At least two regions of the TCF4 locus were associated independently with FCD.

Alleles in the gene encoding protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type G (PTPRG) were associated with FCD (P = 4.0×10(-7)), but the association did not reach genomewide significance.

CONCLUSIONS

Genetic variation in TCF4 contributes to the development of FCD. (Funded by the National Eye Institute and others.)”
“Purpose: Surgical margin status is commonly used as an end point for surgical learning. We Staurosporine in vivo examined the surgical margin learning curve and investigated whether surgical margins are a good marker for oncological outcome.

Materials and Methods: The study cohort included 7,765 patients with prostate cancer treated with radical prostatectomy by 1 of 72 surgeons at a total of 4 major American academic medical centers. We calculated the learning curve for surgical margins and a concordance probability between the surgeon rates of positive surgical margins and 5-year

biochemical recurrence.

Results: selleckchem A positive surgical margin was identified in 2,059 patients (27%). On multivariate analysis surgeon experience was strongly associated with surgical margin status (p = 0.017). The probability of a positive surgical margin was 40% for a surgeon with 10 prior cases, which decreased to 25% for a surgeon with 250 (absolute difference 15%, 95% CI 11 to 18). Learning curves differed dramatically among surgeons. For surgeon pairs the surgeon with the superior positive surgical

margin rate also had the better biochemical Ergoloid recurrence rate only 58% of the time.

Conclusions: We noted a learning curve for surgical margins after open radical prostatectomy. The poor concordance between surgeon margin and recurrence rates suggests that while margins clearly matter and efforts should be made to decrease positive margin rates, surgical margin status is not a strong surrogate for cancer control. These results have implications for using the margin rate to evaluate changes in surgical technique and as surgeon feedback.”
“BACKGROUND

The in vivo clinical significance of malignant stem cells remains unclear.

METHODS

Patients who have the 5q deletion (del[5q]) myelodysplastic syndrome (interstitial deletions involving the long arm of chromosome 5) have complete clinical and cytogenetic remissions in response to lenalidomide treatment, but they often have relapse. To determine whether the persistence of rare but distinct malignant stem cells accounts for such relapses, we examined bone marrow specimens obtained from seven patients with the del(5q) myelodysplastic syndrome who became transfusion-independent while receiving lenalidomide treatment and entered cytogenetic remission.