DCs are the most potent antigen-presenting cells that play a major role in initiating the antitumor immune response. Although the clinical significance of TIDCs has been investigated in a variety of human cancers, few studies have focused on the in situ maturation status of DCs. We have analyzed the maturation-specific significance of TIDCs in the prognosis of patients with breast carcinoma. We evaluated 130 breast carcinomas for the presence of TIDCs using immunohistochemistry with an anti-CD1a antibody for immature DCs and an anti-CD83 antibody for mature DCs. Intratumoral expression of immunosuppressive cytokines was also examined. All samples contained CD1a ؉ TIDCs, and 82 (63.1%) samples contained CD83 ؉ TIDCs. The number of CD83 ؉ TIDCs was inversely correlated with lymph node metastasis and with tissue expression of VEGF and TGF-␤, whereas the number of CD1a ؉ TIDCs was not. Kaplan-Meier analysis (log rank statistics) revealed a significant association of increasing number of CD83 ؉ TIDCs with longer relapsefree (p ‫؍‬ 0.002) and overall (p < 0.001) survival. Furthermore, among patients with lymph node metastasis, the survival rate of those with larger numbers of CD83 ؉ TIDCs was significantly better than that of patients with fewer CD83 ؉ TIDCs. Multivariate analysis revealed that CD83 ؉ TIDCs had independent prognostic relevance in breast carcinomas. The infiltration of tumors by mature DCs expressing CD83 may be of great importance in initiating the primary antitumor immune response and is confirmed as an independent, immunologic prognostic parameter for survival in patients with breast cancer.

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Tumor cell apoptosis, proliferation and p27 expression using an in situ apoptosis detection kit, anti-Ki67 antibody and anti-p27 antibody were investigated in 171 colorectal adenocarcinoma specimens, together with the assessment of mutated p53 expression. No apparent association was observed among p27 expression, mutated p53 accumulation, the Ki67 labeling index and the apoptotic index (AI). In the multivariate analysis using the median values as the cut-off points (46.8% for p27 expression and 0.89% for AI), p27 expression was identified as an independent and significant predictor for overall survival. When the present series of patients were dichotomized by these cut-off points to categorize the cases into 4 subgroups, the patients in the group with low p27 expression and a low AI had the poorest prognosis. The assessment of p27 expression and AI therefore may prove valuable in identifying patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma who may have a poor prognosis.

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High-resolution MR lymphography using USPIO enabled us to obtain good axillary lymph node evaluation results. These results suggest that this method of imaging may contribute to better preoperative lymph node staging.