Expression of receptors for estrogen and progesterone in malignant colonic mucosa as a prognostic factor for patient survival.

Background And Objectives: Estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR) have been detected in both normal and malignant colonic mucosa, but the prognostic value of this observation is unknown. We aimed to define the prognostic significance of the presence of ER and PR in malignant cells from colorectal adenocarcinoma specimens.

Methods: An immunohistochemical assay for ER and PR was performed on paraffinized sections from 65 colorectal adenocarcinoma specimens.

Oncogenes in cancer of the pancreas.

A three-step immunoperoxidase staining technique was used in order to estimate the immunohistochemical expression of K-ras, c-fos, c-myc and c-erbB-2 oncoproteins, in paraffin sections of 20 patients, with histologically proven adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. The two oncogenes that were found to be associated with pancreatic adenocarcinoma were K-ras and c-erbB-2. in 15 patients (75%) and four patients (20%), respectively.

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy as a routine procedure for gallstones: results of an 'all-comers' policy.

A total of 165 consecutive patients with gallstones were considered for laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Three were excluded. The median age was 52 years and 76 per cent were women.

Open versus laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a retrospective comparative study.

Two groups of 40 patients (31 females, 9 males), matched for age and body mass index, who underwent either elective open cholecystectomy (Group I) or elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy (Group II) have been studied retrospectively to detect differences in operating time, morbidity and mortality, hospital length of stay, and use of postoperative analgesics. The two groups of patients had almost identical histories of gallstone disease. The median operating time for the patients in Group I was 45 min (range 35-95) compared with 90 min (range 50-135) in Group II.