No abstract

Adenocarcinoma makes up only a small percent of all nasal and paranasal sinus carcinomas, and is most often found in the ethmoid sinuses. Adenocarcinoma of the ethmoid sinuses is known to be associated with exposure to wood dust. Twenty‐eight patients with ethmoid adenocarcinomas were collected, mainly during the last decade from a region with approximately 900,000 inhabitants and with a large amount of furniture industries. There were 4 women and 24 men in the study. Twenty of the men were exposed to dust from hardwood for 20 to 55 years (mean, 40 years) which is in accord with other reports and supports data on the increased risk for workers of developing adenocarcinoma of the ethmoid sinuses when exposed to dust from hardwood. Radiologic diagnosis is necessary to delineate the extent of these tumours, and computerized tomography (CT) especially furnishes important information. Most patients received preoperative radiotherapy followed by surgery, 50% of them survived 5 years, which is in accord with other reports.

No abstract

One hundred and fifty patients with breast carcinoma were examined to compare axillary node status, estrogen receptor level and cellular DNA content as prognostic indicators. Seventy-four per cent of the patients were postmenopausal and forty per cent had axillary node metastases. Estrogen receptor was measured by isoelectric focusing in polyacrylamide gel. DNA was measured in individual cell nuclei by means of Feulgen-acriflavine-sulphate stained imprints. Fifty-two per cent of the tumors had diploid and/or tetraploid DNA pattern, and the rest aneuploid pattern. Axillary node metastases, aneuploid DNA pattern and low level of estrogen receptor were related to recurrence. When introduced into Cox's proportional hazards procedure, axillary nodes and estrogen receptor level but not DNA pattern remained as significant predictors of recurrence.

No abstract

This study suggests that cytometric SPF has prognostic significance in stage I breast carcinoma.

This retrospective study comprised 176 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity treated at The Linköping University Hospital over a 19-year period. Clinical parameters, microscopic malignancy grading (according to Jakobsson et al. and Glanz and Eichhorn), DNA cytofluorometry, analysis of therapeutic modalities and statistics regarding survival and prognosis are reported. The mean age was 70 years with a male: female ratio of 1.3:1 One hundred and four patients had T1 or T2 tumours and 109 an N0 neck. Cervical lymph node metastases were more frequent in patients with larger tumours (T3 + T4) than in those with smaller (T1 + T2) (P less than 0.01), in tumours with a high malignancy grading compared to those with a low (P less than 0.05) and in DNA non-diploid tumours compared to diploid ones (P less than 0.001). The aneuploid tumours responded better to preoperative radiotherapy than did diploid (P less than 0.01) or polyploid (P less than 0.05) tumours. Eighty-nine per cent of the recurrences occurred within 1 year of initial therapy. Secondary treatment was successful in 15 of 37 (41%) patients in whom the tumour recurred either at the primary site or in regional lymph nodes, but only in 1 of 8 (12%) with recurrences in both locations. Surgery alone or combined with radiotherapy resulted in equivalent survival rates for tumours in stages I and II. In advanced stages combined radiotherapy and surgery gave better survival figures than either modality alone (P less than 0.01; Kaplan-Meier). The presence of lymph node metastases (P less than 0.001), tumour size (P less than 0.01) and tumour ploidy (P less than 0.005) were the only clinical and histological parameters that significantly influenced survival (Cox regression analysis). Twenty-four patients developed a secondary primary malignancy; 21 of these were located in the aerodigestive tract.

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) has been shown to stimulate in vitro growth of epithelial cells derived both from normal breast and mammary carcinomas . A prerequisite for the growth promoting effect of EGF seems to be the presence of a cellular receptor for EGF (Heldin & Westermark, 1984). Plasma membrane receptors have been found in approximately 40% of biopsies from human breast carcinomas (Perez et al., 1984;. The amount of EGF bound varied between 1-121 fmol mg-1 membrane protein . The significance of cellular EGF receptor content with respect to tumour cell differentiation and growth is at present obscure. However there seems to be an inverse relationship between the receptors for EGF and oestrogen (Peirez et al., 1984;. Since high levels of oestrogen receptors are found in well differentiated breast carcinomas (Erhardt et al. to be published) it is tempting to speculate that detectable levels of the EGF receptor are confined to poorly differentiated carcinomas.The activity of thymidine kinase-1 (Tk-1) has been found to increase when cells enter the S phase (Adler & McAuslan, 1974 Tumour cytosol and membrane fractions were prepared from -1 g tumour tissue. After homogenization in 5 ml of buffer (5 mM NaPO4, pH 7.4, 1 mm DTT and 10% glycerol) using a Polytron with intermittent bursts of 15 sec each, an aliquot was withdrawn for measurements of total DNA using the method of Burton (1956). The homogenate was then centrifuged at 100,000g for 40min at 0°C. The resulting supernatant was used for ER analysis and thymidine kinase determination. The pellet was resuspended in 1O mm Tris HCl, pH 7.4, the suspension was recentrifuged at 100,000g for 60min at 0°C and the resulting pellet was used for EGF receptor binding.