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    Linkage of biopsy, cancer, and population records aimed at the estimation of family risks in neoplasia: a pilot study

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    Add to Marked List (0) Send to: my.endnote.com Save to my.endnote.comEndNoteResearcherID - I Wrote These PublicationsOther File FormatsRefWorks LINKAGE OF BIOPSY, CANCER, AND POPULATION RECORDS AIMED AT THE ESTIMATION OF FAMILY RISKS IN NEOPLASIA - A PILOT-STUDY Author(s): BARRAI, I (BARRAI, I); NENCI, I (NENCI, I); GUIDI, E (GUIDI, E); DELLACQUA, G (DELLACQUA, G); FORMICA, G (FORMICA, G); BARBUJANI, G (BARBUJANI, G); MARZOLA, A (MARZOLA, A); MARANI, G (MARANI, G); BARALE, R (BARALE, R); BERETTA, M (BERETTA, M) Source: JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND COMMUNITY HEALTH Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Pages: 107-111 DOI: 10.1136/jech.45.2.107 Published: JUN 1991 Times Cited: 1 (from Web of Science) Cited References: 15 [ view related records ] Citation Map Abstract: Study objective-The aim was to link individual demographic and medical records into sibships to obtain the sibling distribution of biopsies and cancers, and thereby calculate heritability and recurrence risks in families, thus aiding early diagnosis and prevention of cancers. Design-The 157 823 individual records of the inhabitants of the town of Ferrara in Italy were automatically linked into 106 821 sibships. A 10% sample (10 842 sibships) was then extracted from the distribution of sibships and tabulated, for linkage to medical records. Patients-The biopsy records at the Institute of Pathological Anatomy of the University of Ferrara were manually linked to cancer records and then to sibships. It was possible to construct the distribution of 2062 biopsies and of 829 cancers in sibships. Results-From the distribution of biopsies and tumours in sibships, it was possible to estimate the incidence of tumours in the population (0.052) and in siblings of affected (0.083), and to apply to such distributions current methods for the estimate of heritability (h2 = 0.246) and of recurrence risks of tumours in sibships, age independent. Conclusions-The study shows that the procedure resulting in the estimation of incidences and recurrence risks for tumours could be completely automated, and extended to whole populations and homogeneous subgroups in post industrial cultures

    Combined and sequential expression of p53, Rb, Ras and Bcl-2 in bronchial preneoplastic lesions

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    Aims and background: Several simple molecular abnormalities have been detected rn bronchial preneoplastic lesions, but the simultaneous presence of these alterations has been scarcely investigated. Methods: We studied, by an immunohistochemical method, the expression of p53, Rb, Ras and Bcl-2 in 65 samples from surgical specimens and diagnostic biopsies selected for the presence of preneoplastic changes in the bronchial epithelium. To perform an analysis of the combined expression of all markers in the same areas, we accurately mapped every consecutive section on which immunohistochemical reactions were performed, subdividing each specimen into 25x microscopic fields, which allowed good topographical mapping. Results: It was found that the frequency of p53-positive and Rb-negative microscopic fields was directly related to the morphological grading of lesions. On the other hand, Ras expression characterized high-grade lesions not Showing squamous differentiation (non-squamous Cis). Regarding Bcl-2 expression, only slight differences in positivity distribution were found between the different lesions. More interesting was the parallel evaluation of all markers in the same areas: one of the main patterns, found to be correlated with the severity of histopathological features, was characterized by combined p53 hyperexpression/Rb hypoexpression; furthermore, when Ras and Bcl-2 hyperexpression were superimposed to the above pattern, the former mainly characterized non-squamous Cis, while the latter was present only in high-grade squamous lesions. However, the most frequently encountered pattern did not show any alteration of the studied markers, suggesting that other mechanisms could be involved in bronchial carcinogenesis. Conclusions: The detection of combined molecular abnormalities in bronchial preneoplasia could clarify the steps involved in lung carcinogenesis; furthermore, a simple and inexpensive method, such as immunohistochemistry, could be routinely applied also to cytologic specimens in order to detect those lesions, or patients, that are prone to progression towards lung cancer

    Cancer incidence and mortality in the province of Ferrara 1989-1990

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    Background: Mortality data have clearly highlighted the province of Ferrara as an area with a particular distribution of tumors strictly related with environmental factors. Methods: The project of a tumor registry has been planned for a better description of cancer incidence and for a deeper insight into etiologic factors, considering the typical features of the province from geographic and occupational points of view. Results: This study presents the registration results of the first 2 years, in order to verify the quality level of data recruitment and to confirm that observed in previous studies. The population covered by the registry was 151,968 males and 165,835 females, with high representation of the elderly. In this period 2,087 tumors in men and 1,778 in women were observed. Lung cancer reaches one of the highest levels in Italy, according to that observed in Lombardy and Veneto regions and the northern Adriatic coast. Incidence and mortality are, however, significantly higher than in other Emilia-Romagna areas, as pointed out by the registries of Parma, Modena and Forli. Colon cancer also presents high frequencies in comparison with neighboring areas, whereas non-Hodgkin lymphomas reach the highest level in Italy. Gastric tumors, although well represented in males and females, show lower levels than the high-risk neighboring Romagna region. In women, a low incidence of cervix uteri tumors and high levels of breast cancer have also been observed. Conclusions: The distribution of such neoplasms and the differences observed among neighboring areas deserve further analytical studies, with the aim of a better reading of cancer onset and diffusion. The quality of data obtained (about 70% of histocytologic confirmations, and 5% of 'final' death-certificate-only cases), appears to reach satisfying levels, considering the starting phase of the registry

    Biophenotypes of breast carcinoma in situ defined by image analysis of biological parameters

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    In 50 in situ breast cancers an immunohistochemical study, evaluating estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR) receptors, Proliferation Index (PI), c-erbB-2/Neu and p53 expression was performed. According to histopathological diagnosis, cases were classified as follows: 14 comedo, 8 solid, 5 micropapillary, 6 lobular, 3 papillary, 1 apocrine and 12 mixed in situ carcinomas. The quantitation of immunohistochemical results was obtained with art image analysis computerized system (CAS 200) with a lesion-field method; tumors were subdivided in fields (1177) histologically homogeneous, with 40 x microscopic objective. For ER, PR, Neu and p53, 10% of the positive area was used as cut-off value; 13% was used for PI. Cribriform and lobular types showed a higher positivity for ER (92.1% and 95.5% of the fields); cribriform and papillary a higher for PR (92.6% and 93.9%). Comedo variant demonstrated the higher PI (52.7%), Neu and p53 expression (67.7% and 43%). A cluster analysis, performed on 608 fields, defined two groups according to biological homogeneous criteria. The results obtained identify the different biophenotypes of in situ carcinomas, suggesting the possibility of multiple cancerogenetic ways with a different weight of biological events

    Biological staging of incipient, in situ and invasive breast carcinomas

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    The objective of breast cancer staging is to help define the natural history of tumor progression and clinical behavior. Experimental models showed different pathways for the development of breast tumors.’.’ In human breast cancer, the histological studies performed gave limited information about the molecular mechanisms of the cancerogenetic multistep process. The earliest morphologically recognizable lesions constitute a heterogeneous group with different progression potential; carcinoma in situ comprises, in fact, different entities: one (incipient tumors) with low and others with intermediate (ductal carcinoma in situ non-. comedo, lobular carcinoma in situ) or high (ductal carcinoma in situ comedo) risk of progression, respectively. At present, the most important problem is tounderstand the different biological meaning of precancerous proliferative lesions and invasive tumors. Several biological parameters, such as estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER, PK), proliferation index (PI), and oncogene and suppressor gene overexpression, are becoming increasingly important as prognostic adjuncts to standard morphological eval~ation.~-T*h is could be useful to characterize early lesions (carcinoma in situ) as well as invasive tumors detected by screening mammography (small size, special types, and node-negative). In recent years, the immunohistochemical (ICA) demonstration of biological markers has brought about considerable advantages, allowing their direct visualization in tissue and cytological pecimens. Moreover, the development of computerized image analysis systems has provided a quantitative evaluation of biological markers. In this study, 1895 primary invasive (collected since 1985) and 49 in situ (collected since 1991) carcinomas were biologically characterized and ICA assays were measured by an image analysis system (CAS 200 BD).”-I4 The relationships between biological and pathological parameters (node status, size, histotype) were studied with a multivariate analysis. A cluster analysis was performed with the aim to classify cases into subgroups, according to their biological profile. Clinical usefulness of biological assessment was evaluated in 461 patients (median follow-up of 71.6 months). This study underlines the importance of the biological profile, which may be used in concert with other factors to help identify tumor outcome

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods
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