Prognostic significance of ZNF217 expression in gastric carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The zinc finger protein ZNF217 is a candidate oncogene in breast cancer and ovarian clear cell cancer. The purpose of the present study was to clarify the significance of this protein's expression in gastric carcinoma and to evaluate the outcome of these patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using paraffin-embedded specimens from 84 patients with gastric cancer, ZNF217 protein was detected using an anti-ZNF217 goat polyclonal antibody. We evaluated the ZNF217 protein expression in relation to patient outcome and clinicopathological parameters. RESULTS: The ZNF217 protein was expressed in 34 (40.5%) tumor sections. Patients with ZNF217-negative tumors had better relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) than those with ZNF217-positive tumors by the log-rank test. Notably, multivariate analysis indicated that ZNF217 was an independent prognostic factor for RFS. CONCLUSION: ZNF217 expression seems to be a novel prognostic biomarker in gastric cancer.

Clinical significance of Rho GDP dissociation inhibitor 2 in colorectal carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Small GTPase proteins, including RhoA, RhoB, RhoC, Rac1, and cdc42, are important molecules for linking cell shape and cell-cycle progression because of their role in both cytoskeletal arrangements and mitogenic signaling. Over-expression of wild-type or constitutively active forms of RhoA has been shown to induce invasive behavior in non-invasive rat hepatoma cells in vitro. In addition, over-expression of RhoC has been found in melanoma cells with increasing metastatic activity as well as inflammatory breast cancer. These results indicate that overexpression of Rho proteins contributes to cancer cell invasion and metastasis. Rho GDP dissociation inhibitor 2 (RhoGDI2) was recently shown to act as a metastasis suppressor gene in bladder cancer. The purpose of this study was to clarify the clinical significance of this gene expression in patients with colorectal carcinoma. METHODS: Fifty pairs of normal mucosa and cancer specimens obtained at the time of surgery from patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) were subjected to reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction for RhoGDI2. RESULTS: No patients with RhoGDI2-higher expression tumors had liver metastasis (0 in 8 cases); however, 33.3% (14 in 42 cases) of patients with RhoGDI2-lower expression tumors had liver metastasis. With regard to outcome in relation to RhoGDI2-positivity, RhoGDI2-higher expression tumors had a significant correlation with superior relapse-free survival (RFS) time as compared to RhoGDI2-lower expression tumors in stage III CRC (log-rank test, P < 0.05). Moreover, multivariate analysis indicated that RhoGDI2 was an independent prognostic factor for RFS. CONCLUSION: RhoGDI2 is a novel predictor of RFS in patients with colorectal carcinoma.

Usefulness of intraoperative 99m Tc-MIBI-guided detection for recurrent sites in secondary hyperparathyroidism: a case-controlled study.

PURPOSE: (99m)Tc-Methoxyisobutylisonitrile ((99m)Tc-MIBI)-guided surgery for the detection of abnormal parathyroid glands in primary hyperparathyroidism (1-HPT) has gained popularity as an effective technique. However, in secondary hyperparathyroidism (2-HPT), the efficacy of this method remains controversial, especially for the recurrence sites of 2-HPT. METHODS: (99m)Tc-MIBI-guided surgery was performed for 28 recurrent sites of transplanted parathyroid tissue in 4 patients, and the detection rates of this method were compared with the results of preoperative ultrasound (US) examination and computed tomography (CT) scanning. RESULTS: The results of (99m)Tc-MIBI-guided surgery for regions of recurrence were a sensitivity of 100% (28/28) and an accuracy of 100% (29/29), compared with preoperative US and CT which had a sensitivity of 92.9% (26/28) and 0% (0/28), and an accuracy of 89.7% (26/29) and 0% (0/28), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Intraoperative (99m)Tc-MIBI-guided surgery can identify recurrent parathyroid tissues of 2-HPT more precisely than preoperative US examination or CT scanning, and makes the surgery easier to perform.

Clinical outcome of percutaneous coronary intervention with antecedent mutant t-PA administration for acute myocardial infarction.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the acute-phrase and chronic-phase outcomes of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with or without antecedent mutant tissue-type plasminogen (t-PA) administration. METHODS: Thirty-nine patients with a first AMI within 6 hours of onset were randomly assigned to the treatment group (1,600,000 IU IV monteplase, n = 19) or the nontreatment group (n = 20), followed by PCI. Clinical outcomes were then evaluated. RESULTS: Patient characteristics did not differ between the 2 groups. A significantly higher number of patients in the monteplase group achieved Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction trial (TIMI) grade 2 flow or more at the first angiography (84.2% vs 40.0%; P <.005), reduced number of devices (1.44 vs 1.80 devices, P <.05), and reduced procedure times (59.7 vs 86.7 minutes; P <.01), with no differences in peak creatine kinase and rates of major complications and no reflow or distal embolization. Observation over an average of 5.5 months revealed a tendency toward lower target lesion revascularization rates in the monteplase group (17.6% vs 31.6%) but no intergroup difference in rates of major complications. Pretreatment quantitative coronary angioplasty only showed a significant difference in minimal lumen diameter and percent diameter stenosis in the acute phase (1.13 mm in the monteplase group vs 0.66 mm in the nontreatment group, 57.0% vs 73.0%; P <.05). (99m)Tc-QGS (quantitative electrocardiographically gated single-photon emission computed tomographic scintigraphy) showed no intergroup differences in left ventricular end-diastolic volume index, end- systolic volume index, and ejection fraction in the acute and chronic phases. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that PCI with antecedent mutant t-PA for AMI not only accelerates reperfusion, thereby facilitating PCI, but also attenuates restenosis in the chronic phase.