Patients with axillary lymph node metastases may benefit from postmastectomy radiation, but the use of postmastectomy radiation in N0 patients is not supported when it is based on tumor size alone.
Background
The significance of EGFR expression in advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) of the head and neck remains poorly understood.
Methods
Retrospective review of patients with advanced stage (Stage III or IV) cSCC of the head and neck (n = 56).
Results
The majority of patients (91%) had stage III disease, with 54% having regional metastasis and 9% with distant metastasis. Two-year survival was 64% and the 5-year survival was 56%. EGFR was found to be overexpressed in 56% of primary tumors and 58% of regional metastatic disease. Overall survival did not correlate with EGFR (p = 0.47) expression in primary lesions nor was it associated with an increase in regional (p = 0.74) or distant metastasis (p = 0.56). Furthermore, there was no correlation between clinicopathologic characteristics and EGFR expression
Conclusion
This data does not suggest upregulation of EGFR is associated with poor survival or aggressive disease.
Background: The murine orthotopic oral cavity tumor model allows evaluation of tumor growth and invasion. Currently, serial measurements of tissue growth are difficult to obtain since invasive procedures or animal sacrifice is necessary to evaluate tumor size. High-resolution ultrasound was evaluated as a noninvasive method to monitor tumor size in vivo. Methods: Sixteen immunodeficient mice, age 9 weeks, were injected transcervically with a human squamous cell carcinoma cell line into the tongue, and tumor volume was assessed by high-frequency ultrasound at 11 days. The animals were subsequently sacrificed and the tumors processed for histology. Tumor size was then calculated by caliper measurement in two dimensions. Results: Tumor dimensions obtained using ultrasound were found to significantly correlate with the histologic measurements (Spearman coefficient 0.90, p < 0.0001). Tumor dimensions were on average larger using ultrasound versus histologic measurements, although this was not significantly different than zero (95% confidence interval –13.96 to 62.37 mm2). Conclusions: High-resolution ultrasound accurately measures tumor volume in the murine orthotopic oral cavity tumor model without sacrifice.
CD147 is upregulated in multiple cancer types, but its expression in advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is unknown. This study retrospectively evaluated the expression patterns of CD147 and related proteins monocarboxylate transporters (MCT1, MCT4) in patients with advanced stage cSCC (n=50). CD147, MCT1 and MCT4 expression levels were assessed in archived tumor samples and correlations were made with survival and clinicopathologic characteristics. The incidence of CD147 overexpression (93%, n=42) was higher than that of MCT1 (23%) or MCT4 (47%). Colocalization of MCT1 or MCT4 with CD147 was also observed. The two-year survival rate was 69% and the 5-year survival rate was 61%. A trend towards decreased survival was seen with overexpression of CD147 (p= .17), MCT1 (p= .11) and MCT4 (p= .15). Expression levels were not correlated with clinicopathologic characteristics. CD147 is overexpressed in the majority of advanced cSCC and may represent a biomarker or potential therapeutic target.
Many complex disease traits are observed to be associated with single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) interactions. In testing small-scale SNP -SNP interactions, variable selection procedures in logistic regressions are commonly used. The empirical evidence of variable selection for testing interactions in logistic regressions is limited. This simulation study was designed to compare nine variable selection procedures in logistic regressions for testing SNP -SNP interactions. Data on 10 SNPs were simulated for 400 and 1000 subjects (case/control ratio ¼ 1). The simulated model included one main effect and two 2-way interactions. The variable selection procedures included automatic selection (stepwise, forward and backward), common 2-step selection, AIC-and SC-based selection. The hierarchical rule effect, in which all main effects and lower order terms of the highest-order interaction term are included in the model regardless of their statistical significance, was also examined. We found that the stepwise variable selection without the hierarchical rule, which had reasonably high authentic (true positive) proportion and low noise (false positive) proportion, is a better method compared to other variable selection procedures. For testing interactions, the hierarchical rule effect was obvious. The procedure without the hierarchical rule requires fewer terms in testing interactions, so it can accommodate more SNPs than the procedure with the hierarchical rule. For testing interactions, the procedures without the hierarchical rule had higher authentic proportion and lower noise proportion compared with ones with the hierarchical rule. These variable selection procedures were also applied and compared in a rheumatoid arthritis study.
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