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Purpose. Angiosarcoma is a rare tumor with endothelial cell differentiation that may arise in any anatomic location.The purpose of this report was to identify prognostic factors on outcome in a group of prospectively followed patients with confirmed angiosarcoma. Subjects. Adult patients (>16 years old) with angiosarcoma treated between July 1982 and February 1998 were identified from a prospective database. Methods. Pathologic confirmation of all cases was performed prior to inclusion in this analysis. Various prognostic factors were evaluated for disease-specific survival. Survival was determined by the Kaplan– Meier method. Statistical significance was evaluated by log-rank test for univariate analysis and Cox stepwise regression for multivariate analysis (p < 0.05). Results. Fifty patients were identified; at the initial evaluation, this group included 32 patients with a primary tumor, three with local recurrence and 15 with metastatic disease. Tumor sites included 16 head and neck and skin of head, eight extremity, seven trunk, six breast, five pelvis, four viscera and four thoracic. Median follow-up among survivors was 71 months (range, 38–191 months).Two- and 5-year disease-specific survival was 50 and 30%, respectively, with a median of 24 months. The factor predictive of tumor-related mortality was presentation status (p=0.001; relative risk, 5). Two-year disease-specific survival for patients presenting with recurrent or metastatic disease was 13%, compared with 70% for those with primary disease.

Because the role hormonal and reproductive factors play in the etiology of endometrial cancer is incompletely understood, the authors evaluated the risk of this cancer in relation to age at last delivery. The data were obtained in a hospital-based case-control study of 483 women with endometrial cancer (cases) and 693 women with other conditions (controls) conducted in a number of hospitals in the United States and Canada from 1978 to 1985. There was an inverse association between age at last delivery and endometrial cancer risk: Compared with women who last gave birth before age 25 years, the rate ratio was 0.9 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.5-1.6) for last delivery at ages 25-29 years, 0.6 (95% CI 0.3-1.0) for last delivery at ages 30-34 years, 0.5 (95% CI 0.3-1.0) for last delivery at ages 35-39 years, and 0.4 (95% CI 0.1-0.9) for last delivery at age 40 years or older. The trend of decreasing rate ratio with increasing age at last delivery was statistically significant (p = 0.02). The association was apparent regardless of parity or menopausal status. There was no evidence for an association between age at first pregnancy and risk. These data suggest that women who bear children late in reproductive life may be at lower risk for endometrial cancer than those who complete their families early.

Binding parameters were determined for four mouse monoclonal antibodies reacting with three antigens on the surface of fresh human ovarian carcinoma ascites cells, under nearly physiological conditions. The object of these experiments was to aid in the selection of the optimal monoclonal antibodies for intraperitoneal immunotherapy. The number of antigenic sites per cell, the effective equilibrium association constant (affinity) and the half-life for dissociation were: for Ab MH99, 1.2 x 10(6) sites/cell, (1.9-4.1) x 10(8) M-1, and 4 h; for Ab MX35, (3.2-4.1) x 10(5) sites/cell, (3.4-4.8) x 10(8) M-1, and greater than 10 h; and for Ab MW207, 1.3 x 10(5) sites/cell, (3.6-4.1) x 10(9) M-1, and 3.1 h, respectively. One of the antigens, MH99, is recognized by five different monoclonal antibodies, and competitive inhibition experiments demonstrated that two distinct determinants are present; this antigen is also recognized by the previously described Ab 17-1A. These binding data will aid the rational design of immunotherapy strategies.

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