Conditional survival of 56,268 patients with breast cancer.

Background: Survival rates calculated from the date of diagnosis may not be predictive of future outcome for patients who have already survived several years after diagnosis. Conditional survival rates are more informative clinically because they take into account survival after diagnosis.

Methods: Conditional relative survival rates were calculated by the life-table method using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute.

The histologic grading of cancer.

Background: The histologic grade of a tumor provides prognostic information in addition to that provided by stage of disease. Poorly differentiated tumors are known to pursue a more aggressive course than their well differentiated counterparts.

Methods: The frequency of grading and the relationship of grade to outcome was investigated for 793,649 cases of cancer from 15 anatomic sites as recorded in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program.

Liver, gallbladder, extrahepatic bile ducts, and pancreas.

Background: The liver, gallbladder, bile ducts, and pancreas have a common embryologic origin; cancers that arise from these sites therefore are expected to share a similar spectrum of histologic types. These cancers are known for their extremely poor prognoses.

Methods: Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program regarding the incidence, distribution of histologic types, stage of disease, and survival for cancers of the gallbladder (n = 4412), extrahepatic bile ducts (n = 3486), pancreas (n = 23,116), and liver (n = 6,391) were reviewed.

Serum transferrin receptor for the detection of iron deficiency in pregnancy.

Measurements of circulating transferrin receptor provide a sensitive quantitative index of tissue iron deficiency in otherwise healthy subjects. This investigation was undertaken to examine the diagnostic utility of this new iron index in pregnancy. A battery of iron-related measurements, including serum transferrin receptor concentrations, was performed on 176 women in third-trimester pregnancy who were attending a university prenatal clinic.

Relationship among outcome, stage of disease, and histologic grade for 22,616 cases of breast cancer. The basis for a prognostic index.

Survival rates for 22,616 cases of breast cancer listed in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute were stratified on outcome according to the histologic grade and stage of disease. Two different staging systems, "local, regional, and distant" and a modified American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) system adopted for SEER were used. Relative survival rates were calculated at 5 and 10 years.

Prolactin-producing pituitary carcinoma with pulmonary metastases.

Pituitary adenomas rarely are metastatic. Extracranial visceral metastases of prolactinomas were not previously reported. The authors report a case of a 34-year-old man with a prolactin-producing pituitary carcinoma and histologically proven lung metastases.

Gastric delivery system for iron supplementation.

A gastric delivery system (GDS) for iron supplementation was evaluated. Radioisotopic studies in 9 volunteers demonstrated a three-fold higher absorption of GDS iron compared with ferrous sulphate elixir. A double-blind placebo controlled trial was done in 200 women to compare the gastrointestinal side-effects associated with 50 mg iron daily given either as GDS or conventional ferrous sulphate.