Post-Caledonian Brittle Fault Zones on the Hyperextended SW Barents Sea Margin: New Insights into Onshore and Offshore Margin Architecture

Onshore-offshore correlation of brittle faults and tectonic lineaments has been undertaken along the SW Barents Sea margin off northern Norway. The study has focused on onshore mapping of fault zones, the mapping of offshore fault complexes and associated basins from seismic interpretation, and the linkage of fault complexes onshore and offshore by integrating a high-resolution DEM, covering both onshore and offshore portions of the study area, and processed magnetic anomaly data. This study shows that both onshore and offshore brittle faults manifest themselves mainly as alternating NNE–SSW- and ENE–WSW-trending, steeply to moderately dipping, normal fault zones constituting at least two major NE-SW-trending fault complexes, the Troms-Finnmark and Vestfjorden-Vanna fault complexes. These fault complexes in western Troms bound a major basement horst (the West Troms Basement Complex), run partly onshore and offshore and link up with the offshore Nysleppen and Måsøy fault complexes. Pre-existing structures in the basement, such as foliation, lithological boundaries and ductile shear zones are shown, at least on a local scale, to have exerted a controlling effect on faulting. On a larger scale, at least two major transfer fault zone systems, one along the reactivated Precambrian Senja Shear Belt and the other, the Fugløya transfer zone, accommodate changes in brittle fault polarity along the margin. Our results suggest that distributed rifting during Carboniferous and Late Permian/Early Triassic time was followed by a northwestward localisation of displacement to the Troms–Finnmark and Ringvassøy–Loppa fault complexes during the Late Jurassic/Early Cretaceous, resulting in the formation of a short-tapered, hyperextended margin with final break-up at ~55 Ma. An uplift of the margin and preservation of the West Troms Basement Complex as a basement outlier is suggested to be due to unloading and crustal flexure of the short-tapered margin in the region

B7-H3 expression in colorectal cancer: associations with clinicopathological parameters and patient outcome

Background We have previously reported overexpression of the immunoregulatory protein B7-H3 in colorectal cancer and that nuclear expression predicted poor outcome in colon cancer patients. The present study was performed to examine the prognostic role of B7-H3 in an independent colorectal cancer cohort. Methods Using tissue microarrays from 731 colorectal cancer patients, tumour B7-H3 expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Associations with clinicopathological parameters and patient outcome were investigated. Results Nuclear expression of B7-H3 in cancer cells was present in 27% of the samples in the total study cohort, while cytoplasmic/membrane and stromal expression was seen in 86% and 77% of the samples, respectively. Nuclear B7-H3 had no prognostic relevance in the complete outcome cohort, neither in colon cancer patients. However, nuclear B7-H3 was significantly associated with reduced recurrence-free survival in TNM stage I colorectal cancer patients. Conclusions Overexpression of B7-H3 in colorectal cancer was confirmed, but in contrast to previous results, nuclear B7-H3 was not a strong prognostic biomarker in this cohort. The discrepancy might be related to the use of single-core tissue microarrays for detection of the heterogeneously expressed B7-H3, and the role of B7-H3 in colorectal cancer still needs further examination