IRF-1 promotes apoptosis in p53-damaged basal-type human mammary epithelial cells: a model for early basal-type mammary carcinogenesis.

Mammary gland homeostasis is regulated by both endogenous and exogenous signals, creating a balance between proliferation and apoptosis. It is thought that breast cancer develops from the acquisition of multiple genetic changes. The function of tumor suppressor p53 is fequently lost in cancers; however, not all cells that lose p53 progress to become invasive cancer.

Quantitating cellular immune responses to cancer vaccines.

While the future of immunotherapy in the treatment of cancer is promising, it is difficult to compare the various approaches because monitoring assays have not been standardized in approach or technique. Common assays for measuring the immune response need to be established so that these assays can one day serve as surrogate markers for clinical response. Assays that accurately detect and quantitate T-cell-mediated, antigen-specific immune responses are particularly desired.

The impact that group sequential tests would have made on ECOG clinical trials.

Using designs that several authors proposed, we reanalysed a large number of completed phase III clinical trials of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group as if each had been designed with group sequential stopping rules. With survival the primary endpoint of the large multicentre trials, we discuss the relative merits of each design, as well as the feasibility of group sequential designs in general.