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View the Table of Contents for the September 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.
Geurts et al. Page 6608
Of 44 patients with a primary squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the head and neck followed by a SCC of the lung, clinical data, histology and analysis of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) are used to differentiate metastases from second primary tumors. Geurts et al. developed a novel interpretation strategy for LOH analysis based on biological insight and on the observation that multiple LOH on different chromosome arms are not independent. In this study, 50% of SCC lung lesions clinically interpreted as metastases are second primary tumors by LOH analysis. For these patients a surgical approach with curative intent may be justified.
Weichert et al. Page 6574
CD24 is a cell adhesion molecule that has been implicated in metastatic tumor progression of various solid tumors. To clarify the role of CD24 in colorectal carcinoma, Weichert et al. conducted an immunohistochemistry study on 147 colorectal carcinomas. They found membranous CD24 in 68.7% and cytoplasmic CD24 in 84.4% of the tumors. Survival analysis demonstrated that strong cytoplasmic CD24 expression correlated significantly and independently to shortened patient survival. They conclude that CD24 is not only commonly upregulated in colorectal cancer but is a new independent prognostic marker that corroborates the importance of cytoplasmic CD24 in tumor progression.
Press et al. Page 6598
Evaluation of targeted therapeutics, such as Herceptin (trastuzumab), in the adjuvant setting requires large, prospective clinical trials to assess drug efficacy and side-effects. Laboratory assays to determine the presence or absence of the target is an important component in the design of these trials. Press et al. compared fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) assay results for HER-2 gene amplification/overexpression determined in two Breast Cancer International Research Group (BCIRG) centralized laboratories with the HER-2 status determined in outside/local laboratories. They found the FISH assay to be superior for assigning HER-2 status.
Ogino et al. Page 6650
Abnormalities of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathways may influence responsiveness of colorectal cancer to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor gefitinib. Among advanced colorectal cancers in phase I/II trials of combination chemotherapy with daily oral gefitinib, Ogino et al. found activating EGFR mutations to be rare and unrelated to tumor responsiveness to the therapy. p21 expression, however, especially in combination with p53 mutation, was a predictor of tumor resistance. This study highlights the importance of EGFR and related pathways in tumor responsiveness to the combination chemotherapy with gefitinib, and opens the possibility of new diagnostic tools to predict tumor responsiveness.