A feasibility study of cryotherapy followed by radical prostatectomy for locally advanced prostate cancer.

Purpose: There has been a significant shift toward multimodality therapy to try to eradicate extracapsular disease better in patients with locally advanced prostate cancer. We assess the feasibility and complications of initial cryotherapy followed by radical prostatectomy, and evaluate the frequency and location of viable benign and malignant prostate tissue and positive surgical margins after this treatment combination.

Materials And Methods: A total of 12 patients with clinical stage T3 cancer or clinical stages T1c to T2, Gleason score 8 to 10 cancer on the initial biopsy were treated with initial cryotherapy followed by open surgical exploration 2 to 8 days later.

Prostate cancer in African-American men: outcome following radiation therapy with or without adjuvant androgen ablation.

Purpose: To compare the outcome of irradiated clinically localized prostate cancer in African-American and white patients.

Methods And Materials: This was a retrospective review of 1,201 men, 116 African-American and 1,085 white, with T1-T3, N0/NX, M0 prostate cancer receiving external radiation between 1987 and 1996. Pretreatment characteristics, treatment parameters, and outcome (relapse or rising prostate-specific antigen [PSA] levels, local recurrence, metastatic relapse, and survival) were compared between the groups using univariate and multivariate statistical methods.

Combination chemotherapy for metastatic or locally advanced genitourinary squamous cell carcinoma: a phase II study of methotrexate, cisplatin and bleomycin.

Purpose: The prognosis of patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of genitourinary origin is poor. While single agent chemotherapy results mainly in partial responses of short duration, data on the efficacy of combination chemotherapy are extremely limited. We determined the response rate and toxicity of a combination of 3 of the most active agents, methotrexate, cisplatin and bleomycin, in patients with advanced genitourinary squamous cell carcinoma.

Prostate specific antigen and pathological features of prostate cancer in black and white patients: a comparative study based on radical prostatectomy specimens.

Purpose: We compared the relationship of pathological features and preoperative prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels of a consecutive series of black patients to a stage matched cohort of white patients treated during the same period.

Materials And Methods: The radical prostatectomy specimens of 40 black patients were reviewed and tumor volume was determined. Histopathological features (stage, grade, zonal distribution of cancer foci), tumor volume and prostate weight were correlated to pretreatment serum PSA levels.

Deoxyribonucleic acid flow cytometry and traditional pathologic variables in invasive penile carcinoma: assessment of prognostic significance.

Objectives: The identification of reliable prognostic factors to guide the selection of patients at high risk of harboring subclinical metastases in penile cancer is important. We evaluated traditional pathologic variables and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) flow cytometry to determine the prognostic significance of these variables for the subsequent development of lymph node metastases.

Methods: Clinical data and pathologic specimens were retrospectively reviewed from patients treated surgically at university-affiliated hospitals from 1958 to 1987.

Prognostic markers in clinically localized prostate cancer.

Current dilemmas for physicians managing patients with localized prostate cancer include deciding: (1) which patients need aggressive treatment; (2) what treatment options are best for a given patient; and (3) what treatment outcomes can be expected. This article reviews our ability to prognosticate outcome (including pathological stage and disease-free survival rate) in patients with clinically localized adenocarcinoma of the prostate (AJCC, stage T1-T2. N0, M0) subsequent to analysis of several contemporary series involving patients treated with radical prostatectomy and external-beam radiation therapy.

Presentation, methods of diagnosis and therapy for pelvic recurrence following radical cystectomy for transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder.

Purpose: We evaluated the presentation, methods of diagnosis and treatment of pelvic recurrence following radical cystectomy for transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder.

Materials And Methods: We reviewed the records of 33 patients who underwent radical cystectomy for transitional cell carcinoma between May 1960 and August 1995 at our cancer center and who later had pelvic recurrence.

Results: The majority of patients underwent cystectomy for clinically advanced transitional cell carcinoma.

Risk of urethral, vaginal and cervical involvement in patients undergoing radical cystectomy for bladder cancer: results of a contemporary cystectomy series from M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Purpose: Orthotopic bladder reconstruction in women is the focus of considerable interest. To define suitable candidates for orthotopic reconstruction among women with bladder cancer, we reviewed the risk of secondary urethral, vaginal and cervical involvement by transitional cell carcinoma in patients who underwent radical cystectomy at our institution.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the charts of women who underwent radical cystectomy for primary transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder between 1985 and 1995.

Correlation of metastasis-related gene expression with metastatic potential in human prostate carcinoma cells implanted in nude mice using an in situ messenger RNA hybridization technique.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the expression level of several metastasis-regulating genes correlates with the metastatic potential of human prostate cancer cells implanted into the prostate of nude mice. The steady-state mRNA expression levels for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR; growth), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and interleukin (IL)-8 (angiogenesis), 72-kd and 92-kd type IV collagenase (invasion), E-cadherin (adhesion), and multidrug resistance (mdr-1; drug resistance) were measured by Northern blot and colorimetric in situ hybridization techniques in human PC-3M cells and selected cell variants with different metastatic potentials. Highly metastatic cells growing in culture constitutively and uniformly expressed higher levels of bFGF, IL-8, type IV collagenase, and mdr-1 mRNA transcripts than parental PC-3M cells or low metastatic cells, which displayed a heterogeneous pattern of gene expression.

The efficacy and complications of salvage cryotherapy of the prostate.

Purpose: A phase I/II study was done to evaluate the efficacy and complications of salvage cryotherapy as a treatment for locally recurrent prostate cancer following full dose radiation therapy and/or systemic therapy. The efficacy of single and double freeze-thaw cycles was compared using posttreatment prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels and prostate biopsies as end points.

Materials And Methods: A total of 150 patients with locally recurrent prostate cancer following radiation, hormonal therapy and/or systemic chemotherapy underwent salvage cryotherapy using a single (71 men, mean followup 17.

Apoptosis resistance increases with metastatic potential in cells of the human LNCaP prostate carcinoma line.

The aim of this study was to determine whether stable differences in apoptosis sensitivity were selected for in nonmetastatic and metastatic variants of the LNCaP human prostate carcinoma line that had been isolated from tumors grown orthotopically in the prostate glands and regional lymph nodes of nude mice. The nonmetastatic LNCaP-Pro5 cells were significantly more sensitive to thapsigargin-induced apoptosis than were the metastatic LNCaP-LN3 cells, as measured by viability, DNA fragmentation, and interleukin 1beta-converting enzyme family-mediated cleavage of the DNA repair enzyme, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase. Apoptosis resistance in the metastatic cells was associated with higher levels of expression of the cell death suppressor BCL-2 and lower levels of the death promoters BAX and BAK than were detected in the nonmetastatic LNCaP-Pro5 cells, whereas levels of two other BCL-2 family members (BCL-X(L) and BAD) were indistinguishable.

Selection of highly metastatic variants of different human prostatic carcinomas using orthotopic implantation in nude mice.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the implantation of human prostate cancer cells into the prostates of nude mice and their subsequent growth there can be used to select variants with increasing metastatic potential. PC-3M and LNCaP cells were injected into the prostates of athymic mice. Tumors from the prostate or lymph nodes were harvested, and cells were reinjected into the prostate.

Sentinel lymph node dissection for penile carcinoma: the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center experience.

Purpose: We determined whether an extended sentinel lymph node dissection is effective for staging penile squamous carcinoma associated with clinically negative inguinal lymph nodes.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective review was done of 20 consecutive patients who underwent extended sentinel lymph node dissection between 1985 and 1994.

Results: Of the patients 14 underwent bilateral extended sentinel lymph node dissection, and 6 underwent ipsilateral extended sentinel lymph node dissection plus contralateral inguinal or ilioinguinal lymphadenectomy.

Systemic administration of 4-amidinoindanon-1-(2'-amidino)-hydrazone, a new inhibitor of s-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase, produces cytostasis of human prostate-cancer in athymic nude-mice.

CGP 48664A, a new S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase inhibitor, blocks the production of spermidine and spermine, two polyamines that play critical roles in cellular proliferation. Under in vitro conditions, CGP 48664A produced cytostasis of the human prostate cancer cell lines LNCaP, LNCaP-LN3, PC-3M, and PC-3M-MM2 in a dose-dependent manner. This cytostasis was reversed by the addition of exogenous polyamines to the culture medium.

Prediction of early kidney transplant rejection by a crossmatch with donor skin.

Immunofluorescence staining of donor skin with recipient serum was performed in 25 patients undergoing kidney transplantation. Transplants were performed when cytotoxicity T cell crossmatches with long incubation and with antiglobulin enhancement were negative. In 20 patients the skin crossmatch was negative and all had an uneventful course.

Allogeneic lymphocyte stimulation by human spleen. Identification of cells that are very effective for presenting class II HLA antigens.

Human spleen cells were fractionated by percoll density gradient centrifugation and by sorting in the FACS with mixtures of fluorescent antibodies against T cells, B cells, monocytes, and Sig-bearing cells. Cells responsible for powerful MLR stimulation were class II HLA antigen-positive and were concentrated in preparations depleted of all the markers listed above. These cells represented 1-2% of the initial spleen cells.

Kidney transplant recipients with long incubation-positive antiglobulin-negative T cell crossmatches.

Low-affinity, cold-reactive antibodies easily removed by washing were not detected by the antiglobulin technique but killed T lymphocytes when washing was omitted, incubation was prolonged, and cytotoxic tests were incubated at room temperature or at 4 degrees C. These antibodies were present in approximately 25% of sera from dialysis patients. Only a subset of such sera (22%) reacted with autologous lymphocytes.