Showing papers by "Rafael Molina published in 1995"

Use of serial carcinoembryonic antigen and CA 15.3 assays in detecting relapses in breast cancer patients.

Abstract: To evaluate the utility of CEA and CA 15.3 for early diagnosis of recurrence, serial serum determinations of both antigens were performed in 1023 patients (follow-up: 1–10 years, mean 6.2 years) with primary breast cancer (CA 15.3 in 533 cases) and no evidence of residual disease (NED) after radical treatment (radical mastectomy or simple mastectomy and radiotherapy). 246 patients developed metastases during follow-up. Results: CEA and CA 15.3 were elevated (> 10 ng/ml or > 60 U/ml, respectively) prior to diagnosis in 40% (98/246) and 41% (37/91) of the patients with recurrence, with a lead time of 4.9 ± 2.2 and 4.2 ± 2.3 months, respectively. When patients with locoregional recurrences were excluded, sensitivity improved to 46% (CEA) and 54% (CA 15.3), and to 64% with both tumor markers (CEA and/or CA 15.3). Higher levels of both CEA and CA 15.3 at diagnosis of recurrence, higher sensitivity in early diagnosis of relapse, and a higher lead time were found in ER+ (CEA) or PgR+ patients (CA 15.3) than in those that were negative for these receptors in the primary tumor (p < 0.001). Specificity of the tumor markers was 99% for both CEA (777 NED patients) and for CA 15.3 (444 NED patients), respectively. In conclusion, CEA and CA 15.3 are useful tools for early diagnosis of metastases, mainly in those patients with ER+ or PR+ tumors.

Carcinoembryonic Antigen in Staging and Follow-Up of Patients with Solid Tumors

Abstract: The presence of a tumor antigen in human colonic carcinomas and their metastases was described about 25 years ago. This antigen, called carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), is one of the first known tumor

Phenotype of glutathione S-transferase Mu (GSTM1) and susceptibility to malignant melanoma. MMM group. Multidisciplinary Malignant Melanoma Group.

Abstract: The isoenzyme Mu of glutathione S-transferase (GSTM1) is dominantly inherited, and the prevalence of this isoenzyme in the population is about 60%. The lack of GSTM1 has been linked with cancer risk. The frequency of the phenotypes of this isoenzyme in melanoma (MM) patients (n = 197) is reported here. A significantly higher proportion of individuals in the control group (n = 147) had measurable GSTM1 than MM patients (59.1% vs 42%, P = 0.002); there was a higher proportion of positive phenotypes in general among women than among men. Odds ratio analysis indicated that individuals with this polymorphic variant have an approximately 2-fold risk of developing these cancers. GSTM1 phenotype distribution depends on age, smoking habit and tumour pathology. A group of MM patients with dysplastic naevi was also studied.

Clinical usefulness of free PSA fraction as an indicator of prostate cancer.

Abstract: The usefulness of the fPSA fraction in the differential diagnosis of benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer was evaluated, with the aim of improving the diagnostic efficacy of PSA. Serum PSA and fPSA determinations were performed by an enzymoimmunoassay technique on an ES-300 system. fPSA constitutes a minor fraction both in normal subjects and in patients with prostate disease, being significantly lower in patients with untreated prostate cancer than in patients with BPH. Likewise, the authors have observed that the sensitivity of the fPSA/PSA ratio has an inversely proportional relationship with the stage of the disease. The results obtained in patients with PSA levels between 4 and 20 micrograms/l are also of note. In this series of patients, the efficacy of the fPSA/PSA ratio was higher than that of PSA, showing a sensitivity of 44% and a specificity of 95% at the cut-off of 0.08.

Prognostic value of TPS in patients with head and neck malignancies: comparison with SCC.

Abstract: TPS and SCC serum levels were evaluated in 113 patients with primary tumors, 19 with relapse and 59 with no evidence of disease after radical treatment. Abnormal serum levels were found in 37% and 33% of patients with primary untreated tumors and in 53% and 59% of patients with relapse, respectively, using 100 U/L and 2.5 ng/ml as the upper limit of normality for TPS and SCC, respectively. Either tumor marker was abnormal in 57.5% of primary tumors and in 74% of patients with relapse. TPS and SCC serum levels were related to nodal involvement, with significantly higher levels in patients with nodal invasion (p < 0.02 and p 0.001, respectively). No relationship was found between tumor size, age or histological grade and SCC or TPS values. Pretreatment TPS and SCC serum levels had prognostic interest in patients with locoregional tumors, with a significantly shorter disease-free interval (DFI) in patients with abnormal values (p < 0.01 and p < 0.02, respectively). When tumor marker levels and nodes were simultaneously evaluated, a trend toward shorter DFI in patients with abnormal serum concentrations was found, with no statistical significance. By contrast, TPS and SCC were useful in prognosis in node-negative patients (p < 0.02 and p < 0.001, respectively). Likewise, using both TAAs simultaneously, it is possible to increase prognostic information. Patients with TPS and/or SCC abnormal levels had a significantly lower DFI than those patients with normal values, in both node positive and negative patients (P < 0.01). In summary, TPS and SCC are useful TAAs in patients with head and neck malignancies. Likewise, with the simultaneous use of SCC and TPS, the TAA utility in this malignancy increases in the prognosis as well as disease follow-up.

Prostate specific antigen in non-serum samples from women

Abstract: Since Wang et al (1) purified PSA, it has been the most important tumor marker in patients with prostate cancer. PSA was originally described as a prostate specific antigen. However, Yu and Diamandis have demonstrated recently that PSA is produced also by tissues other than the prostate (2-4). These data necessitate reevaluation of the tissue specificity of PSA. To do this we studied the presence of PSA in 80 non-serum samples from women. The samples comprised 15 lacteal secretions from 10 non-lactating women without any clinical disease and from 5 lactating women; 20 amniotic fluids; 10 bronchoalveolar lavage fluids from patients with pneumonia; 25 breast cyst fluids; 5 ovarian cyst fluids and 5 ascitic fluids from patients with hepatic cirrhosis. PSA was measured by an ultrasensitive automatized immunoassay in a Cobas Core analyzer (Roche Diagnostic Systems, Basel, Switzerland) with an analytical sensitivity of 0.04Ilg/L. PSA levels were undetectable in all ovarian cyst and ascitic fluids. In contrast, the presence of PSA was detected in most of the breast secretions (100%), amniotic fluids (100%), bronchoalveolar fluids (60%) and breast cysts (84%). Furthermore, PSA levels greater than 1 ug/l, were observed in 18 of these samples, the levels being extremely high and even exceeding 100 ug/L in four breast secretions (Fig. 1). To exclude the possibility of PSA detection being due to a matrix effect, we performed serial dilutions of a sample with a PSA level of 27 ug/L and obtained a recovery range between 96% and 109%. Yu and Diaman-

Bayesian image restoration in astronomy: Application to images of the recent collision of comet shoemaker‐levy 9 with jupiter

Abstract: In this work, we examine simple to complex methods proposed within the Bayesian paradigm to perform image restoration in astronomy. We start by describing the classical conditional and simultaneous autoregressions, then we move on to study how to incorporate smoothness constraints to the classical Richardson-Lucy restoration method and also how to modify the image scale and define prior models on other scales than the linear one. Finally, we compare those models on images of Jupiter after the impacts of the fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 at two wavelengths.