1,721,000 research outputs found
Prognostic role of chromogranin A expression for docetaxel response in hormone-refractory metastatic prostate cancer
Background: The neuroendocrine (NE) cells in prostate cancer are indistinguishable from non-NE cancer cells morphologically and are usually detected by immunohistochemical study for NE markers. We analyzed the expression of Chromogranin A (Chr A) in malignant prostate tissue as prognostic factor for docetaxel response in metastatic HRPC. Methods: From January 2003 to December 2006, 40 patients with metastatic HRPC received a median of 12 cycles (range 2–18) of Docetaxel 75 mg/mq every 21 days and 5 mg of prednisone twice daily as initial therapy. Tissue blocks from primary prostate cancer tissues were obtained and immunostaining for Chr A was performed. The median age was 70 years (range 46–82); median baseline PSA: 310 ng/ml (range 0.15–700); median ECOG Performance Status: 1 (range 0- 2). PSA level was measured every 4 weeks and the treatment was considered effective if a rate of PSA-decline > 50% from baseline was found. TTP was the preliminary end point. Results: Response to Docetaxel was assessed at every 3 cycles of treatment. The Chr A expression was found in 19/40 patients with Gleason = 7, PSA < 20, bone and soft tissue metastasis; 10 of them showed PR (decrease in PSA < 50%), 4 SD and TTP was 9.2 months. Moreover they received second line chemotherapy without significant efficacy. 5/19 patients with Chr A expression showed PD, the PSA level was not correlated with clinical outcome, TTP was 5 months and were chemoresistant to different line treatment. Besides, Chr A was not detected in 21/40 patients with Gleason = 7, PSA > 20 and bone metastasis; 10 of them showed CR (PSA normalized) and 11 PR, TTP was 20 months. Conclusions: NE differentiation do not constituite a different histopathological category of prostate cancer but the NE phenotype can be correlated with poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. NE differentiation can be considered a factor that influences prognosis and treatment in advanced prostate cancer; cases with Chr A expression did not benefit from Docetaxel and had poor prognosis. These preliminary data indicate that initial therapeutic approach should be different according to Chr A expression
L'impiego dei farmaci vasoattivi nella prevenzione delle complicanze post-operatorie in chirurgia arteriosa
Aneurisma micotica della arteria radiale. Descrizione di un caso e revisione della letteratura
DETECTION AND CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF OCCULT LYMPH NODE METASTASES AND CIRCULATING CANCER CELLS IN PATIENTS WITH INVASIVE BLADDER CANCER
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
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
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