Hypoxia-inducible factor-2alpha: effect on radiation sensitivity and differential regulation by an mTOR inhibitor.

Objective: To determine the role of hypoxia-inducible factor-2alpha (HIF2alpha) on the sensitivity of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cell lines to ionizing radiation and to determine if the mTOR antagonist, rapamycin, could decrease HIF2alpha protein levels.

Materials And Methods: Cell lines expressing stable short-hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) encoding HIF2alpha shRNAs or an empty vector were transfected with a hypoxia responsive element (HRE)-driven firefly luciferase reporter gene. Two separate paired cell lines were assayed for their response to increasing doses of ionizing radiation.

Variability among breast radiation oncologists in delineation of the postsurgical lumpectomy cavity.

Purpose: Partial breast irradiation (PBI) is becoming more widely used. Accurate determination of the surgical lumpectomy cavity volume is more critical with PBI than with whole breast radiation therapy. We examined the interobserver variability in delineation of the lumpectomy cavity among four academic radiation oncologists who specialize in the treatment of breast cancer.

Acute urinary retention after magnetic resonance image-guided prostate brachytherapy with and without neoadjuvant external beam radiotherapy.

Objectives: To evaluate the risk of acute urinary retention (AUR) and sequelae after urethra-sparing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided prostate brachytherapy.

Methods: Between 1997 and 2003, MRI-guided prostate brachytherapy was performed after external beam radiotherapy (n = 60) or as monotherapy (n = 188) following a diagnosis of low-risk prostate adenocarcinoma. The median prostate gland volume was 40 cm3 (range 16 to 184).

Granulocytic sarcoma: an unusual complication of aleukemic myeloid leukemia causing spinal cord compression. A case report and literature review.

Granulocytic sarcoma (chloroma) is a rare solid tumor resulting from the proliferation of myelogenous leukemia cells. Chloromas usually present as soft tissue or bony masses of the head and neck in patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) of the French-American-British M2 subtype. Occasionally chloromas may occur in patients with myelodysplasia and other myeloproliferative disorders and rarely precede the development of systemic disease.

Distribution of mutations in human thymidylate synthase yielding resistance to 5-fluorodeoxyuridine.

Thymidylate synthase (TS) catalyzes methylation of dUMP to dTMP and is the target of cancer chemotherapeutic agents (e.g. 5-fluorouracil).