Expression of nm23 in gastric carcinoma: association with tumor progression and poor prognosis

BACKGROUND: Expression of nm23 has been shown to be inversely correlated with the metastatic potential of several human cancers. In the current study, the expression and prognostic impact of nm23 was immunohistochemically studied in 413 curatively resected gastric carcinomas. METHODS: Tumor sections of the 413 gastric carcinomas were stained with a polyclonal antibody that was raised against the nm23-H1/NDP kinase A, which is identical to the nm23-H1 gene product. RESULTS: Expression of nm23 was detected in 84.5% (n = 349) of all tumors, in the majority of cases (71.2%) causing a homogeneous staining reaction in more than 75% of tumor cells. Expression of nm23 was positively correlated with the intestinal type of tumor, according to the Lauren classification and advanced pT categories, and was also correlated with the presence of blood and lymphatic vessel invasion. In contrast, no correlation could be demonstrated between nm23 expression and lymph node involvement. As shown in univariate analysis, patients with nm23 positive tumors, especially those with nm23 positive diffuse-type carcinomas, had significantly shorter overall survival than patients with nm23 negative tumors (P = 0.03 and P = 0.0065, respectively). However, in a multivariate analysis that included the prognostic parameters pT category, pN category, and blood and lymphatic vessel invasion, this prognostic impact was not maintained. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to results for breast and colorectal carcinomas, our results for 413 gastric carcinomas showed that expression of the designated metastasis suppressor gene nm23 is correlated with aggressive tumor growth and poor prognosis but is not an independent prognostic marker.     

Transitional cell carcinoma of Bartholin's glands

A report is given about a patient aged 57 years, who developed a transitional cell carcinoma of the Bartholin's gland. Transitional cell carcinomas of the vulva are rare neoplasms. To the best of our knowledge only eight cases are reported in the literature including this case. In context with the international literature etiopathogenetic theories, therapeutic and prognostic aspects of the disease are discussed.     

Spontaneous rupture of the oesophagus (author's transl)

During the last 4 years three so-called spontaneous perforations of the oesophagus were treated, twice by surgical intervention 12 anys after the rupture. Two patients survived. The classical history of retching or vomiting and retrosternal splitting pain is indicative, wht medium, amidotrizoate sodium (Gastrografin), from the oesophagus. Prognosis depends decisively on the time of operation after the rupture. Direct suture of the rupture with plastic coverage of the defect by sewing on of the gastric fundus or by plication of the fundus have proved valuable.     

Combined therapy with cyclosporin A and cortisone in endocrine Basedow endocrine orbitopathy: successful use in compressive optic neuropathy

In the nineteen-thirties and -forties, genes were universally believed to be made of protein. Biochemists met Avery, MacLeod and McCarty's discovery, that the transforming factor of pneumococci consists of DNA, with disbelief, and the notion that this was true of genes took a long time to be generally accepted even after Watson and Crick's discovery of its double helical structure. Until Watson's arrival, Kendrew, Crick and I were interested mainly in solving the structure of proteins, but Watson made us think about the structure of genes which determine protein structure.     

Neuroblastoma: a review of 21 cases presenting with spinal cord compression

The records of 21 children with neuroblastoma presenting with spinal cord compression, encountered over 17 years, were reviewed. Thirteen patients (61%) survive, free of neuroblastoma, at intervals ranging from nine months to 192 months (median, 78 months) from the time of diagnosis. The explanation for this relatively high survival rate was sought in an analysis of the cases which took into account age, site, extent of disease, and histology. The most significant features to emerge were the unusually high proportion of children under 12 months of age at presentation (11 of 21) most of whom survive (9 of 11) and the low incidence (3 of 21) of detectable at the time of diagnosis. The absence of a paraspinal mass was an unfavourable prognostic features (1 of 6 survives) whilst if a paraspinal mass was present, its anatomical level did not influence survival. In particular, children with retroperitoneal tumors fared no worse (survival, 6 of 7) than those with primary tumors at other sites (survival, 6 of 8). Morbidity was high (6 of 13), principally in infants with spinal cord compression from birth. Survival was also related to the histologic maturity of the tumor, even in the presence of metastases. Recommendations for management are made.     

Computing Hitting Set Kernels By AC0-Circuits

Theory of Computing Systems - Given a hypergraph H = (V,E), what is the smallest subset $X \subseteq V$ such that e ∩ X≠∅ holds for all e ∈ E? This problem, known as the...     

Long term stability of electrocaloric response in barium zirconate titanate

The stability of the electrocaloric effect under electric field cycling is an important consideration in the development of solid-state cooling devices. Here we report measurements carried out on Ba(Zr_0.2Ti_0.8)O₃ ceramics which reveal that the adiabatic temperature change, polarization-electric field hysteresis loops and dielectric permittivity/loss show stable behavior up to 10⁵ cycles. We further demonstrate that the loss in electrocaloric response observed after 10⁵ cycles is associated with the migration of oxygen vacancies. As a result, the electrical properties of the material are changed leading to an increase in leakage current and Joule heating. Reversing the polarity of the electric field after every 10⁵ cycles changes the migration direction of oxygen vacancies, thereby preventing charge accumulation at grain boundaries and electrodes. By doing so, the electrocaloric stability is improved and the adiabatic temperature remains constant even after 10⁶ cycles, much higher than achieved in commercially available barium titanate ceramics.