Biomedical subjects

Mario Colombo

Publications and source records attributed to Mario Colombo.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Lymph node metastasis in patients with clinical early-stage cervical cancer: detection with integrated FDG PET/CT.

PURPOSE: To prospectively determine the accuracy of combination positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) in lymph node staging in patients with early-stage cervical cancer, with histopathologic results as the reference standard. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was institutional review board approved, and all patients gave informed consent. Forty-seven consecutive women aged 29-71 years with clinical stage IA or IB cervical carcinoma were included in the study. All 47 patients were scheduled for radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection. Before surgery, all patients underwent fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT. PET/CT findings were interpreted by two readers in consensus and then compared with histopathologic results. At histopathologic examination, the dissected lymph nodes were classified as nonmetastatic or metastatic. RESULTS: Fifteen (32%) patients had metastatic lymph nodes at histopathologic examination, and 32 (68%) had no histopathologically confirmed nodal metastasis. Of the total 1081 lymph nodes histopathologically sampled, 18 were found to be positive for malignant cells. The overall node-based sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy of PET/CT were 72% (13 of 18), 99.7% (1060 of 1063), 81% (13 of 16), 99.5% (1060 of 1065), and 99.3% (1073 of 1081), respectively. Corresponding values for PET/CT-based diagnosis of lymph nodes larger than 0.5 cm in diameter were 100% (13 of 13), 99.6% (675 of 678), 81% (13 of 16), 100% (675 of 675), and 99.6% (688 of 691), respectively. The overall patient-based sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy of PET/CT were 73% (11 of 15), 97% (31 of 32), 92% (11 of 12), 89% (31 of 35), and 89% (42 of 47), respectively. CONCLUSION: PET/CT proved to be valuable for lymph node staging in patients with early-stage cervical cancer, with short-axis diameter greater than 0.5 cm being the size threshold for accurate depiction of metastatic nodes.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Coumaphos distribution in the hive ecosystem: case study for modeling applications.

Pesticides are currently used inside hives, against the honeybee parasite Varroa destructor, producing unwanted contamination effects. To assess the distribution and fate of one of these pesticides (coumaphos), two experimental hives were treated with Perizin (the commercial product containing the active ingredient coumaphos). Samples of honey, wax, pollen, adult bees and larvae taken before treatment and up to 104 days afterwards, showed diffuse contamination. Wood hedges and wax bridges, where the pesticide solution was applied, were analysed as well. A mass balance was calculated, yielding a recovered amount of around 60% just after treatment and 38% 1 month later. Directly contaminated surfaces and wax contained the highest amount of residues. Wax and honey contained different amounts (10, and 0.1% respectively) but both retained residues for long time. Bees ingest most of the product just after treatment, then rapidly eliminate it by metabolism, advection and deposition processes. On the basis of analytical results, a simple model (level I of the fugacity model) was applied to the hive system for different pesticides (coumaphos, malathion, fluvalinate and bromopropylate). Predicted concentrations in wax and honey were compared with those measured, indicating the good predictive capability of this approach.

Animals↗

PubMed2002

Application of multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis for detection of cross-contamination and in vitro progression in commonly used murine tumor cell lines.

Murine tumor models are potent tools for cancer studies, most of which make use of a limited number of murine tumor cell lines that are exchanged by many research groups around the world. Although cross-contamination and in vitro karyotypic progression are well-known risks with respect to the identity of tumor cell lines, these parameters are rarely evaluated. Notably, routine karyotyping of murine cell lines is laborious and technically demanding because mouse chromosomes are morphologically similar. We therefore used a 21-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) approach (COBRA) for screening two groups of frequently used murine tumor cell lines, each of which shares known immunologic determinants. Multicolor analysis revealed that the sharing of immunologic determinants among three murine lymphoma cell lines (EL-4, MBL-2, and RBL-5) is directly related to their common origin. In several of the cell lines, the chromosomal derivatives had rearranged further, suggesting that the cross-contamination events were not recent. In contrast, karyotypic analysis of three murine colon cancer cell lines (C26, CC36, and C51) showed that these constituted independent tumor clones despite the sharing of immunologic determinants. Our data point out that cross-contamination and in vitro evolution of murine tumor cell lines are a common phenomenon, and that multicolor FISH analysis is an efficient tool for verifying the origin and tracking the evolution of murine cell lines.

Adenocarcinoma↗