Negative Experiences in Television Programming : A View from the Other Side

Many professional archaeologists will engage with television. There seems to be little guidance- other than trial and error and personal communications - for navigating interactions with media production companies. Here, through a series of informal questions and answers, I present some issues with which one might be confronted in such engagements. I base my discussions on personal experience, literature, and conversations with experienced colleagues. A key point is that media production companies' agendas and priorities often differ from those of archaeologists. While the article draws on experiences from Europe and North America, it has relevance for archaeologists working with television everywhere.Peer reviewe

HPV infection and immunochemical detection of cell-cycle markers in verrucous carcinoma of the penis

Penile verrucous carcinoma is a rare disease and little is known of its aetiology or pathogenesis. In this study we examined cell-cycle proteins expression and correlation with human papillomavirus infection in a series of 15 pure penile verrucous carcinomas from a single centre. Of 148 penile tumours, 15 (10%) were diagnosed as pure verrucous carcinomas. The expression of the cell-cycle-associated proteins p53, p21, RB, p16INK4A and Ki67 were examined by immunohistochemistry. Human papillomavirus infection was determined by polymerase chain reaction to identify a wide range of virus types. The expression of p16INK4A and Ki67 was significantly lower in verrucous carcinoma than in usual type squamous cell carcinoma, whereas the expression of p53, p21 and RB was not significantly different. p53 showed basal expression in contrast to usual type squamous cell carcinoma. Human papillomavirus infection was present in only 3 out of 13 verrucous carcinomas. Unique low-risk, high-risk and mixed viral infections were observed in each of the three cases. In conclusion, lower levels of p16INK4A and Ki67 expressions differentiate penile verrucous carcinoma from usual type squamous cell carcinoma. The low Ki67 index reflects the slow-growing nature of verrucous tumours. The low level of p16INK4A expression and human papillomavirus detection suggests that penile verrucous carcinoma pathogenesis is unrelated to human papillomavirus infection and the oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes classically altered by virus infection.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Construction of tissue microarrays from prostate needle biopsy specimens

Needle biopsies are taken as standard diagnostic specimens for many cancers, but no technique exists for the high-throughput analysis of multiple individual immunohistochemical (IHC) markers using these samples. Here we present a simple and highly reliable technique for constructing tissue microarrays (TMAs) from prostatic needle biopsies. Serial sectioning of the TMAs, called ‘Checkerboard TMAs', facilitated expression analysis of multiple proteins using IHC markers. In total, 100% of the analysed biopsies within the TMA both preserved their antigenicity and maintained their morphology. Checkerboard TMAs will allow the use of needle biopsies (i) alongside other tissue specimens (trans-urethral resection of prostates and prostatectomies in the case of prostate cancer) in clinical correlation studies when searching for new prognostic markers, and (ii) in a diagnostic context for assessing expression of multiple proteins in cancers from patients prior to treatment

Pathways to diagnosis for Black men and White men found to have prostate cancer: the PROCESS cohort study

Black men in England have three times the age-adjusted incidence of diagnosed prostate cancer as compared with their White counterparts. This population-based retrospective cohort study is the first UK-based investigation of whether access to diagnostic services underlies the association between race and prostate cancer. Prostate cancer was ascertained using multiple sources including hospital records. Race and factors that may influence prostate cancer diagnosis were assessed by questionnaire and hospital records review. We found that Black men were diagnosed an average of 5.1 years younger as compared with White men (P<0.001). Men of both races were comparable in their knowledge of prostate cancer, in the delays reported before presentation, and in their experience of co-morbidity and symptoms. Black men were more likely to be referred for diagnostic investigation by a hospital department (P=0.013), although general practitioners referred the large majority of men. Prostate-specific antigen levels were comparable at diagnosis, although Black men had higher levels when compared with same-age White men (P<0.001). In conclusion, we found no evidence of Black men having poorer access to diagnostic services. Differences in the run-up to diagnosis are modest and seem insufficient to explain the higher rate of prostate cancer diagnosis in Black men

Expression of CC chemokine receptor 7 in tonsillar cancer predicts cervical nodal metastasis, systemic relapse and survival

The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of CC chemokine receptor 7 (CCR7) in squamous cell cancer of the tonsil with respect to patterns of spread, relapse-free, overall and disease-specific survival. Eighty-four patients with squamous cell cancer of the tonsil were identified. There was a male predominance of 3 : 1 and the median age at diagnosis was 53 (range 35–86) years. The median duration of follow-up was 33 (range 2–124) months. There was a significant association between CCR7 immunopositivity and synchronous cervical nodal metastasis in patients with tonsillar cancer (Spearman's correlation coefficient 0.564; P<0.001). Relapse-free (P=0.0175), overall (P=0.0136) and disease-specific (P=0.0062) survival rates were significantly lower in patients whose tumours expressed high levels of CCR7. On multivariate analysis, high-level CCR7 staining predicted relapse-free (hazard ratio 3.0, 95% confidence intervals 1.1–8.0, P=0.026) and disease-specific (hazard ratio 10.2, 95% confidence intervals 2.1–48.6, P=0.004) survival. Fifteen percent of patients with the highest level of tumour CCR7 immunopositivity relapsed with systemic metastases. These data demonstrated that CCR7 expression was associated with cervical nodal and systemic metastases from tonsillar cancers. High levels of CCR7 expression predicted a poor prognosis

Alternative HER/PTEN/Akt Pathway Activation in HPV Positive and Negative Penile Carcinomas

Copyright: 2011 Stankiewicz et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background: The pathogenesis of penile squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC) is not well understood, though risk factors include human papillomavirus (HPV). Disruption of HER/PTEN/Akt pathway is present in many cancers; however there is little information on its function in PSCC. We investigated HER family receptors and phosphatase and tension homolog (PTEN) in HPV-positive and negative PSCC and its impact on Akt activation using immunohistochemistry and fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH). Methodology/Principal Findings: 148 PSCCs were microarrayed and immunostained for phosphorylated EGFR (pEGFR), HER2, HER3, HER4, phosphorylated Akt (pAkt), Akt1 and PTEN proteins. EGFR and PTEN gene status were also evaluated using FISH. HPV presence was assessed by PCR. pEGFR expression was detected significantly less frequently in HPV-positive than HPV-negative tumours (p = 0.0143). Conversely, HER3 expression was significantly more common in HPV-positive cases (p = 0.0128). HER4, pAkt, Akt and PTEN protein expression were not related to HPV. HER3 (p = 0.0054) and HER4 (p = 0.0002) receptors significantly correlated with cytoplasmic Akt1 immunostaining. All three proteins positively correlated with tumour grade (HER3, p = 0.0029; HER4, p = 0.0118; Akt1, p = 0.0001). pEGFR expression correlated with pAkt but not with tumour grade or stage. There was no EGFR gene amplification. HER2 was not detected. PTEN protein expression was reduced or absent in 62% of tumours but PTEN gene copy loss was present only in 4% of PSCCs. Conclusions/Significance: EGFR, HER3 and HER4 but not HER2 are associated with penile carcinogenesis. HPV-negative tumours tend to express significantly more pEGFR than HPV-positive cancers and this expression correlates with pAkt protein, indicating EGFR as an upstream regulator of Akt signalling in PSCC. Conversely, HER3 expression is significantly more common in HPV-positive cases and positively correlates with cytoplasmic Akt1 expression. HER4 and PTEN protein expression are not related to HPV infection. Our results suggest that PSCC patients could benefit from therapies developed to target HER receptors.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio