Prospective enterprise-level molecular genotyping of a cohort of cancer patients.

Ongoing cancer genome characterization studies continue to elucidate the spectrum of genomic abnormalities that drive many cancers, and in the clinical arena assessment of the driver genetic alterations in patients is playing an increasingly important diagnostic and/or prognostic role for many cancer types. However, the landscape of genomic abnormalities is still unknown for less common cancers, and the influence of specific genotypes on clinical behavior is often still unclear. To address some of these deficiencies, we developed Profile, a prospective cohort study to obtain genomic information on all patients at a large tertiary care medical center for cancer-related care.

Human papillomavirus vaccination and cervical cytology in young minority women.

Background: Continued surveillance of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is necessary to identify clinical benefits, particularly given the low rate of vaccine uptake and completion and vaccination of many young women after sexual debut. We studied the effect of catch-up HPV vaccination on cervical cytology and HPV infection in sexually active, low-income and minority young women.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 235 women aged 21 to 30 years undergoing routine cervical cytology testing.

PIK3CA mutation in colorectal cancer: relationship with genetic and epigenetic alterations.

Somatic PIK3CA mutations are often present in colorectal cancer. Mutant PIK3CA activates AKT signaling, which up-regulates fatty acid synthase (FASN). Microsatellite instability (MSI) and CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) are important molecular classifiers in colorectal cancer.

Foreign fetal cells persist in the maternal circulation.

Objective: To determine whether allogenic fetal cells resulting from donor egg pregnancies persist in maternal circulation.

Design: Nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the DYS14 sequence, a region of the Y chromosome, from DNA purified from peripheral blood cells.

Setting: Academic medical center.

Characterization of the opsonic and monocyte adherence functions of the specific fibronectin fragment that enhances phagocytosis of particulate activators.

The functional opsonic and monocyte adherence domains within the 180,000 m.w. opsonic fibronectin fragment (180K-opFnf) that selectively augments human monocyte phagocytosis of particulate activators of the alternative complement pathway were analyzed with Fab fragments of monoclonal anti-fibronectin antibodies BC7, CE9, BD4, AB3, and CPG1, and with fragments of intact human plasma fibronectin derived by cathepsin cleavage and isolated by affinity chromatography.