The expressions of human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) mRNA in the HTLV-I-infected lymphocytes were studied in the peripheral blood of two HTLV-I carriers and of three patients with adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) (acute, chronic and lymphoma types) by in situ hybridization technique using two biotinylated single-stranded oligodeoxynucleotide probes complementary to different nucleotide sequences in the mRNA for the HTLV-IpX region. A low percentage of leukocytes (1.5-7.4%) reacted with the probes in ATL patients, while less than 1% of leukocytes was reactive in HTLV-I carriers. These results indicate that a part of ATL cells express the HTLV-IpX, which is thought to be involved in the leukemogenesis of ATL in the peripheral blood of the patients.

Cell-adhesive proteins such as laminin and fibronectin and their specific receptors play an important role in the processes of cancer proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. In the present study, we cloned the cDNA of 67 kDa-laminin receptor both from human lung cultured cell line (IMR90) and from human small cell lung cancer (SBC3), and determined the nucleotide sequences. In addition, the expression of mRNA in 11 lung cancer cell lines with various cell types was estimated by the method of Northern blot hybridization. As a result, 1.2 kb-message was detected in all cancer cell lines examined. It was also demonstrated that the mRNA level of 67 kDa-laminin receptor was inversely proportional to the population doubling time of the cell line (r = -0.80).

We report a 9-year-old girl who had massive bone marrow infiltration of tumor cells at the onset of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. She was admitted to a surgical hospital because of abdominal pain and tumor in the buttock. Computerized tomographic scans of the pelvis revealed an abnormal mass. She was referred to our department. Hematological examination showed pancytopenia. Blood chemistry revealed hypercalcemia and hyperuricemia. Bone marrow was occupied with 100% tumor cells. Chromosome analysis of tumor cells in bone marrow revealed a specific translocation, t(2;13) (q37;q14). This finding enabled the diagnosis of a disseminated alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma to be established. She was treated with vincristine, cyclophosphamide and epirubicin, achieved a complete remission, but died of relapse 3 months after diagnosis.

Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) combined with monoclonal gammopathy or multiple myeloma has rarely been reported. In this article, two siblings, a brother and his sister who showed simultaneous occurrence of MDS and monoclonal gammopathy are reported. The first case, a 73-year-old male, was admitted to our hospital in November, 1987. Analysis of peripheral blood revealed pancytopenia without blast cells. Bone marrow was hypocellular with 14.9% of myeloblasts and 2.8% of plasma cells characterized by 2 to 4 nuclei. Serum IgA level was 635 mg/dl and serum immunoelectrophoresis revealed a monoclonal IgA lambda band. The second case, a 70-year-old female, younger sister of the first case, was admitted to our hospital in January, 1988. Bone marrow was normocellular with 23% of peroxidase-negative myeloblasts and 12.8% of atypical plasma cells. Serum IgG level was 1,901 mg/dl with monoclonal IgG kappa band. Hematological findings have remained unchanged for 12 months. The first case was regarded as hypoplastic MDS with monoclonal gammopathy and the second case was MDS with smoldering myeloma. These cases were very similar with in respect to age, time of onset, clinical course, hematological findings and especially, association with M-protein. There are no reports concerning the familial incidence of MDS with M-protein. These findings supported the hypothesis that an initial event selects a clone of stem cells which retain the capability to differentiate into mature myeloid and lymphoid cells, in these cases B-cells.

Evidence is increasing that oncogenes are involved in the development and/or progression of gynecological malignancies including ovarian carcinoma. While histopathologic examination remains an indispensable tool in the diagnosis and evaluation of patients with ovarian carcinoma, the advancement of technology and the development of new knowledge regarding neoplastic transformation are providing a basis for new opportunities to improve patients care. In this review, a variety of techniques to study the abnormalities of oncogenes, especially of c-myc oncogenes in clinical specimens of human ovarian malignancies are reviewed. Emphasis in placed on whether the techniques are feasible in routine clinical laboratories and have potential values to the care of patients with ovarian carcinoma. At this juncture, an examination of c-myc oncogene abnormalities at the DNA level appears to have a greater potentials in the field described above than those at mRNA and protein levels.

In this paper we reported a familially occurred cavernous angiomas (CA) of the central nervous system (CNS). Case 1 was a 14-year-old female with an initial symptom of transient motor and sensory disorders of the right upper extremity. On examination she had a cutaneous angioma and no neurological deficit. CT and MRI revealed two lesions in the brain. These lesions were removed surgically and were diagnosed histologically as CA. Case 2 was a 45-year-old female, the mother of case 1, with a long standing headache. She had a cutaneous angioma and no neurological deficit. CT and MRI revealed a CA in the brain and a one in the cervical cord. Case 3 was an 11-year-old female, the cousin of case 1, with an initial symptom of left hemiparesis. On examination, she had a cutaneous angioma and left hemiparesis. CT revealed two lesions in the brain. These lesions were removed surgically and were diagnosed histologically as CA. Familial CA of the CNS is relatively rare and the reported cases were 24 families consisted of 70 cases. We analyzed the reported cases to clarify the specificities of the familial cases. In the familial cases, CAs were apt to be multiple and were located more frequently in the posterior fossa than in the non-familial cases. In some familial cases, the vascular anomalies of the CNS other than CA or CA of the skin or retina were also revealed. Because of high incidence (89%) of the hemorrhage from the histologically verified CA, operation should be carried out even in the cases of CA with mild or no symptom, if the lesion is accessible surgically.

A 56-year-old female case of papillary thyroid carcinoma is reported. Nuclear DNA analysis using flow cytometry and immuno-histological staining with thyroglobulin, CA19-9 and CA125 of the primary and metastatic foci from the autopsy specimens were performed. Correlation between ploidy patterns and immuno-histological staining was not found. Although two histogram patterns namely DNA diploid (DP) and aneuploid (AP) with DNA index of 1.3 were seen in primary, sternal and lung metastatic foci, only DP pattern was seen in the lymph node metastatic foci.

We experienced an operation of a 16-year-old female of mediastinal vagal neurinoma. Abnormal shadow was pointed out on chest X-ray at physical examination of high school. Right thoracotomy was performed under the diagnosis of mediastinal tumor. There was a walnut sized mass on the right vagal nerve at just peripheral side of the recurrent nerve branch. The vagal nerve was cut at both sides of the mass not to injure the recurrent nerve. The tumor was removed en block. Two little finger sized masses were recognized in serratus anterior muscle and 5 th. intercostal nerve. These removed masses were diagnosed as neurinoma pathologically. While the mother of this case had been admitted on another hospital because of multiple neurinomatosis with bilateral acoustic neurinoma. Thus this case is of familial neurinomatosis, suggesting it's heredity like as neurofibromatosis (von Recklinghausen's disease).

Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) is a genetic disorder transmitted as an autosomal dominant trait. This syndrome is characterized by the development of numerous polyps during the first 20-30 years of life and classified into two phenotypes according to the number of polyps: the profuse and sparse types. If left untreated, most or all affected individuals are at a high risk of developing adenocarcinoma by as early as 40 years of age. Therefore, comparison of APC adenocarcinomas with non-polyposis colorectal carcinomas (NPCC) was thought to be useful for understanding genetically determined carcinogenesis. I investigated gene alterations in specimens obtained from 53 APC patients, of which 16 represented the profuse type and the others the sparse type, and from 15 NPCC patients. The results are summarized as follows: 1) K-ras gene mutations were detected more frequently in the profuse-type adenomas (43%) than in the sparse ones (14%) (p less than 0.05). 2) Loss of heterozygosity on the long arm of chromosome 5(5q), 18(18q) and the short arm of chromosome 17(17p) in the profuse-type adenomas was observed more frequently (22%) than in the sparse ones (7.3%) (p less than 0.05). 3) No significant differences were observed between APC adenocarcinomas and NPCCs regarding the allelic deletions on 5q, 17p and 18q in these tumors. 4) The alteration of the DCC gene, which is known to be involved in the formation of NPCC, was frequently detected in the APC adenocarcinomas, suggesting that similar genetic events are involved in the oncogenesis of adenocarcinomas from APC and NPCC.

Over the past 10 years, we have witnessed a variety of potential prognostic factors of breast cancer including proliferative rate, ploidy, growth factor receptors, oncogenes and cathepsin D production. Some of these variables seem to predict the prognosis of the patients but the available data are conflicting and call for carefully conducted quality-control studies to analyze intra- and interlaboratory variations. In this review, we provided a framework from which prognostic factor information can be used directly to make treatment decisions.

One of the most characteristic features of epithelial ovarian cancer is its inherent heterogeneity with respect to biological behavior ranging from the relatively indolent nature of borderline tumors to highly aggressive malignant diseases. This can be reflected in a wide variety of prognostic factors, among which the stage of disease is by far the most important, followed by histologic subtype, histologic grade, volume of residual disease, age at diagnosis, and performance status (PS). Within a given stage, histologic grade is the most powerful prognostic factor in stage I disease, followed by dense adherence and large volume of ascites. On the other hand, the main prognostic factor in more advanced stage disease (II-IV) includes an effect of chemotherapy and a volume of residuum, and PS. However, these factors alone cannot always predict patients' survival correctly. A number of new and potentially valuable prognostic factors have emerged as a result of the recent technical advances in molecular genetics, flow cytometric analysis, development of monoclonal antibody, immunohistochemical study, and steroid hormone receptor analysis. This article reviews some of these newly developed "investigational" prognostic variables, as well as the "widely accepted" clinicopathological prognostic factors.

Nuclear DNA content of paraffin-embedded tissue from 38 adrenal neoplasms and 9 histologically normal adrenal glands was analyzed using flow cytometry. Histological diagnosis of thirty-eight adrenal neoplasms were 3 adrenocortical carcinomas, 20 adrenocortical adenomas and 15 pheochromocytomas. In 33 cases (87%) of the 38 tumors the determination of DNA ploidy was possible. All 9 control specimens showed DNA diploid pattern in DNA histogram. In adrenocortical neoplasms the incidence of DNA aneuploidy was 0% (0 of 17) in adenomas and 100% (2 of 2) in carcinomas. All 17 adrenocortical adenomas which showed DNA diploid pattern are clinically benign. On the other hand, both 2 cases of adrenocortical carcinoma which showed DNA aneuploidy died within 1 year. These data suggest that DNA aneuploidy may be useful as a prognostic factor in adrenocortical neoplasm. With regard to pheochromocytoma, DNA aneuploidy was detected in 4 of 14 patients (29%). However, all 14 cases were clinically benign. In pheochromocytoma DNA aneuploidy was not found to be correlated with prognosis.

We analysed immunoglobulin (Ig) gene rearrangements in 28 patients with multiple myeloma by Southern hybridization method. We used 5 probes which cover C kappa and kappa de loci of Ig light chain kappa gene, and JH, 5'S mu and S gamma 3 loci of Ig heavy chain gene. In 11 out of 12 patients with kappa-producing myeloma, DNA rearrangements were observed using C kappa probe. Among them, kappa de region was rearranged in 7 patients and kept germline configuration in 4 patients. In all of 14 patients with lambda-producing myeloma, C kappa region was deleted and kappa de region was rearranged. 5'S mu-probe was very useful for detecting class switch recombination, and furthermore by using S gamma-probe together, S mu-S gamma joining could be detected. In all of 10 patients with gamma-producing myeloma, 5'S mu and S gamma-probes detected the rearranged band of the same size on at least 1 allele, which suggested the presence of S mu-S gamma joinings. In 8 of 10 patients with Bence-Jones myeloma, 5'S mu-probe detected rearranged bands and the presence of class switch recombinations were suggested as observed in other Ig secretory myelomas. In other 2 patients with Bence-Jones myeloma, non-functional class switch recombinations were detected. The results of this study indicated that genotypes corresponded well to phenotypes in multiple myeloma, and further analysis in other types of B cell malignancies will be interesting.

Eight cases with Ph1 positive acute leukemia (7 of acute lymphocytic leukemia: ALL, and one of acute myelocytic leukemia: AML) were studied molecular biologically to identify location of breakpoints on BCR gene in each patient. Six of the 8 patients (5 of ALL and 1 of AML) had rearrangements at bcr (M-BCR) region. Their locations of the breakpoint in M-BCR were similar to those of 59 chronic myelocytic leukemia patients. One of the remaining two patients had gene rearrangements at m-BCR-1 region in BCR intron 1, and the last patient did not have gene rearrangements at any site of m-BCR-1 and IgL C lambda region. Two cases had gene deletion at either 3' or 5' side of the bcr. A patient with bcr rearrangement was also analyzed by PCR method with reverse transcriptase (RT-PCR) and had simultaneous expressions of bcr3-abl and bcr2-abl chimeric mRNAs. These results indicate that Ph1 positive acute leukemia have heterogeneous characteristics in terms of the molecular biology. The molecular analysis will help for classifying the leukemic types and for elucidating the pathogenesis in Ph1 positive acute leukemia.

The correlation between the clinical outcome in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and amplification or overexpression of protooncogenes was analyzed retrospectively. Overexpression of c-erb B oncogene product, namely, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was observed in about a half of the esophageal cancer tissues. The cumulative survival rate of patients with overexpression of EGFR in the primary tumors was significantly lower than that of patients without overexpression. Amplification of c-erb B, and coamplification of hst-1 and int-2 oncogenes were examined by slot-blot hybridization using DNAs extracted from formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded blocks of tissues. Amplification of c-erb B and coamplification of hst-1/int-2 were observed 14% and 28%, respectively. The cumulative survival rate of patients with int-2/hst-1 coamplification or erb-B amplification, were significantly lower than that of the patients without coamplification or amplification. These data suggest that amplification or overexpression of oncogenes is a new biological indicator of prognosis in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Epithelioid cells that had grown in short-term cultures derived from 10 cases of adenocarcinoma (PCa) and 10 cases of hyperplasia (BPH) of the prostate were karyotyped by the G-banding method for the pathogenesis of these disease. PCa specimens included 4 well, 2 moderately, and 4 poorly differentiated types, and were obtained by perineal needle biopsy from 4 patients in stage B and 6 patients in stage D2. Cells liberated from metastatic lymph node lesions of 2 patients with poorly differentiated PCa were also analyzed directly without cultivation in vitro. All BPH specimens were obtained by prostatectomy, and cells that had grown in epithelioid pattern in short-term cultures were analyzed. In PCa, hyperploidy was seen in all but 2 cases. Structure analysis disclosed abnormality of chromosome 16 in 4 PCa, deletion of Y in 3 PCa, abnormality of chromosomes 7, 14, 15, 18, and 19 in 2 PCa, and abnormality of chromosomes 3, 4, 17, and 21 in 1 PCa. Multiple markers were observed in 1 patient, and hyperploidy in another patient with metastatic lymph nodes. All but 2 cases of BPH were diploid. Normal male karyotypes were seen in 6 BPH. Trisomy of chromosomes 7 and 16 were observed in 2 BPH. Of 4 patients with stage B PCa, 3 who have been alive for 3 years to date had multiple abnormalities, whereas 1 patient who died 2 years after diagnosis had few abnormalities.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Correlation between the expression of growth factor/receptor systems or the alterations of tumor suppressor genes and biological malignancy of gastric cancer was described. Overexpression of many growth factors/receptors, such as EGF, TGF alpha, EGF receptor and ERBB2, and reduction of type I receptor for TGF beta may be linked with new prognostic factors of gastric carcinomas. The expression of cripto, a novel gene of EGF family, shows a tendency to correlate with tumor staging of well differentiated gastric adenocarcinomas. p53 gene abnormalities take place in 60% of gastric carcinomas including early stage carcinoma. Loss of heterozygosity on chromosomes 1q, 7p and 7q is frequently observed in advanced gastric carcinomas of well differentiated type. Molecules which regulate tumor invasion and metastasis such as nm23, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP) and endogenous galactoside-binding lectin may provide for prognostic factors of gastric cancer.