Inverse relation between prostate-specific antigen and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3 in bone metastases and serum of patients with prostate cancer.

The usual osteoblastic phenotype of metastatic prostate cancer is unexplained. Here we show that tissue and serum concentrations of prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-vary inversely with a substrate protein that binds a growth factor known to activate osteoblasts. These findings suggest that PSA may contribute to the osteoblastic phenotype, and could thus represent a new drug target devoid of antiandrogenic toxicity.

Popularity of less frequent follow up for breast cancer in randomised study: initial findings from the hotline study.

Objective: To compare the experiences of patients with breast cancer who were conventionally monitored with those in whom routine follow up was restricted to the time of mammography.

Design: Randomisation to conventional schedule of clinic visits or to visits only after mammography. Both cohorts received identical mammography and were invited to telephone for immediate appointments if they detected symptoms.

Active minimisation of radiation scatter during breast radiotherapy: management implications for young patients with good-prognosis primary neoplasms.

Background And Purpose: Radiotherapy is used to reverse or prevent local tumour growth but is also a carcinogen in its own right. A recent audit of post-radiotherapy second malignancies in this institution revealed a striking preponderance of tumours originating near the outside edge of the treatment field. Since this finding suggests the existence of a critical subtherapeutic dose range predisposing to tumourigenesis, we attempted to define and reduce this radiation scatter dose.

Hormonal factors associated with weight loss in patients with advanced breast cancer.

Fasting blood samples were collected from 83 patients with histologically proven breast cancer and analysed for plasma glucagon, serum immunoreactive tumour necrosis factor (TNF alpha), insulin, glucose, growth hormone, cortisol and TSH. Samples from patients with known diabetes mellitus or thyroid disease, and those on parenteral nutrition or with evidence of infection were excluded as were patients who had a history of weight loss through dieting or who were anorexic. Fasting plasma glucagon, serum cortisol and immunoreactive TNF alpha concentrations in patients with stage IV breast cancer who had developed weight loss were significantly higher than those in patients with stage IV disease who had not developed weight loss.

The serum levels of some trace and bulk elements in cancer patients.

The levels of copper, zinc, calcium, manganese and magnesium have been monitored in the sera of patients suffering from various types of cancer. Only serum copper appeared to be of any diagnostic significance, its levels being above the normal reported range in the breast cancer, leukaemia and Hodgkin's lymphoma patients. In the case of breast cancer, serum copper is progressively elevated according to the stage of the disease.

Serum galactosyl transferase levels in patients with advanced cancer.

Serum galactosyl transferase was significantly higher in patients with various types of cancer than in age-matched controls. The highest serum enzyme levels were observed in the breast and respiratory cancer, followed by ovarian and gastrointestinal tumours; whereas the enzyme activity in prostatic cancer patients was not significantly higher than in the control subjects. In the cancer patients the serum levels of this enzyme were not significantly higher in the presence of metastases.

Results of 27 cases with hepatic metastases treated by combination chemotherapy.

The results of using a standard combination of cytotoxic agents in 27 cases of secondary liver cancer are reported. A brief review of the methods available for treating hepatic metastases from solid tumours, as opposed to lymphomata, is included. The response rate depends on the site of the primary lesion.

Seventy-five cases of solid tumours treated by a modified quadruple chemotherapy regime.

Seventy-five cases of malignant solid tumours treated by a quadruple chemotherapy regime are described. These tumours originated in the breast, head and neck, bronchus, genital tract, cutaneous melanoma, soft tissue and gastro-intestinal tract. All 14 patients with breast carcinoma underwent remission and in 6 this was complete.

Preliminary clinical assessment of I.C.R.F. 159 in acute leukaemia and lymphosarcoma.

I.C.R.