前沿科技及其它

The field of cytogenetics has had a great impact on many aspects of medical and basic sciences, including clinical genetics and, perhaps most notably, hematology and oncology. Tumor cytogenetics has for many years been dedicated almost exclusively to the study of hematological malignan ...

Solid tumors comprise approx 95% of all malignancies, but account for only a little over 25% of cases in published cytogenetic studies. The main reasons are:

Prior to the early 1970s, chromosome spreads were block stained with, for example, orcein or Fulgen’s stains, and only those with a distinctive outline could be recognized. Then it was discovered that chromosomes could be made to show a consistent pattern of lighter or darker stained segments (ba ...

The preceding chapters have described the processes involved in getting metaphase divisions from a sample onto a slide, ready for analysis. Time, skill, and experience generously spent on these techniques will do much to make the next stages easier: the analysis and interpretation of these m ...

The impression is sometimes given that fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) studies are simply a matter of buying a kit with the right DNA probe, following the supplier’s instructions, and reading a simple positive or negative result. In practice, getting a reliable result from a FISH study ...

Although classical cytogenetic analysis is a powerful tool for the assessment of acquired chromosomal changes in hematological malignancies, it can be performed only on dividing cells and cannot detect cryptic rearrangements. The introduction of molecular cytogenetic techn ...

Over the last 15 yr, advances in molecular biology have allowed improvements in the sensitivity and versatility of cytogenetic analysis. These advances have included developments in recombinant technology such as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), a means of detecting chr ...

There is an internationally agreed system for describing the banding pattern of chromosomes, such that if an abnormality is accurately described in one laboratory then it can be recognized in another. This is known as the ISCN, the International System for Human Cytogenetic Nomenclature. S ...

It is rare for a full-fledged malignancy cytogenetics service to be started as a result of a policy decision and business plan. More often it grows from a small beginning: perhaps just one or two research assistants working on the particular interest of an oncologist, or perhaps one or two people in a preex ...

The proteomics analysis of protein kinases and other cell-signaling proteins in tumor samples by traditional two-dimensional (2-D) gel electrophoresis is complicated by the low abundance of these regulatory proteins relative to metabolic enzymes and structural proteins. We pr ...

During T-cell maturation, T-cell receptor (TCR) gene segments rearrange, resulting in a new, unique DNA configuration. The recombined TCR gene loci display a high degree of nucleotide sequence variability. Molecular biological clonality assays focus on this cell-specific DNA patt ...

Elucidation of signal transduction pathways involved in proliferation, cell cycle progression and the regulation of apoptosis has shown great promise in the treatment of various diseases including neoplastic, inflammatory, autoimmune, immunodeficiency, arthritic and n ...

It has been shown that antisense oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) treatments provide an effective, specific approach to inhibiting the function of target proteins. Using this method, we have acquired additional evidence that protein kinase C-epsilon functions as an oncogenic protein ...

Identifying substrates of receptor and non-receptor protein tyrosine kinases (PTK), and how phosphorylation of these substrates affects signaling and cytoskeletal pathways, has been a key step in understanding the role of PTK in differentiation, mitogenesis and oncogenesis. Ho ...

Compounds based on a flavonoid (di-phenolic) ring structure are emerging as a potentially important new class of pharmaceutical compounds with a broad range of biological activities, most prominent of which is their potential role as anticancer agents.

Prostate cancer affects many men in the West but rarely occurs in Japan or China. Some epidemiological factors that may be important in this are described elsewhere in this volume. Prostate cancer has become the most common malignancy and the second highest cause of cancer death in Western societ ...

Although epithelial stem cells are implicated in the etiology of both benign prostatic hyperplasia and cancer (1,2), there has, until recently, been little information regarding their characteristics. Stem cells are well characterized in several other mammalian epithelial tiss ...

Well-established techniques are now in place to culture several of the major types of cells in the prostate. Epithelial cells with characteristics of basal and/or secretory luminal cells can be grown in vitro, as can stromal cells with properties of fibroblasts and/or smooth muscle. In most cas ...

Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer in the United States, as well as in the Western World, and the second leading cause of male cancer death in the United States (1). The recent progress made in identifying prostate cancer genes and understanding prostate cancer genetics is impressive. Ho ...

Sutherland and coworkers developed and used the spheroid model in the 1970s for radiobiological studies (1–6). Spheroids are three-dimensional (spherical) clusters of tumor cells grown from one or several cell clones. The spheroid model contains many of the elements of a tumor xenograft i ...