Publications by authors named "Zofia Wotschofsky"

The COVID-19 pandemic affected daily life significantly and had massive consequences for healthcare systems with tremendous regional differences. This retrospective study aimed to investigate whether the pandemic and resulting societal changes impacted the diagnosis of pediatric malignancies in a distinct region. Pediatric cancer cases in Bavaria (2016-2021) and SARS-CoV-2 proceedings during the peak phase of the pandemic (2020-2021) were retrospectively analyzed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The cellular reconstitution after childhood cancer therapy is associated with the risk of infection and efficacy of revaccination. Many studies have described the reconstitution after stem cell transplantation (SCT). The recovery after cancer treatment in children who have not undergone SCT has mainly been investigated in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), less for solid tumors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is cytogenetically characterized by the classic translocation t(9;22)(q34;q11), whereas additional non-Philadelphia aberrations (nPhAs) have been studied extensively in adult patients with CML, knowledge on nPhAs in pediatric patients with CML is still sparse. Here, we have determined nPhAs in a cohort of 161 patients younger than 18 years diagnosed with chronic phase CML and consecutively enrolled in the German national CML-PAED-II registry. In 150 cases (93%), an informative cytogenetic analysis had been performed at diagnosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression by interfering translation or stability of target transcripts. This interplay between miRNA and their mRNA has been proposed as an important process in cancer development and progression. We have investigated molecular networks impacted by predicted mRNA targets of differentially expressed miRNAs in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) diagnosed with or without metastasis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are small RNAs of 27-30 nucleotides mapping to transposons or clustering in repeat genomic regions. Preliminary studies suggest an important role in cancerogenesis. This study is the first one investigating their prognostic impact in clear cell renal cell cancer (ccRCC) patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • MicroRNAs are being studied as potential biomarkers to predict tumor recurrence in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) following surgery.
  • A total of eight specific microRNAs were analyzed in tumor samples from 111 patients, and their expression levels were compared between metastatic and non-metastatic tumors.
  • The findings indicated that miR-122 and miR-514 are related to recurrence risk, with miR-514 being especially promising as an independent marker for predicting tumor recurrence after surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • MicroRNAs (miRNAs) significantly impact cancer development and progression, but their exact influence on metastasis in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is not well understood.
  • By analyzing samples from normal, primary, and metastatic tissues, researchers identified 57 miRNAs that differ in expression levels, with 30 confirmed to be deregulated.
  • The study revealed a consistent down-regulation of certain miRNAs in metastatic tissues compared to normal tissues, suggesting that epigenetic modifications may contribute to these changes, paving the way for further research on miRNAs in ccRCC metastasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • To achieve accurate results in miRNA expression studies using RT-qPCR, it's crucial to normalize data with stably expressed reference genes across samples.
  • A review of RCC studies showed that many used non-miRNAs without validating their reliability.
  • The study identified miR-28, miR-103, miR-106a, and RNU48 as the most stable miRNAs; specifically, miR-28 is recommended as the primary normalizer when only one reference gene is available, while certain combinations are preferred over the commonly used RNU6B to avoid misleading interpretations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Characterisation of breakpoints in disease-associated balanced chromosome rearrangements (DBCRs), which disrupt or inactivate specific genes, has facilitated the molecular elucidation of a wide variety of genetic disorders. However, conventional methods for mapping chromosome breakpoints, such as in situ hybridisation with fluorescent dye-labelled bacterial artificial chromosome clones (BAC-FISH), are laborious, time consuming and often with insufficient resolution to unequivocally identify the disrupted gene. By combining DNA array hybridisation with chromosome sorting, the efficiency of breakpoint mapping has dramatically improved.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF