Glioblastoma (GBM) develops resistance to the advances in chemotherapy leading to poor prognosis and life quality. Consequently, new treatment modalities are needed. Our aims were to investigate the effects of combined noscapine (NOS) and imatinib mesylate (IM) on human GBM in vitro and the role of midkine (MK) in this new combination treatment. »
06/08/11

Hearing loss is common following chemoradiotherapy for children with medulloblastoma. Compared to photons, proton radiotherapy reduces radiation dose to the cochlea for these patients. Here we examine whether this dosimetric advantage leads to a clinical benefit in audiometric outcomes. »
06/02/11

Secondary therapy-related acute lymphoblastic leukemia might emerge following chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy for primary malignancies. Therefore, other alternatives should be pursued to treat leukemia. »
06/10/11

The detection of cytokeratin-19 (CK-19) mRNA-positive circulating tumor cells (CTCs) before and/or after adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with operable breast cancer is associated with poor clinical outcomes. Reliable prognostic markers for late disease relapse are not available. In this study we investigated the value of CTC detection during the first five years of follow-up in predicting late disease relapse. »
06/10/11

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is considered an essential process in the metastatic cascade. EMT is characterized by up-regulation of Vimentin, Twist, snail, slug and SIP-1 among others. Metastasis is also associated with the presence of circulating (CTCs) and disseminated (DTCs) tumor cells in the blood and bone marrow, respectively, of breast cancer patients, but the expression of EMT markers in these cells has not been reported so far. »
06/10/11

The detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the peripheral blood and disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) in the bone marrow are promising prognostic tools for risk stratification in early breast cancer. There is however a need for further validation of these techniques in larger patient cohorts with adequate follow-up periods. »
06/14/11

The purpose of this study is to review our experience with the use of IORT for patients with advanced cervical metastasis. »
06/15/11

Bladder cancer is a significant healthcare problem in the United States of America with a high recurrence rate. Early detection of bladder cancer is essential for removing the tumor with preservation of the bladder, avoiding metastasis and hence improving prognosis and long-term survival. The objective of this study was to analyze the presence of DEK protein in voided urine of bladder cancer patients as a urine-based bladder cancer diagnostic test. »
06/10/11

Recent epidemiologic, genetic, and molecular studies suggest infection and inflammation initiate certain cancers, including cancers of the prostate. Over the past several years, our group has been studying how mycoplasmas could possibly initiate and propagate cancers of the prostate. Specifically, Mycoplasma hyorhinis encoded protein p37 was found to promote invasion of prostate cancer cells and cause changes in growth, morphology and gene expression of these cells to a more aggressive phenotype. Moreover, we found that chronic exposure of benign human prostate cells to M. hyorhinis resulted in significant phenotypic and karyotypic changes that ultimately resulted in the malignant transformation of the benign cells. In this study, we set out to investigate another potential link between mycoplasma and human prostate cancer. »
06/10/11

Long-term gene silencing throughout cell division is generally achieved by DNA methylation and other epigenetic processes. Aberrant DNA methylation is now widely recognized to be associated with cancer and other human diseases. Here we addressed the contribution of the multifunctional nuclear factor CTCF to the epigenetic regulation of the human retinoblastoma (Rb) gene promoter in different tumoral cell lines. »
06/10/11