Neoadjuvant phase II multicentre study of new agents in patients with malignant glioma after minimal surgery. Report of a cohort of 187 patients treated with temozolomide.

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of new agents in patients with malignant glioma in a neoadjuvant setting not confounded by surgery. The first study of neoadjuvant temozolomide aimed to provide a benchmark for future evaluation of new treatments.

Patients And Methods: This was a multicentre phase II study of chemotherapy in patients with histologically verified glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and anaplastic astrocytoma (AA) who had undergone biopsy alone.

Macrophage scavenger receptor 1 999C>T (R293X) mutation and risk of prostate cancer.

Background: Variants in the gene encoding the macrophage scavenger receptor 1 (MSR1(4)) protein have been identified in men with prostate cancer, and several small studies have suggested that the 999C>T (R293X) protein-truncating mutation may be associated with an increased risk for this disease.

Methods: Using large case-control, cohort, and prostate cancer family studies conducted in several Western countries, we tested for the 999C>T mutation in 2,943 men with invasive prostate carcinoma, including 401 males from multiple-case families, 1,982 cases unselected for age, and 575 men diagnosed before the age of 56 years, and in 2,870 male controls. Risk ratios were estimated by unconditional logistic regression adjusting for country and by a modified segregation analysis.

ATM polymorphisms as risk factors for prostate cancer development.

The risk of prostate cancer is known to be elevated in carriers of germline mutations in BRCA2, and possibly also in carriers of BRCA1 and CHEK2 mutations. These genes are components of the ATM-dependent DNA damage signalling pathways. To evaluate the hypothesis that variants in ATM itself might be associated with prostate cancer risk, we genotyped five ATM variants in DNA from 637 prostate cancer patients and 445 controls with no family history of cancer.

Transcription factor E2F3 overexpressed in prostate cancer independently predicts clinical outcome.

E2F transcription factors, including E2F3, directly modulate expression of EZH2. Recently, overexpression of the EZH2 gene has been implicated in the development of human prostate cancer. In tissue microrarray studies we now show that expression of high levels of nuclear E2F3 occurs in a high proportion (98/147, 67%) of human prostate cancers, but is a rare event in non-neoplastic prostatic epithelium suggesting a role for E2F3 overexpression in prostate carcinogenesis.

Germline mutations in fumarate hydratase (FH) do not predispose to prostate cancer.

Inherited susceptibility to prostate cancer has been linked to a number of chromosomal regions, however no genes have been unequivocally shown to underlie reported linkages. The putative gene localised to chromosome 1q42-q43, has been designated PCaP. We have recently shown that germline mutations in the fumarate hydratase (FH) gene located on 1q43 cause smooth muscle tumours and renal cell carcinoma.