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Biomedical subjects

W F Whitmore

Publications and source records attributed to W F Whitmore.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1979

Cell surface antigens of human renal cancer defined by autologous typing.

Sera from 28 patients with renal cancer were tested for reactivity with surface antigens of cultured autologous renal cancer cells. Four serological assays were used to survey sera for autologous antibody. Immune adherence, protein A, and C3-mixed hemadsorption assays detected reactivity in a high percentage of patients (80-100%), whereas mixed hemadsorption assays were negative with sera from all but one patient. Reactive sera from six patients were analyzed by absorption tests with autologous, allogeneic, and restricted to autologous renal cancer cells; class 2 antigens, present on certain allogeneic renal and nonrenal cancer cells; and class 3 antigens, found on a wide variety of normal and malignant cell types. The sera of one patient detected class 1, 2, and 3 antigens, the sera of three patients detected class 2 antigens, and the sera of two patients detected class 3 antigens. This analysis of renal cancer, with the recognition of three classes of surface antigens recognized by autologous sera, resembles the results of autologous typing of three other human malignancies: malignant melanoma, acute leukemia, and astrocytoma. Evidence provided by autologous typing of these cancers indicates that class 1 and class 2 antigens are tumor-restricted and that under certain circumstances these antigens are immunogenic for the autologous host.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

A report of the workshops on the current status of the histologic grading of prostate cancer.

A national multidisciplinary study of four major systems for the histological grading of primary prostatic cancer was completed during 1978. In a series of workshops culminating in a final review, criteria of grading were critically assessed against the background of patient survival data. The overall consensus was that the Gleason system should tentatively be adopted as the pathologic reference point for classifying patients. This system can be used in conjunction with other systems. It seems definable, reproducible, reasonably simple, and has clinical relevance as judged by correlations with patient survival. Further study may demonstrate advantages from incorporation of the nuclear or cytologic characteristics of tumor cells into the Gleason system. New techniques of acid phosphatase determination, bone scans, and assessment of the regional lymph nodes should provide better staging criteria for correlation with primary tumor histology in the furture. These workshops presented a unique opportunity for representative clinicians and pathologists in the United States to express their viewpoints in a comprehensive fashion on this timely and important topic.

Anaplasia↗
PubMed1979

A critical analysis of response criteria in patients with prostatic cancer treated with cis-diamminedichloride platinum II.

Cis-diamminedichloride platinum II (DDP), 50--70 mg/m2 iv, q 3w was administered to 25 patients with Stage D adenocarcinoma of the prostate. Since the assessment of tumor regression in a disease-oriented phase II study demands a clear end-point of response, case selection was restricted to patients who had objectively measurable lesions, i.e., nodes, skin, lung, and liver metastasis. Partial remission occurred in 3 (12%) and stabilization of disease in 1 patient. Responders lived 53 weeks vs. 20 weeks for non-responders. In the dosage and schedule used in this protocol, DDP was not an active agent in the treatment of prostatic cancer. Various patient characteristics are examined and correlations made between remission rates and survival in this study vs. 4 other response schemata. A critical analysis of patient selection, "lead time" -- diagnosis to chemotherapy, and the definitions of the terms "measurable" lesions, "evaluable" parameters, "objective response", stabilization of disease and response criteria employed in the 4 schemata are also discussed.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed1979

Experience with flutamide in previously untreated patients with advanced prostatic cancer.

Twenty-one patients with advanced prostatic adenocarcinoma previously untreated with conventional endocrine therapy were treated with an oral non-steroidal antiandrogen, flutamide. There were 19 favorable responders, 1 failure and 1 equivocal response. Flutamide seems to be a safe antiandrogen, which is effective in the management of previously untreated patients with advanced prostatic carcinoma.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed1979

Solitary vaginal metastasis from unsuspected renal cell carcinoma.

Four cases of solitary vaginal metastasis from previously unsuspected renal cell carcinoma are presented. Vaginal bleeding, the presenting symptom in each patient, led to the finding of the metastatic vaginal lesion and to the urological evaluation, which revealed the occult primary renal cell carcinoma. With surgical treatment 2 of the 4 patients have remained well for more than 5 years.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed1979

Complications of 125iodine implantation and pelvic lymphadenectomy in the treatment of prostatic cancer.

The operative, postoperative and late complications experienced by 300 consecutive patients who underwent 125iodine implantation and pelvic lymphadenectomy for localized prostatic cancer were analyzed. Of the patients reviewed 68 per cent had clinical stage B lesions, while 32 per cent had clinical stage C lesions. The incidence of intraoperative complications was 6 per cent. There were 2 postoperative deaths and 23 per cent of the patients had postoperative complications. Of 177 patients followed postoperatively for 6 months or more (mean 29.3 months) late morbidity was experienced by 49 (28 per cent). The incidence of impotence in 109 patients who were potent preoperatively and who were followed for a minimum of 15 months was 7 per cent.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Cell-cycle distribution of urothelial tumour cells as measured by flow cytometry.

The fraction of cells in S + G2 + mitosis from 54 urothelial tumours was calculated by flow cytometry after acridine orange (AO) staining of cells obtained by bladder irrigation or biopsy. Fluorescence signals emitted by the AO-stained DNA and RNA of each cell were separated optically and measured for 5,000 cells per specimen. The patients were classified by the histology of their tumours and clinical data into 5 diagnostic categories: NED (no evidence of disease, but history of bladder tumour), 3; papilloma, 8; non-invasive papillary carcinoma, 8; carcinoma in situ, 17 and invasive carcinoma, 18. The fraction of cells with DNA values in S + G2 + M of the cell cycle varied between 7 and 57% of the total, with a wide range within each diagnostic category, but no statistically significant differences between the groups. The proportion of cells in S + G2 + M from an individual tumour was not correlated with histologic grade or clinical behaviour. The possibility that some tumour cells with DNA values above G1 level are quiescent cells arrested at S or G2 is discussed.

Cell Count↗
PubMed1979

Identification of polymorphonuclear leukocytes in cytologic samples for flow cytometry.

Inflammatory cells are commonly present in cytologic specimens obtained for flow cytometry, and may interfere with the analysis of epithelial cells. We have found that detergent (Triton X-100) pretreatment in the two-step acridine orange staining procedure disrupts granulocyte cell membranes to yield bare nuclei; bladder epithelial and squamous cells on the other hand are quite resistant to the detergent treatment. Being deprived of their cytoplasmic RNA, the granulocytes lose red fluorescence. Moreover, the shearing forces in the cytometer extend the multisegmented granulocyte nuclei and align them in the direction of flow. Thus, they present as elongated objects in the measuring system, giving a large DNA fluorescence pulsewidth (nuclear size). These two phenomena make it possible to identify granulocytes in the recorded data, where they are discernible from the mononucleated leukocytes and from epithelial cells. By data selection the granulocytes can be excluded, rendering epithelial cell populations more amenable to analysis. This method may make it unnecessary to remove physically leukocytes from the specimen before flow cytometry; it may also provide a way to analyze the morphology of granulocyte nuclei and to assess methods to manipulate their membrane stability. Full protection from membrane disruption is accomplished by alcohol fixation, and partial protection by 20-30% serum.

Cytological Techniques↗
PubMed1979

Effect of flutamide on estradiol metabolism.

The effect of flutamide, a potent nonsteroidal antiandrogen, on the metabolism of iv tracers of [3H]estradiol was studied in five patients with advanced prostate cancer. The drug produced no change in the percentage of the injected radioactivity recovered in urine or in the glucuronide or nonglucuronide conjugate fractions. Of the five individual metabolites that were quantitated, estrone, estradiol, and estriol were unaffected by flutamide, but the drug caused striking decreases in conversion of estradiol to 2-hydroxyestrone (4.0% vs. 7.4%) (P less than 0.005) and 2-methoxyestrone (1.1% vs. 2.6%; P less than 0.05); every one of the patients showed a marked fall in recovery of both of these compounds. This depression of the formation of 2-oxygenated metabolites is reminiscent of the findings in liver disease; the same abnormality occurs regularly in cirrhosis and frequently in extrahepatic biliary obstruction. Taken together with our previous studies of the effects of flutamide on testosterone and cortisol metabolism, this study demonstrates that flutamide produces multiple functional, reversible, cirrhosis-like disturbances of steroid metabolism. Because these disturbances are universal in the patients studied regardless of whether they had clinical responses to flutamide, we doubt that the steroid metabolic changes play a role in the therapeutic effect of the drug.

Anilides↗
PubMed1979

Regional lymph node reactivity in explanted bladder cancer of mice as measured by flow cytometry.

The reactivity of lymphocytes in lymph nodes draining the site of a transplantable experimental bladder tumor (MBT2 in C3H/HeJ mice) has been measured in a multiparameter flow cytometry system. Acridine orange was used as a nucleic acid probe. This dye intercalates in helical DNA, emitting green (530 nm) fluorescence upon exposure to blue light; it stacks to single-stranded RNA, emitting red (640 nm) fluorescence. The relative magnitude of the increase of lymphocyte DNA and RNA has been evaluated simultaneously in tumor-draining nodes, in nondraining nodes of the same animal, and in untreated control animals. Stimulation of the regional node lymphocytes could be observed after 20 days but not after 10 days. It was uniformly high at 35 days. The transcriptive response (increased proportion of lymphocytes with high RNA) was more pronounced than the proliferative (increased proportion of lymphocytes with more than diploid DNA). The histological changes in the stimulated nodes resembled closely those described by others in human tumor-draining nodes. The described method has the advantage of being simple, rapid, and able to measure a representative part of the whole-cell population.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Lymph node reactivity to experimental bladder tumor in preimmunized animals as measured by two parameter flow cytometry.

Lymph node lymphocyte reaction to an explanted, transplantable mouse bladder tumor (MBT-2) was investigated by flow cytometry in animals previously immunized with irradiated tumor cells. Nodal lymphocytes in representative samples from four different lymph node sites were differentially stained for DNA and RNA with the fluorescent dye acridine orange; cell proliferation and the increase in RNA content were measured. Immunization abrogated tumor growth; one immunization reduced tumor take to 25 per cent of the animals, and two immunizations to 14 per cent. Lymphocyte reactivity to the tumor was reflected both by an increase of DNA synthesizing cells and by diploid cells with high RNA. The latter response was more pronounced and thus the more sensitive parameter for measuring immunologic lymph node reactivity. The juxtatumoral node displayed the most pronounced reactivity, but all node sites showed some degree of reaction.

Animals↗