细胞技术

The severe combined immune deficient human (SCID-hu) myeloma model is the only available model in which primary myeloma cells grow in vivo in a human bone marrow microenvironment. A SCID mouse receives an implanted human fetal bone into which myeloma cells are directly injected. Through inte ...

Patients with multiple myeloma have a clonal proliferation of malignant plasma cells, each with an identical rearrangement of immunogloblin heavy and light chain genes. When these unique sequences are determined, a valuable molecular tool is available that can been used to detect the pr ...

Analysis of Ig genes in B-cell malignancies has become an essential method in molecular diagnosis, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of Ig heavy chain gene (IgH) rearrangements is now widely used for detection of clonality and minimal residual disease (MRD). Although sev ...

The evaluation of minimal residual disease (MRD) is critical in the evaluation of treatments aimed at maximal cytoreduction in multiple myeloma (MM). Qualitative evaluation of MRD now has a 10-yr-long history, but it remains a relatively sophisticated procedure. More recently, real-t ...

In multiple myeloma (MM) the rearranged immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) variable, diversity, and joining (VDJ) DNA sequence of malignant plasma cells (PCs) serves as a marker for cells in the MM clone. This clonotypic sequence can be isolated from MM PCs by reverse transcriptase polymerase c ...

The primary aim of tissue fixation is to preserve tissue in the long term, ideally without causing alterations in morphology or biochemical integrity. Optimal fixation should therefore inhibit autolysis while preserving enzyme activity and antigen reactivity. However, some of the ...

The histopathological diagnosis of malignancy has traditionally been said to be the gold standard by which all other methods of investigation and diagnosis are defined and assessed. Although this is still largely true, the other chapters in this book attest to the fact that it may not be true for much ...

It is now well established that, in addition to genetic changes that may include germ line and somatic DNA alterations, cancers can also arise as a result of a series of epigenetic DNA mutations (1). In mammals, DNA is methylated at cytosine residues in the 5′ position of CpG dinucleotides. The genomic met ...

The widespread acceptance of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing by clinicians as evidence of prostatic pathology and recognition that elevated levels in serum often precede overt disease has permitted a much earlier identification of patients with prostatic epithelial c ...

To date, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has proven to be the most useful tumor marker for prostate cancer (1–3). However, the PSA test does not discriminate well between men with benign disease and early prostate cancer, and it does not discriminate between aggressive and slow-growing cance ...

The androgen receptor (AR) gene comprises eight exons located at chromosome Xq11-12 and encodes an mRNA transcript of approx 11 kb (1–5). Situated within exon 1 of the AR gene is a polymorphic CAG trinucleotide repeat, which encodes a polyglutamine (poly-Q) tract of variable length in the N-termin ...

Prostate cancer is a heterogenous neoplasm that is palliatively treated with androgen ablation therapy. Endocrine therapy aims to block the androgen receptor (AR), which has a central role in the transmission of extracellular signals and is therefore responsible for regulating pro ...

Gene macro- and microarrays have become an increasingly popular tool to investigate gene expression patterns by simultaneously analyzing the expression of thousands of genes in a single experiment. Through careful array design and appropriate analytical tools, one can relate gene ...

High-throughput DNA analysis has generated a wealth of information on predicted gene products and resulted in databases containing the complete genome sequences from several organisms. However, a comprehensive functional interpretation of this huge amount of nucleic acid seq ...

Understanding the development and function of the prostate requires elucidation of the mechanisms through which genes are specifically activated in the prostate and the means by which they are regulated. Studies of development in many systems has led to a model showing that control of gene e ...

Prostate cancer (PC) is now the second most common cause of death from cancer in men after lung cancer (1). Brachytherapy, prostatectomy, or external beam radiation can effect a cure, with a life expectancy of at least 10 yr at diagnosis (2). Survival depends on the disease being organ confined, specimen ...

Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer diagnosed in Western populations. Autopsy studies have shown that with increasing age, the majority of men will develop microscopic foci of cancer (often termed “latent” prostate cancer) and that this is true in populations that are at both high and l ...

Gliomas account for more than 70% of all brain tumors, and of these, glioblastoma is the most frequent and malignant histologic type (World Health Organization grade IV). There is a tendency toward a higher incidence of gliomas in highly developed, industrialized countries. Some reports ind ...

In this chapter, we discuss statistical methods for various study designs that are commonly used in epidemiological research and particularly in cancer epidemiological research. After a brief review of basic concepts in epidemiological studies, statistical methods for case-co ...

Race and ethnicity are increasing used in cancer research to assess differences in cancer incidence and response to therapy. In this chapter, we discuss the measurement and methodologic issues that should be addressed to minimize bias and derive valid estimates when performing such asse ...