High mobility group protein HMGA1 expression in breast cancer reveals a positive correlation with tumour grade.

Members of the HMGA protein (high mobility group protein A) family act as master switches of the chromatin structure by bending DNA and thus modulating the formation of transcription factor complexes of a number of target genes. Accordingly, HMGA proteins have been shown to be associated with the development and/or progression of a variety of benign and malignant tumours. Nevertheless, the HMGA1 expression studies published so far have not included primary breast cancer samples.

Identification of a gene rearranged by 2p21 aberrations in thyroid adenomas.

Thyroid adenomas belong to the cytogenetically best investigated human epithelial tumors. Cytogenetic studies of about 450 benign lesions allow one to distinguish between different cytogenetic subgroups. Two chromosomal regions, that is, 19q13 and 2p21, are frequently rearranged in these tumors.

Visualizing metabolic changes in breast-cancer tissue using 1H-NMR spectroscopy and self-organizing maps.

In-vitro NMR spectroscopic examinations of tissue extracts can be combined with appropriate pattern-recognition and visualization techniques in order to monitor characteristic metabolic differences between tissue classes. In the present study, such techniques are applied to a set of 88 breast-tissue samples with the intention of identifying typical differences between various tissue classes. The set contains 49 breast-tumor samples of various tumor grades and 39 samples of healthy tissue.

Cytogenetic tetraclonality in a rare spindle cell variant of an anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid.

We report a case of an unusual anaplastic carcinoma with spindle cell differentiation in an 85-year-old patient. Although the tumor showed sarcoma-like features its occurrence in the thyroid of an elderly person supported the diagnosis of an anaplastic carcinoma. This diagnosis is also supported by the results of cytogenetic studies that revealed four independent clones.