Prognostic implications of mean nuclear diameter in breast cancer.

The mean nuclear diameter of 100 breast cancers was measured on tissue sections, to evaluate its importance for early prognosis. The cases were subdivided into 3 subgroups: small (25.5% of cases), medium (63.3%) and large (11.2%) nuclei. Early recurrence and mortality rates were investigated in each of the categories. Increasing nuclear size was shown to be related to mortality from metastatic disease. However, large-nucleus tumours had an inverse relationship with lymphnode involvement and possibly with recurrence rate. Hence, in our material nuclear size as a sole criterion was not a good indicator of the early behaviour of operable breast cancer

Meta-analysis of non-tumour doses for radiation-induced cancer on the basis of dose-rate

Purpose: Quantitative analysis of cancer risk of ionising radiation as a function of dose-rate

Two-site automated chemiluminescent assay for measurement of immunoreactive renin.

Measurement of renin is important for the clinical assessment of hypertensive patients and for the screening for primary aldosteronism. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performances of an automated immunoassay for measurement of immunoreactive renin. Functional sensitivity, in vitro stability, and reference values were determined. Method comparison with the plasma renin activity assay was also performed. Our results demonstrate that the Liaison(®) direct renin assay may assist the clinician in the assessment of hypertensive patients and in the screening for primary aldosteronism

Correlation between size and external temperature in four rat tumours after treatment with cytostatic agents.

The reduction in size of four experimental tumours (ISIS 130 and ISIS 208 immunocytomas, S 437 mammary adenocarcinoma, S 447 colon adenocarcinoma) was investigated in LOU rats under the influence of cytostatic agents belonging to different classes (5-fluorouracil, methotrexate, vinblastine, cisplatin, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide). External tumour and rectal temperatures were measured at the same time, twice daily, during the whole experiment. With the rectal temperature of the rats kept constant, the reduction in tumour dimensions following chemotherapy correlated via a linear relationship with the duration and degree of tumour hypothermia for the three tumours S 437, ISIS 208, ISIS 130. However, for the same reduction in tumour volume following chemotherapy, the duration and degree of transient tumour hypothermia varied according to the type of tumour and cytostatic agent studied. There was not correlation between the decrease in size of S 447 and external tumour hypothermia. Even when the reduction in tumour size was statistically significant, the hypothermic tumour phase after drug administration was not sufficient to be significant, except for vinblastine. However, the temperature of this slowly growing tumour before chemotherapy was particularly low. The measurement of the degree and duration of external tumour hypothermia of tumours following chemotherapy would represent a new physiological technique for measuring the efficacy and duration of action of cytostatic agents