Biomedical subjects

I Kimijima

Publications and source records attributed to I Kimijima.

58 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

The role of bcl-2 expression in breast carcinomas (Review).

The proto-oncogene bcl-2 is demonstrated to block a final common pathway leading to apoptosis and is expressed in more than half of human breast cancers. Invasive breast cancer has reduced bcl-2 immunostaining compared with normal breast epithelia and preinvasive breast lesions. As an inhibitor of apoptosis, bcl-2 should correlate with highly aggressive tumor biology and resistance to hormonal/cytotoxic therapy. However, high bcl-2 expression has been shown to associate with a number of favorable prognostic factors including ER positivity, PgR positivity, low histological grade, well-differentiated tumor, absence of c-erbB-2 and p53. Unexpectedly, numerous studies have shown that tumors with high bcl-2 expression are more responsive to hormone therapy and have more favorable disease-free and overall survival. The clinical significance of bcl-2 in tumorigenesis and prognosis of breast carcinomas from the data recently published are reviewed. Its role in modulation of hormonal/cytotoxic therapy and future directions are also discussed.

Breast↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Squamous cell carcinoma of the breast. Report of a case diagnosed by fine needle aspiration cytology.

A 66-year-old woman presented with pure squamous cell carcinoma of the breast, a rare occurrence. The incidence of pure squamous cell carcinoma of the breast is lower than that of the mixed type. The preoperative diagnosis could be made by fine needle aspiration cytology. A modified radical mastectomy was performed. The patient was doing well, with no evidence of recurrence, 17 months after surgery.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Prognostic value of nuclear grading assessed by image cytometry for node negative breast cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: Although nuclear grading is a useful prognostic factor for node-negative breast cancer, it is difficult to evaluate objectively. In this study, we show the heterogeneity of the nuclear area (NA), and predictive value of NA evaluated by image cytometry. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The NA of over 100 cancer cell nuclei were measured by two types of image cytometer on 182 primary lesions of node negative (nO) breast cancer patients. The mean NA of invasive and intraductal cells were measured on separated regions. The nuclei for evaluation were selected using three different methods: all cells, invasive cells alone, and larger cells. The prognoses were compared after the cases were divided at mean + SD/2. RESULTS: No differences were observed in the mean NA of each portion. The difference of disease free survival between the two subgroups by log rank test and the p-value of each method were, 0.82, 0.21 and 0.0076. CONCLUSIONS: Only when larger nuclei were selected, was NA a significant prognostic factor for node negative breast cancer patients. The cancer cells with larger nuclei possibly represent the malignant potential of each case.

Breast Neoplasms↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Apoptotic index correlates to bcl-2 and p53 protein expression, histological grade and prognosis in invasive breast cancers.

Apoptosis is considered to play a critical role in tumorigenesis. In order to clarify the significance of apoptosis in breast cancers, we quantitated apoptotic cells by light microscopy in 126 patients with invasive breast cancers. The expression of bcl-2, and p53, as regulators of apoptosis, was immunohistochemically analyzed. Apoptotic index (AI) detected in the patients ranged from 0 to 48 per mm2 of breast cancer cells (mean +/- SE, 11.0 +/- 0.97). Significantly highly AI was found for the tumors with grade 3 (p < 0.0001), high mitotic index (p < 0.0001), and bcl-2 negatively (p = 0.004) compared with those with grade 1 or 2, low mitotic index, and bcl-2 expression, respectively. Moreover, high AI was associated with larger tumor size (p = 0.008), positive lymph nodes (p = 0.01), p53 positivity (p = 0.01), and advanced TNM stage (p = 0.03). In survival analysis, we found that low AI, like bcl-2 and other conventional prognostic indicators, was significantly predictive of better prognosis in terms of both disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) (each, p < 0.0001). In multivariate analysis, AI failed to retain an independent significant value for DFS or OS. Our results indicate that low AI is related to a number of clinicopathologic and biologic parameters known to predict a lower risk of recurrence and is associated with a favourable survival in invasive breast cancer. However, it was not an independent prognostic factor for clinical outcome in this patient series.

Apoptosis↗