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Biomedical subjects

P J Fitzgerald

Publications and source records attributed to P J Fitzgerald.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1978

Pancreas cancer -- duct cell adenocarcinoma: survival in relation to site, size, stage and type of therapy.

The records of 508 patients with cancer of the pancreas admitted to Memorial Hospital in New York from 1949 through 1972 were examined. Ten distinctive morphological types were delineated and the pathological features and response to various modes of therapy of the most common type -- duct adenocarcinoma -- were studied in 380 patients. Median survival was related to: the site of the cancer -- it was longer with tumors of the head than those of the body or tail; the size of the tumor -- cancers smaller than 3 cm were associated with over twice the survival of those with large tumors; the stage -- stage I patients had over twice the survival of those of stages II and III; and the type of therapy employed. Actuarial survival rate at one year was: with no specific therapy, 0%; with chemotherapy, 1%; after palliative by-pass surgery, 3%; following radiation therapy, 9%; and after all types of "surative" surgery, 21%. The only survivors at five years were in the "curative" surgery group, but these represented only 1% of all patients. Revolutionary changes in diagnosis and therapy will have to occur if significant increase in survival rate is to be achieved.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed1976

The roentgenologic diagnosis of chronic bronchitis: a reassessment with emphasis on parahilar bronchi seen end-on.

In an attempt to reassess the accuracy of the roentgenologic diagnosis of chronic bronchitis, we have studied the chest radiographs of approximately 300 men comprising roughly equal numbers of normal subjects and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Emphasis has been placed on the thickness of bronchial walls visualized end-on in the parahilar zones, identified in roughly 80% of both groups. Step-wise discriminant analysis of six variables showed that the median estimate of bronchial wall thickness was of some value in discrimination.

Bronchi↗
PubMed1976

Morphological lesions associated with human primary invasive nonendocrine pancreas cancer.

In 227 cases of human pancreas cancer (100 pancreatectomy specimens and 127 autopsies), pancreas duct epithelium not involved by invasive cancer was examined. Pancreas duct epithelium from 100 autopsies of patients with nonpancreatic cancer, matched by age and sex to the pancreas cancer autopsy cases, was used for control studies. The prevalence of squamous metaplasia, pyloric gland metaplasia, mucous hypertrophy, and focal epithelial hyperplasia was not greatly different in the two groups. Ductal papillary hyperplasia was three times more prevalent in pancrease cancer than in controls. Marked atypia occurred in 20%, and carcinoma in situ, in 18% of the pancreas cancer cases, but neither change was seen in the control cases. It is possible that focal epithelial hyperplasia was a precursor change but that it was overgrown by the cancer. Papillary hyperplasia could not be properly evaluated as a precursor lesion because of duct obstruction, but practically all cases of marked atypia and carcinoma in situ occurred in papillary lesions. Marked atypia and carcinoma in situ, by analogy to other cancers, would appear to be precursor lesions, and their presence in association with invasive cancer lends hope to the possibility that there is a significant, recognizable, in situ phase of the disease before invasive cancer occurs.

Carcinoma in Situ↗
PubMed1976

Pancreatic cancer. The dismal disease.

Pancreatic cancer, the fourth commonest cause of death in the United States, has a very poor prognosis, is increasing in incidence, and, in most cases, is not detected before it has spread beyond the pancreas. Partial, or total, pancreatectomy has increased five-year survival in only a small fraction of cases. New techniques are helpful in earlier diagnosis, but patients have to be selected for examination long before clinical signs or symptoms develop. Elderly patients who use alcohol and tobacco excessively and female diabetics may be at higher risk. Pathologists should examine pancreasduct epithelium at autopsy in patients in the fourth to sixth decades for atypia, papillary hyperplasia, carcinoma in situ, or other possible precursor changes. Diagnostic tumor, or oncofetal antigens, or a biochemical difference in isozyme activities, hopefully, may be developed. Some combinations of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy may give better prognosis.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Morphological patterns of primary nonendocrine human pancreas carcinoma.

The study of histological sections of 406 cases of nonendocrine pancreas carcinoma at Memorial Hospital indicated that morphological patterns of pancreas carcinoma could be delineated as follows: duct cell adenocarcinoma (76%), giant-cell carcinoma (5%), microadenocarcinoma (4%), adenosquamous cancinoma (4%), mucinous adenocarcinoma (2%), anaplastic carcinoma (2%), cystadenocarcinoma (1%), acinar cell carcinoma (1%), carcinoma in childhood (under 1%), unclassified (7%). In 195 cases of patients with pancreas carcinoma, search was made for changes in the pancreas duct epithelium and these were compared to duct epithelium in a control group of 100 pancreases from autopsies of patients with nonpancreatic cancer. The following incidences were found for pancreas cancer and nonpancreatic cancer, respectively: mucous cell hypertrophy, 39 versus 28%; pyloric gland metaplasia, 28 and 17%; epidermoid metaplasia, 6 and 12%; papillary hyperplasia, 42 and 12%; atypical duct hyperplasia, 14% and none; cancinoma in situ in 19% and none in the control group. Mucin in the majority of pancreas cancers suggested that the cell type of origin of the common pancreas cancer is the mucin-producing duct epithelium. The association of atypias and carcinomas in situ in the patients with pancreas carcinoma implies, by analogy to other organs, that there may be a significant latent period between the appearance of carcinoma in situ and the grossly recognizable pancreas cancer.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed1972

Pancreas acinar cell differentiation. VII. Autoradiographic demonstration of intracellular radioactivity with with S-adenosyl-L-(C 3 H 3 ) methionine.

After rat pancreas anlagen were grown in an organ culture medium for 9 days and further incubated for 15, 30 or 60 minutes in media to which C(3)H(3)-Sadenosyl-L-methionine (C(3)H(3)-SAM) was added, autoradiography demonstrated radioactivity in the nucleolus, nucleus and cytoplasm of the acinar cell. Under similar circumstances, except that the anlagen were grown in a methionine-deficient (CD-MD) medium prior to incubation with C(3)H(3)-SAM, much greater concentrations of radioactivity were present in the nucleolus, nucleus and cytoplasm of the acinar cell than in the respective compartments of anlagen grown in control medium. The nucleolus showed the highest concentration of radioactivity in anlagen grown in either control or methionine-deficient medium. The nucleolus of the acinar cell of anlagen grown in CD-MD medium appeared to be the most undermethylated cellular compartment and was larger than the nucleolus of the acinar cell grown in the control CD medium, so it is possible that a deficient methylation of ribosomal RNA precursors led to a piling up of RNA in the nucleolus and a decrease in the flow of ribosomal precursors to the cytoplasm. Other substance might have been undermethylated and thereby have inhibited differentiation.

Animals↗
PubMed1972

Assay of nanogram levels of triglyceride lipase with a radioactive substrate.

A simple, sensitive procedure for the determination of triglyceride lipase activity has been developed. Nanogram amounts of oleic acid hydrolyzed from commercially available [(14)C]triolein were readily determined by the counting of the radioactivity of substrate and product after their rapid chromatographic separation on copper hydroxide-impregnated ion-exchange paper. Comparison of the relative amounts of radioactivity of the separated substrate and product gave an estimate of the percentage of hydrolysis of substrate. Comparison of results with a standard of pure lipase enables one to express the amount of hydrolysis in terms of the standard lipase. The results show that measured activity is a linear function of time up to 1 hr of incubation and of amounts of enzyme up to 125 ng. Reproducibility of the test is good.

Carbon Isotopes↗
PubMed1972

Pancreas acinar cell regeneration. XII. Protein metabolism as determined by 3H-leucine autoradiography.

Protein metabolism was studied in the regenerating rat pancreas acinar cell by (3)H-leucine autoradiography. Rats were placed for 10 days on a protein-free ethionine (PFE) regimen which caused necrosis of most of the acinar cells. Withdrawing the PFE regimen and instituting a stock diet (SD) on day 11 was followed by good restitution of acinar cell morphology. DNA synthesis peaked at day 15. Intraperitoneal injection of (3)H-leucine and sacrifice at 5, 10 and 30 minutes and at 1, 4 and 24 hours after injection at PFE-SD days 10, 12, 15 and 29 and at the same time periods in control SD animals provided tissue for autoradiography. At PFE-SD days 10, 12 and 15, there were great increases in the concentration of autoradiographic grains over the nucleolus, nucleus and cytoplasm of acinar cells as compared to similar compartments in SD animals. There also were more total grains per nucleus and nucleolus in the PFE-SD animals at these days. The grains per unit area of nucleus and cytoplasm of PFE-SD acinar cells at days 10, 12 and 15 increased to about the same degree, but the increase in concentration of grains per unit area of nucleolus was much higher than in the two other compartments. The increase in total number of grains in the nucleolus was much higher than that per nucleus in PFE-SD animals on days 12 and 15. Some of the disproportionately high concentration and amount of newly synthesized labeled protein in the nucleolus at PFE-SD days 12 and 15 may have been involved in genomic activity, giving rise to the peak of DNA synthesis at day 15.

Animals↗