Epidural steroid injections, conservative treatment, or combination treatment for cervical radicular pain: a multicenter, randomized, comparative-effectiveness study.

Background: Cervical radicular pain is a major cause of disability. No studies have been published comparing different types of nonsurgical therapy.

Methods: A comparative-effectiveness study was performed in 169 patients with cervical radicular pain less than 4 yr in duration.

Facet joint pain--advances in patient selection and treatment.

Facetogenic pain, also known as zygapophysial joint pain, is a frequent cause of mechanical spine pain. Diagnostic blocks (for example, medial branch blocks [MBBs]) are the only reliable approach to identify facet joints as the source of neck or back pain. In the absence of a reference standard, MBBs actually serve more of a prognostic than diagnostic role, enabling the selection of patients who might respond to radiofrequency denervation treatment--the standard treatment for facet joint pain.

Occipital nerve pulsed radiofrequency treatment: a multi-center study evaluating predictors of outcome.

Objective: Occipital neuralgia (ON) is a challenging condition for which there is no reference standard for treatment. The purpose of this study was to provide outcome data on the largest study to date evaluating pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) for ON and to determine whether any demographic, clinical, or treatment characteristics are associated with success.

Design:   Retrospective data analysis was conducted in 102 subjects evaluating the effect of myriad factors on treatment success.

Epidermal growth factor receptor activation in glioblastoma through novel missense mutations in the extracellular domain.

Background: Protein tyrosine kinases are important regulators of cellular homeostasis with tightly controlled catalytic activity. Mutations in kinase-encoding genes can relieve the autoinhibitory constraints on kinase activity, can promote malignant transformation, and appear to be a major determinant of response to kinase inhibitor therapy. Missense mutations in the EGFR kinase domain, for example, have recently been identified in patients who showed clinical responses to EGFR kinase inhibitor therapy.

Molecular determinants of the response of glioblastomas to EGFR kinase inhibitors.

Background: The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is frequently amplified, overexpressed, or mutated in glioblastomas, but only 10 to 20 percent of patients have a response to EGFR kinase inhibitors. The mechanism of responsiveness of glioblastomas to these inhibitors is unknown.

Methods: We sequenced kinase domains in the EGFR and human EGFR type 2 (Her2/neu) genes and analyzed the expression of EGFR, EGFR deletion mutant variant III (EGFRvIII), and the tumor-suppressor protein PTEN in recurrent malignant gliomas from patients who had received EGFR kinase inhibitors.

Expression of Drosophila neoplastic tumor suppressor genes discslarge, scribble, and lethal giant larvae in the mammalian ovary.

The similarities and differences in molecular mechanisms regulating invertebrate and mammalian folliculogenesis are starting to be deciphered. In Drosophila, the neoplastic tumor suppressor gene discslarge is crucial for suppressing proliferation and movement of follicle cells relative to the growing oocyte. Lethal giant larvae and scribble play similar roles and have been suggested to collaborate intimately with discslarge.