Soluble p185(HER-2) in patients with malignant bone tumours.

BACKGROUND: This study was initiated to test the hypothesis that soluble p185(HER-2) could be of value as a diagnostic or predictive marker for patients with malignant bone tumours. PROCEDURE: Sera of 35 patients with high-grade malignant osteosarcoma (n = 27) and Ewing Sarcoma (n = 8) were tested at the time of diagnosis by ELISA and compared with sera of controls (n = 38) and clinical data. RESULTS: In patients with osteosarcoma and Ewing Sarcoma, levels of sp185(HER-2) did not differ significantly from levels in controls. These results were irrespective of the type of tumour, survival chemotherapy or other clinical variables. CONCLUSION: p185(HER-2) serum levels do not appear to be of diagnostic or predictive value for differentiation of high-grade osteosarcoma and Ewing Sarcoma.

Bone mineral density in long-term survivors of highly malignant osteosarcoma.

We studied the bone mineral density (BMD) of 48 long-term survivors of highly malignant osteosarcoma who had been treated according to the chemotherapy protocols of the German- Swiss-Austrian Co-operative Osteosarcoma Study Group which include high-dose methotrexate. The mean age of the patients was 31 +/- 4.2 years and the mean follow-up 16 +/- 2.2 years. The BMD of the lumbar spine and of the proximal femur of the non-operated side was measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. A questionnaire was given to determine life-style factors, medical history and medication. Ten patients were osteoporotic, 21 osteopenic and 17 normal according to the WHO definition. Eighteen patients suffered fractures after receiving chemotherapy and all had significantly lower levels of BMD for all the sites measured.

Serum concentrations of APO-1/Fas and interleukin-1beta-converting enzyme in osteosarcoma correlate with response to chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND: Cytotoxic drugs used in neoadjuvant chemotherapy may exert their effect by activation of apoptosis. Both APO-1/Fas and Interleukin-1beta-converting (ICE)/caspase-1 are believed to act as mediators of apoptotic cell death. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The sera of 21 patients with high-grade osteosarcoma were tested at the time of diagnosis by ELISA and compared with clinical data. RESULTS: The mean APO-1 serum levels were 844 +/- 344 pg ml(-1) and the mean ICE serum levels were 212 pg ml(-1) +/- 155 pg ml(-1) for all patients. Furthermore, both serum levels were found to be statistically significantly higher in patients with good regression grades compared to those in patients with bad regression grades. CONCLUSION: In highly-malignant osteosarcoma elevated serum levels of both APO-1 and ICE seem to be predictive of good response to chemotherapy.

Concentration of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the serum of patients with malignant bone tumors.

BACKGROUND: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is recognized as an important stimulator of angiogenesis. Formation of new blood vessels by angiogenic factors occurs in many biological processes, both physiological and pathological, among others in growth of primary solid malignant tumors and metastasis. This implies that the inhibition of angiogenic factors like VEGF would result in a suppression of tumor growth and metastasis formation. The aim of the present study was to compare preoperative serum VEGF levels of patients having malignant bone tumors with healthy controls to identify serum VEGF levels as a tumor marker. PROCEDURE: Blood sera from patients with high-grade osteosarcoma (n = 17), chondrosarcoma (n = 4) and Ewing sarcoma (n = 6) were taken at the time of diagnosis before biopsy and compared with sera from 129 healthy persons. To measure VEGF levels in serum, a commercially available ELISA was used (Quantikine Human VEGF Immunoassay; R&D Systems). RESULTS: The observed geometric mean VEGF levels and 95% confidence intervals are 232.0 pg ml(-1) (168.9-318.5) for patients with high-grade osteosarcoma, 325.5 pg ml(-1) (169.3-625.8) for patients with chondrosarcoma, 484.3 pg ml(-1) (284.0-826.0) for patients with Ewing sarcoma, as compared to 216.2 pg ml(-1) (192.8-242.5) for healthy individuals. CONCLUSIONS: While the sample means for the three groups of sarcoma patients were higher than the respective mean for the healthy controls, only the mean for the group with Ewing sarcoma is statistically significantly higher than the mean for the healthy controls. Despite the significant difference, VEGF levels are not suitable as a marker for Ewing sarcoma.

Enhanced basophil histamine release to concanavalin A in allergic rhinitis.

It has been suggested that IgE-dependent basophil histamine release (HR) does not necessarily relate to the amount of cell-bound IgE and, therefore, basophil "releasability" must be considered an important factor in this secretory process. To compare an IgE-dependent basophil HR process in nonatopic subjects and patients with allergic rhinitis, concanavalin A (Con A) was used as a secretagogue to stimulate mediator secretion. In 1.0 mmol/L of calcium-containing buffer, basophil HR to Con A (3.0 mcg/ml) was 50.2 +/- 8.6% in patients with allergic rhinitis and only 10.1 +/- 3.9% in nonatopic subjects. To evaluate whether this enhanced HR might be related to increased membrane influx of calcium, the following strategy was followed. Strontium (3.0 and 10.0 mmol/L) enhances immunologic (IgE) release of basophil histamine. Although the mechanism for strontium enhancement is not established, strontium may pass through the membrane channel more easily than calcium to increase secretion. We reasoned that if the enhanced release of histamine to Con A was related to increased membrane permeability to calcium, stimulation of basophil histamine secretion in the presence of strontium would reduce this difference. In both nonatopic subjects and patients with allergic rhinitis, strontium (3.0 and 10.0 mmol/L) enhanced HR. Enhanced HR with strontium was greater with basophils from normal subjects than from subjects with allergic rhinitis. Whether our observations with strontium indicate that the enhanced histamine releasability to Con A in subjects with allergic rhinitis may, in part, be due to a greater influx of calcium after immunologic stimulation must await characterization of the strontium effect or direct measurements of calcium ion disposition.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)