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Biomedical subjects

Lawrence Recht

Publications and source records attributed to Lawrence Recht.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Optimizing therapy for patients with brain metastases.

Brain metastases from systemic cancers are the most common malignant brain tumors encountered. Although prognosis remains poor, it is possible to stratify patients according to risk. Furthermore, an aggressive therapeutic approach for good-risk patients that includes a combination of either surgery or stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) can improve survival and decrease the risk of central nervous system progression.

Brain Neoplasms↗
PubMed2006

Osteopontin expression in intratumoral astrocytes marks tumor progression in gliomas induced by prenatal exposure to N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea.

To better study early events in glioma genesis, markers that reliably denote landmarks in glioma development are needed. In the present study, we used microarray analysis to compare the gene expression patterns of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-localized N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU)-induced tumors in rat brains with those of uninvolved contralateral side and normal brains. Our analysis identified osteopontin (OPN) as the most up-regulated gene in glioma. Using immunohistochemistry we then confirmed OPN expression in every tumor examined (n = 17), including those with diameters as small as 300 mum. By contrast, no OPN immunostaining was seen in normal brain or in brains removed from ENU-exposed rats before the development of glioma. Further studies confirmed that OPN was co-localized exclusively in intratumoral glial fibrillary acidic protein-expressing cells and was notably absent from nestin-expressing ones. In conjunction with this, we confirmed that both normal neurosphere cells and ENU-im-mortalized subventricular zone/striatal cells produced negligible amounts of OPN compared to the established rat glioma cell line C6. Furthermore, inducing OPN expression in an immortalized cell line increased cell proliferation. Based on these findings, we conclude that OPN overexpression in ENU-induced gliomas occurs within a specific subset of intratumoral glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive cells and becomes evident at the stage of tumor progression.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Prevention and treatment of central nervous system involvement by non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a review of the literature.

Direct invasion of the central nervous system (CNS) occurs in 5% of all patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, either at the time of presentation, as a solitary site of relapse, or during the course of progressive disease. Over the last several years, several studies, mostly retrospective, have analyzed risk factors associated with this complication as well as various methods to both treat and prevent it. A systematic review of the literature reveals that although a profile of a patient at particularly high risk for developing disease can be identified, treatments are for the most part ineffective at improving survival in patients with CNS lymphoma, and there is no high-quality evidence that prophylaxis prevents its occurrence. A randomized controlled trial to assess the value of prophylaxis in this disease is warranted, and suggestions for how such a trial might be designed are included in this review.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols↗
PubMed2003

Neural stem cells and neuro-oncology: quo vadis?

Conventionally, gliomas are assumed to arise via transformation of an intraparenchymal glial cell that forms a mass that then expands centrifugally, eventually invading surrounding tissues. We propose an alternative model in which gliomas arise via initiation and promotion of cells within the brain's subependymal layer or subventricular zone, the source of a recently characterized pool of neural cells with the properties of self-renewal and multipotentiality (i.e., stem cells) that persists into adulthood. In this model, the particular histological subtype of glioma would represent the effects of temporal and spatial environmental influences rather than the particular cell of origin and the disease's centrifugal point would be the subependymal layer. The implications of such a model are discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Somatic plasticity of neural stem cells: fact or fancy?

Several studies have described the potential for embryonic and adult neural stem cells to differentiate into non-neural cells such as muscle and blood, tissues that are derived from non-neuroectodermal germ layers. This raised the exciting possibility that these cells possessed a broader range of differentiation potential than originally thought and raised interesting prospects for possible transplantation utilization. However, a number of recent reports have raised questions about whether the phenomena observed actually represented true somatic plasticity. In this review, we critically analyze these studies with the aim of providing some criteria by which future studies that address this important problem may be evaluated.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Neurologic complications of hematologic neoplasms.

The new WHO classification of hematopoietic and lymphatic neoplasms was devised to offer pathologists, oncologists, and geneticists a system of classification based on histopathologic, clinical, and genetic features. From the neurologic standpoint, it offers an opportunity to consolidate the complications produced by leukemias, lymphomas, and plasma cell dyscrasias. This article summarizes such complications that occur as a result of direct infiltration or compression of nervous tissue by tumor or as a result of indirect effects such as infection, vascular disorders, iatrogenesis, and paraneoplasia.

Central Nervous System Diseases↗