protein is a potential prognostic marker in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Objective: Cancer cells activate either telomerase or alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) to maintain telomere length and achieve immortalization. Alpha thalassemia/mental retardation X-linked (ATRX) is involved in chromatin remodeling. Mutations in ATRX genes are associated with the loss of nuclear expression and correlated with the ALT phenotype.

Prognostic significance of MCM6 expression in gastrointestinal stromal tumor.

Minichromosome maintenance (MCM) proteins are essential for the initiation of DNA replication and they are prognostic markers in various human cancers. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the MCM6 protein in gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) and its clinical and prognostic significance. We evaluated MCM6 expression in 211 GIST samples using immunohistochemistry.

Remission of intestinal Behçet's disease treated with anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha monoclonal antibody (Infliximab).

Behçet's disease (BD) is a chronic relapsing multisystem disease characterized by oral ulceration, genital ulceration and ocular lesions. Gastrointestinal involvement is rare, often difficult to treat and associated with a high mortality rate. We treated a 47-year-old Korean man with BD who had a recurrent intestinal ulcer with tumor necrosis factor alpha antibody (infliximab); he initially underwent right hemicolectomy due to uncontrolled intestinal bleeding.

Gene promoter hypermethylation in tumors and plasma of breast cancer patients.

Purpose: To measure the hypermethylation of four genes in primary tumors and paired plasma samples to determine the feasibility of gene promoter hypermethylation markers for detecting breast cancer in the plasma.

Materials And Methods: DNA was extracted from the tumor tissues and peripheral blood plasma of 34 patients with invasive breast cancer, and the samples examined for aberrant hypermethylation in cyclin D2, retinoic acid receptor beta (RARbeta), twist and high in normal-1 (HIN-1) genes using methylation-specific PCR (MSP), and the results correlated with the clinicopathological parameters.

Results: Promoter hypermethylation was detected at high frequency in the primary tumors for cyclin D2 (53%), RARbeta (56%), twist (41%) and HIN-1 (77%).