Estrogen receptor subtypes in ovarian cancer: a clinical correlation.

Objective: To study the distribution of estrogen receptor (ER) subtypes in ovarian tumors and to correlate the levels of expression with clinical factors.

Methods: Estrogen receptor-alpha (ERalpha) and beta-mRNA expressions in 58 normal, 25 borderline, and 161 malignant ovarian tissue samples were determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The expression levels were correlated with clinical data, including the histologic subtypes, the stage of the disease, and the disease-free and overall survival, with a median follow-up of 80 months.

Four case reports of families with esophageal cancer in a high-risk region on the Guangdong Chaoshan coast of China.

Four families with a history of esophageal cancer were studied and their family trees analyzed. All the families had lived in Chaoshan for about 20 generations, speak Chanshan dialect, and generally have a predilection for drinking scalding Gong Fu tea and eating pickled Chinese cabbage. The majority of the esophageal cancer patients of the first generation were diagnosed 40 or 50 years ago after presenting with the typical symptom of dysphagia, whereas patients of the second and third generations were diagnosed mainly by means of radiography and pathology.