Influence of family history, irradiation and anti-cancer drug (mitomycin C) on the occurrence of multiple primary neoplasms in breast carcinoma patients

The influence of family history, irradiation and anti-cancer drug (Mitomycin C) on the occurrence of multiple primary neoplasms was analysed using the person-year method in 1359 Japanese breast carcinoma patients. There were 111 multiple primary neoplasms, including bilateral breast cancer, in 109 patients; the incidence rate was 0.0072 per person-year. The incidence rate in patients with a family history of cancer was 1.29 times higher than in those without. In the bilateral breast cancer group there was about a 3 times higher frequency of family history of breast cancer. Irradiation therapy raised the occurrence of multiple primary neoplasms 1.28 fold, and Mitomycin C (40 mg) had no effect on the occurrence of neoplasms during a 10-year observation period.     

Long-term follow-up study of gastric cancer patients treated with surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy with mitomycin C.

A group of 496 cases was used in a controlled trial to study the possible value of mitomycin C as an adjuvant to curative surgery for gastric cancer. Patients assigned to receive the drug were given mitomycin C, 0.8 mg/kg body weight intravenously, twice a week for 5 weeks immediately after surgery. The control group was treated with surgery alone. Sixty-six patients were excluded from the study because of non-curative surgery. There was no over-all difference in survival and cancer death rates at 5 and 10 years between treated and control groups. However, a survival rate 18.6% higher at 5 years was observed in the subset of patients who had moderately advanced lymphatic metastases, and a survival rate 26.4% higher at 5 years was observed in the subset of patients who had involved serosa. The difference in cancer death rate was 14.5 and 24.0% in each subset, respectively. These significant differences persisted at 10 years. The effect of chemotherapy seemed to result from the successful inhibition of peritoneal dissemination and local recurrence. An adverse effect was observed in patients in the early stages cancer. These results suggest that mitomycin C could be useful as an adjuvant to curative surgery for moderately advanced stages of gastric cancer.     

Structures in sensory region of snake spindles and their displacment during stretch.

1. Structures within the sensory region of short- and long-capsule snake muscle spindles have been visualized using differential interference contrast microscopy. Profiles seen with Nomarski microscopy have been identified by electron microscopy of the same preparations. 2. Sensory nerve terminals, nuclei and other cytoplasmic inclusions in the intrafusal fiber, collagen bands, and capsular cells may be seen in the living preparation. 3. The length changes of various elements within the sensory region in response to stretch of the spindle have been measured using high-speed ciné photomicrography. This has been corrleated with the impulse response from sensory endings in short-and long-capsule spindles. 4. Short-capsule spindles, which have a high dynamic sensitivity, show length changes in the sensory region in response to ramp-and-hold stretch, which are not parallel to the changes in impulse frequency. The implications for mechanical models of spindle behavior are discussed.     

Purification of the Rous sarcoma virus src kinase by casein-agarose and tyrosine-agarose affinity chromatography.

A simple and effective purification method for the src kinase, the transforming gene product of Rous sarcoma virus, has been developed by using affinity chromatography on casein-agarose and tyrosine-agarose columns. NaDodSO4/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and silver staining analysis showed that the purified kinase preparation was composed of a predominant polypeptide of 60,000-Da. In most of the preparations, however, three minor proteins (54,000, 52,000, and 15,000 Da) were also detected, and they were partially characterized. As one of the exogenous substrates, calmodulin was found to be phosphorylated on tyrosine by the purified src kinase.