No abstract

Clinical and pathological associations with molecular genetic alterations were studied in colorectal carcinomas from 83 patients. Fractional allelic loss, a measure of allelic deletions throughout the genome, and allelic deletions of specific chromosomal arms (the short arm of 17 and long arm of 18) each provided independent prognostic information by multivariate analysis when considered individually with Dukes' classification. Distant metastasis was significantly associated with high fractional allelic loss and with deletions of 17p and 18q. Mutations of ras proto-oncogenes and deletions of 5q had no prognostic importance. Statistically significant associations were also found between allelic losses and a family history of cancer, left-sided tumor location, and absence of extracellular tumor mucin. Allelic deletion analysis thus identified subsets of colorectal carcinoma with increased predilection for distant metastasis and cancer-related death. Further studies may define a subset of genetic alterations that can be used clinically to help assess prognosis.

No abstract

This one-to-one, age- and race-matched case-control study involved 181 histologically confirmed black prostate cancer patients and 181 controls seen at three major hospitals in Washington, DC, during the period 1979-1982. Personal interviews were conducted to obtain the number of times food items of specified serving size were consumed per week by cases and controls during the age periods 30-49 and 50 years and older. Then the average daily consumption of each of 18 nutrients per 1,000 calories was calculated. There was risk enhancement associated with increased intake of proteins, total fat, saturated fat, oleic acid, and vitamin A during the age period 30-49 years. The association was highly significant for vitamin A and approached statistical significance for the other four nutrients. A hypothesis based on disturbance of the zinc-retinol binding protein-vitamin A axis was put forward to explain the relative risk enhancement effect of vitamin A on prostate cancer.

It has been observed that 60–70% of breast cancer patients have estrogen receptors (ER) and that nearly two‐thirds of such patients respond favorably to endocrine therapy. Cytosolic ER and progesterone receptors (PgR) have been evaluated in the current study, among 146 black women with breast cancer in order to determine whether the distribution of ER and PgR differs from the national norm. The results showed following trends that were similar to reports from other institutions: (1) postmenopausal patients and primary tumors showed higher ER positivity than premenopausal patients and metastatic sites, respectively; (2) a significant correlation between the ER positivity and tumor grade; and (3) a higher PgR positivity in ER‐positive patients than in ER‐negative patients. However, statistically significant differences were observed in three parameters when compared to reports from other institutions on white patients: (1) a low incidence of ER‐positive (46%) and high incidence of ER‐negative (42%) tumors; (2) a higher incidence of poorly differentiated (55.5%) and a lower incidence of well differentiated (5.5%) tumors; tumor grade was independent of age, menopausal status, histopathology and stage; and (3) a higher percentage of patients discovered at a more advanced stage of the disease. The clinical implications of these results in explaining the relatively poorer survival of black women with breast cancer compared to whites is discussed. Whether this high incidence of PD tumors and thus a high incidence of ER negativity is due to ethnic differences and/or environmental and other factors remains to be elucidated.