Molecular characterization of prostatic small-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma.

Objectives: A subset of prostate carcinomas is composed predominantly, even exclusively, of neuroendocrine (NE) cells. In this report, we sought to characterize the gene expression profile of a prostate small cell NE carcinoma by assessing the diversity and abundance of transcripts in the LuCaP 49 prostate small cell carcinoma xenograft.

Methods: We constructed a cDNA library (PRCA3) from the LuCap 49 prostate small cell xenograft.

Fatal Bacillus cereus sepsis following resolving neutropenic enterocolitis during the treatment of acute leukemia.

Bacillus cereus is increasingly being acknowledged as a serious bacterial pathogen in immunosuppressed hosts. We report a case of fatal B. cereus sepsis in a patient with newly diagnosed acute leukemia following resolving neutropenic enterocolitis.

Long-term outcomes after treatment with external beam radiation therapy and palladium 103 for patients with higher risk prostate carcinoma: influence of prostatic acid phosphatase.

Background: The objective of this study was to define the long-term prognostic significance of prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) levels in patients with higher risk, early-stage prostate carcinoma.

Methods: One hundred sixty-one consecutive patients with Stage T1-T3 prostate carcinoma (according to the 1992 criteria of the American Joint Committee on Cancer) were treated from 1992 through 1996. Each patient had a Gleason score > or = 7 and/or a prostate specific antigen (PSA) level > 10 ng/mL.

Flow cytometry analysis of proliferative lesions at the gastrocystoplasty anastomosis.

Purpose: Proliferative epithelial metaplasia that develops in the anastomotic line after gastrocystoplasty has unknown malignant potential. Flow cytometry analysis of cell cycle profiles is used to predict the neoplastic progression of metaplastic lesions in other proliferative epithelium. We used this technique to evaluate transitional cell metaplasia in rat gastrocystoplasty specimens.

Activated mammalian target of rapamycin pathway in the pathogenesis of tuberous sclerosis complex renal tumors.

Disruption of the TSC1 or TSC2 gene leads to the development of tumors in multiple organs, most commonly affecting the kidney, brain, lung, and heart. Recent genetic and biochemical studies have identified a role for the tuberous sclerosis gene products in phosphoinositide 3-kinase signaling. On growth factor stimulation, tuberin, the TSC2 protein, is phosphorylated by Akt, thereby releasing its inhibitory effects on p70S6K.

A neuroendocrine/small cell prostate carcinoma xenograft-LuCaP 49.

The late stages of progression of prostate carcinoma are typically characterized by an androgen-insensitive, rapidly proliferative state. Some late-stage tumors are composed predominantly of neuroendocrine cells. Virtually no animal models of a neuroendocrine/small cell variant of prostate carcinoma are available for experimental studies.

I-125 versus Pd-103 for low-risk prostate cancer: morbidity outcomes from a prospective randomized multicenter trial.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the shorter half-life of Pd-103 versus I-125 results in a shorter duration of radiation-related symptoms after prostate brachytherapy.

Methods: As of February 2000, 110 of a planned total of 380 patients with 1997 American Joint Commission clinical stage T1c-T2a prostatic carcinoma (Gleason grade 2-6, prostate-specific antigen, 4-10 ng/mL) had been randomly assigned to implantation with I-125 (144 Gy, TG-43) or Pd-103 (125 Gy, NIST-99). Isotope implantation was performed by standard techniques, using a modified peripheral loading pattern.

Characterization of prostate cell types by CD cell surface molecules.

A set of monoclonal antibodies raised against lymphocyte cell surface molecules, the cluster designation (CD) antigens, was used to distinguish the constituent cell types of the prostate. The luminal secretory epithelial, basal epithelial, fibromuscular stromal, nerve sheath, and endothelial cells express distinctive complements of cell surface molecules that were identified by immunohistochemistry using 152 commercially available antibodies. Many of the CD antibodies stained lymphocyte populations in the prostate.