Tissue composition of mammographically dense and non-dense breast tissue.

Mammographic density is a strong risk factor for breast cancer but its underlying biology in healthy women is not well-defined. Using a novel collection of core biopsies from mammographically dense versus non-dense regions of the breasts of healthy women, we examined histologic and molecular differences between these two tissue types. Eligible participants were 40 + years, had a screening mammogram and no prior breast cancer or current endocrine therapy.

Myocardial fibrosis in patients with symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: correlation with echocardiographic measurements, sarcomeric genotypes, and pro-left ventricular hypertrophy polymorphisms involving the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system.

Introduction: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a heterogeneous disorder of the cardiac sarcomere, resulting in myocyte hypertrophy and disarray, interstitial fibrosis, and cardiac dysfunction. Our aim was to determine whether the amount of fibrosis in HCM correlates with echocardiographic measures of diastolic dysfunction, presence of HCM-susceptibility mutations, or polymorphisms in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS).

Methods: Surgical specimens from patients with obstructive HCM undergoing septal myectomy at the Mayo Clinic (2001-2004) were examined and compared with autopsy-derived tissues from age- and sex-matched normal controls.

Pathobiology of pituitary adenomas and carcinomas.

Objective: To examine relationships between pituitary tumors and lesion size, invasiveness, resectability, deoxyribonucleic acid ploidy, cell cycle profile, mitotic activity, and immunoreactivity for MIB-1, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), p27Kip1, and p53.

Patients And Methods: One hundred fifty-three adenomas of most pathological subtypes, including 20 medically treated and prolactin and growth hormone-containing tumors, as well as 10 premetastatic tumors and 13 pituitary carcinomas, were studied.

Results: Significant (P < 0.

Conventional assessment of needle biopsy specimens is more useful than digital image analysis of proliferation and DNA ploidy in prediction of positive surgical margins at radical prostatectomy.

Objectives: The preoperative prediction of the likelihood of positive surgical margins (+SMs) at radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) may be useful for counseling and determining the surgical approach. The aim of this study was to assess the additional value of digital image analysis (DIA) of ploidy and proliferation on needle biopsies, in addition to the known preoperative predictors of +SMs at RRP.

Methods: We identified 454 patients treated by RRP at our institution from 1995 to 1998 for prostate cancer verified by transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy, with a specimen adequate for DIA.

High expression levels of survivin protein independently predict a poor outcome for patients who undergo surgery for clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Background: In a previous study of gene array data, the authors identified survivin as a candidate marker of aggressiveness in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). What remained in question was whether survivin expression at the protein level is an independent predictor of disease progression and cancer-specific survival.

Methods: Between 1990 and 1994, 312 patients underwent nephrectomy for ccRCC at Mayo Clinic Rochester and had paraffin tissue available.

Role of bcl-2 in endometrioid corpus cancer: an experimental study.

Background: Bcl-2 expression appears to be under hormonal control in normal endometrium and to correlate with hormone receptor status in endometrial cancer. The aim of this study was to assess bcl-2 expression in endometrial cancer.

Materials And Methods: Hysterectomy specimens from 125 patients with endometrial cancer were stained for bcl-2.

HER-2/neu overexpression and hormone dependency in endometrial cancer: analysis of cohort and review of literature.

Background: Overexpression of HER-2/neu (HER) is associated with unfavorable prognoses in both endometrial and breast cancer.

Materials And Methods: To determine whether an association exists between HER expression and markers of hormone dependency in endometrial cancers, we subjected hysterectomy specimens from 125 patients to immunohistochemical staining for HER. HER was visually interpreted as negative/weakly positive (HER-) versus strongly positive (HER+).

B-Lymphocytes in plaque and adventitia of coronary arteries in two patients with rheumatoid arthritis and coronary atherosclerosis: preliminary observations.

Objectives: To describe the subtypes of lymphocytes in coronary arteries of two patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and coronary artery disease (CAD).

Materials And Methods: The Mayo Clinic database was searched for patients with RA and CAD who underwent an autopsy in 2001. Medical records were reviewed, and coronary arteries were examined microscopically.

Prognostic value of proliferation, apoptosis, defective DNA mismatch repair, and p53 overexpression in patients with resected Dukes' B2 or C colon cancer: a North Central Cancer Treatment Group Study.

Purpose: Molecular studies of colon cancer have provided insights into pathogenesis, yet it is unclear how important these markers are in predicting prognosis. This study investigated the prognostic significance of TUNEL, bcl-2, p53, proliferation marker Ki-67 and DNA mismatch repair (MMR) status in patients with Dukes' stage B2 and C colorectal adenocarcinomas.

Patients And Methods: Tumor tissue from 366 patients (75% Dukes' C, 25% Dukes' B2) from four randomized North Central Cancer Treatment Group phase III surgical adjuvant trials were used.

Multivariate models to predict clinically important outcomes at prostatectomy for patients with organ-confined disease and needle biopsy Gleason scores of 6 or less.

The objective of this study was to determine the clinical and biopsy features associated with outcomes at radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) in patients with clinically organ-confined prostate cancers and biopsy Gleason scores (GS) of 6 or less. We reviewed 274 biopsies with GS 6 or less cancers from patients with clinically organ-confined disease between 1995 and 1998 to determine statistically significant predictors for the following outcomes at RRP: tumor volume, small (<0.5 cc), confined (pT2) tumors with RRP GS of 6 or less (potentially "insignificant" tumors), and extraprostatic extension (EPE).

Adenomatoid tumor of the adrenal gland: a clinicopathologic study of five cases and review of the literature.

We report the clinicopathologic, immunophenotypic, DNA ploidy, and MIB-1 proliferative findings of five adenomatoid tumors of the adrenal gland. All patients were male, and tumors were incidental radiologic, surgical, or autopsy findings. Mean patient age at diagnosis was 41 years (range 31-64 years).

Identifying and quantifying apoptosis: navigating technical pitfalls.

Apoptosis or programmed cell death is often altered in malignancies and is frequently determined by the terminal transferase-mediated nick end labeling technique (TUNEL). However, commercially available protocols can produce high background and false-positive staining, which renders the distinction between apoptosis and necrosis difficult. In an attempt to develop a rapid and reproducible method for detecting and quantifying apoptosis, we coupled optimization of the Apoptag Plus Peroxidase In Situ Apoptosis Detection kit with quantitative histomorphometric computer imaging software using the Bacus Laboratories Incorporated Slide Scanner (BLISS).

Recurrent and non-recurrent pigmented villonodular synovitis 1.

Pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) is a benign intra-articular lesion. Patients are at risk for local recurrence. Factors that predict recurrence are not established.

Effect of Dopamine Agonists on Lactotroph Adenomas of the Human Pituitary.

Dopamine (DA) agonists cause reduction of blood prolactin level and tumor shrinkage in most patients with lactotroph adenoma. Our aim was to investigate the cellular mechanism of tumor shrinkage by determining mitotic, MIB-1, p27, and apoptotic indices, as well as microvessel density (MVD), surface microvessel density (SMD). ploidy, and other nuclear parameters.

Perineural invasion and MIB-1 positivity in addition to Gleason score are significant preoperative predictors of progression after radical retropubic prostatectomy for prostate cancer.

We assessed the use of clinical stage, serum prostate specific antigen, DNA ploidy, proliferation, and traditional histologic findings from the biopsy to predict prostate cancer progression after radical retropubic prostatectomy. Between 1995 and 1998, 454 consecutive patients with cancer on biopsy were treated by radical retropubic prostatectomy. Preoperative serum prostate specific antigen, clinical stage, Gleason score, percentage of cores and surface area positive for cancer, perineural invasion, and DNA ploidy and MIB-1 immunostain quantitation by image analysis were evaluated in a multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model to predict cancer progression.

Comparison of quantitative histomorphometry and DNA ploidy in tissue sections of prostate carcinoma.

Objective: To examine the ability of quantitative histomorphometry to predict DNA ploidy of prostate carcinoma in biopsy tissue sections assigned after quantitation by nuclear digital image analysis.

Study Design: Thirty-five diploid, 35 tetraploid and 35 aneuploid prostatic carcinomas in biopsies, assessed by the CAS 200 image analyzer (Bacus Laboratories, Lombard, Illinois, U.S.

Corticotroph carcinoma of the pituitary: a clinicopathological study. Report of four cases.

To understand the relationship between pituitary adenoma and carcinoma, four adrenocorticotropic hormone-producing pituitary adenomas and corresponding metastatic carcinomas were studied. All were functional macroadenomas (three cases of Nelson syndrome and one of Cushing disease) that initially invaded the sella turcica and occurred in women ranging in age from 17 to 66 years (mean 45 years). Metastases (two craniospinal and two systemic) occurred after latency periods of 6 to 13 years.