Tumor markers in breast cancer - European Group on Tumor Markers recommendations

Recommendations are presented for the routine clinical use of serum and tissue-based markers in the diagnosis and management of patients with breast cancer. Their low sensitivity and specificity preclude the use of serum markers such as the MUC-1 mucin glycoproteins ( CA 15.3, BR 27.29) and carcinoembryonic antigen in the diagnosis of early breast cancer. However, serial measurement of these markers can result in the early detection of recurrent disease as well as indicate the efficacy of therapy. Of the tissue-based markers, measurement of estrogen and progesterone receptors is mandatory in the selection of patients for treatment with hormone therapy, while HER-2 is essential in selecting patients with advanced breast cancer for treatment with Herceptin ( trastuzumab). Urokinase plasminogen activator and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 are recently validated prognostic markers for lymph node-negative breast cancer patients and thus may be of value in selecting node-negative patients that do not require adjuvant chemotherapy. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel

Membrane testosterone binding sites in prostate carcinoma as a potential new marker and therapeutic target: Study in paraffin tissue sections

BACKGROUND: Steroid action is mediated, in addition to classical intracellular receptors, by recently identified membrane sites, that generate rapid non-genomic effects. We have recently identified a membrane androgen receptor site on prostate carcinoma cells, mediating testosterone rapid effects on the cytoskeleton and secretion within minutes. METHODS: The aim of this study was to investigate whether membrane androgen receptors are differentially expressed in prostate carcinomas, and their relationship to the tumor grade. We examined the expression of membrane androgen receptors in archival material of 109 prostate carcinomas and 103 benign prostate hyperplasias, using fluorescein-labeled BSA-coupled testosterone. RESULTS: We report that membrane androgen receptors are preferentially expressed in prostate carcinomas, and they correlate to their grade using the Gleason's microscopic grading score system. CONCLUSION: We conclude that membrane androgen receptors may represent an index of tumor aggressiveness and possibly specific targets for new therapeutic regimens

Interviews of Senator Warren Magnuson’s Commerce Committee Staff for When the Senate Worked for Us

Written transcripts of oral history interviews of Senator Warren G. Magnuson's Commerce Committee staffers. Interviewees include: Len Bickwit; Mary McInnis Boies; Joan Claybrook; David Cohen; Ed Cohen; Stan Cohen; David Freeman; Jerry Grinstein; Terry Lierman; Ed Merlis; Morton Mintz; Ralph Nader; Sharon Nelson; Ben Palumbo; David Price; Manny Rouvelas; Lynn Sutcliffe;Between the early 1960s and the late 1970s an impressive number of consumer and environmental protection laws come out of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Michael (Mike) Pertschuk worked for the Committee for thirteen years. The Committee was chaired by Senator Warren G. Magnuson of Washington. Pertschuk interviewed a representative sampling of the most entrepreneurial of the Magnuson Commerce Committee staffers for his 2017 book When the Senate Worked for Us. Pertschuk donated transcripts of those interviews to the Senator Warren G. Magnuson Archives at the University of Washington Library in Seattle, Washington. These interviews join other materials from Magnuson staffers. The Magnuson Archives offer a rich history of Washington. Magnuson was elected to the House of Representatives in 1936 and to the Senate in 1944. He served as chairman of the Commerce Committee between 1955 and 1977. Much of the consumer protection and automobile safety legislation was enacted by the Committee during Magnuson’s chairmanship. He was also responsible for significant health care legislation and funding. Magnuson was chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee from 1977 to 1981. He was President pro tempore of the Senate from 1978 to 1981