Targeting apoptosis to overcome cisplatin resistance: a translational study in head and neck cancer.

Purpose: Cisplatin resistance remains a barrier to organ-sparing and survival of patients with advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Targeted therapies to overcome cisplatin-resistant HNSCC are being developed.

Methods And Materials: Cisplatin-sensitive parental HNSCC cell lines and cisplatin-resistant progeny were studied.

Two thousand transhiatal esophagectomies: changing trends, lessons learned.

Objective: "Rediscovered" in 1976, transhiatal esophagectomy (THE) has been applicable in most situations requiring esophageal resection and reconstruction. The objective of this study was to review the authors' 30-year experience with THE and changing trends in its use.

Methods: Using the authors' prospective Esophagectomy Database, this single institution experience with THE was analyzed retrospectively.

Evidence that a RecQ helicase slows senescence by resolving recombining telomeres.

RecQ helicases, including Saccharomyces cerevisiae Sgs1p and the human Werner syndrome protein, are important for telomere maintenance in cells lacking telomerase activity. How maintenance is accomplished is only partly understood, although there is evidence that RecQ helicases function in telomere replication and recombination. Here we use two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DGE) and telomere sequence analysis to explore why cells lacking telomerase and Sgs1p (tlc1 sgs1 mutants) senesce more rapidly than tlc1 mutants with functional Sgs1p.

Changes in coronary arterial dimensions early after cardiac transplantation.

Background: Significant changes in coronary artery structure, including intimal thickening and vessel remodeling, occur early after cardiac transplantation. The degree to which these changes compromise coronary lumen dimensions, and the clinical factors that affect these changes, remain controversial.

Methods: Thirty-eight adult cardiac transplant recipients underwent coronary angiography and volumetric intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) evaluation of the left anterior descending artery within 8 weeks of transplantation and at 1 year.

Mutation analyses of COL7A1 gene in three Taiwanese patients with severe recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa.

Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB) is a hereditary mechanobullous disorder characterized by fragility of the skin and mucous membranes caused by abnormal anchoring fibrils. Both dominant and recessive DEB are caused by mutations in COL7A1, the gene encoding type VII collagen, the major component of anchoring fibrils. We performed mutation analysis of COL7A1 in three patients with recessive DEB.

Predicting outcome of patients with high-grade gliomas after radiotherapy using quantitative analysis of T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that measuring quantitative changes in signal intensity early after radiotherapy (RT) in the contrast-enhancing tumor rim and nonenhancing core may be a noninvasive marker of early treatment response in patients with high-grade gliomas.

Methods And Materials: Twenty patients with high-grade gliomas had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed 1 week before RT, during Weeks 1 and 3 of RT, and every 1 to 3 months after RT as part of a clinical prospective study. Regions of interest (ROI) including contrast-enhancing rim, and the nonenhancing core were defined automatically based on a calculated image of post- to precontrast T1-weighted MRI.

Pigmented malignant hidroacanthoma simplex mimicking irritated seborrheic keratosis.

Pigmented variant of malignant hidroacanthoma simplex (PMHS) is very rare. We are aware of only two reported cases, all arising in pigmented hidroacanthoma simplex (HS). We report the third case of PMHS arising in a pigmented HS.

Are Americans receptive to smokefree bars?

It is not known whether the American public accepts smokefree bars and restaurants. Anticipating public displeasure with these ordinances, tobacco, liquor and restaurant industry trade associations have helped to stall efforts to pass laws curbing bar and restaurant smoking in the expectation that diminished patronage would inevitably result. This cross-sectional trend study uses data from the May 1993 and January 1999 Current Population Surveys, Tobacco Use Supplements to compare tobacco-control attitudes among American bar and restaurant workers, all other workers, smokers and nonsmokers (total n = 90,661).

RhoC GTPase expression as a potential marker of lymph node metastasis in squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck.

Purpose: Survival rates for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) have remained unchanged for several decades due to local tumor recurrences as well as regional and distant metastases. Recent evidence has shown that RhoC GTPase is overexpressed in stages III and IV regionally metastatic SCCHN compared with stages I and II localized disease. This study evaluated the expression of RhoC in head and neck carcinoma and investigated the prognostic use of this marker on a large cohort of previously untreated patients with SCCHN.

Fusariosis occurring in an ulcerated cutaneous CD8+ T cell lymphoma tumor.

Fusarium species have recently emerged as the second most common pathogenic mold in immunocompromised patients, and they are moderately resistant to most antifungal agents. The skin lesions of disseminated fusariosis typically manifest as multiple red or violaceous macules or nodules, often ulcerated and covered by a black eschar. We report a case of cutaneous fusariosis in a patient with long-standing hypopigmented mycosis fungoides.

Rap1GAP inhibits tumor growth in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

Rap1, a growth regulatory protein that is strongly expressed in human squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), is inactivated by rap1GAP. Recent evidence in normal rat cells suggests that rap1GAP regulates proliferation. The objective of the current study was to investigate whether rap1GAP functions as a tumor suppressor in SCC.

Evidence that the S.cerevisiae Sgs1 protein facilitates recombinational repair of telomeres during senescence.

RecQ DNA helicases, including yeast Sgs1p and the human Werner and Bloom syndrome proteins, participate in telomere biology, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Here, we explore the protein sequences and genetic interactors of Sgs1p that function to slow the senescence of telomerase (tlc1) mutants. We find that the S-phase checkpoint function of Sgs1p is dispensable for preventing rapid senescence, but that Sgs1p sequences required for homologous recombination, including the helicase domain and topoisomerase III interaction domain, are essential.

Single-cycle induction chemotherapy selects patients with advanced laryngeal cancer for combined chemoradiation: a new treatment paradigm.

Purpose: Primary chemoradiotherapy in patients with advanced laryngeal cancer can achieve high rates of organ preservation without sacrificing survival compared with radiation alone or conventional laryngectomy. Appropriate selection of patients for organ preservation approaches could enhance overall treatment outcome and quality of life. We conducted a phase II organ preservation trial for patients with stage III and IV larynx cancer to determine whether late salvage surgery rates could be decreased and survival improved by selecting patients for organ preservation based on response to a single cycle of induction chemotherapy.

Normal tissue complication probability modeling for acute esophagitis in patients treated with conformal radiation therapy for non-small cell lung cancer.

Purpose: To evaluate the ability of a well-known normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) model to predict radiation esophagitis by determining updated model parameters and then comparing these results with the predictive value of other dosimetric parameters.

Material And Methods: Clinical and dosimetric data regarding esophagitis were analyzed in 101 inoperable/unresectable non-small-cell lung cancer patients treated by external beam irradiation. Grade 2 or higher esophagitis counted as events.

"Bacteroides goldsteinii sp. nov." isolated from clinical specimens of human intestinal origin.

Phenotypic and phylogenetic studies were performed on an unknown gram-negative, strictly anaerobic, rod-shaped bacterium isolated from human clinical specimens. This organism was indole negative, resistant to 20% bile, produced acetic and a lesser amount of succinic acids as the major end products of glucose metabolism, and possessed a G+C content of approximately 43 mol%. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequencing demonstrated that the unidentified bacterium was a member of the Cytophaga-Flavobacter-Bacteroides phylum of gram-negative bacteria and formed a close association (with an average sequence similarity of 93.

Voice and swallowing outcomes of an organ-preservation trial for advanced laryngeal cancer.

Introduction: Organ-preservation treatment approaches for advanced laryngeal cancer patients that use combination chemoradiotherapy result in cure rates similar to primary laryngectomy with postoperative radiotherapy. In the national VA Larynx Cancer Trial, successful organ preservation was associated with an overall improvement in quality of life but not in subjective speech compared with long-term laryngectomy survivors. As part of a Phase II clinical trial, a prospective study of speech and swallowing results was conducted to determine if larynx preservation is associated with improved voice and swallowing compared with results in patients who require salvage laryngectomy.

Hypersensitivity syndrome and pure red cell aplasia following allopurinol therapy in a patient with chronic kidney disease.

Objective: To report a rare case of combined hypersensitivity syndrome and pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) following allopurinol therapy.

Case Summary: A 43-year-old woman with underlying mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis developed fever, generalized morbilliform rash, leukocytosis with marked eosinophilia, and hepatic dysfunction 3 weeks after starting allopurinol therapy (300 mg/day for 3 days followed by 200 mg/day) for hyperuricemia and arthritis. The clinical findings were judged to be a probable drug reaction according to the Naranjo probability scale.

Detection of IL-20 and its receptors on psoriatic skin.

The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of interleukin-20 (IL-20) and its receptors on psoriatic skin by immunohistochemical analysis and to evaluate the correlation of CD8-positive T lymphocytes with epidermal proliferation. Overexpression of IL-20 and its receptors was detected in the keratinocytes of the lesional skin of psoriasis and spongiotic dermatitis. The expression pattern of IL-20 spreads throughout the whole layer of epidermis, while IL-19 was expressed in up to three or four layers suprabasally.

Reversal of cisplatin resistance with a BH3 mimetic, (-)-gossypol, in head and neck cancer cells: role of wild-type p53 and Bcl-xL.

Organ preservation protocols in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) are limited by tumors that fail to respond. We observed that larynx preservation and response to chemotherapy is significantly associated with p53 overexpression, and that most HNSCC cell lines with mutant p53 are more sensitive to cisplatin than those with wild-type p53. To investigate cisplatin resistance, we studied two HNSCC cell lines, UM-SCC-5 and UM-SCC-10B, and two resistant sublines developed by cultivation in gradually increasing concentrations of cisplatin.

Histopathology of persistent papules and plaques in adult-onset Still's disease.

Background: Persistent plaques and linear pigmentation have been reported as specific skin lesions in some patients with adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD).

Objective: We sought to characterize the histologic findings of AOSD-associated persistent rash in 11 cases and correlate the histologic findings with the clinical features.

Methods: From 1988 to 2004, 17 cases fulfilling Yamaguchi's criteria for AOSD in our hospital were reviewed and 11 (65%) manifested persistent papules and plaques.

Mal de Meleda in a taiwanese.

Mal de Meleda (MDM) is a rare form of recessive transgressive palmoplantar erythrokeratoderma for which mutations in the ARS gene have been identified recently. The ARS gene encodes SLURP-1, a secreted epidermal neuromodulator involved in epidermal homeostasis and inhibition of tumor necrosis factor-alpha release. A 27-year-old Taiwanese woman who had a history of palmoplantar keratoderma since birth presented with severe erythrokeratoderma of the hands and feet in a glove-and-stocking distribution with conical tapering of the fingers, and involvement of the skin over the major joints and thighs.