Survival analysis of presumptive prognostic markers among oligodendrogliomas

Abstract

The work effort of prehistoric males relative to females has long been of interest to anthropologists, particularly in foraging versus farming groups. This knowledge requires a clear understanding of the sexual division of labor, or the dichotomy in subsistence roles allocated to males and females. Such research in the Prehispanic American Southwest has been limited. As previous work has shown that bone is the osseous template that reflects in vivo activity levels, it is possible to assess gender‐based differences in past work effort using analyses of geometric properties of bone and calculations of bilateral asymmetry. Our research comparatively analyzed upper limb work effort by sex and subsistence in two skeletal samples from disparate economic groups, foragers and farmers, both from similar desert environments. The residentially mobile foragers are from the Lower Pecos region of southwest Texas and the farmers are from the aggregated pueblo of Pottery Mound in south central New Mexico. Humeri from 27 adult foragers (n = 11 males; n = 17 females) and 65 adult farmers (n = 38 males; n = 27 females) were selected for study. All humeri were radiographed and/or scanned and digitized. Statistical comparisons using two‐way ANOVAs indicate that female farmers exhibited the greatest humeral strength and the least asymmetry. Relative to all other groups examined, female farmers engaged in higher levels of upper limb work effort implying a substantial economic contribution to their agricultural economy. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Multiplex Ligation-Dependent Probe Amplification

“…8,21,23 In contrast, it has been reported that gliomas with partial LOH 1p and LOH 19q have a better chemoresponse. 22 Concordantly, one of the patients in our series with an OA harboring Ϫ1pcen-p31 and Ϫ19q13.2-qter ( Figure 4) showed a long survival (16 years since first surgery for low-grade glioma, which 9 years later appeared to have progressed to anaplastic OA at the histopathological level; unpublished data). Based on our results we conclude that using MLPA kit P088 reliably identifies not only complete but also partial losses on 1p and 19q in gliomas from both snap-frozen and paraffinembedded tumor tissue containing at least 50% tumor cells.…”

“…1,16 Furthermore, it is becoming increas-ingly clear that distinct types of 1p deletions (complete versus partial) exist in (oligodendro)gliomas, sometimes with opposite clinical and biological consequences. 21,22 Unfortunately, however, the above-mentioned diagnostic strategies do not discriminate between these distinct types. Until the exact combination of genes on 1p/19q responsible for the favorable clinical behavior of these gliomas have been identified, analysis of multiple regions on 1p and 19q seems preferable, thereby enabling an even more accurate identification of these clinically favorable gliomas.…”

Identification of genomic aberrations associated with shorter overall survival in patients with oligodendroglial tumors

“…Relatively few studies have addressed the prognostic role of other genomic alterations in oligodendroglial tumors. Genetic changes that have been linked to poor survival of oligodendroglioma patients include interstitial deletion on 1p, 13,18 EGFR amplification, 11,19 8q gain, 20 allelic loss at 9p21 21 and homozygous deletion of CDKN2A, 10 deletion on 10q 11,19,22 and PTEN mutation. 11,23 However, only homozygous deletion of CDKN2A was shown to be an independent predictor of poor outcome.…”

Multiplexed methylation profiles of tumor suppressor genes and clinical outcome in oligodendroglial tumors

“…Codeletion of 1p and 19q has been linked to prolonged survival in oligodendroglial tumor patients 31, 32, among those whose tumors have lost the entire arm of chromosomes 1p/19q tend to have a better prognosis than those with tumors having only partial or no loss of these chromosomes 33. In contrast, only 19q deletion and not 1p/19q codeletion was found to be a significant predictor of longer duration of progression‐free survival in the series examined in this study.…”