Standardizing Assessment of Competences and Competencies of Oncology Nurses Working in Ambulatory Care.

A nursing quality consortium standardized nursing practice across 17 independently functioning ambulatory oncology sites. Programs were developed to validate both competences and competencies. One program assessed nine competences needed to develop systems of care to detect and treat treatment-related side effects.

Muscle invasive schistosomal squamous cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder: frequency and prognostic significance of p53, BCL-2, HER2/neu, and proliferation (MIB-1).

Muscle invasion is the usual presentation of schistosomal squamous cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder. It is unclear whether this invasive behavior is secondary to the aggressive nature of the disease or to delay in diagnosis. Fixed paraffin-embedded hematoxylin and eosin-stained sections of 15 cystectomy specimens from 15 patients (14 males, 1 female) (age range, 40 to 67 years), histologically confirmed as schistosomal squamous cell carcinoma, were assessed for grade (G1, n = 3; G2, n = 7; G3, n = 5) and pathological stage (PT category: PT2, n = 4; PT3a, n = 9; PT3b, n = 2).

Melanoma growth stimulatory activity in primary malignant melanoma: prognostic significance.

Malignant melanoma (MM) cells do not require all exogenous growth factors of normal melanocytes. It is hypothesized that they make their own growth factors including melanoma growth stimulatory activity (MGSA). Cultured melanoma cells respond to MGSA with increased growth and angiogenesis suggesting a role for MGSA in MM proliferation, differentiation, and progression.