An evaluation of immunoreactivity for c-erbB-2 protein as a marker of poor short-term prognosis in breast cancer.

Eighty-five breast carcinomas from the same number of patients have been assessed immunohistochemically using the antiserum 21N for the presence of the c-erbB-2 protein. Twenty-two of the patients had evidence of advanced disease (tumour fixation or distant metastases) at presentation. Follow-up was for a median of 24 months. c-erbB-2 protein was detected in the majority of cells in 14 (16.5%) carcinomas, and to a lesser extent in a further six (7%) tumours. There was no relationship between staining and stage, node status or size but more poorly differentiated carcinomas had evidence of staining (36%) than well (17%) or moderately (14%) differentiated carcinomas (P = 0.02). There was a significant association between staining and mortality (P = 0.009) and recurrence (P = 0.0002). The relative risk of death for staining compared to no staining (after adjusting for node status, stage and grade) was 2.97 (95% confidence interval 1.29, 6.84) and the relative risk of recurrence for staining compared to no staining after similar adjustment was 3.85 (95% confidence interval 1.86-7.97). In this particular group of patients immunoreactivity for c-erbB-2 protein is an independent indicator of poor short-term prognosis

Teaching schools evaluation. Research Brief

This Research Brief reports the findings from a two-year study (2013-15) in to the work of teaching schools and their alliances commissioned by the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL). The broad aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness and impact of teaching schools on improvement, and identify the quality and scope of external support that are required to enhance these . This was achieved through combining qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis derived from three research activities: case studies of 26 teaching schools alliances (TSAs), a national survey of the first three cohorts of 345 TSAs, and secondary research and analysis of national performance and inspection results

Detection of an atmosphere around the super-Earth 55 Cancri e

We report the analysis of two new spectroscopic observations of the super-Earth 55 Cancri e, in the near infrared, obtained with the WFC3 camera onboard the HST. 55 Cancri e orbits so close to its parent star, that temperatures much higher than 2000 K are expected on its surface. Given the brightness of 55 Cancri, the observations were obtained in scanning mode, adopting a very long scanning length and a very high scanning speed. We use our specialized pipeline to take into account systematics introduced by these observational parameters when coupled with the geometrical distortions of the instrument. We measure the transit depth per wavelength channel with an average relative uncertainty of 22 ppm per visit and find modulations that depart from a straight line model with a 6$\sigma$ confidence level. These results suggest that 55 Cancri e is surrounded by an atmosphere, which is probably hydrogen-rich. Our fully Bayesian spectral retrieval code, T-REx, has identified HCN to be the most likely molecular candidate able to explain the features at 1.42 and 1.54 $\mu$m. While additional spectroscopic observations in a broader wavelength range in the infrared will be needed to confirm the HCN detection, we discuss here the implications of such result. Our chemical model, developed with combustion specialists, indicates that relatively high mixing ratios of HCN may be caused by a high C/O ratio. This result suggests this super-Earth is a carbon-rich environment even more exotic than previously thought.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables, Accepted for publication in Ap

The relationship between radiation-induced G1arrest and chromosome aberrations in Li-Fraumeni fibroblasts with or without germline TP53 mutations

We previously showed that cultured fibroblasts from patients with the cancer-prone Li-Fraumeni (LF) syndrome, having heterozygous germline TP53 mutations, sustain less ionizing radiation-induced permanent G1 arrest than normal fibroblasts. In contrast, fibroblast strains from LF patients without TP53 mutations showed normal G1 arrest. We have now investigated the relationship between the extent of G1 arrest and the level of structural chromosome damage (mainly dicentrics, rings and acentric fragments) in cells at their first mitosis after G1 irradiation, in 9 LF strains with TP53 mutations, 6 without TP53 mutations and 7 normal strains. Average levels of damage in the mutant strains were 50% higher than in normals, whereas in non-mutant LF strains they were 100% higher. DNA double strand breaks (dsb) are known to act as a signal for p53-dependent G1 arrest and to be the lesions from which chromosome aberrations arise. These results suggest that a minimal level of dsb is required before the signal for arrest is activated and that p53-defective cells have a higher signal threshold than p53-proficient cells. Dsb that do not cause G1 blockage can progress to mitosis and appear as simple deletions or interact to form exchange aberrations. The elevated levels in the non-mutant strains may arise from defects in the extent or accuracy of dsb repair. In LF cells with or without TP53 mutations, the reduced capacity to eliminate or repair chromosomal damage of the type induced by ionising radiation, may contribute to cancer predisposition in this syndrome. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co

3D freeform surfaces from planar sketches using neural networks

A novel intelligent approach into 3D freeform surface reconstruction from planar sketches is proposed. A multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network is employed to induce 3D freeform surfaces from planar freehand curves. Planar curves were used to represent the boundaries of a freeform surface patch. The curves were varied iteratively and sampled to produce training data to train and test the neural network. The obtained results demonstrate that the network successfully learned the inverse-projection map and correctly inferred the respective surfaces from fresh curves

Immunohistochemical analysis of expression and allelotype of mismatch repair genes (hMLH1 and hMSH2) in bladder cancer

Mutation of human homologues of DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes in tumours has been shown to be associated with the phenomenon of microsatellite instability (MSI). Several studies have reported the occurrence of MSI in bladder cancer, but evidence of involvement of MMR genes in the pathogenesis of this cancer is still unclear. We therefore utilized quantitative immunohistochemical (IHC) image analysis and PCR-based allelotype analysis to determine hMLH1 and hMSH2 genes alteration in a cohort of Egyptian bladder cancer samples. IHC analysis of 24 TCC and 12 SCC revealed marked- intra and intertumour heterogeneity in the levels of expression of the two MMR proteins. One TCC lost MLH1 expression and one lost MSH2, (1/24, 4%), and one SCC lost MSH2 (1/12, 8%). A large proportion of analysed tumours revealed a percentage positivity of less than 50% for MLH1 and MSH2 expression (44% and 69%, respectively). Complete loss of heterozygosity in three dinucleotide repeats lying within, or in close proximity to, hMLH1 and hMSH2 was rare (2/57, (4%) for MLH1; and 1/55, (2%) for MSH2), however allelic imbalance was detected in 11/57 (hMLH1) and 10/55 (hMSH2) at any of the informative microsatellite loci. These alterations in structure and expression of DNA MMR genes suggest their possible involvement in the tumorigenesis and/or progression of bladder cancer. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co