Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Kaplan-Meier Plots (kaplan-meier + plot)
Selected AbstractsShort- and long-term consequences of early parental loss in the historical population of the Krummhörn (18th and 19th century)AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2009Kai P. Willführ The impact of the early loss of one's father or one's mother on the survival and age at death of children was investigated on the basis of a historical reconstitution of families from the Krummhörn (East Frisia/Ostfriesland; Germany) with the aid of Kaplan-Meier plots and the Cox regression. In our analyses, we took into account the changed situation of the family after the death of a parent by incorporating the surviving spouse's remarriage or relationships with stepparents. We find that the impact on survival of the children was sex-specific and also depended on whether and at what point in time during childhood their father or mother had died. As expected, children's immediate survival was strongly affected by maternal loss. A few results can be construed as survival diminishing long-term consequences of the early loss of a parent. Daughters who lost their fathers before their first birthday proved to have increased mortality over a longer period of their youth. The age at death of daughters was also lowered if they had to live with a step-mother during early childhood. To interpret these results, three hypotheses, including an (intrinsic) trade-off, compensation and a selection scenario, were tested. Other approaches, which are based, for example, on the extrinsic trade-off between mating effort and parental investment of the surviving parent, also appear to be suitable as an explanation for the long-term consequences, which eventually draws the conclusion that the compensation scenario is the most likely explanation for the consequences of early parental loss. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Aerodigestive Tract Invasion by Well-Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma: Diagnosis, Management, Prognosis, and BiologyTHE LARYNGOSCOPE, Issue 1 2006Judith Czaja McCaffrey MD Objectives/Hypothesis: 1) To describe the clinical entity invasive well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma (IWDTC), 2) to determine prognostic factors for survival in patients with IWDTC, 3) to describe and compare types of surgical resection to determine treatment efficacy, 4) to offer a staging system and surgical algorithm for management of patients with IWDTC, 5) to examine alterations in expression of E-cadherin and ,-catenin adhesion molecules in three groups of thyroid tissue and propose a cellular mechanism for invasion of the aerodigestive tract. Study Design: Basic science: quantification of expression of E-cadherin and ,-catenin in three groups of thyroid tissue. Clinical: retrospective review of patients with IWDTC surgically treated and followed over a 45-year time period. Methods: Basic science: immunohistochemical staining was used with antibodies against E-cadherin and ,-catenin in three groups of tissue: group 1, normal control thyroid tissue (n = 10); group 2, conventional papillary thyroid carcinoma (n = 20); group 3, IWDTC (n = 12). Intensity scores were given on the basis of protocol. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to evaluate differences between groups. Post hoc ANOVA testing was completed. P < .05 was significant. Clinical: patients were divided into three surgical groups within the laryngotracheal subset: group 1, complete resection of gross disease (n = 34); group 2, shave excision (n = 75); group 3, incomplete excision (n = 15). Cox regression analysis was used to determine significance of prognostic factors. Kaplan-Meier plots were used to evaluate survival. P < .05 was significant. Results: Basic science: a significant difference between the three thyroid tissue groups for E-cadherin expression was demonstrated on one-way ANOVA testing. When controls were compared with either experimental group in post hoc ANOVA testing, differences between all groups were demonstrated (P < .001). For ,-catenin, the intensities of the three groups were not different by one-way ANOVA testing. Similar nonsignificant results were found on post hoc ANOVA testing. Clinical: there was a statistically significant difference in survival for patients with and without involvement of any portion of the endolarynx or trachea (P < .01). There was a significant difference among all three surgical groups when compared (P < .001). When complete and shave groups were compared with gross residual group there was a significant decrease in survival in incomplete resection group (P < .01). Cox regression analysis demonstrated invasion of larynx and trachea were significant prognostic factors for poor outcome. The type of initial resection was significant on multivariate analysis. Removal of all gross disease is a major factor for survival. Conclusions: Basic science: there is a decrease in membrane expression of E-cadherin in IWDTC, and loss of this tumor suppressor adhesion molecule may contribute to the invasive nature of well-differentiated thyroid carcinomas. Clinical: laryngotracheal invasion is a significant independent prognostic factor for survival. Patients undergoing shave excision had similar survival when compared with those undergoing radical tumor resection if gross tumor did not remain. Gross intraluminal tumor should be resected completely. Shave excision is adequate for minimal invasion not involving the intraluminal surfaces of the aerodigestive tract. [source] DNA content in the diagnostic biopsy for benign-adjacent and cancer-tissue areas predicts the need for treatment in men with T1c prostate cancer undergoing surveillance in an expectant management programmeBJU INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2010Sumit Isharwal Study Type , Prognosis (case series)Level of Evidence 4 OBJECTIVE To assess the DNA content in benign-adjacent and cancer-tissue areas of a diagnostic biopsy, to predict which patients would subsequently develop an unfavourable biopsy necessitating treatment for prostate cancer in the expectant management (EM) programme. PATIENTS AND METHODS Of 71 patients who had benign-adjacent and cancer-tissue areas of diagnostic biopsies available, 39 developed unfavourable biopsies (Gleason score ,7, Gleason pattern 4/5, three or more cores positive for cancer, >50% of any core involved with cancer), while 32 maintained favourable biopsies on annual surveillance examination (median follow-up 3.7 years). DNA content was measured on Feulgen-stained biopsy sections using an automatic imaging system (AutoCyteTM, TriPath Imaging Inc, Burlington, NC, USA). Cox proportional-hazard regression and Kaplan-Meier plots were used to identify significant predictors for unfavourable biopsy conversion. RESULTS Univariately, DNA content measurements i.e. an excess of optical density (OD) in the benign-adjacent tissuer area, and the sd of the OD in the cancer tissue were significant, with a hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval of 2.58 (1.17,5.68; P = 0.019) and 5.36 (1.89,15.24; P = 0.002), respectively, for predicting unfavourable biopsy conversion that required intervention. Also, several other DNA content measurements in benign-adjacent and cancer-tissue areas showed a trend to statistical significance. Further, benign-adjacent excess of OD (3.12, 1.4,6.95; P = 0.005) and cancer sd of OD (5.88, 2.06,16.82; P = 0.001) remained significant in the multivariate model to predict unfavourable biopsy conversion. Patients with benign-adjacent excess of OD > 25.0 and cancer sd of OD of >4.0 had the highest risk for unfavourable biopsy conversion (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS DNA content measurements in the benign-adjacent and cancer-tissue areas appear to be useful for predicting unfavourable biopsy conversion (a recommendation for intervention) on annual surveillance examinations in the EM programme. [source] Interleukin-6 predicts recurrence and survival among head and neck cancer patients,CANCER, Issue 4 2008Sonia A. Duffy PhD Abstract BACKGROUND. Increased pretreatment serum interleukin (IL)-6 levels among patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) have been shown to correlate with poor prognosis, but sample sizes in prior studies have been small and thus unable to control for other known prognostic variables. METHODS. A longitudinal, prospective cohort study determined the correlation between pretreatment serum IL-6 levels, and tumor recurrence and all-cause survival in a large population (N = 444) of previously untreated HNSCC patients. Control variables included age, sex, smoking, cancer site and stage, and comorbidities. Kaplan-Meier plots and univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were used to study the association between IL-6 levels, control variables, and time to recurrence and survival. RESULTS. The median serum IL-6 level was 13 pg/mL (range, 0-453). The 2-year recurrence rate was 35.2% (standard error, 2.67%). The 2-year death rate was 26.5% (standard error, 2.26%). Multivariate analyses showed that serum IL-6 levels independently predicted recurrence at significant levels [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.32; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.11 to 1.58; P = .002] as did cancer site (oral/sinus). Serum IL-6 level was also a significant independent predictor of poor survival (HR = 1.22; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.46; P = .03), as were older age, smoking, cancer site (oral/sinus), higher cancer stage, and comorbidities. CONCLUSIONS. Pretreatment serum IL-6 could be a valuable biomarker for predicting recurrence and overall survival among HNSCC patients. Using IL-6 as a biomarker for recurrence and survival may allow for earlier identification and treatment of disease relapse. Cancer 2008. © 2008 American Cancer Society. [source] | ||||||||||