Chromosome 3p abnormalities and allele loss are frequent in lung and breast cancers, and several lung cancer cell lines exhibit homozygous deletions of 3p indicating potential sites of tumor suppressor genes at regions 3p21.3, 3p14.2 and 3p12. We have identi®ed and characterized a new 3p21.3 homozygous deletion in a breast cancer cell line and the primary tumor that overlaps those previously described in small cell lung cancer (SCLC). This homozygous deletion is approximately 220 kb in length and represents a somatically acquired change in the primary breast cancer. Cloning and sequencing of the breakpoint demonstrated that this resulted from an interstitial deletion and precisely pinpoints this deletion within the three SCLC homozygous deletions previously reported. This deletion signi®cantly narrows the minimum common deleted region to 120 kb and is distinct from the previously reported region that suppresses tumor formation of the murine A9 ®brosarcoma cells. These ®ndings suggest that a common homozygous deletion region on 3p21.3 is important in both lung and breast cancers. It is likely that this very well characterized region either contains one tumor suppressor gene common to both tumor types or two closely linked tumor suppressor genes speci®c for each tumor.

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FHIT/FRA3B is frequently altered in cervical cancer, demonstrating LOH, occasional homozygous deletions, and frequent aberrant transcripts not found in normal epithelia. However, the presence of wild-type transcripts and the lack of protein-altering point mutations raise questions about FHIT's function as a classic tumor suppressor gene in cervical tissue.

Stable dispersions of superparamagnetic nanoparticles that are already in use in biomedicine as image-enhancing agents also have potential use in subsurface applications. Surface-coated nanoparticles are capable of flowing through micron-sized pores across long distances in a reservoir, with modest retention in rock. These particles change the magnetic permeability of the flooded region, and thus one can use them to enhance images of the flood. In this paper, we model the propagation of a "ferrofluid" slug in a reservoir and its response to a crosswell magnetic tomography system.This approach to monitoring fluid movement within a reservoir is built on established electromagnetic (EM) conductivity-monitoring technology. In this work, however, we investigate the contrast between injected and resident fluids when they have different magnetic permeabilities. Specifically, we highlight the magnetic response at low frequency to the magnetic excitations generated by a vertical magnetic dipole source positioned at the injection well. At these frequencies, the induction effect is small, the casing effect is manageable, the crosswell response originates purely from the magnetic contrast in the formation, and changes in fluid conductivities are irrelevant.The sensitivity of the measurements to the magnetic slug is highest when the slug is closest to the source or receivers and lower when the slug is midway in the interwell region. At low frequencies, the magnetic response of the ferrofluid slug is largely independent of frequency. As expected for the conductive slug, the sensitivity of the inductive measurements is negligible at low frequencies whereas significant levels of detectability result at higher frequencies. We demonstrate sensitivity to the vertical boundaries of the slug by shifting the vertical position of the excitation source relative to the magnetic slug. The slug geometry plays a key role in determining the magnetic response. With a fixed volume of ferrofluid, there is an optimum slug geometry that results in the maximum magnetic response. Hydrodynamic dispersion of the slug has negligible effect on the magnetic response during early stages of the waterflood. As the slug travels farther into the formation, however, dispersion reduces the concentration of nanoparticles, and the spatial contributions of the magnetic measurements are more diffuse. We illustrate how these low-frequency excitation behaviors are consistent with the quasistatic magnetic dipole physics. The fact that the progress of the magnetic slug can be detected at very early stages of the flood, that the traveling slug's vertical boundaries can be identified at low frequencies, and that the magnetic nanoparticles can be sensed well before the actual arrival of the slug at the observer well provide significant value of the use of the magnetic-contrast agents in crosswell EM tomography.