Francis H Straus

BACKGROUND: Adenocarcinomas and carcinoid tumors are the most common malignant tumors of the small intestine. K-ras oncogene mutations at codon 12 are common in gastric, pancreatic, and colon carcinomas, with an incidence of 35-88%. K-ras mutations have not been extensively studied in either adenocarcinomas or carcinoid tumors of the small bowel. The purpose of this study was to determine whether ras mutations play an important role in the formation of these tumors.

METHODS: Archival ...

A replication defective adenovirus transducing thymidine kinase (TK) gene under the control of the rat thyroglobulin (rTg) promoter (AdrTgtk) was developed to evaluate its cell-specific killing activity in gene therapy. We also developed adenoviruses containing the TK gene driven by the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter (AdCMVtk), and luciferase (Luc) gene driven by the rTg or CMV promoter (AdrTgLuc or AdCMVLuc). Luc activity in FRTL-5, HepG2, COS1, rMTC, hMTC, Hela, GH3, T98G, and CA77 ...

Laparoscopic pelvic lymph node dissection is a recently introduced technique for the surgical evaluation of the regional pelvic lymph nodes in genitourinary malignancies. We report the results of a laparoscopic pelvic lymph node dissection performed on 103 consecutive patients for staging of clinically localized prostatic, bladder and penile carcinomas. In 20 patients (group 1) the adequacy of the laparoscopic pelvic lymph node dissection was evaluated with a subsequent open dissection. ...

To study the role of Th0 and Th1 cells in autoimmune thyroid disease, thyroid tissues from patients with Graves' disease (GD), Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), and colloid nodular disease were xenografted into SCID mice, followed by ip injection of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), T cell lines, and T cell clones (TCC). The antigen-specific TCC reactive to TSH receptor (TSH-R), thyroid peroxidase (TPO), or thyroglobulin (Tg), and their respective peptides, were classified into Th0 ...

A total of 29 patients with muscle invasive bladder cancer, clinical stage T2N0 (12), T3aN0 (9), T3bN0 (5), T3N2 (2) or T4N2 (1), underwent 2 to 4 cycles of neoadjuvant methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin and cisplatin (M-VAC) chemotherapy followed by either radiotherapy (15), radical cystectomy (11) or no local therapy (3). The overall response rate to M-VAC chemotherapy was 69%, with 31% clinical complete responses and 38% clinical partial responses. A functioning bladder was ...

Intravesical instillation of methylene blue resulted in selective surface staining of bladder tumors in vivo without staining the background of normal urothelium. Staining of human bladder tumors in vivo was accomplished by the intravesical instillation of 0.1% methylene blue in 0.9% saline through a foley catheter under 20 cm of hydrostatic pressure up to a maximum volume of 400 ml. After 5 minutes contact time, the methylene blue solution was drained, and the bladder was washed with ...

We have analyzed data on a group of 269 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma followed on average for 12 years to determine (1) if a prognostic classification scheme can be used to predict an appropriate surgical approach; (2) the effect of treatment on prognosis; and (3) if patients with a “excellent” prognosis benefit from more extensive surgical resection and 131I ablation. Prognostic classification schemes developed by the American Joint Commission, Cady et al., Hay et al., the ...

Epididymal cysts and/or hypoplastic testes have been found in 31.5 per cent of 308 men exposed to diethylstilbestrol in utero, compared to 7.8 per cent of 307 placebo-exposed controls. Analyses of the spermatozoa have revealed severe pathological changes (Eliasson score greater than 10) in 134 diethylstilbestrol-exposed men (18 per cent) and 87 placebo-exposed men (8 per cent). Further investigation of the 26 diethylstilbestrol-exposed men with testicular hypoplasia has revealed that 65 ...