Acta medica Austriaca. Supplement最新文献

To improve efficiently the outcome of population based screening for diabetes, a preceding questionnaire could be useful to reduce the number of subjects for the chemical diabetes test. During the Austrian Diabetes-Bus-Tour, a questionnaire, proved in the U.S., was completed in 16,537 subjects without known diabetes. Further, the questionnaires were analysed by two different aspects: following the original American system and secondly, a system pronouncing the hereditary component of type 2 diabetes. In comparison of the measured blood glucose values und the questionnaire, in 28% of investigated subjects, at least 50% of expected newly diagnosed type 2 could be identified by the original American system. The point system with hereditary emphasis was not equally useful.

To investigate the prognostic value of tumour cells in peripheral blood (pB) of breast cancer (BC) patients, pB samples from 143 patients with benign lesions of the breast and from 467 BC patients were tested via a nested RT-PCR assay for mammaglobin mRNA. No sample from patients with benign lesions of the breast was found to be mammaglobin positive in contrast to 5/310 (2%) BC patients with no evidence of disease (NED) and 46/157 (29%) patients with metastatic disease (MD). Two hundred and eighteen BC patients with NED were followed for at least 12 months. All five mammaglobin-positive BC patients relapsed 1-13 months after first examination of positive pB samples in contrast to 27/213 (13%) patients without detectable tumour cells in pB. Fifty-nine BC patients with MD were tested for mammaglobin expression in pB at the time of first diagnosis of MD; 20 of them (34%) were mammaglobin positive. Patients were followed for a median of 19 months (2-51 months). During this time, 19/59 (32%) died due to tumour progression. In Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, BC patients with mammaglobin-negative pB samples at time of diagnosis of MD lived significantly longer than mammaglobin-positive patients (log-rank test: P = 0.0013). In addition, mammaglobin was an independent prognostic parameter and the difference reached significance in univariate as well as in multivariate analysis (P < 0.01). We conclude that the presence of tumour cells in pB of BC patients is of prognostic value.

The immunocytochemical detection of isolated disseminated tumor cells (ITC) in the bone marrow of breast cancer patients, what is called minimal residual disease (MRD), has been demonstrated to be of prognostic value in all stages of the disease. In order to definitely prove the origin of these cells from the primary tumor it is necessary to identify common factors on both tumor tissue and ITC, furthermore a more detailed characterization could help to improve their prognostic impact by defining certain subgroups and possibly establish new therapeutic strategies. We examined the expression/amplification of HER2neu, CD 44 adhesion molecule and CD 31 angiogenetic factor on more than 200 primary tumor tissues by immunohistochemistry or fluorescence in situ hybridisation, resp., and found no sign. correlation with the detection of ITC. After a median follow-up of 32 months only ITC in the bone marrow were of prognostic significance. In a small number of patients we examined the expression of topoisomerase II alpha, a key enzyme of DNA replication, and its predictive value of eliminating ITC by anthracyclin based chemotherapy. No correlation with the presence of ITC before or after chemotherapy could be found, yet pat. with topoisomerase II alpha neg. tumors showed a trend to reduced disease free survival. Because of the very low number of ITC per bone marrow sample, the direct characterization of these factors on ITC stays difficult without the possibility of tumor cell enrichment or cell culture. Preliminary results on multi colour stained samples indicate that a selection of certain biological factors takes place during tumor cell dissemination.

The detection of disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow and blood is increasingly used for staging and therapeutic decisions in breast cancer and other solid tumors. Molecular biological methods improve the diagnostic accuracy. Limitations of the approach relate to the lack of disease-specific marker genes. The detection of tumor cells in the bone marrow after primary therapy is a negative prognostic parameter in many solid tumours. Axillary lymph node dissection and histopathology remain the standard staging procedure in breast cancer, but nodal negative patients exhibiting tumor cells in the bone marrow have an inferior outcome and may benefit from adjuvant therapy. The immunohistochemical and molecular detection of tumour cells in lymph nodes reduces the number of truly nodal-negative patients considerably. Tumour cells in bone marrow and blood may be used to directly monitor therapeutic responses.