patients were divided into subgroups by baseline PSA levels as follows: 100 ng/mL and were correlated to the age and presence of cancer. Benign lesions had lower PSA levels compared to cancer which generally had higher values. Only three cases that had less than 4 ng/mg were turned out to be malignant. When PSA value was more than 100 ng/mL, all the cases were malignant. Between PSA values of 4-100 ng/mL, the probability of cancer diagnosis was 56.71% (76 cancers out of 134 in this range). Limitation of PSA testing has the risk of over diagnosis and the resultant negative biopsies owing to poor specificity. Whereas the cutoff limit for cancer diagnosis still remains 4 ng/mL from our study, most of the patients can be assured of benign lesion below this level and thus morbidity associated with the biopsy can be prevented. When the PSA value is greater than 100 ng, biopsy procedure was mandatory as there were 100% cancers above this level. On the background of vast literature linking PSA to prostate cancer and its difficulty in implementing in clinical practice, we studied literature of this conflicting and complex topic and tried to bring relevant protocols to the small population of Cayman Islands for the screening of prostate cancer. In this study, a total of 165 Afro Caribbean individuals who had prostate biopsy done after the

  18. An Evaluation of Algorithms for Identifying Metastatic Breast, Lung, or Colorectal Cancer in Administrative Claims Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whyte, Joanna L; Engel-Nitz, Nicole M; Teitelbaum, April; Gomez Rey, Gabriel; Kallich, Joel D

    2015-07-01

    Administrative health care claims data are used for epidemiologic, health services, and outcomes cancer research and thus play a significant role in policy. Cancer stage, which is often a major driver of cost and clinical outcomes, is not typically included in claims data. Evaluate algorithms used in a dataset of cancer patients to identify patients with metastatic breast (BC), lung (LC), or colorectal (CRC) cancer using claims data. Clinical data on BC, LC, or CRC patients (between January 1, 2007 and March 31, 2010) were linked to a health care claims database. Inclusion required health plan enrollment ≥3 months before initial cancer diagnosis date. Algorithms were used in the claims database to identify patients' disease status, which was compared with physician-reported metastases. Generic and tumor-specific algorithms were evaluated using ICD-9 codes, varying diagnosis time frames, and including/excluding other tumors. Positive and negative predictive values, sensitivity, and specificity were assessed. The linked databases included 14,480 patients; of whom, 32%, 17%, and 14.2% had metastatic BC, LC, and CRC, respectively, at diagnosis and met inclusion criteria. Nontumor-specific algorithms had lower specificity than tumor-specific algorithms. Tumor-specific algorithms' sensitivity and specificity were 53% and 99% for BC, 55% and 85% for LC, and 59% and 98% for CRC, respectively. Algorithms to distinguish metastatic BC, LC, and CRC from locally advanced disease should use tumor-specific primary cancer codes with 2 claims for the specific primary cancer >30-42 days apart to reduce misclassification. These performed best overall in specificity, positive predictive values, and overall accuracy to identify metastatic cancer in a health care claims database.

  19. Dual-specificity tyrosine-regulated kinase 2 is a suppressor and potential prognostic marker for liver metastasis of colorectal cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ito, Daisuke; Yogosawa, Satomi; Mimoto, Rei; Hirooka, Shinichi; Horiuchi, Takashi; Eto, Ken; Yanaga, Katsuhiko; Yoshida, Kiyotsugu

    2017-08-01

    Colorectal cancer is a common cancer and a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. The liver is a dominant metastatic site for patients with colorectal cancer. Molecular mechanisms that allow colorectal cancer cells to form liver metastases are largely unknown. Activation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition is the key step for metastasis of cancer cells. We recently reported that dual-specificity tyrosine-regulated kinase 2 (DYRK2) controls epithelial-mesenchymal transition in breast cancer and ovarian serous adenocarcinoma. The aim of this study is to clarify whether DYRK2 regulates liver metastases of colorectal cancer. We show that the ability of cell invasion and migration was abrogated in DYRK2-overexpressing cells. In an in vivo xenograft model, liver metastatic lesions were markedly diminished by ectopic expression of DYRK2. Furthermore, we found that patients whose liver metastases expressed low DYRK2 levels had significantly worse overall and disease-free survival. Given the findings that DYRK2 regulates cancer cell metastasis, we concluded that the expression status of DYRK2 could be a predictive marker for liver metastases of colorectal cancer. © 2017 The Authors. Cancer Science published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Japanese Cancer Association.

  20. The performance characteristics of prostate-specific antigen and prostate-specific antigen density in Chinese men.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teoh, Jeremy Yc; Yuen, Steffi Kk; Tsu, James Hl; Wong, Charles Kw; Ho, Brian Sh; Ng, Ada Tl; Ma, Wai-Kit; Ho, Kwan-Lun; Yiu, Ming-Kwong

    2017-01-01

    We investigated the performance characteristics of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and PSA density (PSAD) in Chinese men. All Chinese men who underwent transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy (TRUS-PB) from year 2000 to 2013 were included. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for both PSA and PSAD were analyzed. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) at different cut-off levels were calculated. A total of 2606 Chinese men were included. For the ROC, the area under curve was 0.770 for PSA (P specificity of 14.1%, PPV of 29.5%, and NPV of 86.9%; PSAD of 0.12 ng ml-1 cc-1 had sensitivity of 94.5%, specificity of 26.6%, PPV of 32.8%, and NPV of 92.7%. On multivariate logistic regression analyses, PSA cut-off at 4.5 ng ml-1 (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.05-2.45, P= 0.029) and PSAD cut-off at 0.12 ng ml-1 cc-1 (OR 6.22, 95% CI 4.20-9.22, Pprostate cancer detection on TRUS-PB. In conclusion, the performances of PSA and PSAD at different cut-off levels in Chinese men were very different from those in Caucasians. PSA of 4.5 ng ml-1 and PSAD of 0.12 ng ml-1 cc-1 had near 95% sensitivity and were significant predictors of prostate cancer detection in Chinese men.

  1. Prostate-specific antigen density: correlation with histological diagnosis of prostate cancer, benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostatitis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Iersel, M. P.; Witjes, W. P.; de la Rosette, J. J.; Oosterhof, G. O.

    1995-01-01

    To assess the additional value of prostate-specific antigen density in the diagnosis of prostate cancer in patients who undergo prostate biopsies. The study comprised 376 patients with symptoms of prostatism who were undergoing prostate biopsy. Digital rectal examination (DRE) and transrectal

  2. Improving the quality of lung cancer care in Ontario: the lung cancer disease pathway initiative.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, William K; Ung, Yee C; Assouad, Nathalie; Chyjek, Anna; Sawka, Carol

    2013-07-01

    for small-cell LC and non-small-cell LC were posted in November 2012. LC Diagnostic Assessment Units/Programs have been initiated in 14 regions, and educational materials on dyspnea management, including a patient video, are available on CCO's Web site. An audit has been undertaken to better understand the barriers to the uniform uptake of specific evidence-based practices across the province, and the results will be reported shortly. The proportion of LC patients, whose symptoms are assessed at least once a month, using a standardized symptom assessment instrument (Edmonton Symptom Assessment System), has improved through the DPM. Through CCO's LC DPM initiative, Regional Cancer Programs have become aware of their performance on a range of LC-specific performance and quality metrics and have been motivated to undertake quality-improvement initiatives. Standardized diagnostic and treatment pathways have been developed. Ongoing measurement of a broad range of metrics, including stage-specific survival, guideline concordance, and measures of the patient experience will help determine the benefit of this major initiative.

  3. Knockdown of dual specificity phosphatase 4 enhances the chemosensitivity of MCF-7 and MCF-7/ADR breast cancer cells to doxorubicin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Yu; Du, Feiya; Chen, Wei; Yao, Minya; Lv, Kezhen; Fu, Peifen

    2013-01-01

    Background: Breast cancer is the major cause of cancer-related deaths in females world-wide. Doxorubicin-based therapy has limited efficacy in breast cancer due to drug resistance, which has been shown to be associated with the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). However, the molecular mechanisms linking the EMT and drug resistance in breast cancer cells remain unclear. Dual specificity phosphatase 4 (DUSP4), a member of the dual specificity phosphatase family, is associated with cellular proliferation and differentiation; however, its role in breast cancer progression is controversial. Methods: We used cell viability assays, Western blotting and immunofluorescent staining, combined with siRNA interference, to evaluate chemoresistance and the EMT in MCF-7 and adriamycin-resistant MCF-7/ADR breast cancer cells, and investigate the underlying mechanisms. Results: Knockdown of DUSP4 significantly increased the chemosensitivity of MCF-7 and MCF-7/ADR breast cancer cells to doxorubicin, and MCF-7/ADR cells which expressed high levels of DUSP4 had a mesenchymal phenotype. Furthermore, knockdown of DUSP4 reversed the EMT in MCF-7/ADR cells, as demonstrated by upregulation of epithelial biomarkers and downregulation of mesenchymal biomarkers, and also increased the chemosensitivity of MCF-7/ADR cells to doxorubicin. Conclusions: DUSP4 might represent a potential drug target for inhibiting drug resistance and regulating the process of the EMT during the treatment of breast cancer. - Highlights: • We used different technologies to prove our conclusion. • DUSP4 knockdown increased doxorubicin chemosensitivity in breast cancer cells. • DUSP4 is a potential target for combating drug resistance in breast cancer. • DUSP4 is a potential target for regulating the EMT in breast cancer

  4. Effect of routine assessment of specific psychosocial problems on personalized communication, counselors’ awareness, and distress levels in cancer genetic counseling practice: a randomized controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eijzenga, Willem; Aaronson, Neil K; Hahn, Daniela E E; Sidharta, Grace N; van der Kolk, Lizet E; Velthuizen, Mary E; Ausems, Margreet G E M; Bleiker, Eveline M A

    2014-09-20

    This study evaluated the efficacy of a cancer genetics–specific questionnaire in facilitating communication about, awareness of, and management of psychosocial problems, as well as in lowering distress levels. Individuals referred to genetic counseling for cancer at two family cancer clinics in The Netherlands were randomly assigned to an intervention or a control group. All participants completed the psychosocial questionnaire before counseling. In the intervention group, the counselors received the results of this questionnaire before the counseling session. All sessions were audiotaped for content analysis. Primary outcomes were the frequency with which psychosocial problems were discussed, the genetic counselors’ awareness of these problems, and their management. Secondary outcomes included cancer worries and psychological distress, duration and dynamics of the counseling, and satisfaction. The frequency with which psychosocial problems were discussed with 246 participating counselees was significantly higher in the intervention group (n = 127) than in the control group (n =119; P = .004), as was the counselors’ awareness of psychosocial problems regarding hereditary predisposition (P cancer (P = .01), and general emotions (P cancer worries (p = .005) and distress (p = .02) after counseling. The routine assessment of psychosocial problems by questionnaire facilitates genetic counselors’ recognition and discussion of their clients’ psychosocial problems and reduces clients’ distress levels.

  5. Placenta-specific novel splice variants of Rho GDP dissociation inhibitor β are highly expressed in cancerous cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hatakeyama Keiichi

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Alternative splicing of pre-mRNA transcripts not only plays a role in normal molecular processes but is also associated with cancer development. While normal transcripts are ubiquitously expressed in normal tissues, splice variants created through abnormal alternative splicing events are often expressed in cancer cells. Although the Rho GDP dissociation inhibitor β (ARHGDIB gene has been found to be ubiquitously expressed in normal tissues and involved in cancer development, the presence of splice variants of ARHGDIB has not yet been investigated. Results Validation analysis for the presence of and exon structures of splice variants of ARHGDIB, performed using reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing, successfully identified novel splice variants of ARHGDIB, that is, 6a, 6b, and 6c, in colon, pancreas, stomach, and breast cancer cell lines. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that these variants were also highly expressed in normal placental tissue but not in other types of normal tissue. Conclusions Expression of ARHGDIB variants 6a, 6b, and 6c appears to be restricted to cancer cells and normal placental tissue, suggesting that these variants possess cancer-specific functions and, as such, are potential cancer-related biomarkers.

  6. Experimental and epidemiological evidence on non-organ specific cancer preventive effect of Korean ginseng and identification of active compounds

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yun, T.-K

    2003-03-01

    Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer has been the most highly recognized medicinal herb in the Orient. The prolonged administration of red ginseng extract significantly inhibits the incidence of hepatoma and also proliferation of pulmonary tumors induced by aflatoxin B{sub 1} and urethane. Statistically significant anticarcinogenic effects were in aged or heat treated extracts of ginseng and red ginseng made by steaming in a 9 weeks medium-term anticarcinogenicity test using benzo[a]pyrene. In case-control studies, odds ratios (OR) of the cancer of lip, oral cavity and pharynx, larynx, lung, esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, ovary, and colorectum were significantly reduced. As to the type of ginseng, the ORs for cancer were reduced in user of fresh ginseng extract intakers, white ginseng extract, white ginseng powder, and red ginseng. In a cohort study with 5 years follow-up conducted in a ginseng cultivation area, ginseng users had a decreased relative risk (RR) compared with non-users. The relative risks (RRs) of ginseng users were decreased in gastric cancer and lung cancer. These findings strongly suggest that Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer cultivated in Korea has non-organ specific cancer preventive effects against various cancers. To investigate the active components for cancer prevention, several fractions of fresh and red ginseng and four semi-synthetic ginsenoside Rh{sub 1}, Rh{sub 2}, Rg{sub 3} and Rg{sub 5}, the major saponin components in red ginseng, were prepared among the ginsenosides. By using Yun's model, Rg{sub 3} and Rg{sub 5} showed statistically significant reduction of lung tumor incidence and Rh{sub 2} had a tendency to decrease the incidence. In conclusion, these results strongly suggested that Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer cultivated in Korea is a non-organ specific cancer preventive against human cancers and also indicated that the anticarcinogenicity or human cancer preventive effect of Panax ginseng is due to ginsenoside Rg{sub 3}, Rg{sub 5} and Rh

  7. Short-term Androgen-Deprivation Therapy Improves Prostate Cancer-Specific Mortality in Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer Patients Undergoing Dose-Escalated External Beam Radiation Therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zumsteg, Zachary S.; Spratt, Daniel E.; Pei, Xin; Yamada, Yoshiya; Kalikstein, Abraham; Kuk, Deborah; Zhang, Zhigang; Zelefsky, Michael J.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: We investigated the benefit of short-term androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) in patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer (PC) receiving dose-escalated external beam radiation therapy. Methods and Materials: The present retrospective study comprised 710 intermediate-risk PC patients receiving external beam radiation therapy with doses of ≥81 Gy at a single institution from 1992 to 2005, including 357 patients receiving neoadjuvant and concurrent ADT. Prostate-specific antigen recurrence-free survival (PSA-RFS) and distant metastasis (DM) were compared using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards models. PC-specific mortality (PCSM) was assessed using competing-risks analysis. Results: The median follow-up was 7.9 years. Despite being more likely to have higher PSA levels, Gleason score 4 + 3 = 7, multiple National Comprehensive Cancer Network intermediate-risk factors, and older age (P≤.001 for all comparisons), patients receiving ADT had improved PSA-RFS (hazard ratio [HR], 0.598; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.435-0.841; P=.003), DM (HR, 0.424; 95% CI, 0.219-0.819; P=.011), and PCSM (HR, 0.380; 95% CI, 0.157-0.921; P=.032) on univariate analysis. Using multivariate analysis, ADT was an even stronger predictor of improved PSA-RFS (adjusted HR [AHR], 0.516; 95% CI, 0.360-0.739; P<.001), DM (AHR, 0.347; 95% CI, 0.176-0.685; P=.002), and PCSM (AHR, 0.297; 95% CI, 0.128-0.685; P=.004). Gleason score 4 + 3 = 7 and ≥50% positive biopsy cores were other independent predictors of PCSM. Conclusions: Short-term ADT improves PSA-RFS, DM, and PCSM in patients with intermediate-risk PC undergoing dose-escalated external beam radiation therapy

  8. Men presenting with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) values of over 100 ng/mL.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ang, Mann; Rajcic, Branimir; Foreman, Darren; Moretti, Kim; O'Callaghan, Michael E

    2016-04-01

    To investigate overall survival and prostate cancer-specific mortality in men with prostate cancer presenting with a PSA level PSA level extracted from the South Australian Prostate Cancer Clinical Outcomes Collaborative (SA-PCCOC) database. Men included were diagnosed between January 1998 and August 2013. Patients were divided into groups according to diagnostic PSA level: 500 ng/mL. Outcomes measured include overall survival and prostate cancer-specific mortality. Clinical stage, Gleason score and the presence of bony metastasis was evaluated to determine if they were prognostic factors in patients with PSA over 100 at diagnosis. Cox proportional hazards and competing risks regression were used to model overall survival and prostate cancer-specific mortality outcomes respectively. Of this cohort, 241 patients (4.2%) had a diagnostic PSA level >100 ng/mL. Patients with PSA >100 ng/mL have a significant reduction in five (29.1% vs 62.5% vs 87%) and ten-year (18.2% vs 36.7% vs 70.7%) overall survival when compared to men with diagnostic PSA 20-100 and PSA level at diagnosis. Overall survival was associated with PSA level, Gleason score and age. There was a linear increase in risk (overall survival) as PSA increased until 200 and no association thereafter. Models of overall survival and prostate cancer-specific mortality incorporating a risk stratification developed by Izumi et al. predicted overall survival but not prostate cancer-specific mortality. The use of this stratification did not improve model accuracy. Only a small number of men (4.2%) with prostate cancer present with PSA >100 ng/mL at diagnosis. Overall survival at five and ten years was significantly poorer in patients with PSA >100 ng/mL. In this cohort of men presenting with PSA >100 at diagnosis, PSA level was not associated with prostate cancer-specific mortality. Gleason score and metastases are significant prognostic factors in this group of men. © 2016 The Authors BJU International © 2016

  9. Divergent oestrogen receptor-specific breast cancer trends in Ireland (2004-2013): Amassing data from independent Western populations provide etiologic clues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mullooly, Maeve; Murphy, Jeanne; Gierach, Gretchen L; Walsh, Paul M; Deady, Sandra; Barron, Thomas I; Sherman, Mark E; Rosenberg, Philip S; Anderson, William F

    2017-11-01

    The aetiology and clinical behaviour of breast cancers vary by oestrogen receptor (ER) expression, HER2 expression and over time. Data from the United States and Denmark show rising incidence rates for ER+ and falling incidence rates for ER- breast cancers. Given that Ireland is a somewhat similar Western population but with distinctive risk exposures (especially for lactation), we analysed breast cancer trends by ER status; and for the first time, by the joint expression of ER±/HER2±. We assessed invasive breast cancers (n = 24,845; 2004-2013) within the population-based National Cancer Registry of Ireland. The population at risk was obtained from the Irish Central Statistics Office (n = 10,401,986). After accounting for missing ER and HER2 data, we assessed receptor-specific secular trends in age-standardised incidence rates (ASRs) with the estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Age-period-cohort models were also fitted to further characterise trends accounting for age, calendar-period and birth-cohort interactions. ASRs increased for ER+ (EAPC: 2.2% per year [95% CI: 0.97, 3.45%/year]) and decreased for ER- cancers (EAPC: -3.43% per year [95% CI: -5.05, -1.78%/year]), as well as for specific age groups at diagnosis (rates among independent Western populations likely reflects calendar-period and/or risk factor changes with differential effects for ER+ and ER- breast cancers. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  10. Health-related quality of life and disease specific symptoms in long-term thyroid cancer survivors : A study from the population-based PROFILES registry

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Husson, O.; Haak, H.R.; Buffart, L.M.; Nieuwlaat, W.-A.; Oranje, W.A.; Mols, F.; Kuijpens, J.L.; Coebergh, J.W.W.; van de Poll-Franse, L.V.

    2013-01-01

    Background. Given the longevity of thyroid cancer patients, any impairment in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) during the follow-up period is of considerable concern. Therefore, the first aim of this study was to assess (thyroid cancer specific) HRQoL among long-term thyroid cancer survivors

  11. Enhanced combined tumor-specific oncolysis and suicide gene therapy for prostate cancer using M6 promoter.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahn, M; Lee, S-J; Li, X; Jiménez, J A; Zhang, Y-P; Bae, K-H; Mohammadi, Y; Kao, C; Gardner, T A

    2009-01-01

    Enzyme pro-drug suicide gene therapy has been hindered by inefficient viral delivery and gene transduction. To further explore the potential of this approach, we have developed AdIU1, a prostate-restricted replicative adenovirus (PRRA) armed with the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-TK). In our previous Ad-OC-TK/ACV phase I clinical trial, we demonstrated safety and proof of principle with a tissue-specific promoter-based TK/pro-drug therapy using a replication-defective adenovirus for the treatment of prostate cancer metastases. In this study, we aimed to inhibit the growth of androgen-independent (AI), PSA/PSMA-positive prostate cancer cells by AdIU1. In vitro the viability of an AI- PSA/PSMA-expressing prostate cancer cell line, CWR22rv, was significantly inhibited by treatment with AdIU1 plus GCV (10 microg ml(-1)), compared with AdIU1 treatment alone and also cytotoxicity was observed following treatment with AdIU1 plus GCV only in PSA/PSMA-positive CWR22rv and C4-2 cells, but not in the PSA/PSMA-negative cell line, DU-145. In vivo assessment of AdIU1 plus GCV treatment revealed a stronger therapeutic effect against CWR22rv tumors in nude mice than treatment with AdIU1 alone, AdE4PSESE1a alone or in combination with GCV. Our results demonstrate the therapeutic potential of specific-oncolysis and suicide gene therapy for AI-PSA/PSMA-positive prostate cancer gene therapy.

  12. Selenium for preventing cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vinceti, Marco; Filippini, Tommaso; Del Giovane, Cinzia; Dennert, Gabriele; Zwahlen, Marcel; Brinkman, Maree; Zeegers, Maurice Pa; Horneber, Markus; D'Amico, Roberto; Crespi, Catherine M

    2018-01-29

    This review is the third update of the Cochrane review "Selenium for preventing cancer". Selenium is a naturally occurring element with both nutritional and toxicological properties. Higher selenium exposure and selenium supplements have been suggested to protect against several types of cancer. To gather and present evidence needed to address two research questions:1. What is the aetiological relationship between selenium exposure and cancer risk in humans?2. Describe the efficacy of selenium supplementation for cancer prevention in humans. We updated electronic searches of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; 2017, Issue 2), MEDLINE (Ovid, 2013 to January 2017, week 4), and Embase (2013 to 2017, week 6), as well as searches of clinical trial registries. We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and longitudinal observational studies that enrolled adult participants. We performed random-effects (RE) meta-analyses when two or more RCTs were available for a specific outcome. We conducted RE meta-analyses when five or more observational studies were available for a specific outcome. We assessed risk of bias in RCTs and in observational studies using Cochrane's risk assessment tool and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, respectively. We considered in the primary analysis data pooled from RCTs with low risk of bias. We assessed the certainty of evidence by using the GRADE approach. We included 83 studies in this updated review: two additional RCTs (10 in total) and a few additional trial reports for previously included studies. RCTs involved 27,232 participants allocated to either selenium supplements or placebo. For analyses of RCTs with low risk of bias, the summary risk ratio (RR) for any cancer incidence was 1.01 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93 to 1.10; 3 studies, 19,475 participants; high-certainty evidence). The RR for estimated cancer mortality was 1.02 (95% CI 0.80 to 1.30; 1 study, 17,444 participants). For the most frequently

  13. Can gene fusions serve for fingerprints of radiogenic cancers?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakamura, Nori

    2016-01-01

    It has been recognized that malignancies in blood cells often bear specific chromosome translocations or gene fusions. In recent years, the presence of fusion genes became to be known also among solid cancers as driver mutations. However, representative solid cancers bearing specific gene fusions are limited to cancers of thyroid, prostate, and sarcomas among which only thyroid cancer risk is known to be related to radiation exposures. On the other hand, it is extremely rare to find recurrent reciprocal translocations among common cancers such as in the lung, stomach, breast, and colon, which form a major component of radiation risks. It is therefore unlikely that radiation increases the risk of cancer by inducing specific translocations (gene fusions) but more likely through induction of mutations (including deletions). Although gene fusions could play a role in radiation carcinogenesis, it does not seem good enough to serve for a radiation fingerprint. (author)

  14. Worse survival after breast cancer in women with anorexia nervosa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bens, Annet; Papadopoulos, Fotios C; Pukkala, Eero; Ekbom, Anders; Gissler, Mika; Mellemkjær, Lene

    2018-04-01

    A history of anorexia nervosa has been associated with a reduced risk of developing breast cancer. We investigated survival after breast cancer among women with a prior anorexia nervosa diagnosis compared with women in a population comparison group. This register-based study included combined data from Sweden, Denmark and Finland. A total of 76 and 1462 breast cancer cases identified among 22,654 women with anorexia nervosa and 224,619 women in a population comparison group, respectively, were included in the study. Hazard ratios (HR) for overall and breast cancer-specific mortality after breast cancer diagnosis were estimated using Cox regression. Cause of death was available only for Swedish and Danish women; therefore, the analysis on breast cancer-specific mortality was restricted to these women. We observed 23 deaths after breast cancer among anorexia nervosa patients and 247 among population comparisons. The overall mortality after the breast cancer diagnosis was increased in women with a history of anorexia nervosa compared with population comparisons (HR 2.5, 95% CI 1.6-3.9) after adjustment for age, period and extent of disease. Results were similar for overall (HR 2.3, 95% CI 1.4-3.6) and breast cancer-specific mortality (HR 2.1, 95% CI 1.3-3.6) among Swedish and Danish women. We found that female breast cancer patients with a prior diagnosis of anorexia nervosa have a worse survival compared with other breast cancer patients.

  15. Free and total prostate specific antigen in benign prostate hyperplasia and prostate cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Naz, S.; Ahmad, S.; Akhtar, M.W.; Ghafoor, F.; Butt, N.S.

    2004-01-01

    To record the levels of PSA in the sera of prostate cancer (CaP) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) cases. Free PSA/total PSA as percentage was also calculated in order to evaluate its utility in differentially diagnosing BPH and CaP. Material and Methods: A group of 108 male subjects, including one-third of each of biopsy-confirmed prostate cancer , BPH cases and asymptomatic controls of matching age were studied. PSA and Free PSA were determined by ELISA using commercially available assay kits. Results: Mean PSA was found to be highest in CaP cases (41.9 plus minus 38.7 ng/ml), lower in the BPH cases (13.5 plus minus 10.5 ng/ml), while it was lowest in the control subjects (5.7 plus minus 4.4 ng/ml). Moreover, it was observed that a majority of the CaP cases had serum PSA >20 ng/ml, 50% of BPH cases had serum PSA in the 'gray zone' (4.1-20 ng/ml), while majority of controls had serum PSA in the 'normal' range (0 -4 ng/ml). Using a free-PSA 'cut-off' of 18% to differentiate between benign and malignant prostate enlargement, it was found that 80% of the CaP cases had F/T% 18. The percent free-PSA test to differentially diagnose BPH and CaP in the 'gray zone' was found to have a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 94%. Conclusion: Using a cutoff of 18%, the free-PSA test significantly improved the differential diagnosis of BPH and CaP in the 'gray zone' as compared to the use of total PSA alone in the study group. (author)

  16. Bioimpedance and chronoamperometry as an adjunct to prostate-specific antigen screening for prostate cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abreu DS

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Darci Schiavon de AbreuDepartment of Urology, Hospital Unimed de Limeira, Sao Paulo, BrazilBackground: Bioimpedance is an electrical property of living tissue that has been shown to be a safe technique when used in a number of biomedical applications. The aim of this research was to assess the utility of bioimpedance measurement as a rapid, cost-effective, and noninvasive adjunct to digital rectal examination and PSA in differentiating tumor from normal prostatic tissue.Methods: Three hundred men were examined for signs and symptoms of prostate disorders. 147 patients with a digital rectal examination indicating a positive result underwent a prostate-specific antigen (PSA test. A biopsy was advised for 103 of the men, of whom 50 completed the study. Before undergoing biopsy, an examination with the EIS (electro interstitial scan system using bioimpedance and chronoamperometry was performed. In reference to the biopsy results (negative or positive, a statistical analysis of the EIS data and PSA was conducted using receiver operating characteristic curves to determine the specificity and sensitivity of each test.Results: The PSA test had a sensitivity of 73.9% and specificity of 51.9% using a cutoff value >4 and a sensitivity of 52.2% and specificity of 81.5% using a cutoff value ≥5.7 and P = 0.03. The delta of the electrical conductivity (DE of the left foot-right foot pathway had a sensitivity of 62.5% and specificity of 85.2%, with a cutoff value ≤-5 and P = 0.0001. Algorithms comprising the delta of electrical conductivity and PSA showed a sensitivity of 91.5% and a specificity of 59.3%, with a cutoff value ≤-10.52 and P = 0.0003.Conclusion: The EIS system had a very good specificity of 85.2%. However, the sensitivity of 62.5% would be a problem. Using a PSA reference >4.1 ng/mL, the adjunctive use of bioimpedance and chronoamperometry provided by EIS technology could raise the sensitivity from 73.9% to 91.5% and the specificity from 51

  17. Prostate-specific antigen cancer volume: a significant prognostic factor in prostate cancer patients at intermediate risk of failing radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lankford, Scott P.; Pollack, Alan; Zagars, Gunar K.

    1997-01-01

    Purpose: Although the pretreatment serum prostate-specific antigen level (PSAL) is the single-most significant predictor of local and biochemical control in prostate cancer patients treated with radiotherapy, it is relatively insensitive for patients with a PSAL in the intermediate range (4-20 ng/ml). PSA density (PSAD) has been shown to be slightly more predictive of outcome than PSAL for this intermediate risk group; however, this improvement is small and of little use clinically. PSA cancer volume (PSACV), an estimate of cancer volume based on PSA, has recently been described and has been purported to be more significant t than PSAL in predicting early biochemical failure after radiotherapy. We report a detailed comparison between this new prognostic factor, PSAL, and PSAD. Methods and Materials: The records of 356 patients treated with definitive external beam radiotherapy for regionally localized (T1-4,Nx,M0) adenocarcinoma of the prostate were reviewed. Each patient had a PSAL, biopsy Gleason score, and pretreatment prostate volume by transrectal ultrasonography. The median PSAL was 9.3 ng/ml and 66% had Gleason scores in the 2-6 range. The median radiation dose was 66.0 Gy and the median follow-up for those living was 27 months. PSACV was calculated using a formula which takes into account PSAL, pretreatment prostate ultrasound volume, and Gleason score. The median PSACV was 1.43 cc. Biochemical failure was defined as increases in two consecutive follow-up PSA levels, one increase by a factor > 1.5, or an absolute increase of > 1 ng/ml. Local failure was defined as a cancer-positive prostate biopsy, obtained for evidence of tumor progression. Results: The distributions of PSACV and PSAL were similar and, when normalized by log transformation, were highly correlated (p < 0.0001, linear regression). There was a statistically significant relationship between PSACV and several potential prognostic factors including PSAL, PSAD, stage, Gleason score, and

  18. Synthesis of bombesin-functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles and their specific uptake in prostate cancer cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martin, Amanda L.; Hickey, Jennifer L.; Ablack, Amber L.; Lewis, John D.; Luyt, Leonard G.; Gillies, Elizabeth R.

    2010-01-01

    The imaging of molecular markers associated with disease offers the possibility for earlier detection and improved treatment monitoring. Receptors for gastrin-releasing peptide are overexpressed on prostate cancer cells offering a promising imaging target, and analogs of bombesin, an amphibian tetradecapeptide have been previously demonstrated to target these receptors. Therefore, the pan-bombesin analog [β-Ala11, Phe13, Nle14]bombesin-(7-14) was conjugated through a linker to dye-functionalized superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles for the development of a new potential magnetic resonance imaging probe. The peptide was conjugated via click chemistry, demonstrating a complementary alternative methodology to conventional peptide-nanoparticle conjugation strategies. The peptide-functionalized nanoparticles were then demonstrated to be selectively taken up by PC-3 prostate cancer cells relative to unfunctionalized nanoparticles and this uptake was inhibited by the presence of free peptide, confirming the specificity of the interaction. This study suggests that these nanoparticles have the potential to serve as magnetic resonance imaging probes for the detection of prostate cancer.

  19. Molecular Features of Subtype-Specific Progression from Ductal Carcinoma In Situ to Invasive Breast Cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert Lesurf

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Breast cancer consists of at least five main molecular “intrinsic” subtypes that are reflected in both pre-invasive and invasive disease. Although previous studies have suggested that many of the molecular features of invasive breast cancer are established early, it is unclear what mechanisms drive progression and whether the mechanisms of progression are dependent or independent of subtype. We have generated mRNA, miRNA, and DNA copy-number profiles from a total of 59 in situ lesions and 85 invasive tumors in order to comprehensively identify those genes, signaling pathways, processes, and cell types that are involved in breast cancer progression. Our work provides evidence that there are molecular features associated with disease progression that are unique to the intrinsic subtypes. We additionally establish subtype-specific signatures that are able to identify a small proportion of pre-invasive tumors with expression profiles that resemble invasive carcinoma, indicating a higher likelihood of future disease progression.

  20. African-American Men with Gleason Score 3+3=6 Prostate Cancer Produce Less Prostate Specific Antigen than Caucasian Men: A Potential Impact on Active Surveillance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kryvenko, Oleksandr N; Balise, Raymond; Soodana Prakash, Nachiketh; Epstein, Jonathan I

    2016-02-01

    We assess the difference in prostate specific antigen production between African-American and Caucasian men with Gleason score 3+3=6 prostate cancer. We measured tumor volume in 414 consecutive radical prostatectomies from men with National Comprehensive Cancer Network(®) low risk prostate cancer (348 Caucasian, 66 African-American) who had Gleason score 3+3=6 disease at radical prostatectomy. We then compared clinical presentation, pathological findings, prostate specific antigen, prostate specific antigen density and prostate specific antigen mass (an absolute amount of prostate specific antigen in patient's circulation) between African-American and Caucasian men. The t-test and Wilcoxon rank sum were used for comparison of means. African-American and Caucasian men had similar clinical findings based on age, body mass index and prostate specific antigen. There were no statistically significant differences between the dominant tumor nodule volume and total tumor volume (mean 0.712 vs 0.665 cm(3), p=0.695) between African-American and Caucasian men. Prostates were heavier in African-American men (mean 55.4 vs 46.3 gm, p prostate tissue contributing to prostate specific antigen in African-American men, prostate specific antigen mass was not different from that of Caucasian men (mean 0.55 vs 0.558 μg, p=0.95). Prostate specific antigen density was significantly less in African-American men due to larger prostates (mean 0.09 vs 0.105, p prostate cancer produce less prostate specific antigen than Caucasian men. African-American and Caucasian men had equal serum prostate specific antigen and prostate specific antigen mass despite significantly larger prostates in African-American men with all other parameters, particularly total tumor volume, being the same. This finding has practical implications in T1c cases diagnosed with prostate cancer due to prostate specific antigen screening. Lowering the prostate specific antigen density threshold in African-American men may

  1. Percentage of free serum prostate-specific antigen: a new tool in the early diagnosis of prostatic cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Toubert, M E; Guillet, J; Chiron, M; Meria, P; Role, C; Schlageter, M H; Francois, H; Borschneck, C; Nivelon, F; Desgrandchamps, F; Rastel, D; Cussenot, O; Teillac, P; Le Duc, A; Najean, Y

    1996-11-01

    Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a protease able to bind to serum antiproteases as alpha 1 antichymotrypsin (ACT). Free PSA (FPSA) corresponds to the fraction of total PSA (TPSA) which is unbound to ACT. Specific detection of the FPSA seems to be a valuable tool in the distinction between prostatic cancer (PCa) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Our aim was to evaluate retrospectively the FPSA/TPSA ratio in comparison to TPSA or FPSA determination, using two new immunoradiometric assays (PSA-RIACT and FPSA-RIACT, CIS bio international, Gif Sur Yvette, France) in the early diagnosis of PCa. 256 men, with TPSA levels between 0.7 and 44.7 ng/ml (median age = 69 years), including 164 sera obtained from patients with BPH and 92 sera from patients with untreated PCa were assayed. All diagnoses were histologically confirmed and patients tested before any adjuvant treatment. The evaluation of the median FPSA/TPSA ratio in the two groups showed significantly different values (BPH group: 24.2%, PCa group: 12.1%, P 10 ng/ml).

  2. [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose PET/computed tomography in breast cancer and gynecologic cancers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hildebrandt, Malene Grubbe; Kodahl, Annette Raskov; Teilmann-Jørgensen, Dorte

    2015-01-01

    In this literature review, an update is provided on the role of [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose PET/computed tomography in different clinical settings of the 4 most frequent female-specific cancer types: breast, endometrial, ovarian, and cervical cancer. The most recent knowledge regarding primary...... diagnosis, staging, response evaluation, prognostic and predictive values, recurrence detection, and radiotherapy planning is evaluated, including, when clinically relevant, considerations with respect to the epidemiology, treatment, and course of the diseases....

  3. The Impact of Brachytherapy on Prostate Cancer–Specific Mortality for Definitive Radiation Therapy of High-Grade Prostate Cancer: A Population-Based Analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shen Xinglei; Keith, Scott W.; Mishra, Mark V.; Dicker, Adam P.; Showalter, Timothy N.

    2012-01-01

    Purpose: This population-based analysis compared prostate cancer–specific mortality (PCSM) in a cohort of patients with high-risk prostate cancer after nonsurgical treatment with external beam radiation therapy (EBRT), brachytherapy (BT), or combination (BT + EBRT). Methods and Materials: We identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database patients diagnosed from 1988 through 2002 with T1–T3N0M0 prostate adenocarcinoma of poorly differentiated grade and treated with BT, EBRT, or BT + EBRT. During this time frame, the database defined high grade as prostate cancers with Gleason score 8–10, or Gleason grade 4–5 if the score was not recorded. This corresponds to a cohort primarily with high-risk prostate cancer, although some cases where only Gleason grade was recorded may have included intermediate-risk cancer. We used multivariate models to examine patient and tumor characteristics associated with the likelihood of treatment with each radiation modality and the effect of radiation modality on PCSM. Results: There were 12,745 patients treated with EBRT (73.5%), BT (7.1%), or BT + EBRT (19.4%) included in the analysis. The median follow-up time for all patients was 6.4 years. The use of BT or BT + EBRT increased from 5.1% in 1988–1992 to 31.4% in 1998–2002. Significant predictors of use of BT or BT + EBRT were younger age, later year of diagnosis, urban residence, and earlier T-stage. On multivariate analysis, treatment with either BT (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% confidence interval, 0.49–0.86) or BT + EBRT (hazard ratio, 0.77; 95% confidence ratio, 0.66–0.90) was associated with significant reduction in PCSM compared with EBRT alone. Conclusion: In patients with high-grade prostate cancer, treatment with brachytherapy is associated with reduced PCSM compared with EBRT alone. Our results suggest that brachytherapy should be investigated as a component of definitive treatment strategies for patients with high-risk prostate cancer.

  4. Epidemiology of cancer-related venous thromboembolism

    OpenAIRE

    Wun, Ted; White, Richard H.

    2009-01-01

    Recent studies have better defined the epidemiology of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in cancer patients. The incidence is highest in patients who have metastatic disease at the time of presentation and who have fast growing, biologically aggressive cancers associated with a poor prognosis. The incidence is also high in patients with haematological cancers. Other specific risk factors that affect the incidence of VTE include undergoing invasive neurosurgery, the number of underlying chronic co-...

  5. Quantitative imaging as cancer biomarker

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mankoff, David A.

    2015-03-01

    The ability to assay tumor biologic features and the impact of drugs on tumor biology is fundamental to drug development. Advances in our ability to measure genomics, gene expression, protein expression, and cellular biology have led to a host of new targets for anticancer drug therapy. In translating new drugs into clinical trials and clinical practice, these same assays serve to identify patients most likely to benefit from specific anticancer treatments. As cancer therapy becomes more individualized and targeted, there is an increasing need to characterize tumors and identify therapeutic targets to select therapy most likely to be successful in treating the individual patient's cancer. Thus far assays to identify cancer therapeutic targets or anticancer drug pharmacodynamics have been based upon in vitro assay of tissue or blood samples. Advances in molecular imaging, particularly PET, have led to the ability to perform quantitative non-invasive molecular assays. Imaging has traditionally relied on structural and anatomic features to detect cancer and determine its extent. More recently, imaging has expanded to include the ability to image regional biochemistry and molecular biology, often termed molecular imaging. Molecular imaging can be considered an in vivo assay technique, capable of measuring regional tumor biology without perturbing it. This makes molecular imaging a unique tool for cancer drug development, complementary to traditional assay methods, and a potentially powerful method for guiding targeted therapy in clinical trials and clinical practice. The ability to quantify, in absolute measures, regional in vivo biologic parameters strongly supports the use of molecular imaging as a tool to guide therapy. This review summarizes current and future applications of quantitative molecular imaging as a biomarker for cancer therapy, including the use of imaging to (1) identify patients whose tumors express a specific therapeutic target; (2) determine

  6. Decreased Usage of Specific Scrib Exons Defines a More Malignant Phenotype of Breast Cancer With Worsened Survival

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gergana Metodieva

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available SCRIB is a polarity regulator known to be abnormally expressed in cancer at the protein level. Here we report that, in breast cancer, an additional and hidden dimension of deregulations exists: an unexpected SCRIB exon usage pattern appears to mark a more malignant tumor phenotype and significantly correlates with survival. Conserved exons encoding the leucine-rich repeats tend to be overexpressed while others are underused. Mechanistic studies revealed that the underused exons encode part of the protein necessary for interaction with Vimentin and Numa1, a protein which is required for proper positioning of the mitotic spindle. Thus, the inclusion/exclusion of specific SCRIB exons is a mechanistic hallmark of breast cancer, which could potentially be exploited to develop more efficient diagnostics and therapies.

  7. Signaling Network Assessment of Mutations and Copy Number Variations Predict Breast Cancer Subtype-Specific Drug Targets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Naif Zaman

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Individual cancer cells carry a bewildering number of distinct genomic alterations (e.g., copy number variations and mutations, making it a challenge to uncover genomic-driven mechanisms governing tumorigenesis. Here, we performed exome sequencing on several breast cancer cell lines that represent two subtypes, luminal and basal. We integrated these sequencing data and functional RNAi screening data (for the identification of genes that are essential for cell proliferation and survival onto a human signaling network. Two subtype-specific networks that potentially represent core-signaling mechanisms underlying tumorigenesis were identified. Within both networks, we found that genes were differentially affected in different cell lines; i.e., in some cell lines a gene was identified through RNAi screening, whereas in others it was genomically altered. Interestingly, we found that highly connected network genes could be used to correctly classify breast tumors into subtypes on the basis of genomic alterations. Further, the networks effectively predicted subtype-specific drug targets, which were experimentally validated.

  8. Breast cancer screening

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vandenbroucke, A.

    1987-01-01

    Many studies have shown that breast cancer screening is able to reduce breast cancer mortality, including the HIP study, the Swedish Trial and the Netherlands studies. Mammography is considered as the most effective method for breast cancer screening but it might be unfeasible for some reasons: - the population acceptability of the method might be low. Indeed, most populations of the South of Europe are less compliant to mass screening than populations of the North of Europe; - the medical equipment and personnel - radiologists and pathologists - might be insufficient; - it might be too costly for the National Health Service, specially where the incidence rate of breast cancer is relatively low (i.e. Greece, Portugal). The validity of screening tests is judged by their sensitivity and their specificity

  9. Genome-wide association studies identify four ER negative-specific breast cancer risk loci

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Garcia-Closas, Montserrat; Couch, Fergus J.; Lindstrom, Sara; Michailidou, Kyriaki; Schmidt, Marjanka K.; Brook, Mark N.; Orr, Nick; Rhie, Suhn Kyong; Riboli, Elio; Feigelson, Heather S.; Le Marchand, Loic; Buring, Julie E.; Eccles, Diana; Miron, Penelope; Fasching, Peter A.; Brauch, Hiltrud; Chang-Claude, Jenny; Carpenter, Jane; Godwin, Andrew K.; Nevanlinna, Heli; Giles, Graham G.; Cox, Angela; Hopper, John L.; Bolla, Manjeet K.; Wang, Qin; Dennis, Joe; Dicks, Ed; Howat, Will J.; Schoof, Nils; Bojesen, Stig E.; Lambrechts, Diether; Broeks, Annegien; Andrulis, Irene L.; Guénel, Pascal; Burwinkel, Barbara; Sawyer, Elinor J.; Hollestelle, Antoinette; Fletcher, Olivia; Winqvist, Robert; Brenner, Hermann; Mannermaa, Arto; Hamann, Ute; Meindl, Alfons; Lindblom, Annika; Zheng, Wei; Devillee, Peter; Goldberg, Mark S.; Lubinski, Jan; Kristensen, Vessela; Swerdlow, Anthony; Anton-Culver, Hoda; Dörk, Thilo; Muir, Kenneth; Matsuo, Keitaro; Wu, Anna H.; Radice, Paolo; teo, Soo Hwang; Shu, Xiao-Ou; Blot, William; Kang, Daehee; Hartman, Mikael; Sangrajrang, Suleeporn; Shen, Chen-Yang; Southey, Melissa C.; Park, Daniel J.; Hammet, Fleur; Stone, Jennifer; Veer, Laura J. Van't; Rutgers, Emiel J.; Lophatananon, Artitaya; Stewart-Brown, Sarah; Siriwanarangsan, Pornthep; Peto, Julian; Schrauder, Michael G.; Ekici, Arif B.; Beckmann, Matthias W.; dos Santos Silva, Isabel; Johnson, Nichola; Warren, Helen; Tomlinson, Ian; Kerin, Michael J.; Miller, Nicola; Marme, Federick; Schneeweiss, Andreas; Sohn, Christof; Truong, Therese; Laurent-Puig, Pierre; Kerbrat, Pierre; Nordestgaard, Børge G.; Nielsen, Sune F.; Flyger, Henrik; Milne, Roger L.; Perez, Jose Ignacio Arias; Menéndez, Primitiva; Müller, Heiko; Arndt, Volker; Stegmaier, Christa; Lichtner, Peter; Lochmann, Magdalena; Justenhoven, Christina; Ko, Yon-Dschun; Muranen, Taru A.; Aittomäki, Kristiina; Blomqvist, Carl; Greco, Dario; Heikkinen, Tuomas; Ito, Hidemi; Iwata, Hiroji; Yatabe, Yasushi; Antonenkova, Natalia N.; Margolin, Sara; Kataja, Vesa; Kosma, Veli-Matti; Hartikainen, Jaana M.; Balleine, Rosemary; Tseng, Chiu-Chen; Berg, David Van Den; Stram, Daniel O.; Neven, Patrick; Dieudonné, Anne-Sophie; Leunen, Karin; Rudolph, Anja; Nickels, Stefan; Flesch-Janys, Dieter; Peterlongo, Paolo; Peissel, Bernard; Bernard, Loris; Olson, Janet E.; Wang, Xianshu; Stevens, Kristen; Severi, Gianluca; Baglietto, Laura; McLean, Catriona; Coetzee, Gerhard A.; Feng, Ye; Henderson, Brian E.; Schumacher, Fredrick; Bogdanova, Natalia V.; Labrèche, France; Dumont, Martine; Yip, Cheng Har; Taib, Nur Aishah Mohd; Cheng, Ching-Yu; Shrubsole, Martha; Long, Jirong; Pylkäs, Katri; Jukkola-Vuorinen, Arja; Kauppila, Saila; Knight, Julia A.; Glendon, Gord; Mulligan, Anna Marie; Tollenaar, Robertus A. E. M.; Seynaeve, Caroline M.; Kriege, Mieke; Hooning, Maartje J.; van den Ouweland, Ans M. W.; van Deurzen, Carolien H. M.; Lu, Wei; Gao, Yu-Tang; Cai, Hui; Balasubramanian, Sabapathy P.; Cross, Simon S.; Reed, Malcolm W. R.; Signorello, Lisa; Cai, Qiuyin; Shah, Mitul; Miao, Hui; Chan, Ching Wan; Chia, Kee Seng; Jakubowska, Anna; Jaworska, Katarzyna; Durda, Katarzyna; Hsiung, Chia-Ni; Wu, Pei-Ei; Yu, Jyh-Cherng; Ashworth, Alan; Jones, Michael; Tessier, Daniel C.; González-Neira, Anna; Pita, Guillermo; Alonso, M. Rosario; Vincent, Daniel; Bacot, Francois; Ambrosone, Christine B.; Bandera, Elisa V.; John, Esther M.; Chen, Gary K.; Hu, Jennifer J.; Rodriguez-Gil, Jorge L.; Bernstein, Leslie; Press, Michael F.; Ziegler, Regina G.; Millikan, Robert M.; Deming-Halverson, Sandra L.; Nyante, Sarah; Ingles, Sue A.; Waisfisz, Quinten; Tsimiklis, Helen; Makalic, Enes; Schmidt, Daniel; Bui, Minh; Gibson, Lorna; Müller-Myhsok, Bertram; Schmutzler, Rita K.; Hein, Rebecca; Dahmen, Norbert; Beckmann, Lars; Aaltonen, Kirsimari; Czene, Kamila; Irwanto, Astrid; Liu, Jianjun; Turnbull, Clare; Rahman, Nazneen; Meijers-Heijboer, Hanne; Uitterlinden, Andre G.; Rivadeneira, Fernando; Olswold, Curtis; Slager, Susan; Pilarski, Robert; Ademuyiwa, Foluso; Konstantopoulou, Irene; Martin, Nicholas G.; Montgomery, Grant W.; Slamon, Dennis J.; Rauh, Claudia; Lux, Michael P.; Jud, Sebastian M.; Bruning, Thomas; Weaver, Joellen; Sharma, Priyanka; Pathak, Harsh; Tapper, Will; Gerty, Sue; Durcan, Lorraine; Trichopoulos, Dimitrios; Tumino, Rosario; Peeters, Petra H.; Kaaks, Rudolf; Campa, Daniele; Canzian, Federico; Weiderpass, Elisabete; Johansson, Mattias; Khaw, Kay-Tee; Travis, Ruth; Clavel-Chapelon, Françoise; Kolonel, Laurence N.; Chen, Constance; Beck, Andy; Hankinson, Susan E.; Berg, Christine D.; Hoover, Robert N.; Lissowska, Jolanta; Figueroa, Jonine D.; Chasman, Daniel I.; Gaudet, Mia M.; Diver, W. Ryan; Willett, Walter C.; Hunter, David J.; Simard, Jacques; Benitez, Javier; Dunning, Alison M.; Sherman, Mark E.; Chenevix-Trench, Georgia; Chanock, Stephen J.; Hall, Per; Pharoah, Paul D. P.; Vachon, Celine; Easton, Douglas F.; Haiman, Christopher A.; Kraft, Peter

    2013-01-01

    Estrogen receptor (ER)-negative tumors represent 20-30% of all breast cancers, with a higher proportion occurring in younger women and women of African ancestry. The etiology and clinical behavior of ER-negative tumors are different from those of tumors expressing ER (ER positive), including

  10. Select transition zone prostate cancers may be radiocurable despite markedly elevated prostate-specific antigen levels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    D'Amico, Anthony V.; Kaplan, Irving

    1996-01-01

    In 1993, three men with transition zone prostate cancers were described (Stamey et al., J. Urol. 149: 510-515, 1993) who despite high prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels remained PSA failure-free at 22 months postoperatively. This report illustrates that prolonged PSA failure free survival may be achieved when external beam radiation therapy is used to treat similar patients

  11. Cell-type-specific roles for COX-2 in UVB-induced skin cancer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herschman, Harvey

    2014-01-01

    In human tumors, and in mouse models, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) levels are frequently correlated with tumor development/burden. In addition to intrinsic tumor cell expression, COX-2 is often present in fibroblasts, myofibroblasts and endothelial cells of the tumor microenvironment, and in infiltrating immune cells. Intrinsic cancer cell COX-2 expression is postulated as only one of many sources for prostanoids required for tumor promotion/progression. Although both COX-2 inhibition and global Cox-2 gene deletion ameliorate ultraviolet B (UVB)-induced SKH-1 mouse skin tumorigenesis, neither manipulation can elucidate the cell type(s) in which COX-2 expression is required for tumorigenesis; both eliminate COX-2 activity in all cells. To address this question, we created Cox-2 flox/flox mice, in which the Cox-2 gene can be eliminated in a cell-type-specific fashion by targeted Cre recombinase expression. Cox-2 deletion in skin epithelial cells of SKH-1 Cox-2 flox/flox;K14Cre + mice resulted, following UVB irradiation, in reduced skin hyperplasia and increased apoptosis. Targeted epithelial cell Cox-2 deletion also resulted in reduced tumor incidence, frequency, size and proliferation rate, altered tumor cell differentiation and reduced tumor vascularization. Moreover, Cox-2 flox/flox;K14Cre + papillomas did not progress to squamous cell carcinomas. In contrast, Cox-2 deletion in SKH-1 Cox-2 flox/flox; LysMCre + myeloid cells had no effect on UVB tumor induction. We conclude that (i) intrinsic epithelial COX-2 activity plays a major role in UVB-induced skin cancer, (ii) macrophage/myeloid COX-2 plays no role in UVB-induced skin cancer and (iii) either there may be another COX-2-dependent prostanoid source(s) that drives UVB skin tumor induction or there may exist a COX-2-independent pathway(s) to UVB-induced skin cancer. PMID:24469308

  12. Diabetes mellitus type 2 and subsite-specific colorectal cancer risk in men and women: results from the Netherlands Cohort Study on diet and cancer

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kort, S. de; Simons, C.C.; Brandt, P.A. van den; Goldbohm, R.A.; Arts, I.C.; Bruine, A.P.; Janssen-Heijnen, M.L.; Sanduleanu, S.; Masclee, A.A.; Weijenberg, M.P.

    2016-01-01

    Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer (CRC); however, studies differentiating between subsites of CRC are limited. We investigated how diabetes mellitus (DM) was associated with subsite-specific CRC risk in men and women. Methods: The

  13. Diabetes, pancreatic cancer, and metformin therapy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jun eGong

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Pancreatic cancer carries a poor prognosis as most patients present with advanced disease and preferred chemotherapy regimens offer only modest effects on survival. Risk factors include smoking, obesity, heavy alcohol, and chronic pancreatitis. Pancreatic cancer has a complex relationship with diabetes, as diabetes can be both a risk factor for pancreatic cancer and a result of pancreatic cancer. Insulin, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1, and certain hormones play an important role in promoting neoplasia in diabetics. Metformin appears to reduce risk for pancreatic cancer and improve survival in diabetics with pancreatic cancer primarily by decreasing insulin/IGF signaling, disrupting mitochondrial respiration, and inhibiting the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR pathway. Other potential anti-tumorigenic effects of metformin include the ability to downregulate specificity protein transcription factors and associated genes, alter microRNAs, decrease cancer stem cell proliferation, and reduce DNA damage and inflammation. Here, we review the most recent knowledge on risk factors and treatment of pancreatic cancer and the relationship between diabetes, pancreatic cancer, and metformin as a potential therapy.

  14. Cancer in silico drug discovery: a systems biology tool for identifying candidate drugs to target specific molecular tumor subtypes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    San Lucas, F Anthony; Fowler, Jerry; Chang, Kyle; Kopetz, Scott; Vilar, Eduardo; Scheet, Paul

    2014-12-01

    Large-scale cancer datasets such as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) allow researchers to profile tumors based on a wide range of clinical and molecular characteristics. Subsequently, TCGA-derived gene expression profiles can be analyzed with the Connectivity Map (CMap) to find candidate drugs to target tumors with specific clinical phenotypes or molecular characteristics. This represents a powerful computational approach for candidate drug identification, but due to the complexity of TCGA and technology differences between CMap and TCGA experiments, such analyses are challenging to conduct and reproduce. We present Cancer in silico Drug Discovery (CiDD; scheet.org/software), a computational drug discovery platform that addresses these challenges. CiDD integrates data from TCGA, CMap, and Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) to perform computational drug discovery experiments, generating hypotheses for the following three general problems: (i) determining whether specific clinical phenotypes or molecular characteristics are associated with unique gene expression signatures; (ii) finding candidate drugs to repress these expression signatures; and (iii) identifying cell lines that resemble the tumors being studied for subsequent in vitro experiments. The primary input to CiDD is a clinical or molecular characteristic. The output is a biologically annotated list of candidate drugs and a list of cell lines for in vitro experimentation. We applied CiDD to identify candidate drugs to treat colorectal cancers harboring mutations in BRAF. CiDD identified EGFR and proteasome inhibitors, while proposing five cell lines for in vitro testing. CiDD facilitates phenotype-driven, systematic drug discovery based on clinical and molecular data from TCGA. ©2014 American Association for Cancer Research.

  15. Remarkable change in age-specific breast cancer incidence in the Swiss canton of Geneva and its possible relation with the use of hormone replacement therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bouchardy, Christine; Morabia, Alfredo; Verkooijen, Helena M; Fioretta, Gérald; Wespi, Yves; Schäfer, Peter

    2006-01-01

    This article aims to explain the reasons for the remarkable change in age of breast cancer occurrence in the Swiss canton of Geneva. We used population-based data from the Geneva cancer registry, which collects information on method of detection, stage and tumour characteristics since 1975. For patients diagnosed between 1997–2003, we obtained additional information on use of hormone replacement therapy from a large prospective study on breast cancer. Using generalized log linear regression analysis, we compared age-specific incidence rates with respect to period, stage, oestrogen receptor status, method of detection and use of hormone replacement therapy. In the periods 1975–1979 and 1985–1989, breast cancer risk increased with age, showing the highest incidence rates among women aged ≥ 85 years. From 1997, the age-specific incidence curve changed completely (p < 0.0001), showing an incidence peak at 60–64 years and a reduced incidence among elderly women. This incidence peak concerned mainly early stage and oestrogen positive cancers and was exclusively observed among women who ever used hormone replacement therapy, regardless whether the tumour was screen-detected or not. The increasing prevalence of hormone replacement therapy use during the 1990s could explain the important change in age-specific breast cancer incidence, not only by increasing breast cancer risk, but also by revealing breast cancer at an earlier age

  16. Discoveries and application of prostate-specific antigen, and some proposals to optimize prostate cancer screening

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tokudome S

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Shinkan Tokudome,1 Ryosuke Ando,2 Yoshiro Koda,3 1Department of Nutritional Epidemiology, National Institute of Health and Nutrition, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 2Department of Nephro-urology, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya, 3Department of Forensic Medicine and Human Genetics, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume, Japan Abstract: The discoveries and application of prostate-specific antigen (PSA have been much appreciated because PSA-based screening has saved millions of lives of prostate cancer (PCa patients. Historically speaking, Flocks et al first identified antigenic properties in prostate tissue in 1960. Then, Barnes et al detected immunologic characteristics in prostatic fluid in 1963. Hara et al characterized γ-semino-protein in semen in 1966, and it has been proven to be identical to PSA. Subsequently, Ablin et al independently reported the presence of precipitation antigens in the prostate in 1970. Wang et al purified the PSA in 1979, and Kuriyama et al first applied an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for PSA in 1980. However, the positive predictive value with a cutoff figure of 4.0 ng/mL appeared substantially low (~30%. There are overdiagnoses and overtreatments for latent/low-risk PCa. Controversies exist in the PCa mortality-reducing effects of PSA screening between the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC and the US Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO Cancer Screening Trial. For optimizing PCa screening, PSA-related items may require the following: 1 adjustment of the cutoff values according to age, as well as setting limits to age and screening intervals; 2 improving test performance using doubling time, density, and ratio of free: total PSA; and 3 fostering active surveillance for low-risk PCa with monitoring by PSA value. Other items needing consideration may include the following: 1 examinations of cell proliferation and cell cycle markers

  17. Biophotonic markers of malignancy: Discriminating cancers using wavelength-specific biophotons

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nirosha J. Murugan

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Early detection is a critically important factor when successfully diagnosing and treating cancer. Whereas contemporary molecular techniques are capable of identifying biomarkers associated with cancer, surgical interventions are required to biopsy tissue. The common imaging alternative, positron-emission tomography (PET, involves the use of nuclear material which poses some risks. Novel, non-invasive techniques to assess the degree to which tissues express malignant properties are now needed. Recent developments in biophoton research have made it possible to discriminate cancerous cells from normal cells both in vitro and in vivo. The current study expands upon a growing body of literature where we classified and characterized malignant and non-malignant cell types according to their biophotonic activity. Using wavelength-exclusion filters, we demonstrate that ratios between infrared and ultraviolet photon emissions differentiate cancer and non-cancer cell types. Further, we identified photon sources associated with three filters (420-nm, 620-nm., and 950-nm which classified cancer and non-cancer cell types. The temporal increases in biophoton emission within these wavelength bandwidths is shown to be coupled with intrisitic biomolecular events using Cosic's resonant recognition model. Together, the findings suggest that the use of wavelength-exclusion filters in biophotonic measurement can be employed to detect cancer in vitro.

  18. Cancer, Physical Activity, and Exercise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Justin C.; Winters-Stone, Kerri; Lee, Augustine; Schmitz, Kathryn H.

    2014-01-01

    This review examines the relationship between physical activity and cancer along the cancer continuum, and serves as a synthesis of systematic and meta-analytic reviews conducted to date. There exists a large body of epidemiologic evidence that conclude those who participate in higher levels of physical activity have a reduced likelihood of developing a variety of cancers compared to those who engage in lower levels of physical activity. Despite this observational evidence, the causal pathway underling the association between participation in physical activity and cancer risk reduction remains unclear. Physical activity is also a useful adjunct to improve the deleterious sequelae experienced during cancer treatment. These deleterious sequelae may include fatigue, muscular weakness, deteriorated functional capacity, including many others. The benefits of physical activity during cancer treatment are similar to those experienced after treatment. Despite the growing volume of literature examining physical activity and cancer across the cancer continuum, a number of research gaps exist. There is little evidence on the safety of physical activity among all cancer survivors, as most trials have selectively recruited participants. It is also unclear the specific dose of exercise needed that is optimal for primary cancer prevention or symptom control during and after cancer treatment. PMID:23720265

  19. Selenium and Prostate Cancer Prevention: Insights from the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nicastro, Holly L.; Dunn, Barbara K.

    2013-01-01

    The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) was conducted to assess the efficacy of selenium and vitamin E alone, and in combination, on the incidence of prostate cancer. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 2 × 2 factorial design clinical trial found that neither selenium nor vitamin E reduced the incidence of prostate cancer after seven years and that vitamin E was associated with a 17% increased risk of prostate cancer compared to placebo. The null result was surprising given the strong preclinical and clinical evidence suggesting chemopreventive activity of selenium. Potential explanations for the null findings include the agent formulation and dose, the characteristics of the cohort, and the study design. It is likely that only specific subpopulations may benefit from selenium supplementation; therefore, future studies should consider the baseline selenium status of the participants, age of the cohort, and genotype of specific selenoproteins, among other characteristics, in order to determine the activity of selenium in cancer prevention. PMID:23552052

  20. Selenium and Prostate Cancer Prevention: Insights from the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Holly L. Nicastro

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT was conducted to assess the efficacy of selenium and vitamin E alone, and in combination, on the incidence of prostate cancer. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 2 × 2 factorial design clinical trial found that neither selenium nor vitamin E reduced the incidence of prostate cancer after seven years and that vitamin E was associated with a 17% increased risk of prostate cancer compared to placebo. The null result was surprising given the strong preclinical and clinical evidence suggesting chemopreventive activity of selenium. Potential explanations for the null findings include the agent formulation and dose, the characteristics of the cohort, and the study design. It is likely that only specific subpopulations may benefit from selenium supplementation; therefore, future studies should consider the baseline selenium status of the participants, age of the cohort, and genotype of specific selenoproteins, among other characteristics, in order to determine the activity of selenium in cancer prevention.

  1. Pre-screening Discussions and Prostate-Specific Antigen Testing for Prostate Cancer Screening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jun; Zhao, Guixiang; Hall, Ingrid J

    2015-08-01

    For many men, the net benefit of prostate cancer screening with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests may be small. Many major medical organizations have issued recommendations for prostate cancer screening, stressing the need for shared decision making before ordering a test. The purpose of this study is to better understand associations between discussions about benefits and harms of PSA testing and uptake of the test among men aged ≥40 years. Associations between pre-screening discussions and PSA testing were examined using self-reported data from the 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Unadjusted prevalence of PSA testing was estimated and AORs were calculated using logistic regression in 2014. The multivariate analysis showed that men who had ever discussed advantages of PSA testing only or discussed both advantages and disadvantages were more likely, respectively, to report having had a test within the past year than men who had no discussions (ptesting with their healthcare providers were more likely (AOR=2.75, 95% CI=2.00, 3.79) to report getting tested than men who had no discussions. Discussions of the benefits or harms of PSA testing are positively associated with increased uptake of the test. Given the conflicting recommendations for prostate cancer screening and increasing importance of shared decision making, this study points to the need for understanding how pre-screening discussions are being conducted in clinical practice and the role played by patients' values and preferences in decisions about PSA testing. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  2. Optimization of Invasion-Specific Effects of Betulin Derivatives on Prostate Cancer Cells through Lead Development.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ville Härmä

    Full Text Available The anti-invasive and anti-proliferative effects of betulins and abietane derivatives was systematically tested using an organotypic model system of advanced, castration-resistant prostate cancers. A preliminary screen of the initial set of 93 compounds was performed in two-dimensional (2D growth conditions using non-transformed prostate epithelial cells (EP156T, an androgen-sensitive prostate cancer cell line (LNCaP, and the castration-resistant, highly invasive cell line PC-3. The 25 most promising compounds were all betulin derivatives. These were selected for a focused secondary screen in three-dimensional (3D growth conditions, with the goal to identify the most effective and specific anti-invasive compounds. Additional sensitivity and cytotoxicity tests were then performed using an extended cell line panel. The effects of these compounds on cell cycle progression, mitosis, proliferation and unspecific cytotoxicity, versus their ability to specifically interfere with cell motility and tumor cell invasion was addressed. To identify potential mechanisms of action and likely compound targets, multiplex profiling of compound effects on a panel of 43 human protein kinases was performed. These target de-convolution studies, combined with the phenotypic analyses of multicellular organoids in 3D models, revealed specific inhibition of AKT signaling linked to effects on the organization of the actin cytoskeleton as the most likely driver of altered cell morphology and motility.

  3. Pretreatment prostate-specific antigen doubling times: clinical utility of this predictor of prostate cancer behavior

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hanks, Gerald E.; Hanlon, Alexandra L.; Lee, W. Robert; Slivjak, Anne; Schultheiss, Timothy E.

    1996-01-01

    Purpose: The distribution of pretreatment and posttreatment prostate specific antigen (PSA) doubling times (PSADT) varies widely. This report examines the pretreatment PSADT as an independent predictor of biochemical freedom from disease (bNED) and describes the clinical utility of PSADT. Methods and Materials: Ninety-nine patients with T1-3 NX, M-0 prostate cancer treated between February 1989 and November 1993 have pretreatment PSADTs calculated from three or more PSA levels. Biochemical disease-free (bNED) survival (failure is PSA ≥ 1.5 ngm/ml and rising) is evaluated by multivariate analysis of common prognostic indicators and PSADT. Results: Prostate-specific antigen doubling time (PSADT) is a significant predictor of survival along with radiation dose. Patients with a pretreatment PSADT of < 12 months show 50% failure by 18 months, while those with a PSADT that is not increasing show only 3% failure at 3 years. Conclusions: Prostate-specific antigen doubling time (PSADT) is a predictor of bNED outcome in prostate cancer. Patients with PSADT < 12 months have aggressive disease and should be considered for multimodal therapy. Slow PSADT (≥ 5 years) is observed in 57% of patients, and this end point may be considered in the decision to observe rather than to treat. After treatment failure, the PSADT may be used to determine which patients do not need immediate androgen deprivation

  4. Body mass index and breast cancer survival

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Guo, Qi; Burgess, Stephen; Turman, Constance

    2017-01-01

    Background: There is increasing evidence that elevated body mass index (BMI) is associated with reduced survival for women with breast cancer. However, the underlying reasons remain unclear. We conducted a Mendelian randomization analysis to investigate a possible causal role of BMI in survival...... from breast cancer. Methods: We used individual-level data from six large breast cancer case-cohorts including a total of 36 210 individuals (2475 events) of European ancestry. We created a BMI genetic risk score (GRS) based on genotypes at 94 known BMI-associated genetic variants. Association between...... the BMI genetic score and breast cancer survival was analysed by Cox regression for each study separately. Study-specific hazard ratios were pooled using fixed-effect meta-analysis. Results: BMI genetic score was found to be associated with reduced breast cancer-specific survival for estrogen receptor (ER...

  5. First off-time treatment prostate-specific antigen kinetics predicts survival in intermittent androgen deprivation for prostate cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanchez-Salas, Rafael; Olivier, Fabien; Prapotnich, Dominique; Dancausa, José; Fhima, Mehdi; David, Stéphane; Secin, Fernando P; Ingels, Alexandre; Barret, Eric; Galiano, Marc; Rozet, François; Cathelineau, Xavier

    2016-01-01

    Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) doubling time is relying on an exponential kinetic pattern. This pattern has never been validated in the setting of intermittent androgen deprivation (IAD). Objective is to analyze the prognostic significance for PCa of recurrent patterns in PSA kinetics in patients undergoing IAD. A retrospective study was conducted on 377 patients treated with IAD. On-treatment period (ONTP) consisted of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist injections combined with oral androgen receptor antagonist. Off-treatment period (OFTP) began when PSA was lower than 4 ng/ml. ONTP resumed when PSA was higher than 20 ng/ml. PSA values of each OFTP were fitted with three basic patterns: exponential (PSA(t) = λ.e(αt)), linear (PSA(t) = a.t), and power law (PSA(t) = a.t(c)). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression model analyzed predictive factors for oncologic outcomes. Only 45% of the analyzed OFTPs were exponential. Linear and power law PSA kinetics represented 7.5% and 7.7%, respectively. Remaining fraction of analyzed OFTPs (40%) exhibited complex kinetics. Exponential PSA kinetics during the first OFTP was significantly associated with worse oncologic outcome. The estimated 10-year cancer-specific survival (CSS) was 46% for exponential versus 80% for nonexponential PSA kinetics patterns. The corresponding 10-year probability of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) was 69% and 31% for the two patterns, respectively. Limitations include retrospective design and mixed indications for IAD. PSA kinetic fitted with exponential pattern in approximately half of the OFTPs. First OFTP exponential PSA kinetic was associated with a shorter time to CRPC and worse CSS. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  6. Risk of second non-breast cancer among patients treated with and without postoperative radiotherapy for primary breast cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis of population-based studies including 522,739 patients

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grantzau, Trine; Overgaard, Jens

    2016-01-01

    -irradiated women. Irradiated patients had an overall increased risk of second non-breast cancer, with a SIR of 1.23 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.12-1.36). For non-irradiated patients the SIR was 1.08 (95% CI, 1.03-1.13). For irradiated patients the incidence of second cancers including the lung, esophagus......, thyroid and connective tissues progressively increased over time, peaking at 10-15years following breast cancer diagnosis. Summary estimates at ⩾15years after breast cancer irradiation were 1.91 for lung, 2.71 for esophagus, 3.15 for thyroid and 6.54 at ⩾10years for second sarcomas. Non......-irradiated patients had no increased risk of second lung or esophagus cancer, neither overall nor over time. For non-irradiated patients' risk of second thyroid cancer (SIR 1.21) and sarcomas (SIR 1.42) were increased overall, but with no remaining risk ⩾10 after breast cancer. CONCLUSION: Radiotherapy for breast...

  7. A New Model for the Estimation of Breast Cancer Risk

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Giger, Maryellen Lissak

    2001-01-01

    ... for use in estimating risk of breast cancer. The specific aims include 1. Creating a database of mammograms, along with tabulated clinical information of women at low risk and high risk for breast cancer; 2...

  8. Towards prevention of ovarian cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ali, Aus Tariq

    2018-01-01

    Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death of all gynaecological cancers. To date, there is no reliable, specific screening procedure for detecting ovarian cancer. The risk factors of ovarian cancer include modifiable and non-modifiable factors. The main goal of the ovarian cancer prevention program is to significantly reduce the risk of development of ovarian cancer and other cancers such as breast and/or peritoneal cancer. The application of non-surgical preventive approaches such as oral contraceptives, parity and breastfeeding has been shown to be highly protective against ovarian cancer development. Targeting inflammation has been also reported to be associated with a protective trend against ovarian cancer and can be achieved through either non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin or lifestyle modifications or both. Lifestyle modification that includes regular exercise, healthy diet supplemented with anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory elements reduces the risk of the disease even further. Surgical protective approaches include; tubal ligation, hysterectomy and prophylactic bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and the former is the most effective approach to protect against ovarian cancer. A better understanding of the risk factors of ovarian cancer and the current approaches to prevent it may increase the awareness and help to decrease the incidence of ovarian cancer, increase the five-year survival rate and decrease the mortality rate significantly in the general population especially among those at high risk for ovarian cancer. This review is an attempt to outline a potential program of ovarian cancer prevention and the potential challenges. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

  9. Cancer-treating composition containing inductively-heatable particles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gordon, R.T.

    1978-01-01

    A cancer-treating composition including minute particles suspended in an aqueous solution in dosage form is described. This makes it possible to introduce into the interior of the cells of living tissue minute particles, with magnetic properties, which are inductively heated when subjected to a high frequency alternating electromagnetic field. Incorporating specific radioisotopes or tumor-specific antibodies bound to the particles increases selectivity and affinity of cancer cells for the particles. The particles may be used to deliver a chemotherapeutic agent primarily to the interior of the cancer cells by encapsulating the chemotherapeutic agent within the particles for release when the high frequency alternating electromagnetic field is applied. (author)

  10. Chromosomes, cancer and radiosensitivity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Samouhos, E.

    1983-01-01

    Some specific chromosomal abnormalities are associated with certain cancers. The earliest description of such a specific association is the one of the Philadelphia chromosome and myelogenous leukemia (1960). Other congenital karyotype abnormalities are associated with specific cancers. Examples of these are Down's syndrome with leukemia and Klinefelter's syndrome with male breast cancer. Genetic diseases of increased chromosome breakage, or of defective chromosome repair, are associated with greatly increased cancer incidence. Three such diseases have been recognized: 1) Fanconi's anemia, associated with leukemias and lymphomas, 2) Bloom's syndrome, associated with acute leukemias and lymphosarcoma, and 3) ataxia telangiectasia, associated with Hodgkin's disease, leukemia, and lymphosarcomas. Ten percent of individuals with ataxia telangiectasia will develop one of these neoplasms. Individuals with certain of these syndromes display an unusually high radiosensitivity. Radiation therapy for cancers has been fatal in patients who received as low as 3000 rad. This remarkable radiosensitivity has been quantitated in cell cultures from such cases. Evidence suggests that the apparent sensitivity may reflect subnormal ability to repair radiation damage. The rapid proliferation of information in this field stems from the interdigitation of many disciplines and specialties, including cytogenetics, cell biology, molecular biology, epidemiology, radiobiology, and several others. This paper is intended for clinicians; it presents a structured analytic scheme for correlating and classifying this multidisciplinary information as it becomes available

  11. Nutrition impact symptoms in advanced cancer patients: frequency and specific interventions, a case-control study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Omlin, Aurelius; Blum, David; Wierecky, Jan; Haile, Sarah R; Ottery, Faith D; Strasser, Florian

    2013-03-01

    Involuntary weight loss (IWL) is frequent in advanced cancer patients causing compromised anticancer treatment outcomes and function. Cancer cachexia is influenced by nutrition impact symptoms (NIS). The aim of this study was to explore the frequency of NIS in advanced patients and to assess specific interventions guided by a 12-item NIS checklist. Consecutive patients from an outpatient nutrition-fatigue clinic completed the NIS checklist. The NIS checklist was developed based on literature review and multiprofessional clinical expert consensus. Chart review was performed to detect defined NIS typical interventions. Oncology outpatients not seen in the nutrition-fatigue clinic were matched for age, sex, and tumor to serve as controls. In 52 nutrition-fatigue clinic patients, a mixed cancer population [IWL in 2 months 5.96 % (mean)], the five most frequent NIS were taste and smell alterations 27 %, constipation 19 %, abdominal pain 14 %, dysphagia 12 %, and epigastric pain 10 %. A statistically significant difference for NIS typical interventions in patients with taste and smell alterations (p = 0.04), constipation (p = 0.01), pain (p = 0.0001), and fatigue (p = 0.0004) were found compared to the control population [mixed cancer, 3.53 % IWL in 2 months (mean)]. NIS are common in advanced cancer patients. The NIS checklist can guide therapeutic nutrition-targeted interventions. The awareness for NIS will likely evoke more research in assessment, impact, and treatment.

  12. Characterization of an immunodominant cancer-specific O-glycopeptide epitope in murine podoplanin (OTS8)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Steentoft, Catharina; Schjoldager, Katrine T; Cló, Emiliano

    2010-01-01

    antibody 237, developed to a spontaneous murine fibrosarcoma, was shown to be directed to murine podoplanin (OTS8) with truncated Tn O-glycans. Our understanding of such cancer-specific auto-antibodies to truncated glycoforms of glycoproteins is limited. Here we have investigated immunogenicity...... of a chemoenzymatically produced Tn-glycopeptide derived from the putative murine podoplanin O-glycopeptide epitope. We found that the Tn O-glycopeptide was highly immunogenic in mice and produced a Tn-glycoform specific response with no reactivity against unglycosylated peptides or the O-glycopeptide with extended O......-glycan (STn and T glycoforms). The immunodominant epitope was strictly dependent on the peptide sequence, required Tn at a specific single Thr residue (Thr(77)), and antibodies to the epitope were not found in naive mice. We further tested a Tn O-glycopeptide library derived from human podoplanin...

  13. Risk of second primary cancers after testicular cancer in East and West Germany: A focus on contralateral testicular cancers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rusner, Carsten; Streller, Brigitte; Stegmaier, Christa; Trocchi, Pietro; Kuss, Oliver; McGlynn, Katherine A; Trabert, Britton; Stang, Andreas

    2014-01-01

    Testicular cancer survival rates improved dramatically after cisplatin-based therapy was introduced in the 1970s. However, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are potentially carcinogenic. The purpose of this study was to estimate the risk of developing second primary cancers including the risk associated with primary histologic type (seminoma and non-seminoma) among testicular cancer survivors in Germany. We identified 16 990 and 1401 cases of testicular cancer in population-based cancer registries of East Germany (1961–1989 and 1996–2008) and Saarland (a federal state in West Germany; 1970–2008), respectively. We estimated the risk of a second primary cancer using standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). To determine trends, we plotted model-based estimated annual SIRs. In East Germany, a total of 301 second primary cancers of any location were observed between 1961 and 1989 (SIR: 1.9; 95% CI: 1.7–2.1), and 159 cancers (any location) were observed between 1996 and 2008 (SIR: 1.7; 95% CI: 1.4–2.0). The SIRs for contralateral testicular cancer were increased in the registries with a range from 6.0 in Saarland to 13.9 in East Germany. The SIR for seminoma, in particular, was higher in East Germany compared to the other registries. We observed constant trends in the model-based SIRs for contralateral testicular cancers. The majority of reported SIRs of other cancer sites including histology-specific risks showed low precisions of estimated effects, likely due to small sample sizes. Testicular cancer patients are at increased risk especially for cancers of the contralateral testis and should receive intensive follow-ups. PMID:24407180

  14. Vitamin C and survival among women with breast cancer: a meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, Holly R; Orsini, Nicola; Wolk, Alicja

    2014-05-01

    The association between dietary vitamin C intake and breast cancer survival is inconsistent and few studies have specifically examined vitamin C supplement use among women with breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to summarise results from prospective studies on the association between vitamin C supplement use and dietary vitamin C intake and breast cancer-specific mortality and total mortality. Studies were identified using the PubMed database through February 6, 2014 and by examining the references of retrieved articles. Prospective studies were included if they reported relative risks (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for at least two categories or as a continuous exposure. Random-effects models were used to combine study-specific results. The ten identified studies examined vitamin C supplement use (n=6) and dietary vitamin C intake (n=7) and included 17,696 breast cancer cases, 2791 total deaths, and 1558 breast cancer-specific deaths. The summary RR (95% CI) for post-diagnosis vitamin C supplement use was 0.81 (95% CI 0.72-0.91) for total mortality and 0.85 (95% CI 0.74-0.99) for breast cancer-specific mortality. The summary RR for a 100mg per day increase in dietary vitamin C intake was 0.73 (95% CI 0.59-0.89) for total mortality and 0.78 (95% CI 0.64-0.94) for breast cancer-specific mortality. Results from this meta-analysis suggest that post-diagnosis vitamin C supplement use may be associated with a reduced risk of mortality. Dietary vitamin C intake was also statistically significantly associated with a reduced risk of total mortality and breast cancer-specific mortality. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Imaging small human prostate cancer xenografts after pretargeting with bispecific bombesin-antibody complexes and targeting with high specific radioactivity labeled polymer-drug conjugates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Patil, Vishwesh; Gada, Keyur; Panwar, Rajiv; Ferris, Craig; Khaw, Ban-An; Varvarigou, Alexandra; Majewski, Stan; Weisenberger, Andrew; Tekabe, Yared

    2012-01-01

    Pretargeting with bispecific monoclonal antibodies (bsMAb) for tumor imaging was developed to enhance target to background activity ratios. Visualization of tumors was achieved by the delivery of mono- and divalent radiolabeled haptens. To improve the ability to image tumors with bsMAb, we have combined the pretargeting approach with targeting of high specific activity radiotracer labeled negatively charged polymers. The tumor antigen-specific antibody was replaced with bombesin (Bom), a ligand that binds specifically to the growth receptors that are overexpressed by many tumors including prostate cancer. Bom-anti-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) bispecific antibody complexes were used to demonstrate pretargeting and imaging of very small human prostate cancer xenografts targeted with high specific activity 111 In- or 99m Tc-labeled negatively charged polymers. Bispecific antibody complexes consisting of intact anti-DTPA antibody or Fab' linked to Bom via thioether bonds (Bom-bsCx or Bom-bsFCx, respectively) were used to pretarget PC-3 human prostate cancer xenografts in SCID mice. Negative control mice were pretargeted with Bom or anti-DTPA Ab. 111 In-Labeled DTPA-succinyl polylysine (DSPL) was injected intravenously at 24 h (7.03 ± 1.74 or 6.88 ± 1.89 MBq 111 In-DSPL) after Bom-bsCx or 50 ± 5.34 MBq of 99m Tc-DSPL after Bom-bsFCx pretargeting, respectively. Planar or single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/CT gamma images were obtained for up to 3 h and only planar images at 24 h. After imaging, all mice were killed and biodistribution of 111 In or 99m Tc activities were determined by scintillation counting. Both planar and SPECT/CT imaging enabled detection of PC-3 prostate cancer lesions less than 1-2 mm in diameter in 1-3 h post 111 In-DSPL injection. No lesions were visualized in Bom or anti-DTPA Ab pretargeted controls. 111 In-DSPL activity in Bom-bsCx pretargeted tumors (1.21 ± 0.36%ID/g) was 5.4 times that in tumors pretargeted with

  16. [Obesity and colorectal cancer].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Na, Soo-Young; Myung, Seung-Jae

    2012-01-01

    Obesity worldwide is constantly increasing. Obesity acts as an independent significant risk factor for malignant tumors of various organs including colorectal cancer. Visceral adipose tissue is physiologically more important than subcutaneous adipose tissue. The relative risk of colorectal cancer of obese patients is about 1.5 times higher than the normal-weight individuals, and obesity is also associated with premalignant colorectal adenoma. The colorectal cancer incidence of obese patients has gender-specific and site-specific characteristics that it is higher in men than women and in the colon than rectum. Obesity acts as a risk factor of colorectal carcinogenesis by several mechanisms. Isulin, insulin-like growth factor, leptin, adiponectin, microbiome, and cytokines of chronic inflammation etc. have been understood as its potential mechanisms. In addition, obesity in patients with colorectal cancer negatively affects the disease progression and response of chemotherapy. Although the evidence is not clear yet, there are some reports that weight loss as well as life-modification such as dietary change and physical activity can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. It is very important knowledge in the point that obesity is a potentially modifiable risk factor that can alter the incidence and outcome of the colorectal cancer.

  17. Positron emitting radiopharmaceuticals for cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krohn, K.A.; Graham, M.M.

    1989-01-01

    Cancer is principally a biochemical disease involving abnormal enzymology, gene expression and/or membrane composition. Cytotoxic chemical treatments, including radiation products, are important in controlling cancer. It therefore follows that imaging of the biochemical differences between tumor and normal tissues should lead to more effective therapy. Metabolic imaging should identify the best new treatment protocol for an individual patient and may identify specific causes of resistance to therapy. Methods have been developed for imaging the metabolism of energy substrates (glucose and O 2 ), and DNA precursors (thymidine) and for specifically identifying hormone-dependent tumors (estrogen or testosterone) and hypoxic tissues (bioreductive alkylators). Together these new radiopharmaceuticals are leading to better cancer therapy, not just improving diagnosis, but more by following the different responses of tumor and surrounding normal tissues to cytotoxic therapy

  18. Incidence of pancreatic cancer in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Weble, Tanja Cruusberg; Bjerregaard, Jon Kroll; Kissmeyer, Peter

    2017-01-01

    BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to monitor the evolution of the incidence of pancreatic cancer in Denmark over 70 years. We also compared registrations of pancreatic cancer in a nationwide population-based database, the Danish Cancer Registry, and a clinical database, the Danish Pancreatic...... Cancer Database, in 2012-2013. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Registrations of pancreatic cancer from the Danish Cancer Registry over 1943-2012 were used to calculate age-specific incidence rates per 100 000 person years by sex and age in 5-year period, weighted by the Segi World Standard Population for age...... standardization. We used absolute numbers from the Cancer Registry and the Pancreatic Cancer Database, including distribution of topography of cancers registered in 2012-2013, to compare registration in the two data sources. RESULTS: The incidence rates of pancreatic cancer among Danish men increased until 1968...

  19. Cancer incidence in Arkhangelskaja Oblast in northwestern Russia. The Arkhangelsk Cancer Registry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tkatsjov Anatolij V

    2005-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Data concerning incidence and prevalence of cancer in the different regions of Russia have traditionally not been provided on a basis that facilitated comparison with data from countries in western parts of Europe. The oncological hospital in Arkhangelsk, in co-operation with Universitetet i Tromsø (Norway, has established a population based cancer registry for Arkhangelskaja Oblast (AO. AO is an administrative unit with 1.3 million inhabitants in northwestern Russia. The aim of this investigation was to assess the content and quality of the AO cancer registry (AKR, and to present the site-specific cancer-incidence rates in AO in the period 1993–2001. Methods The population in this study consisted of all individuals registered as residents of AO. All new cancer cases in the period 1993 – 2001, registered the AKR, were included in the study (ICD-10: C00-C95, except for C77-78. The annual gender and age-group-specific population figures were obtained from the AO statistics office. Results A total of 34 697 cases of primary cancers were included. The age-adjusted (world standard incidence rate for all sites combined was 164/100 000 for women and 281/100 000 for men. The highest incidence was for cancer of the trachea, bronchus and lung (16.3% of all cases, whereof 88.6 % of the cases were among men. Among women, cancer of the breast constituted 15.9 percent of all cases. The age-adjusted incidences of the most frequent cancer sites among men were: lung (77.4/100 000; stomach (45.9; rectum (13.4; oesophagus (13.0; colon (12.2; bladder (11.6; and prostate cancer (11.1. Among women they were: breast (28.5; stomach (19.7; colon (12.2; and ovary cancer (9.0. Conclusion Our findings confirm and strengthen the indication that the incidences of stomach, larynx, liver, pancreas, prostate, colon, bladder and melanoma cancer are quite different in male populations in Russia compared to many other European countries. Among women, most

  20. Prostate-specific membrane antigen PET/MRI validation of MR textural analysis for detection of transition zone prostate cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bates, Anthony; Miles, Kenneth

    2017-12-01

    To validate MR textural analysis (MRTA) for detection of transition zone (TZ) prostate cancer through comparison with co-registered prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) PET-MR. Retrospective analysis was performed for 30 men who underwent simultaneous PSMA PET-MR imaging for staging of prostate cancer. Thirty texture features were derived from each manually contoured T2-weighted, transaxial, prostatic TZ using texture analysis software that applies a spatial band-pass filter and quantifies texture through histogram analysis. Texture features of the TZ were compared to PSMA expression on the corresponding PET images. The Benjamini-Hochberg correction controlled the false discovery rate at prostate cancer. • Prostate transition zone (TZ) MR texture analysis may assist in prostate cancer detection. • Abnormal transition zone PSMA expression correlates with altered texture on T2-weighted MR. • TZ with abnormal PSMA expression demonstrates significantly reduced MI, SD and MPP.

  1. The construction and testing of the EORTC colorectal cancer-specific quality of life questionnaire module (QLQ-CR38). European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Study Group on Quality of Life

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sprangers, M. A.; te Velde, A.; Aaronson, N. K.

    1999-01-01

    The objectives of the current study were to construct a colorectal cancer-specific quality of life (QL) questionnaire module to be used in conjunction with the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 and to test its reliability and validity in The Netherlands.

  2. Use of threshold-specific energy model for the prediction of effects of smoking and radon exposure on the risk of lung cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boehm, R.; Bulko, M.; Holy, K.; Sedlak, A.

    2014-01-01

    Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women. Smoking causes 80-90 % of cases of lung cancer. In this study, an attempt was made to assess the impact of cigarette smoking on the risk of lung cancer by the so-called threshold-specific energy model. This model allows to analyse the biological effects of radon daughter products on the lung tissue, and is based on the assumption that the biological effect (i.e. cell inactivation) will manifest itself after the threshold-specific energy z0 deposited in the sensitive volume of the cell is exceeded. Cigarette smoking causes, among others, an increase in the synthesis of the surviving protein that protects cells from apoptosis and thereby reduces their radiosensitivity. Based on these facts, an attempt was made to estimate the shape of the curves describing the increase in the oncological effect of radiation as a function of daily cigarette consumption. (authors)

  3. Clinical efficacy of including capecitabine in neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qiuyun Li

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Capecitabine has proven effective as a chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer. Though several Phase II/III studies of capecitabine as neoadjuvant chemotherapy have been conducted, the results still remain inconsistent. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to obtain more precise understanding of the role of capecitabine in neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer patients. METHODS: The electronic database PubMed and online abstracts from ASCO and SABCS were searched to identify randomized clinical trials comparing neoadjuvant chemotherapy with or without capecitabine in early/operable breast cancer patients without distant metastasis. Risk ratios were used to estimate the association between capecitabine in neoadjuvant chemotherapy and various efficacy outcomes. Fixed- or random-effect models were adopted to pool data in RevMan 5.1. RESULTS: Five studies were included in the meta-analysis. Neoadjuvant use of capecitabine with anthracycline and/or taxane based therapy was not associated with significant improvement in clinical outcomes including: pathologic complete response in breast (pCR; RR = 1.10, 95% CI 0.87-1.40, p = 0.43, pCR in breast tumor and nodes (tnpCR RR = 0.99, 95% CI 0.83-1.18, p = 0.90, overall response rate (ORR; RR = 1.00, 95% CI 0.94-1.07, p = 0.93, or breast-conserving surgery (BCS; RR = 0.98, 95% CI 0.93-1.04, p = 0.49. CONCLUSIONS: Neoadjuvant treatment of breast cancer involving capecitabine did not significantly improve pCR, tnpCR, BCS or ORR. Thus adding capecitabine to neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimes is unlikely to improve outcomes in breast cancer patients without distant metastasis. Further research is required to establish the condition that capecitabine may be useful in breast cancer neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

  4. Quantitative characterisation of clinically significant intra-prostatic cancer by prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) expression and cell density on PSMA-11.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Domachevsky, Liran; Goldberg, Natalia; Bernstine, Hanna; Nidam, Meital; Groshar, David

    2018-05-30

    To quantitatively characterize clinically significant intra-prostatic cancer (IPC) by prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) expression and cell density on PSMA-11 positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance (PET/MR). Retrospective study approved by the institutional review board with informed written consent obtained. Patients with a solitary, biopsy-proven prostate cancer, Gleason score (GS) ≥7, presenting for initial evaluation by PET/computerised tomography (PET/CT), underwent early prostate PET/MR immediately after PSMA-11 tracer injection. PET/MR [MRI-based attenuation correction (MRAC)] and PET/CT [CT-based AC (CTAC)] maximal standardised uptake value (SUVmax) and minimal and mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADCmin, ADCmean; respectively) in normal prostatic tissue (NPT) were compared to IPC area. The relationship between SUVmax, ADCmin and ADCmean measurements was obtained. Twenty-two patients (mean age 69.5±5.0 years) were included in the analysis. Forty-four prostate areas were evaluated (22 IPC and 22 NPT). Median MRAC SUVmax of NPT was significantly lower than median MRAC SUVmax of IPC (p prostate cancer patients with GS ≥ 7. • PSMA PET/MR metrics differentiate between normal and tumoural prostatic tissue. • A multi-parametric approach combining molecular and anatomical information might direct prostate biopsy. • PSMA PET/MR metrics are warranted for radiomics analysis.

  5. Dendritic cells transduced with Rsf-1/HBXAP gene generate specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes against ovarian cancer in vitro

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sun, Li; Kong, Beihua; Sheng, Xiugui; Sheu, Jim Jinn-Chyuan; Shih, Ie-Ming

    2010-01-01

    Recently, some studies have indicated that Rsf-1/HBXAP plays a role in chromatin remodeling and transcriptional regulation that may contribute to tumorigenesis in ovarian cancer. The present study demonstrates that using dendritic cells (DCs) from human cord blood CD34 + cells transduced with Rsf-1/HBXAP DNA plasmids by nucleofection generate specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) against ovarian cancer in vitro. After transfection, DCs were analyzed for Rsf-1/HBXAP mRNA expression by RT-PCR and protein expression by Western blot. Then the DC phenotypes, T-cell stimulatory capacity, endocytic activity and migration capacity were explored by flow cytometry analysis, allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction, endocytosis and transwell chemotaxis assay, respectively. After transfection, Rsf-1/HBXAP expression was detected at mRNA and protein levels. Allogeneic T-cell proliferation induced by transfected DCs was obviously higher than non-transfected DCs, but the endocytosis capacity and migratory ability were not different. Rsf-1/HBXAP gene-transduced DCs could induce antigen-specific CTL and generate a very potent cytotoxicity to OVCAR3 cells. These data suggest that Rsf-1/HBXAP gene-transduced DCs may be a potential adjuvant immunotherapy for ovarian cancer in clinical applications.

  6. The Danish Bladder Cancer Database

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Erik; Larsson, Heidi Jeanet; Nørgaard, Mette

    2016-01-01

    AIM OF DATABASE: The aim of the Danish Bladder Cancer Database (DaBlaCa-data) is to monitor the treatment of all patients diagnosed with invasive bladder cancer (BC) in Denmark. STUDY POPULATION: All patients diagnosed with BC in Denmark from 2012 onward were included in the study. Results......-intended radiation therapy. DESCRIPTIVE DATA: One-year mortality was 28% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 15-21). One-year cancer-specific mortality was 25% (95% CI: 22-27%). One-year mortality after cystectomy was 14% (95% CI: 10-18). Ninety-day mortality after cystectomy was 3% (95% CI: 1-5) in 2013. One......-year mortality following curative-intended radiation therapy was 32% (95% CI: 24-39) and 1-year cancer-specific mortality was 23% (95% CI: 16-31) in 2013. CONCLUSION: This preliminary DaBlaCa-data report showed that the treatment of MIBC in Denmark overall meet high international academic standards. The database...

  7. Tumor Immunology meets…Immunology: Modified cancer cells as professional APC for priming naïve tumor-specific CD4+ T cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bou Nasser Eddine, Farah; Ramia, Elise; Tosi, Giovanna; Forlani, Greta; Accolla, Roberto S

    2017-01-01

    Although recent therapeutic approaches have revitalized the enthusiasm of the immunological way to combat cancer, still the comprehension of immunity against tumors is largely incomplete. Due to their specific function, CD8+ T cells with cytolytic activity (CTL) have attracted the attention of most investigators because CTL are considered the main effectors against tumor cells. Nevertheless, CTL activity and persistence is largely dependent on the action of CD4+ T helper cells (TH). Thus establishment of tumor-specific TH cell response is key to the optimal response against cancer. Here we describe emerging new strategies to increase the TH cell recognition of tumor antigens. In particular, we review recent data indicating that tumor cells themselves can act as surrogate antigen presenting cells for triggering TH response and how these findings can help in constructing immunotherapeutic protocols for anti-cancer vaccine development.

  8. Human pancreatic cancer xenografts recapitulate key aspects of cancer cachexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delitto, Daniel; Judge, Sarah M; Delitto, Andrea E; Nosacka, Rachel L; Rocha, Fernanda G; DiVita, Bayli B; Gerber, Michael H; George, Thomas J; Behrns, Kevin E; Hughes, Steven J; Wallet, Shannon M; Judge, Andrew R; Trevino, Jose G

    2017-01-03

    Cancer cachexia represents a debilitating syndrome that diminishes quality of life and augments the toxicities of conventional treatments. Cancer cachexia is particularly debilitating in patients with pancreatic cancer (PC). Mechanisms responsible for cancer cachexia are under investigation and are largely derived from observations in syngeneic murine models of cancer which are limited in PC. We evaluate the effect of human PC cells on both muscle wasting and the systemic inflammatory milieu potentially contributing to PC-associated cachexia. Specifically, human PC xenografts were generated by implantation of pancreatic cancer cells, L3.6pl and PANC-1, either in the flank or orthotopically within the pancreas. Mice bearing orthotopic xenografts demonstrated significant muscle wasting and atrophy-associated gene expression changes compared to controls. Further, despite the absence of adaptive immunity, splenic tissue from orthotopically engrafted mice demonstrated elevations in several pro-inflammatory cytokines associated with cancer cachexia, including TNFα, IL1β, IL6 and KC (murine IL8 homologue), when compared to controls. Therefore, data presented here support further investigation into the complexity of cancer cachexia in PC to identify potential targets for this debilitating syndrome.

  9. Hierarchical clustering of breast cancer methylomes revealed differentially methylated and expressed breast cancer genes.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I-Hsuan Lin

    Full Text Available Oncogenic transformation of normal cells often involves epigenetic alterations, including histone modification and DNA methylation. We conducted whole-genome bisulfite sequencing to determine the DNA methylomes of normal breast, fibroadenoma, invasive ductal carcinomas and MCF7. The emergence, disappearance, expansion and contraction of kilobase-sized hypomethylated regions (HMRs and the hypomethylation of the megabase-sized partially methylated domains (PMDs are the major forms of methylation changes observed in breast tumor samples. Hierarchical clustering of HMR revealed tumor-specific hypermethylated clusters and differential methylated enhancers specific to normal or breast cancer cell lines. Joint analysis of gene expression and DNA methylation data of normal breast and breast cancer cells identified differentially methylated and expressed genes associated with breast and/or ovarian cancers in cancer-specific HMR clusters. Furthermore, aberrant patterns of X-chromosome inactivation (XCI was found in breast cancer cell lines as well as breast tumor samples in the TCGA BRCA (breast invasive carcinoma dataset. They were characterized with differentially hypermethylated XIST promoter, reduced expression of XIST, and over-expression of hypomethylated X-linked genes. High expressions of these genes were significantly associated with lower survival rates in breast cancer patients. Comprehensive analysis of the normal and breast tumor methylomes suggests selective targeting of DNA methylation changes during breast cancer progression. The weak causal relationship between DNA methylation and gene expression observed in this study is evident of more complex role of DNA methylation in the regulation of gene expression in human epigenetics that deserves further investigation.

  10. [The Functional Role of Exosomes in Cancer Biology and Their Potential as Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets of Cancer].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naito, Yutaka; Yoshioka, Yusuke; Ochiya, Takahiro

    2015-06-01

    Intercellular communication plays an important role in the regulation of various cellular events. In particular, cancer cells and the surrounding cells communicate with each other, and this intercellular communication triggers cancer initiation and progression through the secretion of molecules, including growth factors and cytokines. Recent advances in cancer biology have indicated that small membrane vesicles, termed exosomes, also serve as regulatory agents in intercellular communications. Exosomes contain functional cellular components, including proteins and microRNAs (miRNAs), and they transfer these components to recipient cells. This exosome-mediated intercellular communication leads to increased growth, invasion, and metastasis of cancer. Thus, researchers regard exosomes as important cues to understanding the molecular mechanisms of cancer biology. Indeed, several lines of evidence have demonstrated that exosomes can explain multiple aspects of cancer biology. In addition, increasing evidence suggests that exosomes and their specific molecules are also attractive for use as biomarkers and therapeutic targets in cancer. Recent reports showed the efficacy of a novel diagnosis by detecting component molecules of cancer-derived exosomes, including miRNAs and membrane proteins. Furthermore, clinical trials that test the application of exosomes for cancer therapy have already been reported. From these points of view, we will summarize experimental data that support the role of exosomes in cancer progression and the potential of exosomes for use in novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for cancer.

  11. Impact of anastomotic leak on recurrence and survival after colorectal cancer surgery: a BioGrid Australia analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sammour, Tarik; Hayes, Ian P; Jones, Ian T; Steel, Malcolm C; Faragher, Ian; Gibbs, Peter

    2018-01-01

    There is conflicting evidence regarding the oncological impact of anastomotic leak following colorectal cancer surgery. This study aims to test the hypothesis that anastomotic leak is independently associated with local recurrence and overall and cancer-specific survival. Analysis of prospectively collected data from multiple centres in Victoria between 1988 and 2015 including all patients who underwent colon or rectal resection for cancer with anastomosis was presented. Overall and cancer-specific survival rates and rates of local recurrence were compared using Cox regression analysis. A total of 4892 patients were included, of which 2856 had completed 5-year follow-up. The overall anastomotic leak rate was 4.0%. Cox regression analysis accounting for differences in age, sex, body mass index, American Society of Anesthesiologists score and tumour stage demonstrated that anastomotic leak was associated with significantly worse 5-year overall survival (χ 2 = 6.459, P = 0.011) for colon cancer, but only if early deaths were included. There was no difference in 5-year colon cancer-specific survival (χ 2 = 0.582, P = 0.446) or local recurrence (χ 2 = 0.735, P = 0.391). For rectal cancer, there was no difference in 5-year overall survival (χ 2 = 0.266, P = 0.606), cancer-specific survival (χ 2 = 0.008, P = 0.928) or local recurrence (χ 2 = 2.192, P = 0.139). Anastomotic leak may reduce 5-year overall survival in colon cancer patients but does not appear to influence the 5-year overall survival in rectal cancer patients. There was no effect on local recurrence or cancer-specific survival. © 2016 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

  12. Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen Targeted Gold Nanoparticles for Theranostics of Prostate Cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mangadlao, Joey Dacula; Wang, Xinning; McCleese, Christopher; Escamilla, Maria; Ramamurthy, Gopalakrishnan; Wang, Ziying; Govande, Mukul; Basilion, James P; Burda, Clemens

    2018-04-24

    Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers and among the leading causes of cancer deaths in the United States. Men diagnosed with the disease typically undergo radical prostatectomy, which often results in incontinence and impotence. Recurrence of the disease is often experienced by most patients with incomplete prostatectomy during surgery. Hence, the development of a technique that will enable surgeons to achieve a more precise prostatectomy remains an open challenge. In this contribution, we report a theranostic agent (AuNP-5kPEG-PSMA-1-Pc4) based on prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA-1)-targeted gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) loaded with a fluorescent photodynamic therapy (PDT) drug, Pc4. The fabricated nanoparticles are well-characterized by spectroscopic and imaging techniques and are found to be stable over a wide range of solvents, buffers, and media. In vitro cellular uptake experiments demonstrated significantly higher nanoparticle uptake in PSMA-positive PC3pip cells than in PSMA-negative PC3flu cells. Further, more complete cell killing was observed in Pc3pip than in PC3flu cells upon exposure to light at different doses, demonstrating active targeting followed by Pc4 delivery. Likewise, in vivo studies showed remission on PSMA-expressing tumors 14 days post-PDT. Atomic absorption spectroscopy revealed that targeted AuNPs accumulate 4-fold higher in PC3pip than in PC3flu tumors. The nanoparticle system described herein is envisioned to provide surgical guidance for prostate tumor resection and therapeutic intervention when surgery is insufficient.

  13. Advances in prostate-specific membrane antigen PET of prostate cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bouchelouche, Kirsten; Choyke, Peter L

    2018-05-01

    In recent years, a large number of reports have been published on prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)/PET in prostate cancer (PCa). This review highlights advances in PSMA PET in PCa during the past year. PSMA PET/computed tomography (CT) is useful in detection of biochemical recurrence, especially at low prostate-specific antigen (PSA) values. The detection rate of PSMA PET is influenced by PSA level. For primary PCa, PSMA PET/CT shows promise for tumour localization in the prostate, especially in combination with multiparametric MRI (mpMRI). For primary staging, PSMA PET/CT can be used in intermediate and high-risk PCa. Intraoperative PSMA radioligand guidance seems promising for detection of malignant lymph nodes. While the use of PSMA PET/MRI in primary localized disease is limited to high and intermediate-risk patients and localized staging, in the recurrence setting, PET/MRI can be particularly helpful when the lesions are subtle. PSMA PET/CT is superior to choline PET/CT and other conventional imaging modalities. Molecular imaging with PSMA PET continues to pave the way for personalized medicine in PCa.However, large prospective clinical studies are still needed to fully evaluate the role of PSMA PET/CT and PET/MRI in the clinical workflow of PCa.

  14. Human Papilloma Virus prevalence and type-specific relative contribution in invasive cervical cancer specimens from Italy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lloveras Belén

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Cervical cancer represents an important global public health problem. It is the 2nd most common cancer among women worldwide. Human Papillomavirus (HPV infection is now well-established as a necessary cause of invasive cervical cancer (ICC development. Only a few studies on HPV prevalence and type-specific distribution in ICC have been conducted in Italy. Aim To describe the prevalence of HPV and the HPV type-specific distribution in ICC cases identified in Rome, Italy. Methods 140 paraffin embedded tissue blocks of primary ICC diagnosed between 2001 and 2006 were identified at the Regina Elena Cancer Institute in Rome (Italy. HPV was detected through amplification of HPV DNA using SPF-10 HPV broad-spectrum primers followed by DEIA and then genotyping by LiPA25 (version 1. Results 134 cases were considered suitable for HPV DNA detection after histological evaluation; and overall, 90.3% (121/134 HPV prevalence was detected. 111 cases had a single HPV type, 4 cases had an uncharacterized type (HPVX and 6 cases had multiple HPV infections. The five most common single HPV types among positive cases were: HPV16 (71/121; 58.7%, HPV18 (12/121; 9.9%, HPV31, HPV45 and HPV58 (5/121; 4.1% each. 2 (1.5% of the single infections and 2 (1.5% of the multiple infections contained low risk types. Statistically significant differences in the relative contribution of HPV18 were found when comparing squamous cell carcinomas with adenocarcinomas. Conclusions HPV16 and HPV18 accounted for almost 70% of all the HPV positive ICC cases. The study provides baseline information for further evaluation on the impact of recently introduced HPV vaccines in Italy.

  15. [Prostate cancer screening using prostate-specific antigen: The views of general and laboratory physicians].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giménez, N; Filella, X; Gavagnach, M; Allué, J A; Pedrazas, D; Ferrer, F

    2018-03-21

    It is currently recommended to provide individualised information on benefit-risk balance and shared decision-making in prostate cancer screening using prostate-specific antigen (PSA). To determine the usual practice and the views of general and laboratory practitioners in the screening of prostate cancer using PSA. A cross-sectional study based on a questionnaire and on PSA screening requests from Primary Health Care (PHC) in men older than 49 years with no prostatic symptoms. In 2015, PHC in Catalonia requested PSA on 15.2% of males. A total of 114 general practitioners and 227 laboratory practitioners participated in the questionnaire. The mean age of those who responded was 43 years with a mean of 17 years' experience, and included 64% women. According to general practitioners, 61% of PSA was performed at the patient's request. The uncertainty score when requesting PSA was 5 points for general practitioners and 5.7 for laboratory professionals. Interest in having clinical recommendations received 7.2 points in PHC, and 8.8 in the laboratory. Knowledge about the different clinical practice guidelines received was less than 5 points overall. General practitioners requested PSA screening in almost one-sixth of men over the age of 49 without prostate disease, often at the patient's request, and after informing them of the benefits and risks. PHC and laboratory physicians were interested in having recommendations and information, although they did not usually consult clinical practice guidelines immediately. Copyright © 2018 Sociedad Española de Médicos de Atención Primaria (SEMERGEN). Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  16. Effect of implant vs. tissue reconstruction on cancer specific survival varies by axillary lymph node status in breast cancer patients.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qian Ouyang

    Full Text Available To compare the breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS between patients who underwent tissue or implant reconstruction after mastectomy.We used the database from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER registries and compared the BCSS between patients who underwent tissue and implant reconstruction after mastectomy. Cox-regression models were fitted, adjusting for known clinicopathological features. The interaction between the reconstruction types (tissue/implant and nodal status (N-stage was investigated.A total of 6,426 patients with a median age of 50 years were included. With a median follow up of 100 months, the 10-year cumulative BCSS and non-BCSS were 85.1% and 95.4%, respectively. Patients who underwent tissue reconstruction had tumors with a higher T-stage, N-stage, and tumor grade and tended to be ER/PR-negative compared to those who received implant reconstruction. In univariate analysis, implant-reconstruction was associated with a 2.4% increase (P = 0.003 in the BCSS compared with tissue-reconstruction. After adjusting for significant risk factors of the BCSS (suggested by univariate analysis and stratifying based on the N-stage, there was only an association between the reconstruction type and the BCSS for the N2-3 patients (10-year BCSS of implant vs. tissue-reconstruction: 68.7% and 59.0%, P = 0.004. The 10-year BCSS rates of implant vs. tissue-reconstruction were 91.7% and 91.8% in N0 patients (P>0.05 and 84.5% and 84.4% in N1 patients (P>0.05, respectively.The implant (vs. tissue reconstruction after mastectomy was associated with an improved BCSS in N2-3 breast cancer patients but not in N0-1 patients. A well-designed, prospective study is needed to further confirm these findings.

  17. Naturally occurring, tumor-specific, therapeutic proteins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Argiris, Konstantinos; Panethymitaki, Chrysoula; Tavassoli, Mahvash

    2011-05-01

    The emerging approach to cancer treatment known as targeted therapies offers hope in improving the treatment of therapy-resistant cancers. Recent understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of cancer has led to the development of targeted novel drugs such as monoclonal antibodies, small molecule inhibitors, mimetics, antisense and small interference RNA-based strategies, among others. These compounds act on specific targets that are believed to contribute to the development and progression of cancers and resistance of tumors to conventional therapies. Delivered individually or combined with chemo- and/or radiotherapy, such novel drugs have produced significant responses in certain types of cancer. Among the most successful novel compounds are those which target tyrosine kinases (imatinib, trastuzumab, sinutinib, cetuximab). However, these compounds can cause severe side-effects as they inhibit pathways such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) or platelet-derived growth factor receptor, which are also important for normal functions in non-transformed cells. Recently, a number of proteins have been identified which show a remarkable tumor-specific cytotoxic activity. This toxicity is independent of tumor type or specific genetic changes such as p53, pRB or EGFR aberrations. These tumor-specific killer proteins are either derived from common human and animal viruses such as E1A, E4ORF4 and VP3 (apoptin) or of cellular origin, such as TRAIL (tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand) and MDA-7 (melanoma differentiation associated-7). This review aims to present a current overview of a selection of these proteins with preferential toxicity among cancer cells and will provide an insight into the possible mechanism of action, tumor specificity and their potential as novel tumor-specific cancer therapeutics.

  18. Tumor-specific expression of shVEGF and suicide gene as a novel strategy for esophageal cancer therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Ting; Wu, Hai-Jun; Liang, Yu; Liang, Xu-Jun; Huang, Hui-Chao; Zhao, Yan-Zhong; Liao, Qing-Chuan; Chen, Ya-Qi; Leng, Ai-Min; Yuan, Wei-Jian; Zhang, Gui-Ying; Peng, Jie; Chen, Yong-Heng

    2016-06-21

    To develop a potent and safe gene therapy for esophageal cancer. An expression vector carrying fusion suicide gene (yCDglyTK) and shRNA against vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was constructed and delivered into EC9706 esophageal cancer cells by calcium phosphate nanoparticles (CPNP). To achieve tumor selectivity, expression of the fusion suicide gene was driven by a tumor-specific human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) promoter. The biologic properties and therapeutic efficiency of the vector, in the presence of prodrug 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC), were evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Both in vitro and in vivo testing showed that the expression vector was efficiently introduced by CPNP into tumor cells, leading to cellular expression of yCDglyTK and decreased VEGF level. With exposure to 5-FC, it exhibited strong anti-tumor effects against esophageal cancer. Combination of VEGF shRNA with the fusion suicide gene demonstrated strong anti-tumor activity. The shVEGF-hTERT-yCDglyTK/5-FC system provided a novel approach for esophageal cancer-targeted gene therapy.

  19. How Can We Treat Cancer Disease Not Cancer Cells?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Kyu-Won; Lee, Su-Jae; Kim, Woo-Young; Seo, Ji Hae; Lee, Ho-Young

    2017-01-01

    Since molecular biology studies began, researches in biological science have centered on proteins and genes at molecular level of a single cell. Cancer research has also focused on various functions of proteins and genes that distinguish cancer cells from normal cells. Accordingly, most contemporary anticancer drugs have been developed to target abnormal characteristics of cancer cells. Despite the great advances in the development of anticancer drugs, vast majority of patients with advanced cancer have shown grim prognosis and high rate of relapse. To resolve this problem, we must reevaluate our focuses in current cancer research. Cancer should be considered as a systemic disease because cancer cells undergo a complex interaction with various surrounding cells in cancer tissue and spread to whole body through metastasis under the control of the systemic modulation. Human body relies on the cooperative interaction between various tissues and organs, and each organ performs its specialized function through tissue-specific cell networks. Therefore, investigation of the tumor-specific cell networks can provide novel strategy to overcome the limitation of current cancer research. This review presents the limitations of the current cancer research, emphasizing the necessity of studying tissue-specific cell network which could be a new perspective on treating cancer disease, not cancer cells.

  20. Specific balance training included in an endurance-resistance exercise program improves postural balance in elderly patients undergoing haemodialysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frih, Bechir; Mkacher, Wajdi; Jaafar, Hamdi; Frih, Ameur; Ben Salah, Zohra; El May, Mezry; Hammami, Mohamed

    2018-04-01

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of 6 months of specific balance training included in endurance-resistance program on postural balance in haemodialysis (HD) patients. Forty-nine male patients undergoing HD were randomly assigned to an intervention group (balance training included in an endurance-resistance training, n = 26) or a control group (resistance-endurance training only, n = 23). Postural control was assessed using six clinical tests; Timed Up and Go test, Tinetti Mobility Test, Berg Balance Scale, Unipodal Stance test, Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test and Activities Balance Confidence scale. All balance measures increased significantly after the period of rehabilitation training in the intervention group. Only the Timed Up and Go, Berg Balance Scale, Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test and Activities Balance Confidence scores were improved in the control group. The ranges of change in these tests were greater in the balance training group. In HD patients, specific balance training included in a usual endurance-resistance training program improves static and dynamic balance better than endurance-resistance training only. Implications for rehabilitation Rehabilitation using exercise in haemodialysis patients improved global mobility and functional abilities. Specific balance training included in usual endurance resistance training program could lead to improved static and dynamic balance.

  1. Identification of threshold prostate specific antigen levels to optimize the detection of clinically significant prostate cancer by magnetic resonance imaging/ultrasound fusion guided biopsy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shakir, Nabeel A; George, Arvin K; Siddiqui, M Minhaj; Rothwax, Jason T; Rais-Bahrami, Soroush; Stamatakis, Lambros; Su, Daniel; Okoro, Chinonyerem; Raskolnikov, Dima; Walton-Diaz, Annerleim; Simon, Richard; Turkbey, Baris; Choyke, Peter L; Merino, Maria J; Wood, Bradford J; Pinto, Peter A

    2014-12-01

    Prostate specific antigen sensitivity increases with lower threshold values but with a corresponding decrease in specificity. Magnetic resonance imaging/ultrasound targeted biopsy detects prostate cancer more efficiently and of higher grade than standard 12-core transrectal ultrasound biopsy but the optimal population for its use is not well defined. We evaluated the performance of magnetic resonance imaging/ultrasound targeted biopsy vs 12-core biopsy across a prostate specific antigen continuum. We reviewed the records of all patients enrolled in a prospective trial who underwent 12-core transrectal ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging/ultrasound targeted biopsies from August 2007 through February 2014. Patients were stratified by each of 4 prostate specific antigen cutoffs. The greatest Gleason score using either biopsy method was compared in and across groups as well as across the population prostate specific antigen range. Clinically significant prostate cancer was defined as Gleason 7 (4 + 3) or greater. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. A total of 1,003 targeted and 12-core transrectal ultrasound biopsies were performed, of which 564 diagnosed prostate cancer for a 56.2% detection rate. Targeted biopsy led to significantly more upgrading to clinically significant disease compared to 12-core biopsy. This trend increased more with increasing prostate specific antigen, specifically in patients with prostate specific antigen 4 to 10 and greater than 10 ng/ml. Prostate specific antigen 5.2 ng/ml or greater captured 90% of upgrading by targeted biopsy, corresponding to 64% of patients who underwent multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging and subsequent fusion biopsy. Conversely a greater proportion of clinically insignificant disease was detected by 12-core vs targeted biopsy overall. These differences persisted when controlling for potential confounders on multivariate analysis. Prostate cancer upgrading with targeted biopsy increases

  2. Carbogen Enhanced Femto Oximetry Breast Cancer Diagnosis Method with High Specificity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maglich, Bogdan C.; Shultis, J. K.; Solomon, C. J.

    2011-03-01

    As large malignant tumors are oxygen deficient (hypoxic), cancer could be diagnosed in vivo and online, by non-invasive measurement of oxygen difference between tumor and adjacent tissue. Computer simulations of noninvasive diagnosis by Femto Oximetry (FO) of hypoxia in 1 cm tumor in 10 cm breast shows that background γ 's from non hypoxic tissue will mask hypoxia. To amplify the hypoxic-to-normal O difference, air breathing will be replaced with carbogen (O2 95 % , CO2 5 %) using vasco-constrictive property whereby carbogen breathing increases O in normal tissue, while not in malignant hypoxic tumors. 90% hypoxia will be detectable by FO with specificity 99%. Our method will be tested on R3230 tumors in Fischer rats at UCI.

  3. Discovery of a selective catalytic p300/CBP inhibitor that targets lineage-specific tumours

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lasko, Loren M; Jakob, Clarissa G; Edalji, Rohinton P

    2017-01-01

    -specific tumour types, including several haematological malignancies and androgen receptor-positive prostate cancer. A-485 inhibited the androgen receptor transcriptional program in both androgen-sensitive and castration-resistant prostate cancer and inhibited tumour growth in a castration-resistant xenograft...... to treat certain cancers, but progress on the development of drug-like histone actyltransferase inhibitors has lagged behind. The histone acetyltransferase paralogues p300 and CREB-binding protein (CBP) are key transcriptional co-activators that are essential for a multitude of cellular processes, and have...... also been implicated in human pathological conditions (including cancer). Current inhibitors of the p300 and CBP histone acetyltransferase domains, including natural products, bi-substrate analogues and the widely used small molecule C646, lack potency or selectivity. Here, we describe A-485, a potent...

  4. Dosimetric evaluation of the feasibility of stereotactic body radiotherapy for primary lung cancer with lobe-specific selective elective nodal irradiation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Komatsu, Tetsuya; Kunieda, Etsuo; Kitahara, Tadashi; Akiba, Takeshi; Nagao, Ryuta; Fukuzawa, Tsuyoshi

    2016-01-01

    More than 10% of all patients treated with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for primary lung cancer develop regional lymph node recurrence. We evaluated the dosimetric feasibility of SBRT with lobe-specific selective elective nodal irradiation (ENI) on dose-volume histograms. A total of 21 patients were treated with SBRT for Stage I primary lung cancer between January 2010 and June 2012 at our institution. The extents of lobe-specific selective ENI fields were determined with reference to prior surgical reports. The ENI fields included lymph node stations (LNS) 3 + 4 + 11 for the right upper lobe tumors, LNS 7 + 11 for the right middle or lower lobe tumors, LNS 5 + 11 for the left upper lobe tumors, and LNS 7 + 11 for the left lower lobe tumors. A composite plan was generated by combining the ENI plan and the SBRT plan and recalculating for biologically equivalent doses of 2 Gy per fraction, using a linear quadratic model. The V20 of the lung, D(1cm3) of the spinal cord, D(1cm3) and D(10cm3) of the esophagus and D(10cm3) of the tracheobronchial wall were evaluated. Of the 21 patients, nine patients (43%) could not fulfill the dose constraints. In all these patients, the distance between the planning target volume (PTV) of ENI (PTVeni) and the PTV of SBRT (PTVsrt) was ≤2.0 cm. Of the three patients who developed regional metastasis, two patients had isolated lymph node failure, and the lymph node metastasis was included within the ENI field. When the distance between the PTVeni and PTVsrt is >2.0 cm, SBRT with selective ENI may therefore dosimetrically feasible. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Japan Radiation Research Society and Japanese Society for Radiation Oncology.

  5. Low Expression of DYRK2 (Dual Specificity Tyrosine Phosphorylation Regulated Kinase 2 Correlates with Poor Prognosis in Colorectal Cancer.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haiyan Yan

    Full Text Available Dual-specificity tyrosine-phosphorylation-regulated kinase 2 (DYRK2 is a member of dual-specificity kinase family, which could phosphorylate both Ser/Thr and Tyr substrates. The role of DYRK2 in human cancer remains controversial. For example, overexpression of DYRK2 predicts a better survival in human non-small cell lung cancer. In contrast, amplification of DYRK2 gene occurs in esophageal/lung adenocarcinoma, implying the role of DYRK2 as a potential oncogene. However, its clinical role in colorectal cancer (CRC has not been explored. In this study, we analyzed the expression of DYRK2 from Oncomine database and found that DYRK2 level is lower in primary or metastatic CRC compared to adjacent normal colon tissue or non-metastatic CRC, respectively, in 6 colorectal carcinoma data sets. The correlation between DYRK2 expression and clinical outcome in 181 CRC patients was also investigated by real-time PCR and IHC. DYRK2 expression was significantly down-regulated in colorectal cancer tissues compared with adjacent non-tumorous tissues. Functional studies confirmed that DYRK2 inhibited cell invasion and migration in both HCT116 and SW480 cells and functioned as a tumor suppressor in CRC cells. Furthermore, the lower DYRK2 levels were correlated with tumor sites (P = 0.023, advanced clinical stages (P = 0.006 and shorter survival in the advanced clinical stages. Univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that DYRK2 expression was an independent prognostic factor (P < 0.001. Taking all, we concluded that DYRK2 a novel prognostic biomarker of human colorectal cancer.

  6. Synthesis and characterization of rare earth molybdates nanoparticles for detection of specific prostatic cancer (PSA)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dias, Clarissa Lombardi

    2013-01-01

    The interest in using rare earths to investigate the properties and functions of biochemical systems as well as to determinate biological substances has increased in several fields, including biomarkers in immunology (fluoro immunoassays). Nowadays the use of lanthanides in the diagnosis of various diseases have become more important through the development of commercial diagnostic kits. As main feature, these rare earths can show a long lifetime, photo stability and emission bands of atomic like behavior and well defined, in the visible region, demonstrating unique advantages when compared to other luminescent species. The present work had as its goal to synthesize rare earth molybdates by the co-precipitation method as well as to characterize these materials by X-ray diffraction, near infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electronic microscopy, transmission electronic microscopy and luminescent studies. In this work, three different studied were developed: the influence of the vortex speed variation during co-precipitation in the structure of the final product, morphology and luminescence properties; the influence of the annealing temperature also in the structure, morphology and luminescence properties; and the influence of concentration of the doping in the luminescence properties. Another important step of this work was the functionalization of nanoparticles using an organosilane (APTES) to coat and establish points for binding the particles to biological species. It was proved that this process was very efficient by the characterization results and the silica incorporation was well succeeded. Specific prostatic cancer (PSA) was then linked to the functionalized nanoparticles to diagnostic prostatic cancer by fluoroimmunoassay and levels for detection were established. (author)

  7. New genomic structure for prostate cancer specific gene PCA3 within BMCC1: implications for prostate cancer detection and progression.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raymond A Clarke

    Full Text Available The prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3/DD3 gene is a highly specific biomarker upregulated in prostate cancer (PCa. In order to understand the importance of PCA3 in PCa we investigated the organization and evolution of the PCA3 gene locus.We have employed cDNA synthesis, RTPCR and DNA sequencing to identify 4 new transcription start sites, 4 polyadenylation sites and 2 new differentially spliced exons in an extended form of PCA3. Primers designed from these novel PCA3 exons greatly improve RT-PCR based discrimination between PCa, PCa metastases and BPH specimens. Comparative genomic analyses demonstrated that PCA3 has only recently evolved in an anti-sense orientation within a second gene, BMCC1/PRUNE2. BMCC1 has been shown previously to interact with RhoA and RhoC, determinants of cellular transformation and metastasis, respectively. Using RT-PCR we demonstrated that the longer BMCC1-1 isoform - like PCA3 - is upregulated in PCa tissues and metastases and in PCa cell lines. Furthermore PCA3 and BMCC1-1 levels are responsive to dihydrotestosterone treatment.Upregulation of two new PCA3 isoforms in PCa tissues improves discrimination between PCa and BPH. The functional relevance of this specificity is now of particular interest given PCA3's overlapping association with a second gene BMCC1, a regulator of Rho signalling. Upregulation of PCA3 and BMCC1 in PCa has potential for improved diagnosis.

  8. Sociodemographic inequalities in barriers to cancer pain management: a report from the American Cancer Society's Study of Cancer Survivors-II (SCS-II).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stein, Kevin D; Alcaraz, Kassandra I; Kamson, Chelsey; Fallon, Elizabeth A; Smith, Tenbroeck G

    2016-10-01

    Research has increasingly documented sociodemographic inequalities in the assessment and management of cancer-related pain. Most studies have focused on racial/ethnic disparities, while less is known about the impact of other sociodemographic factors, including age and education. We analyzed data from a large, national, population-based study of cancer survivors to examine the influence of sociodemographic factors, and physical and mental health comorbidities on barriers to cancer pain management. The study included data from 4707 cancer survivors in the American Cancer Society's Study of Cancer Survivors-II, who reported experiencing pain from their cancer. A multilevel, socioecological, conceptual framework was used to generate a list of 15 barriers to pain management, representing patient, provider, and system levels. Separate multivariable logistic regressions for each barrier identified sociodemographic and health-related inequalities in cancer pain management, controlling for years since diagnosis, disease stage, and cancer treatment. Two-thirds of survivors reported at least 1 barrier to pain management. While patient-related barriers were most common, the greatest disparities were noted in provider- and system-level barriers. Specifically, inequalities by race/ethnicity, education, age, and physical and mental health comorbidities were observed. Findings indicate survivors who were nonwhite, less educated, older, and/or burdened by comorbidities were most adversely affected. Future efforts in research, clinical practice, and policy should identify and/or implement new strategies to address sociodemographic inequalities in cancer pain management. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  9. CdTe QDs-based prostate-specific antigen probe for human prostate cancer cell imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dong Wei; Guo Li; Wang Meng; Xu Shukun

    2009-01-01

    L-glutathione (GSH) stabilized CdTe quantum dots (QDs) were directly prepared in aqueous solution. The as-prepared QDs were linked to prostate-specific antigen (PSA) for the direct labeling and linked to immunoglobulin G (IgG) for the indirect labeling of fixed prostate cancer cells. The results indicated that QD-based probes were ideal fluorescent markers with excellent spectral properties and photostability and much better than organic dyes making them very suitable in target detection. Meanwhile, the indirect labeling showed much better specificity than the direct labeling. Furthermore, the prepared CdTe QDs did not show detectable effect on cell growth after having cultured for three days, which suggested that the L-glutathione capped CdTe had scarcely cytotoxicity.

  10. Lifestyle influences on the association between pre-diagnostic hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer prognosis - results from The Danish 'Diet, Cancer and Health' prospective cohort

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Holm, Marianne; Olsen, Anja; Kroman, Niels

    2014-01-01

    OBJECTIVES: The association between pre-diagnostic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and breast cancer specific mortality as well as potential influences from other lifestyle factors on the association was investigated. STUDY DESIGN: Female participants from the prospective cohort "Diet, Cancer......, and Health" diagnosed with breast cancer (BC) were identified and their pre-diagnostic HRT use evaluated for association with tumour biology and breast cancer outcome in multivariate analysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Breast cancer specific mortality. RESULTS: Of the 1212 patients originally considered 1064...... were included. Of these, 105 women died from breast cancer during a median follow-up of 6.3 years (range 0.2-14.3 years). In multivariate analyses women who used HRT at enrolment into the cohort study had 47% lower risk of dying from breast cancer as compared to women who had previously or never used...

  11. Keratin 34betaE12/keratin7 expression is a prognostic factor of cancer-specific and overall survival in patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pøhl, Mette; Olsen, Karen Ege; Holst, Rene

    2016-01-01

    proliferation, migration, and possibly cancer invasion, factors impacting prognosis in early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Tumor tissue from a retrospective Danish cohort of 177 patients with completely resected NSCLC, stage I-IIIA tumors, were analyzed for keratin 7 (K7...... that stage II-IIIA (HR 2.3), 34βE12+/K7+ (HR 1.6), and 34βE12-/K7+ (HR 2.0) were prognostic factors of poor CSS (p overall survival (p ...: Keratin 34βE12/K7 expression is a prognostic parameter in resected early stage NSCLC that allows identification of high-risk NSCLC patients with poor cancer-specific and overall survival....

  12. Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration and subsequent risk of total and site specific cancers in Japanese population: large case-cohort study within Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study cohort.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Budhathoki, Sanjeev; Hidaka, Akihisa; Yamaji, Taiki; Sawada, Norie; Tanaka-Mizuno, Sachiko; Kuchiba, Aya; Charvat, Hadrien; Goto, Atsushi; Kojima, Satoshi; Sudo, Natsuki; Shimazu, Taichi; Sasazuki, Shizuka; Inoue, Manami; Tsugane, Shoichiro; Iwasaki, Motoki

    2018-03-07

    To evaluate the association between pre-diagnostic circulating vitamin D concentration and the subsequent risk of overall and site specific cancer in a large cohort study. Nested case-cohort study within the Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study cohort. Nine public health centre areas across Japan. 3301 incident cases of cancer and 4044 randomly selected subcohort participants. Plasma concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D measured by enzyme immunoassay. Participants were divided into quarters based on the sex and season specific distribution of 25-hydroxyvitamin D among subcohorts. Weighted Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate the multivariable adjusted hazard ratios for overall and site specific cancer across categories of 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration, with the lowest quarter as the reference. Incidence of overall or site specific cancer. Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration was inversely associated with the risk of total cancer, with multivariable adjusted hazard ratios for the second to fourth quarters compared with the lowest quarter of 0.81 (95% confidence interval 0.70 to 0.94), 0.75 (0.65 to 0.87), and 0.78 (0.67 to 0.91), respectively (P for trend=0.001). Among the findings for cancers at specific sites, an inverse association was found for liver cancer, with corresponding hazard ratios of 0.70 (0.44 to 1.13), 0.65 (0.40 to 1.06), and 0.45 (0.26 to 0.79) (P for trend=0.006). A sensitivity analysis showed that alternately removing cases of cancer at one specific site from total cancer cases did not substantially change the overall hazard ratios. In this large prospective study, higher vitamin D concentration was associated with lower risk of total cancer. These findings support the hypothesis that vitamin D has protective effects against cancers at many sites. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

  13. Cancer clinical trials in persons with HIV infection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Little, Richard F

    2017-01-01

    The era of modern HIV therapeutics is well underway. The cancer and infectious disease epidemiology of HIV disease has markedly altered as populations are availed to the benefits of antiretroviral therapy (ARV). The types of cancers occurring among those with HIV infection has broadened but the case burden in absolute numbers is very low relative to the background population. There are fewer incident cases of the AIDS-defining cancers (aggressive B-cell lymphomas, Kaposi's sarcoma, and cervical cancer). There is an increased risk for certain non-AIDS-defining cancers, but these occur somewhat sporadically relative to clinical trial enrollment. The changing epidemiology of cancer in HIV poses challenges as well as opportunities for participation of persons with HIV in cancer therapy clinical trials. There are excellent examples of cancer trials that inform cancer therapy for patients with HIV infection. Examples include those from HIV-specific trials and from trials mainly focused on the background population that included patients with HIV infection. Interpretation of clinical trials to guide therapy for those with HIV infection and cancer largely depends on data that does not include HIV-infected patients. The ability to extend clinical trial findings to populations not included in clinical trials remains problematic for a variety of populations, including those with HIV or AIDS. Careful prioritization of studies designed to bridge this gap is needed. However, there are published studies that serve as excellent examples bridging these gaps and the portfolio of cancer therapy trials underway will inform HIV and cancer better than at any time in the past.

  14. Why Latinas With Breast Cancer Select Specific Informal Caregivers to Participate With Them in Psychosocial Interventions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badger, Terry; Segrin, Chris; Swiatkowski, Paulina; McNelis, Melissa; Weihs, Karen; Lopez, Ana Maria

    2017-07-01

    The purpose of this study is to describe the reasons 88 Latinas with breast cancer selected specific supportive others to participate in an 8-week psychosocial intervention. Participants were asked one open-ended question during the baseline assessment for a larger clinical trial: "Could you tell me more about why you selected [insert name] to participate in the study with you?" A content analysis of the responses found three thematic categories: source of informational or emotional support, concern for the informal caregiver's welfare, and special characteristics or qualities of the informal caregiver. These findings reflected both the cultural value of familism, the woman's role as caregiver to the family ( marianismo), and the man's role of provider ( machismo). Findings provide support for including the supportive person identified by the patient during a health crisis rather than the provider suggesting who that should be. Psychosocial services designed and implemented through such a cultural lens are more likely to be successful.

  15. Prostate-specific antigen velocity in a prospective prostate cancer screening study of men with genetic predisposition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mikropoulos, Christos; Selkirk, Christina G Hutten; Saya, Sibel

    2018-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and PSA-velocity (PSAV) have been used to identify men at risk of prostate cancer (PrCa). The IMPACT study is evaluating PSA screening in men with a known genetic predisposition to PrCa due to BRCA1/2 mutations. This analysis evaluates the utility of PSA...... and PSAV for identifying PrCa and high-grade disease in this cohort. METHODS: PSAV was calculated using logistic regression to determine if PSA or PSAV predicted the result of prostate biopsy (PB) in men with elevated PSA values. Cox regression was used to determine whether PSA or PSAV predicted PSA...... elevation in men with low PSAs. Interaction terms were included in the models to determine whether BRCA status influenced the predictiveness of PSA or PSAV. RESULTS: 1634 participants had ⩾3 PSA readings of whom 174 underwent PB and 45 PrCas diagnosed. In men with PSA >3.0 ng ml-l, PSAV...

  16. Application of multiplex nested methylated specific PCR in early diagnosis of epithelial ovarian cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Bi; Yu, Lei; Yang, Guo-Zhen; Luo, Xin; Huang, Lin

    2015-01-01

    To explore the application of multiplex nested methylated specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the early diagnosis of epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC). Serum and fresh tissue samples were collected from 114 EOC patients. RUNX3, TFPI2 and OPCML served as target genes. Methylation levels of tissues were assessed by multiplex nested methylated specific PCR, the results being compared with those for carcinoma antigen 125 (CA125). The serum free deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) methylation spectrum of EOC patients was completely contained in the DNA spectrum of cancer tissues, providing an accurate reflection of tumor DNA methylation conditions. Serum levels of CA125 and free DNA methylation in the EOC group were evidently higher than those in benign lesion and control groups (p0.05). The sensitivity, specificity and positive predicative value (PPV) of multiplex nested methylated specific PCR were significantly higher for detection of all patients and those with early EOC than those for CA125 (pnested methylated specific PCR (p>0.05), but there was no significant difference in sensitivity (p>0.05). Serum free DNA methylation can be used as a biological marker for EOC and multiplex nested methylated specific PCR should be considered for early diagnosis since it can accurately determine tumor methylation conditions.

  17. Combination of prostate specific antigen and pathological stage regarding to gleason score to predict bone metastasis of newly diagnosed prostate cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Zhen; Zhou Liquan; Gao Jiangping; Shi Lixin; Zhao Xiaoyi; Hong Baofa

    2004-01-01

    To determine the value of tumor grade and serum prostate-specific antigen in predicting skeletal metastases in untreated prostate cancer, the results of bone scans were related retrospectively to levels of serum PSA and tumor Grade based on pathologyical examination in 202 patients with prostate cancer newly diagnosed. Skeletal metastases were present in 7% of patients with serum PSA 100 μg/L. Bone scans are omitted likely in a man newly diagnosed with prostate cancer who has no suggestive clinical features, a serum PSA 100 μg/L. (authors)

  18. Female breast cancer in Vietnam: a comparison across Asian specific regions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trieu, Phuong Dung Yun; Mello-Thoms, Claudia; Brennan, Patrick C

    2015-09-01

    Breast cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed malignancies and the leading cause of cancer death of women over the world. A large number of females with breast cancer in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian (SEA) countries present at an early age with more aggressive tumors compared with women in Australia. Despite experiencing a low incidence rate, the increasing incidence rate among SEA countries exceeds that of the Westernized world. Changes in reproductive factors, environmental exposures, and lifestyle are the possible causes of this trend. However, limited evidence shows that these factors are associated with breast cancer in the Vietnamese population. Breast cancer incidence rates within Vietnam are not uniform and appear to be dependent on geographic location. Findings from this review have important implications for breast cancer control and treatment in Vietnam. A good understanding of the morphology of the breast and the type and nature of breast cancers presenting in Vietnam is required to facilitate the introduction of an effective national breast screening program.

  19. The impact of international economic sanctions on Iranian cancer healthcare.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shahabi, Shohreh; Fazlalizadeh, Hooman; Stedman, Jennifer; Chuang, Linus; Shariftabrizi, Ahmad; Ram, Regina

    2015-10-01

    In 2012, Iranian's economy collapsed under strain from sanctions instituted to stop Iran from violating the International Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Sanctions have indirectly led to serious healthcare concerns, specifically cancer treatment. This is the first report to evaluate Iranian cancer healthcare while under international economic sanctions. Data and information were identified by searches of MEDLINE, PubMed, and references from relevant articles using the search terms: "Iran", "health policy", "sanctions", "ethics", and "cancer". Articles published in the English language between 1966 and present were included, based on relevance to sanctions or the specific case of sanctions in Iran. The Program of Action for Cancer Therapy evaluated Iran's National Cancer Control Program (NCCP), reporting it has substantial deficits, including prevention, diagnosis/treatment, palliative care, monitoring, and technology, with a serious drug shortage for cancer care. Sanctions have exemptions for medicines and food, but lead to disruption of health services through complications in transportation, transferring currencies or lack of money. There is increasing evidence that sanctions harm vulnerable populations, while blocking globalization and not creating political or social change quickly. Improvement of Iran's NCCP is not feasible, and the health of cancer patients will continue to decline while the sanctions are in effect. The solution is complex, but a modern and innovative approach to diplomacy, which includes human rights, is necessary. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Rate of Clinical Complete Response for 1 Year or More in Bone-Metastatic Breast Cancer after Comprehensive Treatments including Autologous Formalin-Fixed Tumor Vaccine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuranishi, Fumito; Imaoka, Yuki; Sumi, Yuusuke; Uemae, Yoji; Yasuda-Kurihara, Hiroko; Ishihara, Takeshi; Miyazaki, Tsubasa; Ohno, Tadao

    2018-01-01

    No effective treatment has been developed for bone-metastatic breast cancer. We found 3 cases with clinical complete response (cCR) of the bone metastasis and longer overall survival of the retrospectively examined cohort treated comprehensively including autologous formalin-fixed tumor vaccine (AFTV). AFTV was prepared individually for each patient from their own formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded breast cancer tissues. Three patients maintained cCR status of the bone metastasis for 17 months or more. Rate of cCR for 1 year or more appeared to be 15% (3/20) after comprehensive treatments including AFTV. The median overall survival time (60.0 months) and the 3- to 8-year survival rates after diagnosis of bone metastasis were greater than those of historical control cohorts in Japan (1988-2002) and in the nationwide population-based cohort study of Denmark (1999-2007). Bone-metastatic breast cancer may be curable after comprehensive treatments including AFTV, although larger scale clinical trial is required.