PURPOSE: Brush cytology is one of useful methods for establishing a diagnosis of lung cancer. There are two methods of retrieving the specimen of brush cytology. One is to withdraw the brush through the working channel of the bronchoscope (withdrawn brush) and the other is to withdraw the brush and bronchoscope as a unit, with brush remaining protruded through the distal tip of the bronchoscope (nonwithdrawn brush). We tried to compare two methods in the cellularity of the specimen and the diagnosis of lung cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-one patients with suspected lung cancer were studied prospectively. The sequence of sampling (withdrawn or nonwithdrawn brush) was assigned randomly. The specimens were interpreted by two cytopathologists about cellularity (1-4) and presence of recognizable malignant cells. RESULTS: Cellularity was significantly greater for nonwithdrawn brush (p<0.05). There was no significant difference of diagnostic rate between both methods in the diagnosis of lung cancer. CONCLUSION: Withdrawing the brush through the bronchoscope decreases the cellularity, but it does not affect the diagnostic rate for lung cancer.
Bronchoscopes ; Diagnosis* ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms* ; Lung* ; Prospective Studies

No abstract available.
Aminophylline* ; Humans* ; Neutrophils* ; Pneumonia* ; Sepsis* ; Superoxides*

PURPOSE: Transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) has been used for the diagnosis and staging of bronchogenic carcinoma through the flexible bronchoscope. The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic role of TBNA for bronchogenic carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: TBNA was performed in 34 patients with suspected bron- chogenic carcinoma. We analyzed diagnostic rate of TBNA m 28 patients who were ulti- mately diagnosed as bronchogenic carcinoma. RESULTS: In 12 of 28 patients, TBNA was performed for endobronchial lesions with a type of infiltration, nodular infiltration or compression. The diagnostic rate was 75%. Addition of TBNA to bronchial washing, brush, and biopsy increased the diagnostic rate from 58% to 80%. In 16 patients with peripheral tumor and mediastinal lymphadenopathy, TBNA was performed for mediastinal lymph nodes. The diagnostic rate was 62.5%, and was positively correlated with the size of lymph nodes. There was no significant complications related to TBNA. CONCLUSION: TBNA was a safe and effective procedure for the diagnosis of bronchogenic carcinoma in selected patients.
Biopsy ; Bronchoscopes ; Carcinoma, Bronchogenic* ; Diagnosis* ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; Lymph Nodes ; Lymphatic Diseases ; Needles*

Retinoic acids (RAs) modulate growth, differentiation, and apoptosis in normal, pre-malignant & malignant cells. In the present study, the effects of RA isomers (all-trans RA, 13-cis RA, and 9-cis RA) on the cell signal transduction of human breast cancer cells have been studied. The relationship between RAs and an enzymatic antioxidant system was also determined. Estrogen-receptor (ER) positive MCF-7 and ER-negative MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells were treated with different doses of each RA isomers, all-trans RA, 13-cis RA, or 9-cis RA. Treatment of RA isomers inhibited cell viability and induced apoptosis of MCF-7 cells as a result of increased caspase activity in cytoplasm and cytochrome C released from mitochondria. All-trans RA was the most effective RA isomer in both cell growth inhibition and induction of apoptosis in MCF-7 cells. However, no significant effect of RA isomers was observed on the cell growth or apoptosis in ER-negative MDA-MB-231 cells. In addition, activities of antioxidant enzymes such as catalase and glutathione peroxidase were decreased effectively after treatment of RA in MCF-7 cells, whereas SOD activity was rarely affected. Thus, the present data suggest that all-trans RA is the most potential inducer of apoptosis and modulator of antioxidant enzymes among RA isomers in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells.
Apoptosis ; Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Catalase ; Cell Survival ; Cytochromes c ; Cytoplasm ; Glutathione Peroxidase ; Humans ; MCF-7 Cells ; Mitochondria ; Signal Transduction ; Tretinoin

No abstract available.
Pneumonectomy*

PURPOSE: PTEN is a novel tumor suppressor gene located on chromosomal band 10q23.3. The detection of PTEN mutations in Cowden disease and in breast carcinoma cell lines suggests that PTEN may be involved in mammary carcinogenesis. Among several series of breast carcinomas, the frequency of loss of flanking markers around PTEN is approximately 30 to 40% and the somatic intragenic PTEN mutation frequency is less than 5%. METHODS: The expression of PTEN was stuided immunohistochemically studied in 41 invasive ductal carcinomas of the breast. We examined the correlation between PTEN expression and clinicopathologic factors such as age, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, histologic grade, nuclear grade, stage, as well as estrogen and progesteron receptors. RESULTS: Among the 41 infiltrating ductal carcinomas, studied 7 (17.1%) were immunohistochemically negative, and 19 (46.3%) demonstrated reduced expression. Among the clinicopathologic factors, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, high stage, and negative progesteron receptor displayed a significant relationship with the decrease of PTEN expression, however age, nuclear grade, and estrogen receptor had less of a relationship with PTEN expression. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that PTEN does play some role as a prognostic factor for carcinogenesis, but this hypothesis requires further study.
Breast Neoplasms ; Breast* ; Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma, Ductal* ; Cell Line ; Estrogens ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor ; Hamartoma Syndrome, Multiple ; Lymph Nodes ; Mutation Rate ; Neoplasm Metastasis

PURPOSE: PTEN is a novel tumor suppressor gene located on chromosomal band 10q23.3. The detection of PTEN mutations in Cowden disease and in breast carcinoma cell lines suggests that PTEN may be involved in mammary carcinogenesis. Among several series of breast carcinomas, the frequency of loss of flanking markers around PTEN is approximately 30 to 40% and the somatic intragenic PTEN mutation frequency is less than 5%. METHODS: The expression of PTEN was stuided immunohistochemically studied in 41 invasive ductal carcinomas of the breast. We examined the correlation between PTEN expression and clinicopathologic factors such as age, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, histologic grade, nuclear grade, stage, as well as estrogen and progesteron receptors. RESULTS: Among the 41 infiltrating ductal carcinomas, studied 7 (17.1%) were immunohistochemically negative, and 19 (46.3%) demonstrated reduced expression. Among the clinicopathologic factors, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, high stage, and negative progesteron receptor displayed a significant relationship with the decrease of PTEN expression, however age, nuclear grade, and estrogen receptor had less of a relationship with PTEN expression. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that PTEN does play some role as a prognostic factor for carcinogenesis, but this hypothesis requires further study.
Breast Neoplasms ; Breast* ; Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma, Ductal* ; Cell Line ; Estrogens ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor ; Hamartoma Syndrome, Multiple ; Lymph Nodes ; Mutation Rate ; Neoplasm Metastasis

No abstract available.
Bronchoscopy* ; Humans ; Outpatients* ; Premedication*

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary infiltrate is a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with leukemia. It is often hard to obtain a reliable diagnosis by clinical and radiologic findings alone. The aim of this study was to evaluate diagnostic and therapeutic benefits of invasive procedures as for for new lung infiltrates in leukemia. METHODS: Patients with leukemia who developed new lung infiltrates from December 1994 to March 1999 were included in this study. These patients were classified into the empirical group who received empirical therapy only and into the invasive group who underwent bronchoscopy or surgical lung biopsy for the diagnostic purpose of new lung infiltrates. Retrospective A retroactive chart review was done to search for find the etiologies of new lung infiltrates, the yield of invasive procedures, outcome as well as predicting factors for survival of patients. RESULTS: 1) One hundred-two episodes of new lung infiltrates developed in 90 patients with leukemia. Invasive procedure was performed in 44 episodes while 58 episodes were treated with empirical therapy only. 2) Invasive procedures yielded a specific diagnosis in 72.7%(32/44)(,) of which 78.1% had infectious etiology. Therapeutic plan was changed in 52.3%(23/44) of patients after invasive procedures. None of them showed procedure-related mortality. 3) Overall The overall survival rate was 62.7%(64/102). Survival rate in the invasive group(79.5%) was significantly better than that in the empirical group (50.0%) (p=0.002). 4) On multivariate analysis, Upon multivariate analysis, the performance of invasive procedures, no need for mechanical ventilation and achievement of complete remission of leukemia after induction chemotherapy were the independent factors predicting predicting factors for survival in patients with leukemia and new lung infiltrates. CONCLUSION: Bronchoscopy and surgical lung biopsy are useful in the diagnosis of new lung infiltrates in patients with leukemia. However, survival benefits of invasive procedures should be considered together with disease status of leukemia and severity of respiratory compromise.
Biopsy ; Bronchoscopy ; Diagnosis* ; Humans ; Induction Chemotherapy ; Leukemia* ; Lung ; Mortality ; Multivariate Analysis ; Respiration, Artificial ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate

BACKGROUND: Transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) is a relatively simple and convenient procedure to obtain lung tissue in from a patient, with with diffuse or localized lesion on chest radiographs, whose disease cannot be diagnosed through routine tests. The authors tried to evaluate the diagnostic value of TBLB, especially, the concordance between CT scan and TBLB with respect to the location of the lesion, and and diagnostic yield according to tumor-bronchus relationship. METHOD: We reviewed the medical records, plain chest films, and chest CT scans of 278 patients who underwent TBLB at Kyungpook National University Hospital between January 1996 and June 1998. RESULTS: One hundred and sixteen (41.7 %) patients were diagnosed by TBLB. Diagnostic yield of TBLB in of malignant tumor tumors tended to be higher than that of benign disease diseases (64.7 % versus 53.9 %, p=0.09). Of primary lung cancers, TBLB was more diagnostic in adenocarcinoma and small-cell carcinoma than the rest other cell types (p<0.01) and, of benign diseases, more diagnostic in tuberculosis than in non-tuberculous diseases (p<0.05). According to the location of tumor, there was There was no significant difference in the diagnostic rate according to the location of the tumor. The diagnostic rate tended to increase with the size of tumor (p=0.06). In benign disease, there There was no difference in the The diagnostic rate of TBLB did not differ according to the pattern of lesion in benign diseases(.) but in malignant disease, However, in malignant diseases TBLB was more diagnostic in diffuse/multiple nodular lesion lesions than in localized lesion lesions (p<0.05). According to the tumor-bronchus relationship, TBLB was more diagnostic in type I/II groups than the rest in other types. CT scan and TBLB showed a strong correlation with respect to the localization of the lesion (gamma=0.994, p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The above results showed show that TBLB is useful in the diagnosis of lung disease. CT scan and TBLB showed a strong correlation in deciding in determining the location of the lesion. Diagnostic yield of TBLB is higher in the lesion lesions with 'bronchus sign' (type I and II). It is anticipated that (delete) TBLB and other diagnostic methods such as transthoracic needle aspiration have complementary role in diagnosing lung disease. are expected to complement one another in the diagnosis of lung diseases.
Adenocarcinoma ; Biopsy* ; Complement System Proteins ; Diagnosis ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Humans ; Lung Diseases ; Lung Neoplasms ; Lung* ; Medical Records ; Needles ; Radiography, Thoracic ; Thorax ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Tuberculosis