Development and daily use of an electronic oncological patient record for the total management of cancer patients: 7 years' experience.

Background: We describe our experience with an electronic oncological patient record (EOPR) for the total management of cancer patients.

Methods: The web-based EOPR was developed on the basis of a user-centred design including user education and training, followed by continuous assistance; user acceptance was monitored by means of three questionnaires administered after 2 weeks, 6 months and 6 years.

Results: The EOPR has been used daily for all in-ward, day hospital and ambulatory clinical activities since July 2000.

Healthy twins delivered after oocyte cryopreservation and bilateral ovariectomy for ovarian cancer.

Anti-neoplastic treatments have significantly increased the survival of cancer patients, but female patients risk premature menopause. Oocyte cryopreservation has been proposed as a fertility-saving option. This report describes the first live birth achieved with autologous cryopreserved oocytes in an ovariectomized borderline cancer patient.

Genital tract infections and infertility.

Infectious agents can impair various important human functions, including reproduction. Bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites are able to interfere with the reproductive function in both sexes. Infections of male genito-urinary tract account for about 15% of the case of male infertility.

Sorafenib inhibits growth and mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling in malignant peripheral nerve sheath cells.

Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST) are soft-tissue tumors with a very poor prognosis and largely resistant to chemotherapy. MPNSTs are characterized by activation of the Ras pathway by loss of tumor suppressor neurofibromatosis type 1. In view of this, MPNST may be susceptible to inhibition of the activated Ras/Raf/mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway by the B-Raf inhibitor sorafenib.

The cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor flavopiridol potentiates the effects of topoisomerase I poisons by suppressing Rad51 expression in a p53-dependent manner.

The results of a phase I clinical trial of the topoisomerase I (Topo I) poison CPT-11 followed by the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor flavopiridol in patients with advanced solid tumors indicate that patients whose tumors were wild-type, but not mutant, for p53 obtained the most clinical benefit from this combination therapy. We elected to elucidate the mechanistic basis for this effect in isogenic-paired HCT116 colon cancer cells that were either wild-type (+/+) or null (-/-) for p53. With the combination therapy of SN-38 (the active metabolite of CPT-11) followed by flavopiridol, the induction of apoptosis was 5-fold greater in the p53+/+ cells compared with the p53-/- cells.

Dietary patterns identified using factor analysis and prostate cancer risk: a case control study in Western Australia.

Purpose: Dietary patterns offer an alternative method for analyzing dietary intakes that take into account the whole diet. We investigated empirical dietary patterns and prostate cancer risk in Western Australia (WA) using a population-based case-control study.

Methods: Incident prostate cancer cases were identified via the WA Cancer Registry.

Outpatient operative polypectomy using a 5 mm-hysteroscope without anaesthesia and/or analgesia: advantages and limits.

Objective: To assess the predictors of office-based operative hysteroscopic polypectomy using a 5.2mm continuous flow office hysteroscope without anaesthesia and/or analgesia for the treatment of endometrial and/or isthmic polyps and to define procedure limits.

Study Design: Women with hysteroscopic diagnosis of endometrial or isthmic polyps were offered to proceed in the same session with operative hysteroscopy after 15 min without anaesthesia and/or analgesia.

Resectoscope or Versapoint for hysteroscopic metroplasty.

Objective: To assess the feasibility, safety, and reproductive outcome of hysteroscopic metroplasty using the Versapoint device compared with the resectoscope using the Collins loop.

Methods: Sixty-three women diagnosed with partial septate uterus were included in the study. Forty-two women underwent hysteroscopic metroplasty using Versapoint and 21 women had the procedure using the resectoscope.

Dietary patterns and surgically treated benign prostatic hyperplasia: a case control study in Western Australia.

Objectives: To investigate dietary patterns and food intake as risk factors for surgically treated benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), as few risk factors have been established for BPH and recently there has been some interest in a role for diet in the development of BPH.

Patients, Subjects And Methods: A case-control study was conducted in Western Australia (WA) during 2001 and 2002. BPH cases were men with a diagnosis of BPH hospitalized for their first prostatectomy.

Mortality of former crocidolite (blue asbestos) miners and millers at Wittenoom.

Background: Blue asbestos was mined and milled at Wittenoom in Western Australia between 1943 and 1966.

Methods: Nearly 7000 male workers who worked at the Wittenoom mine and mill have been followed up using death and cancer registries throughout Australia and Italy to the end of 2000. Person-years at risk were derived using two censoring dates in order to produce minimum and maximum estimates of asbestos effect.

Gene expression profiling of liposarcoma identifies distinct biological types/subtypes and potential therapeutic targets in well-differentiated and dedifferentiated liposarcoma.

Classification of liposarcoma into three biological types encompassing five subtypes, (a) well-differentiated/dedifferentiated, (b) myxoid/round cell, and (c) pleomorphic, based on morphologic features and cytogenetic aberrations, is widely accepted. However, diagnostic discordance remains even among expert sarcoma pathologists. We sought to develop a more systematic approach to liposarcoma classification based on gene expression analysis and to identify subtype-specific differentially expressed genes that may be involved in liposarcoma genesis/progression and serve as potential therapeutic targets.

Indexing strategies for rapid searches of short words in genome sequences.

Searching for matches between large collections of short (14-30 nucleotides) words and sequence databases comprising full genomes or transcriptomes is a common task in biological sequence analysis. We investigated the performance of simple indexing strategies for handling such tasks and developed two programs, fetchGWI and tagger, that index either the database or the query set. Either strategy outperforms megablast for searches with more than 10,000 probes.

Oestrogen stimulates endothelial progenitor cells via oestrogen receptor-alpha.

Context: Oestrogens play an important protective role on the vascular system. The endothelial cell layer is a direct target for these hormones, and expresses at least two oestrogen receptors, ER-alpha and ER-beta. Recent studies have shown that vascular healing is significantly modulated by circulating bone marrow-derived cells.

Risk factors for surgically treated benign prostatic hyperplasia in Western Australia.

Objective: To determine the relationship between personal, hormonal and lifestyle risk factors and surgically treated benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

Materials And Methods: A population-based case-control study was conducted in Western Australia (WA) on men aged 40-75 years who were surgically treated at public and private hospitals for BPH during 2001-2002. Controls were recruited from the WA electoral roll.

Fruit, vegetable, vitamin A intakes, and prostate cancer risk.

Prostate cancer risk was examined in relation to intakes of fruit, vegetables, beta-carotene and retinol. Subjects were a cohort of 1985 men previously to asbestos who participated in a cancer prevention programme of beta-carotene and retinol supplements that commenced in July 1990. Diet was assessed at entry to the programme.

Lymph node axillary metastasis from occult contralateral infiltrating lobular carcinoma arising in accessory breast: MRI diagnosis.

We describe a case of right axillary lymph node metastasis of an occult infiltrating lobular carcinoma arising from accessory mammary gland of the left upper anterior chest wall. Ultrasonography and mammography were normal bilaterally. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a 3.

Age and sex differences in malignant mesothelioma after residential exposure to blue asbestos (crocidolite).

Background: Blue asbestos was mined and milled at Wittenoom, Western Australia, from 1943 until 1966. Various public records were used to establish a cohort of residents of the nearby township. Mine tailings were distributed throughout the town.

Mouse double minute antagonist Nutlin-3a enhances chemotherapy-induced apoptosis in cancer cells with mutant p53 by activating E2F1.

MDM2 is a critical negative regulator of the p53 tumor suppressor protein. Recently, small-molecule antagonists of MDM2, the Nutlins, have been developed to inhibit the p53-MDM2 interaction and activate p53 signaling. However, half of human cancers have mutated p53 and they are resistant to Nutlin treatment.

Alobar holoprosencephaly, mobile proboscis and trisomy 13 in a fetus with maternal gestational diabetes mellitus: a 2D ultrasound diagnosis and review of the literature.

Background: Alobar holoprosencephaly is a rare and severe brain malformation due to early arrest in brain cleavage and rotation.

Case Report: We report a congenital anomalous fetus with alobar holoprosencephaly, prenatally diagnosed by two-dimensional (2D) sonography at the 40 weeks of gestation. The mother was affected by gestational diabetes mellitus and was obese (BMI > 30 kg/m(2)).

Occupational risk factors for prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia: a case-control study in Western Australia.

Objective: To assess the association of selected occupational exposures with risk of prostate cancer and with risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

Methods: This population-based case-control study recruited 606 men with a diagnosis of confirmed prostate cancer, 400 men who had undergone their first prostatectomy for BPH and 471 male controls randomly selected from the electoral roll between 1 August 2001 and 1 October 2002 in Western Australia. chi(2) tests and logistic regressions were used for univariate and multivariate analyses to investigate the association of the two outcomes with occupational exposure to pesticides, fertilisers, metals, wood dust, oils, diesel exhaust and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

Assessment of the potential effect of incremental increases in folic acid intake on neural tube defects in Australia and New Zealand.

Objective: To estimate the number of neural tube defects that could be prevented in Australia and New Zealand by increasing levels of folic acid intake.

Methods: Available data on prevalence of neural tube defects in Australia and New Zealand, folic acid supplement use and serum folate were used in a published model to estimate the number of neural tube defects that could be prevented in Australia and New Zealand for increments of folic acid intake from 0.1 mg daily to 1 mg daily.

The risk of lung cancer with increasing time since ceasing exposure to asbestos and quitting smoking.

Objectives: To examine if the risk of lung cancer declines with increasing time since ceasing exposure to asbestos and quitting smoking, and to determine the relative asbestos effect between non-smokers and current smokers.

Methods: A cohort study of 2935 former workers of the crocidolite mine and mill at Wittenoom, who responded to a questionnaire on smoking first issued in 1979 and on whom quantitative estimates of asbestos exposure are known. Conditional logistic regression was used to relate asbestos exposure, smoking category, and risk of lung cancer.

Plasma vitamin concentrations and incidence of mesothelioma and lung cancer in individuals exposed to crocidolite at Wittenoom, Western Australia.

Increased rates of death from asbestos-related diseases have been reported in former workers and residents exposed to crocidolite (blue asbestos) at Wittenoom (Western Australia). The relationships between plasma concentrations of retinol, carotene and vitamin E and incidence of mesothelioma and lung cancer in a cohort of people from this town were examined. The relationships were evaluated by survival analyses using data obtained at the first visit, at each visit and with the rate of change of each vitamin during the period of follow-up.