Long-term survival of a female patient with primary malignant melanoma of the urethra.

Primary malignant melanoma of the female urethra comprises 0.2% of all melanomas and has poor prognosis. In the period 1972-1992, 75 cases of primary urethra carcinomas were treated at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

Evidence of apoptosis in human carotid atheroma.

Purpose: Apoptosis is a morphologically distinct form of programmed cell death that plays a major role in cellular development and homeostasis. In this study, we examined the role that apoptosis may have in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.

Methods: We examined immunohistochemically 20 normal carotid arteries and the carotid arteries of 86 patients (mean age, 68 years; range, 52 to 80 years) who underwent atherectomy for primary atherosclerosis.

Beta human chorionic gonadotropin concentrations in serum of patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Background: Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is normally produced and secreted by trophoblastic cells during pregnancy and from gestational trophoblastic neoplasms. It is also detected in ovarian, stomach, and colon adenocarcinomas, as well as in squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus. Recently, interest in its role in the pathogenesis of tumours has been enlivened after the presence of beta hCG in the cell membrane of several malignant cells was shown in vitro.

Autoantibodies against cardiolipin in the serum of patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma: their prognostic significance.

Using an ELISA method, the sera of 43 patients with colon adenocarcinoma (CA) and of 26 surgical patients with nonmalignant disease of the gastrointestinal tract were studied for the presence of autoantibodies against cardiolipin (CLP) before and 1 month after surgery. Forty healthy volunteers were used as controls. Fourteen CA patients were found to be positive for anti-CLP autoantibodies before surgical treatment, and 15 patients were found to be positive 1 month after surgery.