Studying prognostic factors of breast cancer is a traditional subject. With new advances in detection methods applied and new prognostic factors, the clinical course and the biological behavior of breast cancer have been well understood, thus the treatment can be more rational. At present, the majority of prognostic factors related to molecular biology still need to be investigated. And although some of them have broad prospects, they are not available for routine examination currently. In this article, we reviewed some prognostic factors of breast cancer, which have been confirmed or may have potential in practical application.

STK11 gene is a recently found tumor suppressor gene. It maps 19p13.3. This gene can express a kind of serine threonine kinases. STK11 gene plays an important role in the regulation of cell cycle progression, and it may relate to cell apoptosis. However, until now the mechanisms of STK11 gene is not very clear and progress in the research of this new tumor suppressor gene is sitll needed.

The methods of separation, enrichment, and analysis of trace mercury in water samples in recent years were reviewed in the present paper. Many methods can be used to analyze trace mercury after separation and enrichment. Spectrophotometry is cheap and simple. Atomic fluorescence spectrometric method is accurate in quantitative analysis. The chromatography method is usually used in the morphological analysis of mercury. Multistep analysis of mercury can be done by joint methods in one time.

Purpose: To analyze the clinical and pathological factors in post-operative breast cancer patients with bone metastasis, and, identify risk factors predicting the skeletal metastasis. Methods: We evaluated data from 3 796 patients who were surgically treated from January 1981 to December 2000. Those patients were divided into groups according to different first events. Then we assessed data of 116 cases of bone metastasis as first event, and comparing with visceral metastasis and lymph node or soft tissue metastasis cases. Results: In our group there were 116 cases with bone metastasis as first event, about 3. 1%; bone metastasis correlated with young age, large tumor, clinical palpable axillary nodes, pathological positive nodes, stage II/HI disease and non-specific invasvie breast carcinoma. Multivariate logistic regression found that large tumor, clinical palpable axillary nodes related with bone metastasis in pre-operative data. In post-operative data, large tumor, pathological positive nodes and non-specific invasive breast carcinoma correlated with bone metastasis. Hormone receptor status and HER2 expression did not predict the bone metastasis. All cases received standard local and adjuvant systemic treatment. Among patients who had as their first event a local recurrence or a recurrence in soft tissue or lymph node or local and systemic metastasis, there were more specific invasive carcinomas than those in bone metastasis group. Occurrence of bone metastasis and visceral metastasis had similar time distribution, however, local recurrence and/or node, soft tissue metastasis occurred earlier than skeletal metastasis. Conclusions: Pre-operative bone scintigraphy was indicated in those with young age, T2/T3 tumor, and clinical palpable nodes. Breast cancer patients at high risk for bone metastasis were T2/T3 tumor, non-specific invasive breast carcinoma and with 4 or more involved axillary lymph nodes. It might be important to study the effect of bisphosphonates in the adjuvant settings.

Purpose: Comprehensively assess the role of prognostic and predictive factors and set up a mathematical model to evaluate prognosis and to help the decision of adjuvant therapy. Methods: All prognostic indicator and therapeutic modalities have been performed, mutivariate survival analyses was done by Cox regression. The split-group method was used to construct the mathematical model for prognosis. Results: In multivariate analysis, the factors including age, tumor size, overexpression of Her-2, the interaction between ER status and endocrine therapy (ER ET), and chemotherapy can independently predict prognosis. Finally, the mathematical model acquired is PS = Size + Her2 -2. 5 x age - CT -0. 55 x ( ET x ER). Conclusions: According to PI of individuals, the different risks of failure can been distinguished.

Purpose: Hypoxia is common in breast cancer and may influence gene expression to promote malignancy. Estrogen receptor (ER) -? status is an important predictor for both prognosis and clinical response to endocrine therapy. The aim of our current study is to demonstrate the relationship between hypoxia and ER-? in breast cancer tissue. Methods: We have examined ER-a expression by immunohistochemistry in parallel with indicators of hypoxia in 51 ER-a ligand binding assay positive breast tumors for in vivo evidence of this phenomenon. Results: Overall, 49 tumors were ER-a positive by immunohistochemistry. Regional loss of ER-a expression was consistently present in peri-necrotic as compared to distant regions in both in situ (n =29, P

BACKGROUND:Microfracture technique and osteochondral transplantation are one of the methods for the treatment of articular cartilage defects with broad application prospects. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effect of microfracture technique and autologous and al ogeneic osteochondral transplantation in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis complicated with articular cartilage defects. METHODS:The articular cartilage defects were treated with arthroscopic debridement combined with microfracture surgery in the cartilage defect region, and then the clinical effect, clinical symptoms and Tenger sport score were detected. The patients were fol owed-up for 3-24 months. The articular cartilage defects patients treated with autologous osteochondral transplantation were fol owed-up. The effect of autologous osteochondral transplantation was evaluated through assessing the range of motion after transplantation, improvement of clinical symptoms and joint imaging examination. The animal experiment of al ogeneic osteochondral transplantation for the treatment of articular cartilage defects was conducted to evaluate the effect of al ogeneic osteochondral transplantation through general observation of transplantation site, histological and immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:For the patients treated with arthroscopic microfracture technique, the total efficiency of joint debridement combined with microfracture surgery in the cartilage defect region was 89.7%. For the articular cartilage defects patients treated with autologous osteochondral transplantation, the symptoms of joint pain and swel ing were improved, and the range of motion was normal with rest pain and slight pain after movement occasional y. Radiographic examination showed the transplanted osteochondral was in good position with good healing. In the experiment animals with articular cartilage defects after treated with al ogeneic osteochondral transplantation, the range of motion was normal, transplanted articular surface was finishing, the articular cartilage was covered with hyaline cartilage, and the cells were arranged in order;there was cartilage matrix secretion, and the col agen type II in the repaired articular cartilage was strongly positive with immunohistochemical staining.

Objective:To compare efficacy and time course of adrenocortical function recovery of oral prednisone and intrathyroidal injection of dexamethasone in patients with subacute thyroiditis. Methods: Sixty patients with subacute thyroiditis were divided randomly into 2 groups. Patients in group Dex (30 cases) were treated with intrathyroidal injection of dexamethasone (5 mg,twice per week,and then once per week.). Patients in group Pre (30 cases) were treated with prednisone. Prednisone was orally given in decreasing doses: 30 mg for the first 2 weeks, 20 mg for 2 weeks, thereafter the dose was tapered by 5 mg per week. Clinical outcomes of 2 groups were compared after 2 weeks, 4 weeks,6 weeks and 8 weeks of treatment. Rapid corticotropin stimulation test was used to assess adrenocortical function. A positive response, indicative of normal adrenocortical function,has been defined as a 30 min stimulated cortisol level of more than 552 nmol/L.The initial stimulation test was performed as a baseline study immediately following the diagnosis of subacute thyroiditis,before the initiation of glucocorticoid therapies. The tests were repeated 24 h after completion of glucocorticoid course and 2 weeks and every 4 weeks thereafter until a stimulated cortisol level of more than 552 nmol/L was achieved. Results: Curative rate of group Dex and group Pre after 8 weeks were 100% and 90% respectively. Duration of therapy was (5.7?2.0) weeks in group Dex and (8.8?1.8) weeks in group Pre respectively ( P

Objective:To examine whether somatostatin analogous(SSAs) have effect on Graves ophthalmopathy and to compare its effects with that of glucocorticoid.Methods: Both a computer aided search of MEDLINE and Chinese Biological Medicine disc and an intensive search by hand were conducted to identify all controlled studies assessing the effect of SSAs on Graves ophthalmopathy.Results: Five studies were finally included.Three of them found SSAs to be significantly more effective than placebo;2 of them found SSAs to be able to reduce proptosis; 2 of them found SSAs to be equally effctive as glucocorticoid.The pooled OR, pooled mean difference, pooled OR were 0.070.02,0.23],-1.47 -2.10,-0.84] and 0.95 0.25,3.59] respectively.Conclusion: This Meta analysis demonstrates that SSAs are effective in treatment of Graves ophthalmopathy and in reduction of proptosis, and it is equally effctive as glucocorticoid.

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is the most common malignancy of the biliary tract.Most patients are diagnosed at the advanced stage,missing the optimal chance for curative surgery,thus leading to the fact that GBC is usually associated with poor prognosis.It is very crucial to strengthen the basic research on GBC,which may further improve the diagnosis and treatment.The research updates on the related genes in the initiation and progression,molecular mechanism of lymphatic metastasis,and tumor microenvironment of GBC in recent years were reviewed in this paper.