Cryptorchidism and testicular germ cell tumors: comprehensive meta-analysis reveals that association between these conditions diminished over time and is modified by clinical characteristics.

Introduction: Risk of testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT) is consistently associated with a history of cryptorchidism (CO) in epidemiologic studies. Factors modifying the association may provide insights regarding etiology of TGCT and suggest a basis for individualized care of CO. To identify modifiers of the CO-TGCT association, we conducted a comprehensive, quantitative evaluation of epidemiologic data.

Therapeutic effects of thalidomide in myeloma are associated with the expression of fibroblast growth factor receptor 3.

Thalidomide (Thal), a novel agent in the treatment of multiple myeloma, is presumed to act through a variety of mechanisms. In the present study, we examined the relationship between fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) expression and the therapeutic effect of Thal. The DNA synthesis of KMS-11 clone, which overexpresses FGFR3, was inhibited by Thal in a dose-dependent manner; whereas U266 cells, which lack FGFR3 expression, failed to respond to Thal inhibition.

Need for standardization of cancer practice via nationally accepted treatment guidelines.

The critical need for a reduction in health-care costs has revolutionized the management of a significant segment of the American health-care system. The competition, at least on the basis of cost, will continue to restrict access to care and may reduce quality. For patients with diseases such as specific cancers that have been demonstrated by reproducible methods in comparative trials to be potentially curable or strikingly ameliorated, assurance of treatment by these methods must be guaranteed.

Epidermal growth factor in serum, urine, submandibular glands and kidneys of diabetic mice.

Levels of epidermal growth factor (EGF) in serum were significantly decreased in streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetic mice (446 +/- 168 pg/ml after 1 week and 423 +/- 52 after 4 weeks vs 766 +/- 162 pg/ml in controls, P.002 and less than .001.

Rearrangement of kappa-chain and T-cell receptor beta-chain genes in malignant lymphomas of "T-cell" phenotype.

Detection of immunoglobulin gene rearrangements by molecular hybridization is considered to be a highly sensitive approach to the evaluation of clonality of B-cell-derived neoplasms. Like monoclonal surface immunoglobulin in B cells, which serves as a reliable immunophenotypic marker for clonality, rearrangement of the genes encoding immunoglobulin light chains has been accepted as a reliable genotypic marker for the presence of a clonal expansion of B lymphocytes. The authors now report 3 cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that were immunologically classified as having a T-cell phenotype and in which, in addition to rearrangements of the T-cell receptor beta-chain gene, a rearrangement of an immunoglobulin light-chain gene was clearly identified by Southern blot hybridization.