High dose bicalutamide for androgen independent prostate cancer: effect of prior hormonal therapy.

Purpose: A pilot study of the antiandrogen bicalutamide at 150 mg. a day for androgen independent prostate cancer was performed. This study was based on the possibility that androgen independent cases might display responses to additional hormonal agents.

High-dose cyclophosphamide, carmustine, and etoposide with autologous transplantation in Hodgkin's disease: a prognostic model for treatment outcomes.

Purpose: To identify clinical factors predictive of treatment outcome after high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) for Hodgkin's disease and to develop a prognostic model for progression-free and overall survival.

Patients And Methods: 102 patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's disease were treated with high-dose cyclophosphamide, carmustine, and etoposide and autologous marrow and/or peripheral blood progenitor cell support. Median follow-up of survivors is 4.

Preapheresis peripheral blood CD34+ mononuclear cell counts as predictors of progenitor cell yield.

Background: Peripheral blood progenitor cells, harvested by apheresis after mobilization, provide rapid hematologic recovery after high-dose chemotherapy. However, because harvesting these cells is expensive and time-consuming, there has been much interest in optimizing collection protocols. An investigation was made to determine whether, in this clinical setting, peripheral blood progenitor cell yields may be predicted from preapheresis progenitor cell counts, allowing the length of each procedure to be "fine tuned" to achieve specific target goals.

Detection of circulating tumor cells in men with localized prostate cancer.

Purpose: Using prostate-specific antigen (PSA) mRNA as a marker for prostatic epithelial cells, we have developed a sensitive technique that involves reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to detect circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood of men with prostatic carcinoma (CaP).

Patients And Methods: A sensitive RT-PCR assay was used to evaluate the peripheral blood of 135 men with a history of CaP. Fourteen men with benign prostate disease, many of whom had elevated serum PSA levels, were used as a control group.

Heterogeneity of binding subunits of the human 150K insulin-like growth factor binding protein.

Models for the structure of the GH-dependent 150K insulin-like growth factor-binding protein (IGF-BP) complex include 1) a binding subunit of 40-60K mol wt associated with a larger nonbinding component, and 2) an oligomeric structure simply made up of six 25-28K monomeric IGF-BP complexes. To evaluate these alternative models we examined the IGF-binding characteristics and behavior on an SP-Sephadex ion exchange column of BP species identified by chemically cross-linking [125I]IGF-I and [125I]IGF-II. In addition, human serum was gel filtered on Sephadex G-200 in 0.