细胞技术

The first description of familial melanoma in the English literature appeared in 1820, when Norris (1) reported: It is remarkable that this gentleman’s father, about thirty years ago, died of a similar disease.... This tumour, I have remarked, originated in a mole, and it is worth mentioning, that not on ...

Cutaneous melanoma is the most rapidly increasing malignancy in the white European population; its clinical significance is enhanced because it can affect younger individuals (1–3). The high mortality rate among melanoma patients, second to lung cancer, is related to melanoma’s resi ...

Identification of alterations in gene expression is an important step in understanding the development and progression of human disease. For pigmentary disorders with an unresolved hereditary component, genetic and epigenetic changes that alter the expression of genes as a direct ...

Dendritic cells (DCs) are potent antigen-presenting cells (1) with wide tissue distribution. They are classified based primarily on their localization: as Langerhans cells when present in the epidermis and as dermal DCs when found in the dermis. DCs exhibit several common features: an irr ...

The identification of genes involved in different biologic functions and in the pathogenesis of diseases has paved the way to the possibility of either interfering with the role of such genes or replacing them in somatic cells in case of loss, which may occur in some genetic diseases or cancer. Such pr ...

A major thrust in the application of gene transfer technology for cancer therapy has been the modulation of the immune response. There has been a veritable explosion of information regarding the components of the immune response that are required to generate a meaningful cellular response ...

Growth of normal cells is regulated by polypeptides that act via specific cellular receptors. Otherwise known as cytokines, these substances include the growth factors that modulate the proliferation of nonimmune cells. Lymphokines or cytokines, on the other hand, are involved in the r ...

The incidence and mortality rates of melanoma increased dramatically from 1973 to 1994, rising 120.5 and 38.9%, respectively (1). From 1990 to 1994, men had higher incidence (17.3/100,000) and mortality rates (3.5/100,000) than women (incidence: 11.6/100,000; mortality: 1.7/100,000) and had m ...

When cutaneous melanoma is confined to the skin, simple excision with adequate margins will usually cure the patient (1,2). Local recurrences do occur but reexcision still results in a very high cure rate. When cutaneous melanoma spreads beyond the primary site, the metastases are predomina ...

Many of the recent advancements in the area of tumor immunobiology have allowed us to focus our efforts on the experimental treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma. It has been both a frustrating and often a seemingly futile effort on the parts of physicians and researchers alike in treat ...

The adequate procurement and preservation of high-quality tissue specimens from patients with melanoma is a critical clinical issue as patients’ tumor samples are now used not only for pathological diagnosis but are also necessary to determine the molecular signature of the tumor to str ...

We review biostatistical aspects of biomarker studies, including design and analysis issues, covering the range of settings required for translational research—from early exploratory studies through clinical trials.

Detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in human blood and lymph systems has the potential to aid clinical decision making in the treatment of cancer (Cristofanilli et al. New Engl J Med 351:781–791, 2004; Check Cap Today 19:1.76–1.86, 2005; Braun and Naume J Clin Oncol 8:1623–1626, 2005). The prese ...

Intact miRNAs can be isolated from the circulation in significant quantities despite the presence of extremely high levels of RNase activity. The remarkable stability of circulating miRNAs makes them excellent candidates for biomarkers in diagnostic applications as well as ther ...

Detection of low-level mutations is important for cancer biomarker and therapy targets discovery, but reliable detection remains a technical challenge. The newly developed method of CO-amplification at Lower Denaturation temperature PCR (COLD-PCR) helps to circumvent this is ...

Immunohistochemistry is an essential tool for clinical and translational research laboratories. It is mostly used as a qualitative measure of morphology and cell types within tissue. We have developed a high-resolution multispectral imaging method to expand the uses of immunohis ...

The development of cancer immunotherapies has been ongoing for many years and has shown limited success. Novel biomarkers are needed to identify patients most likely to respond to anticancer immune-therapeutic approaches. Moreover, a systems-level approach is required for compr ...

Positron emission tomography combined with computed tomography (PET/CT) has emerged in the last decade as a dominant imaging modality used for staging, monitoring response and surveillance of various cancers, including melanoma. Using 2-deoxy-2-(18F)fluoro-d-glucose (18F- ...

Damage-associated molecular pattern molecules (DAMPs) are proteins released from cells under stress due to nutrient deprivation, hypoxia, trauma, or treatment with chemotherapy, among a variety of other causes. When released, DAMPs activate innate immunity, providing a pathway ...

The tumor antigen chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan 4 (CSPG4) appears to be a useful biomarker to identify melanoma cells and an attractive target to apply antibody-based immunotherapy for the treatment of melanoma. Here we described the reverse transcription-polymerase chain re ...