Showing papers on "Cancer published in 1971"

Estrogen receptors and breast cancer response to adrenalectomy.

Abstract: Results of studies of receptor content of dependent rat mammary tumors suggested that an estimation of the receptor content of a breast cancer specimen might provide a valuable guide for predicting the response of that patient to ablative therapy. This investigation was undertaken both by patients with metastatic disease to correlate their response to adrenalectomy or hypophysectomy and of mastectomy patients to characterize the primary tumor for further correlation with the response to endocrine therapy should the cancer recur. Tumors were obtained as soon as possible after excision. Techniques methods and materials employed are given in detail. When slices of tumor were examined for estradiol affinity by the uptake-inhibition procedure they were found to fall into 2 classes: 1) those showing low uptake not depressed in the presence of nafoxidine or Parke-Davis CI-628 and 2) those showing a larger incorporation which was reduced by the inhibitor. A few showed a borderline pattern. Metastatic tumors presented similar patterns to primary tumors. Positive metastatic tumors usually showed a higher total level of estradiol incorporation than positive primary tumors. Based on the results of 51 mastectomy patients divided equally between positive and negative patterns with 2 borderline cases it is concluded that patients whose breast cancers lack the estrogen receptor substance have little chance of responding to endocrine therapy or ablative surgery. Some of those who possess estrogen-binding proteins will benefit from such treatment. It is possible that those with positive findings may have mixed metastases so that the negative metastases will be unresponsive. False positive reactions may lead to futile treatment but false negative readings may cause omission of treatment that could lead to remissions. Subsequent to the original study additional patients have been added. Of a total of 84 primary tumors 39 showed the presence of an estrogen receptor 38 were negative and 7 were borderline. Of 40 metastatic tumors 12 were positive 25 negative 2 borderline and 1 with multiple metastases showed both positive and negative in different specimens. Of 58 patients with metastatic disease 42 had received some type of endocrine therapy. However 10 of 13 patients whose cancers contained estrogen receptors showed remission with endocrine therapy.

Periodic breast cancer screening in reducing mortality from breast cancer.

Abstract: First results in a long-term investigation to determine whether periodic breast cancer screening with mammography and clinical examination leads to lowered breast cancer mortality provide grounds for cautious optimism. The study compares the experience in a random sample of 31,000 women, aged 40 to 64 years, offered screening examinations with the experience in a similarly constituted "control" group. There were 52 deaths due to breast cancer in the control group, as compared with 31 breast cancer deaths in the study group, in the period available for follow-up. The 3 1/2-year case fatality rates among women with histologically confirmed breast cancers reinforce the impression that screening leads to lowered mortality. More time, possibly ten years of follow-up, is needed to establish whether the effect of the screening program is short-term or long-term.

Cancer family "G" revisited: 1895-1970.

Abstract: A medical genetic reinvestigation of Family “G,” originally undertaken by Warthin in 1895, revealed that there are now more than 650 blood relatives, 95 of whom developed malignant neoplasms, 13 with multiple primary malignant neoplasms (14%). Considering age 40 and older as a cancer risk age correction, it was found that 35% of the members of the cancer susceptible branches of the family developed cancer. The incidence of cancer varied greatly among the several branches of the family (from 0 to 62%). Adenocarcinomas of colon, endometrium, and stomach predominated. However, in contrast to the cancer family syndrome, increased incidences of leukemia and sarcoma were found. Forty-one sibships in 8 branches of the family showed cancer in 2 or more generations (5 generations in 3 sibships). The sex ratio of males to females affected approached 1 to 1. Findings in this kindred were consistent with autosomal dominant inheritance, though this cancer-susceptible genome may be interacting with exogenous factors (oncogenic virus?).

Epidemiology of cancer of the prostate.

Abstract: This study of the epidemiology of cancer of the prostate was based on a retrospective investigation of 300 patients with cancer of the prostate and 400 controls, a review of the charts of an additional 350 patient with prostate cancer, and a review of the literature The main etiologic lead to which this study could not contribute is the rarity of clinical prostatic cancer in Japan and its increase among Japanese immigrants in the US However, the low rate among Jewish males in the US seems to be related to a lower rate of prostatic cancer among immigrants from Eastern Europe US Negroes have a higher incidence rate than Caucasians No significant relationship was found to socioeconomic status, marital status, fertility, social habits, previous diseases, weight, height, hair distribution, or laboratory data

Vaginal cancer after maternal treatment with synthetic estrogens.

Abstract: VAGINAL adenocarcinoma in young women was recently reported by Herbst, Ulfelder and Poskanzer1 as being associated with stilbestrol therapy of the mother during pregnancy. In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Alexander D. Langmuir2 emphasized the scientific and social implications of this observation, and stated the need for confirmatory data. Our findings confirm the association and provide additional information on dose and time relations. The New York State Cancer Registry receives reports of all cancer diagnosed in New York State, exclusive of New York City. During the period 1950 through 1970, five adenocarcinomas of the vagina were reported in women under age . . .

Carcinoembryonic antigen assay in cancer of the colon and pancreas and other digestive tract disorders

Abstract: In a study of 279 persons, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was detected in the sera of 32 of 35 patients with carcinoma of the colon, 13 of 13 patients with carcinoma of the pancreas, and 6 of 14 patients with other gastrointestinal cancers, confirming previous work which associated circulating CEA with GI tract malignancies. Six of 8 patients with bronchogenic carcinomas also gave positive assays. Seventy-nine assays on 40 young normal controls were negative. Twenty-four of 46 selected patients with severe alcoholic liver disease and 7 of 13 selected patients with uremia also gave positive results, thus requiring careful interpretation of the assay as presently performed on such patients pending further studies.

Urinary Polyamines in Cancer Patients

Abstract: Summary Patients with histologically diagnosed tumors and leukemias have an average 24-hr excretion value for polyamines that is severalfold greater than that detectable in “normals”. In leukemias, the excretion level declines when the patients are in remission. After surgery for the removal of a portion of a solid tumor mass, polyamine levels in the urine decreased to near normal in all cases. It is possible, therefore, that polyamine excretion levels could serve as (a) a tool to monitor cancer and (b) a test that could lead to an early detection of cancer.

Search for a Human Breast Cancer Virus

Abstract: Some human milk contains particles physically identical to the mouse mammary tumour virus. Tumorigenesis in the mouse could serve as a model in the study of human breast cancer.

Studies of polycyclic hydrocarbon hydroxylases of the intestine possibly related to cancer. Effect of diet on benzpyrene hydroxylase activity.

Abstract: The effect of dietary manipulation on the benzpyrene hydroxylase activity of the small intestine of the rat has been investigated. Most, and possibly all, of the benzpyrene hydroxylase activity in this site is due to exogenous inducers in the diet. Rats fed a balanced purified diet or starved for one day or more show virtually no activity. A beginning survey of dietary constituents has revealed that a number of vegetables, particularly those belonging to the Brassicaceae family, contain inducers. Data indicate that diet could be of importance in determining the response of organisms to exposures to poly cyclic hydrocarbon carcinogens.

The management of metastases to the brain by irradiation and corticosteroids

Abstract: 1. The combination of irradiation of the brain and oral prednisone offers only slightly better results in terms of duration of remission and survival than oral prednisone alone in the management of metastatic cancer of the brain.2. In patients treated with the combination who enter remission, there is probably no advantage to continuing prednisone prophylactically.3. On subsequent relapse, re-use of prednisone can sometimes be effective.

New observations on the Regan isoenzyme of alkaline phosphatase in cancer patients

Abstract: The Regan isoenzyme (RI) of alkaline phosphatase is interesting because it is indistinguishable from the placental isoenzyme with regard to stability to heat, inhibition by L-phenylalanine, optimum pH. and specific reaction with rabbit antisera to placental alkaline phosphatase. The current study of 323 cancer patients was conducted at a general hospital where cancer is more frequently seen at an earlier stage of natural history and therapy than in a chronic disease hospital. A positive identification of RI was made in 39 patients (12%) by biochemical and immunologic techniques, including antibody neutralization and starch gel electrophoresis. A high incidence of carcinoma of the ovary (5 of 23) and seminoma (one of one) patients contrasted to a somewhat lower incidence in bronchogenic carcinoma (7 of 51) and breast cancer (6 of 49). Most interesting was the discovery of high RI levels in familial polyposis of the colon, and ulcerative colitis, diseases with a known cancer diathesis. In general, RI dropped sharply following treatment with effective antimetabolic chemotherapeutic agents. The ectopic production of this protein enzyme, interpreted as a consequence of derepression of the tumor cell genome, is comparable with other polypeptide hormone syndromes, or carcinoembryonic antigens, but evidences a wider variety of sites of tumor origin. Its identification in gonadal tumors and in precancerous states may represent a predeliction of such derepression for tissues concerned with germinal activity or with genetically determined cancer diathesis, respectively.

Serum factors in tumor‐free patients cancelling the blocking of cell‐mediated tumor immunity

Abstract: It has been previously shown that lymphocytes from cancer patients can kill cultivated neoplastic cells of the type carried by the lymphocyte donors and that sera from patients with growing tumors of the respective types can specifically block the tumor-cell destruction. The present study demonstrates that sera from all of seven tumor patients tested (one with melanoma, one with colonic carcinoma and four with breast carcinoma), who had become clinically tumor-free, could “unblock” ( = abrogate) the blocking effect of sera from patients bearing tumors of the respective types, thus making it possible for immune lymphocytes to kill cultivated neoplastic cells in the combined presence of the “unblocking” and blocking sera.

Cancer of the colon and rectum and adenomatous polyps. A review of epidemiologic findings.

Abstract: The epidemiologic findings for intestinal cancer are reviewed and a model that may fit most of the facts is proposed for further testing. The major features of the model for colon cancer are: a. In low-risk populations where the disease is “endemic,” colon cancers are concentrated in the cecum and ascending colon, female cases are preponderant, and most of the rise to the maximum incidence level has occurred by age 50–55; b. When a new etiologic factor is introduced into such a population, the transition from an “endemic” to an “epidemic” phase is first expressed as a rise in sigmoid cancers among older men over 55 years; c. A rise in female sigmoid cancers follows later, and the time lag is reinforced by a tendency for these female cases to appear at somewhat older ages than the male cases. Some tests of the model and implications for studies of suspect precursor lesions such as adenomatous polyps are indicated. In the latter connection, the need for comparative studies among populations subject to widely differing colon cancer risks is emphasized.

Specific lymphocyte sensitization in cancer: is there a common antigen in human malignant neoplasia?

Abstract: From human cancer tissue a basic protein can be extracted by the method which yields encephalitogenic factor when applied to human brain. This tumour basic protein (obtained from several different neoplasms) acts as an antigen in the cytopherometric test for malignant neoplasia and in general gives higher results than does brain basic protein. The reverse is true when degenerative disease of the nervous system is studied. The basic protein extractable from brain and from tumours thus has some degree of specificity probably referable to its amino-acid sequence.

An orientation to the concept of minimal breast cancer

Abstract: Minimal breast cancer is a stage at which the epithelium is fully committed to neoplastic development but at which invasion either has not occurred or is little more than microscopic in extent. It is different from both early breast cancer and occult breast cancer. There is reason to urge delineation of minimal breast cancer as a specific lesion because of the urgency to reduce the mortality of mammary carcinoma. For the detection of noninvasive or minimally invasive breast cancer there is a need for a screening technique. Moreover there is a need for a pronouncement of what constitutes definitive therapy for minimal breast cancer.

Age at Menarche and Breast Cancer

Abstract: Breast cancer risk and age at menarche are shown to be indirectly associated with nutrition being the possible common factor in a case-control study in the Katowice and Opole Districts of Poland. In Athens and Boston where breast cancer incidence is high cases of late menarche (> 16 years) are low compared to Tokyo and much lower than Poland. Menarche at < 16 years indicated breast cancer risks 1.76 as high as those reporting late menarche. The risk differential was more distinct for women up to 44 years than for older women. Late menarche is associated with nutritional status. Dietary patterns may affect breast cancer risk as do geographical patterns. Migration from a low-risk location i.e. Poland to a high-risk location the U.S. increases risk of breast cancer. The decreasing numbers of women with late menarche in Poland indicate the risk of breast cancer will continue to rise.

Studies concerning the regional lymph node in cancer. I. Initiation of immunity.

Abstract: Utilizing a syngeneic tumor-host system, the role of the regional lymph node in initiating immunity to tumor was evaluated. In the absence of regional lymph nodes, no apparent sinecomitant nor concomitant immunity developed despite the presence of a growing immunizing tumor for as long as 28 days. Findings minimize the role of the bloodstream in host sensitization to tumor. They provide another possible explanation as to why an antigenic tumor may arise de novo in an immunologically normal host, and they indicate that the regional lymph node is more important in the development of tumor immunity than in production of transplantation or hypersensitivity response.