Progression of atherosclerosis and increased vulnerability to plaque rupture may underlie the relationship between particulate air pollution and excess cardiovascular death.

The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor was one of the most important prognostic factors in completely resected non-small-cell lung cancer, especially in squamous cell carcinoma.

RESULTS. Thirty-one of 115 NSCLC specimens (27%) showed negative p16 staining. Department of Surgery II, School of Medicine,The frequency of negative p16 expression was significantly higher in squamous University of Occupational and Environmental cell carcinoma (39.5%) than in adenocarcinoma (20.3%) (P Å 0.026). There were Health, Kitakyushu, Japan.no statistically significant differences in the p16 status with respect to age, gender, smoking history, histologic differentiation, or stage of the disease. The KaplanMeier survival curves demonstrated that patients with negative p16 expression survived for a significantly shorter period of time than those with positive p16 expression (P Å 0.043). p16 status was a significant prognostic factor, especially in patients with early stage disease (Stages I-II) (P Å 0.039). CONCLUSIONS.A lack of p16 INK4 expression in NSCLC was observed more frequently in squamous cell carcinoma than in adenocarcinoma, and also was found to be closely related to prognosis, especially in patients with early stage squamous cell carcinoma.

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