Prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common internal cancer in American males. There are many variables that effect prognosis, with the Gleason scoring system being one of the most important factors. There is controversy regarding the ideal treatment in various subsets of prostate cancer patients. Posttreatment prostate specific antigen values have prognostic significance.

Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis.

Glomerulonephritis (GN) encompasses a wide variety of primary and secondary diseases that cause injury to the functioning unit of the kidney, the glomerulus. The many classifications of GN sometimes lead to confusion. This case study describes an individual with membranoproliferative GN and includes discussion of classification, treatment, and prognosis of this disease.

Myocardial bridging.

Human myocardial bridging is a normal anatomic variation in which a coronary artery is bridged by a short segment of myocardium. It can cause variable degrees of systolic obstruction. The majority of patients are asymptomatic. A wide variety of syndromes can occur, including myocardial infarction and sudden death. All patients with myocardial bridges have systolic artery compression, but it is postulated that ischemia develops only in those who have a concomitant decrease in diastolic coronary artery blood flow. Surgical removal of the myocardial bridge can be curative, and various other treatments can alleviate symptoms. The overall prognosis is good.

Psoriatic arthritis.

Arthritis of various types can occur as a manifestation of psoriasis, and is classified as one of the seronegative spondyloarthropathies. Progression of psoriatic arthritis can be predicted by both clinical and biochemical markers. In some cases, mortality may be adversely effected.

Supraventricular tachycardia vs. Marfan's syndrome.

Marfan's syndrome is one of several genetic connective tissue disorders that manifest cardiovascular abnormalities. Paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia is not one of these manifestations.

Tumor angiogenesis as a predictor of recurrence and survival in patients with node-negative colon cancer.

OBJECTIVE: The authors' objective was to quantitatively assess angiogenesis or neovascularity within node-negative colon cancers and to determine if increased angiogenesis correlated with higher recurrence and lower survival rates. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Neovascularization promotes rapid tumor growth by facilitating nutrient and metabolite exchange. Recent work with breast and nonsmall cell lung cancers has shown that low angiogenic activity imparts a lower risk of recurrence and metastasis. Although adjuvant therapy is beneficial for patients with node-positive colon cancers, no such benefit has been demonstrated for patients with node-negative lesions. Nevertheless, up to 30% of this latter group will experience recurrence. We sought to identify a subset of patients with node-negative colon cancers at high risk for recurrence who might benefit from such therapy. METHODS: One hundred five node-negative colon cancers were immunostained for endothelial cell factor VIII-related antigen. Blood vessels within three microscopic fields at 100X magnification were counted, the mean calculated, and an angiogenesis score assigned. A subjective angiogenesis grade (1-4) was assigned after each slide was surveyed in its entirety. Score and grade were then assessed with respect to cancer recurrence and patient survival. RESULTS: Mean patient age was 71 years (range, 41-90 years) and mean tumor size, 5.6 cm (range, 2-12 cm). Mean follow-up was 6.5 years; mean angiogenesis score, 27.9 (range, 4-50); and mean grade, 2.0 (range, 1-4). Patients living 5 years had significantly lower angiogenesis scores than did nonsurvivors (22.8 vs. 43.2, p = 0.0004). Each 10-vessel increase in score imparted a 2.0-fold greater hazard of death and a 2.7-fold greater hazard of recurrence. The probability of surviving 5 years is estimated by: [formula: see text] and the probability of recurrence is estimated by: [formula: see text] CONCLUSIONS: Angiogenesis within colon cancer is an important predictor of tumor behavior and may identify patients at higher risk for recurrence and early death.

Weight loss and bulimic eating behavior: changing patterns within a population of young adult women.

A survey of 364 college freshman women was conducted to examine weight loss practices. Nearly 60% of women were currently on a diet to lose or to maintain weight. Since entering college 7 months earlier, 29% had used crash dieting or fasting as a means of weight control. Even though most had experimented with purging and diet pills in high school, most of these had discontinued these practices. Twenty percent had at some time used diet pills, but only 4% were currently users; 13% had at some time used purgatives (vomiting, laxatives, or diuretics), but only 5% were current users. Use of purgatives may indicate a more general pattern of addictive health behavior. Compared to women who had never used purgatives, current purgative users were 4.1 times more likely to smoke (44% vs 11%) and 2.7 times as likely to use drugs (33% vs 12%). Of the 51 women who had ever smoked, 37% listed weight control as a reason for it. Longitudinal investigations are needed to determine how weight loss practices track from adolescence into adulthood and to determine factors predisposing to the establishment of unhealthy weight loss practices, such as severely restrictive dieting, "yo-yo dieting" (weight cycling), and use of diet pills, purgatives, or tobacco.