Predictive value of bcl-2 immunoreactivity in prostate cancer patients treated with radiotherapy.

Background And Purpose: Recent experimental evidence suggests that overexpression of bcl-2, a protein functioning by blocking apoptosis, may influence the treatment outcome in human tumours, including prostate cancer. To test the clinical implications of this hypothesis, tumours from patients with prostate cancer treated with external beam radiotherapy were investigated for bcl-2 immunoreactivity (IR) and correlated with prognosis and treatment outcome.

Materials And Methods: Bcl-2 IR was evaluated in archival tumour specimens obtained through transurethral resection from 42 patients with localized prostate cancer (T0-T4, N0 and M0).

Transforming growth factor beta1 is associated with angiogenesis, metastasis, and poor clinical outcome in prostate cancer.

Background: Prostate tumors express high levels of transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) and seem to acquire resistance to its antiproliferative effects with tumor progression. Moreover, TGF-beta1 could be involved in tumor-promoting processes such as angiogenesis, cell migration, and immunosuppression.

Methods: Immunoreactivity for TGF-beta1 and its receptors type I and type II (TGFbeta-RI and TGFbeta-RII), tumor vascular count, and cell proliferation were studied in 73 cases of prostate cancer, diagnosed between 1975-1983 and followed with surveillance.

Short-term cellular effects induced by castration therapy in relation to clinical outcome in prostate cancer.

To explore the relationship between short-term effects of castration therapy and clinical response, biopsies obtained before and a week after castration therapy from 15 responding and 13 non-responding patients with prostate cancer were investigated. The biopsies were assessed for regressive morphology, apoptotic index by morphological criteria, nuclear area, and immunoreactivity (IR) for Ki-67, p53, bcl-2, bax and Fas. The index was defined as the percentage of immunoreactive cells in a tumour.

Vascular density is a predictor of cancer-specific survival in prostatic carcinoma.

Background: Microvessel density has been shown to give prognostic information in a variety of solid tumors, but its role in prostatic carcinoma needs further elucidation.

Methods: Intratumoral density of von Willebrand factor-positive microvessels was assessed in 98 cases of prostatic carcinoma, diagnosed at transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) between 1975-1983, using two methods: 1) volume density of microvessels and 2) vascular count in the 2-3 most vascularized fields.

Results: Volume density and vascular counts were highly correlated.

Long-term outcome of conservative therapy in men presenting with voiding symptoms and prostate cancer.

Objective: To investigate the outcome of conservative therapy in men presenting with voiding symptoms and prostate cancer.

Methods: A consecutive series of 186 men presenting with voiding symptoms and prostate cancer were treated with transurethral resection (TUR). Examination of the resected tissue revealed 70 nonpalpable prostate cancers and confirmed the clinical suspicion of prostate cancer in 116 palpable tumors; 47 tumors were well differentiated, 87 intermediate and 52 poorly differentiated.

Prognostic factors in prostate cancer.

The clinical course of prostate cancer (PCa), the most common cancer in Swedish men, is highly variable and difficult to predict. Consequently, there is an urgent need to distinguish tumours with a high risk of progression from those with a low risk. To investigate the prognostic implications of proliferation and apoptosis, two important processes in tumor biology, immunoreactivity for biomarkers associated with these processes was assessed, quantified in indexes, and related to cause-specific survival (CSS).

Cell proliferation assessed by Ki-67 immunoreactivity on formalin fixed tissues is a predictive factor for survival in prostate cancer.

Purpose: Proliferation rate may be an important determinant of tumor progression. To evaluate the predictive value of proliferation, immunoreactivity for the proliferation associated antigen Ki-67 was related to survival in a series of patients with prostate cancer.

Materials And Methods: Formalin fixed tissue, obtained by transurethral resection from 125 previously untreated prostate tumors, was examined with an immunohistochemical method for Ki-67.

Pretreatment p53 immunoreactivity does not infer radioresistance in prostate cancer patients.

Purpose: To test, in a clinical context, the hypothesis that p53 aberrations, assessed by immunoreactivity, are related to radioresistance as suggested by several experimental studies.

Methods And Materials: Sixty patients with prostate cancer who underwent transurethral resection of the prostate or biopsy prior to definitive external beam therapy were retrospectively identified. The endpoint in the study was cancer specific survival.

Long-term outcome of patients treated for hydrocele with the sclerosant agent sodium tetradecyl sulphate.

The long-term outcome of 106 patients treated for hydrocele with the sclerosing agent sodium tetradecyl sulphate was examined. In a questionnaire distributed at a mean time of 40 months after therapy 83/86 (96%) of the eligible patients responded and 95% of them were satisfied with the treatment and its long term results. The treatment associated pain was evaluated on a visual analogue scale (0-10) the mean pain score was found to be 1.

Bcl-2 immunoreactivity in prostate tumorigenesis in relation to prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia, grade, hormonal status, metastatic growth and survival.

The Bcl-2 protein prolongs cell survival by overriding apoptosis. To explore the role of Bcl-2 in prostate tumorigenesis, immunoreactivity for Bcl-2 was examined in untreated and androgen-deprived tumours and lymph node metastasis. Following the transurethral resection, 150 untreated patients were maintained under surveillance until death or for a minimum of 11 years, and castration was performed at symptomatic progression.

p53 immunoreactivity as prognostic marker for cancer-specific survival in prostate cancer.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the role of p53 immunoreactivity as a prognostic marker in prostate cancer.

Methods: The nuclear accumulation of the aberrant p53 protein was determined by immunohisto-chemistry on surgical specimens and related to stage, grade and cancer-specific survival in 186 prostate cancer patients treated with transurethral resection and subsequent surveillance.

Results: There was a significant correlation between p53 staining and grade: 2% of the highly differentiated, 8% of intermediately, and 21% of the poorly differentiated tumors stained.

Castration therapy rapidly induces apoptosis in a minority and decreases cell proliferation in a majority of human prostatic tumors.

Major differences in the long-term clinical response to castration therapy of prostatic carcinoma suggests intertumoral differences in cellular response and defines a need for identification of patients with an eventually positive outcome as well as those in need of additional treatment. Using morphometry, monoclonal antibodies against Bcl-2, c-myc, Ki-67, and p53 proteins, and an in situ method to visualize apoptotic cells, we examined the short-term response of prostatic tumors to castration in core biopsies from 18 prostatic cancer patients taken the day before and 7 days after castration. At the histological level, 3 tumors seemed practically unaffected by castration.

Modal DNA values and estramustine-binding protein (EMBP) as prognostic markers in prostatic cancer.

In this study, we have investigated the model DNA values and the expression of estramustine-binding protein (EMBP) in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded TUR specimens from 76 untreated patients with prostatic cancer. In addition, specimens from 13 patients were analyzed for tumour EMBP expression only. Ploidy was measured as diploid, tetraploid and non-tetraploid aneuploid or aneuploid in the near-diploid region.