Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0025202 (melanoma)
 69,561 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The goal of the donor evaluation is to ensure the suitability, safety and well being of the donor. In order to avoid important omissions, the evaluation of potential living kidney donors should be carried according to a protocol that includes a logical sequence of complementary explorations. Old age alone is not an absolute contraindication to donation but the evaluation should be more rigorous, because increased age may be associated with more post-operative complications after nephrectomy and renal function and long term graft survival could be shorter than the ones obtained from younger living donors. A body mass index of more than 35 kg/m2 should be an absolute contraindication to renal donation. Between 30 and 35 kg/m2 the donor evaluation should be more rigorous and it should be recommended to lose weight before nephrectomy. Hypertension is one of the most common reasons to declare a potential kidney donor unsuitable. Evidence of organ damage is an absolute contraindication to kidney donation. The donation is only reasonable when hypertension is well controlled with less than two drugs. To excluded diabetes mellitus all donors should have a fasting plasma glucose measurement. Diabetes mellitus is an absolute contraindication to living donation such as an impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose with a family history of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Another contraindication to living donation is malignant disease, and the same standards should be adopted for cadaveric donors. The exceptions are low-grade non-melanoma skin cancer and carcinoma in situ of the uterine cervix. The presence of active infection usually precludes donation. It is very important to perform a routine test for viral infections. HIV, hepatitis B and C infection of the donor are usually a contraindication to living donor. CMV donor and recipient status should be taken into account before transplantation, and the recipients at risk for CMV disease should recieve prophylactic treatment according to the transplant unit policy.
 ...
PMID:[Assessment of the living renal donor. Analysis of extra-renal pathology as a limitation for donation]. 1605 Apr 3

Diabetics may have a higher risk of cancer, notably liver and pancreatic cancers. Evidence about other cancer types remains sparse. The authors examined potential associations between diabetes and several types of cancer in a large multicancer case-control project carried out in Montreal, Canada, in the 1980s. This report, based on 3,107 male cancer cases and 509 population controls, uses information on diabetes and several covariates collected by interview. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated for the associations between diabetes and each of 12 cancer types. Risks of pancreatic and liver cancers were increased among diabetics: adjusted ORs were 2.1 (95% CI: 1.0, 4.3) for pancreatic and 3.1 (95% CI: 1.1, 8.8) for liver cancer. The increased risk of pancreatic cancer was completely restricted to those with recent onset of diabetes; this was likely a manifestation of reverse causality. Conversely, the increased risk of liver cancer was independent of the interval between diabetes and cancer diagnoses. No associations were observed with melanoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, cancers of the esophagus, stomach, colon, rectum, lung, prostate, bladder and kidney. In conclusion, diabetes was associated with an increased risk of liver cancer among men, but with no other cancer type including pancreatic cancer.
 ...
PMID:Diabetes mellitus and cancer risk in a population-based case-control study among men from Montreal, Canada. 1628 45

The goal of prophylactic surgery is to prevent malignant growth in patients with hereditary tumor predisposition. The pancreas presents as particularly challenging, due to the difficulty of operation and comparatively high risk of morbidity and even mortality. In addition, partial operative procedures and, more significantly, total resection lead to exocrine pancreas insufficiency and secondary diabetes, with grave consequences for the patient. Hereditary tumor predisposition syndromes that can result in pancreaticoduodenal endocrine tumors (PET) include multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 syndrome and von Hippel-Lindau syndrome. As penetrance is maximally 70-80% and the 10-year survival rate over 80%, prophylactic pancreatic resection without evidence of a tumor is not indicated. However, prophylactic extension of a resection would be advised, should a PET be diagnosed. Patients predisposed to developing ductal pancreatic carcinoma (PC) are at risk of familial pancreatic cancer syndrome (FPC), hereditary pancreatitis, and other hereditary tumor predisposition syndromes such as Peutz-Jeghers syndrome and familial atypical multiple mole-melanoma syndrome. As the gene defect responsible for FPC has yet to be identified and the penetrance of PC in the other tumor predisposition syndromes is low or unknown, a prophylactic pancreatectomy based on today's knowledge is not indicated. Prophylactic extension of the resection is advisable should PC or high-grade PanIN lesions be diagnosed, as these patients often present with multifocal dysplasia and even carcinoma.
 ...
PMID:[Prophylactic pancreas surgery]. 1630 89

Previous studies have lacked sufficient power to assess associations between early-life socioeconomic position and adult cause-specific mortality. The authors examined associations of parental social class at age 0-16 years with mortality among 1,824,064 Swedes born in 1944-1960. Females and males from manual compared with nonmanual childhood social classes were more likely to die from smoking-related cancers, stomach cancer, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Males from manual compared with nonmanual social classes were more likely to die from unintentional injury, homicide, and alcoholic cirrhosis. The association with stomach cancer was little affected by adjustment for parental later-life and own adult social class or education. For other outcomes, educational attainment resulted in greater attenuation of associations than did adjustment for adult social class. Early-life social class was not related to suicide or to melanoma, colon, breast, brain, or lymphatic cancers or to leukemia. With the exception of stomach cancer, caused by Helicobacter pylori infection acquired in childhood, poorer social class in early life was associated with diseases largely caused by behavioral risk factors such as smoking, physical inactivity, and an unhealthy diet. Educational attainment may be important in reducing the health inequalities associated with early-life disadvantage.
 ...
PMID:Association of childhood socioeconomic position with cause-specific mortality in a prospective record linkage study of 1,839,384 individuals. 1698 23

Patients with melanoma may experience a variety of different vision symptoms, in part associated with melanoma-associated retinopathy. For several melanoma patients with or without melanoma-associated retinopathy, colour vision deficiencies, especially involving the tritan system, have been reported. The frequency of colour vision deficiencies in a larger cohort of melanoma patients has not yet been investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of colour vision deficiencies in melanoma patients subject to stage of disease, prognostic factors such as tumour thickness or Clark level, S100-beta and predisposing diseases that may have an impact on colour vision (hypertension, diabetes mellitus, glaucoma or cataract). Three hundred melanoma patients in different tumour stages and 100 healthy age-matched and sex-matched controls were examined with the saturated Farnsworth panel D 15 test. Seventy out of 300 (23.3%) melanoma patients and 12/100 (12%) controls showed pathologic results in colour testing. This discrepancy was significant (P < 0.016; odds ratio = 2.23, 95% confidence interval 1.15-4.32). Increasing age was identified as a highly significant (P = 0.0005) risk factor for blue vision deficiency. Adjusting for the age and predisposing diseases, we could show that melanoma was associated with the risk of blue vision deficiency. The frequency of blue vision deficiency in 52/260 melanoma patients without predisposing diseases (20%) compared with 4/78 controls without predisposing diseases (5.1%) differed significantly (odds ratio 4.441; confidence interval 1.54-12.62; P < 0.004). In 260 melanoma patients without predisposing diseases, blue vision deficiency, as graded on a 6-point scale, showed a weak positive correlation (Spearman) with tumour stage (r = 0.147; P < 0.01), tumour thickness (r = 0.10; P = 0.0035), Clark level (r = 0.12; P = 0.04) and a weak negative correlation with time since initial diagnosis (r = -0.11; P = 0.0455). Blue vision deficiency is associated with melanoma, but is only weakly related to stage of disease. Although we saw a positive correlation with well-known prognostic markers, such as tumour thickness and Clark level, blue vision deficiency as assessed by the Farnsworth panel D 15 test in general is inappropriate as a marker of tumour progression. For the use of blue vision deficiency in melanoma patients without predisposing diseases, a diligent test performance and interpretation is very important.
Melanoma Res 2006 Oct
PMID:Frequency of colour vision deficiencies in melanoma patients: results of a prospective comparative screening study with the Farnsworth panel D 15 test including 300 melanoma patients and 100 healthy controls. 1701 90

Adjuvants are essential components of vaccines that augment an immunological reaction of organism. New vaccines based on recombinant proteins and DNA, are more save than traditional vaccines but they are less immunogenic. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the development of new, improved vaccine adjuvants. There are two classes of adjuvants: vaccine delivery systems (e.g. emulsions, microparticles, immune-stimulating complexes ISCOMs, liposomes) and immunostimulatory adjuvants (e.g. lipopolysaccharide, monophosphoryl lipid A, CpG DNA, or muramylpeptides). The discovery of more potent and safer adjuvants may allow to development better prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines against chronic infectious (e.g., HSV, HIV, HCV, HBV, HPV, or Helicobacter pylori) and noninfectious diseases as multiple sclerosis, insulin-dependent diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, allergy and tumors (e.g., melanoma, breast, or colon cancer).
 ...
PMID:[Adjuvants--essential components of new generation vaccines]. 1707 10

Guggulsterone is a plant polyphenol traditionally used to treat obesity, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis, and osteoarthritis, possibly through an anti-inflammatory mechanism. Whether this steroid has any role in cancer is not known. In this study, we found that guggulsterone inhibits the proliferation of wide variety of human tumor cell types including leukemia, head and neck carcinoma, multiple myeloma, lung carcinoma, melanoma, breast carcinoma, and ovarian carcinoma. Guggulsterone also inhibited the proliferation of drug-resistant cancer cells (e.g., gleevac-resistant leukemia, dexamethasone-resistant multiple myeloma, and doxorubicin-resistant breast cancer cells). Guggulsterone suppressed the proliferation of cells through inhibition of DNA synthesis, producing cell cycle arrest in S-phase, and this arrest correlated with a decrease in the levels of cyclin D1 and cdc2 and a concomitant increase in the levels of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 and p27. Guggulsterone-induced apoptosis as indicated by increase in the number of Annexin V- and TUNEL-positive cells, through the downregulation of anti-apoptototic products. The apoptosis induced by guggulsterone was also indicated by the activation of caspase-8, bid cleavage, cytochrome c release, caspase-9 activation, caspase-3 activation, and PARP cleavage. The apoptotic effects of guggulsterone were preceded by activation of JNK and downregulation of Akt activity. JNK was needed for guggulsterone-induced apoptosis, inasmuch as inhibition of JNK by pharmacological inhibitors or by genetic deletion of MKK4 (activator of JNK) abolished the activity. Overall, our results indicate that guggulsterone can inhibit cell proliferation and induce apoptosis through the activation of JNK, suppression of Akt, and downregulation of antiapoptotic protein expression.
 ...
PMID:Guggulsterone inhibits tumor cell proliferation, induces S-phase arrest, and promotes apoptosis through activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase, suppression of Akt pathway, and downregulation of antiapoptotic gene products. 1747 22

Thiazolidinediones, also known as glitazones, represent a relatively new class of medication used for glycemic control in patients with type II diabetes mellitus. These drugs interact with the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily, which in turn heterodimerizes with retinoid X receptors to stimulate gene transcription. At a physiologic level, glitazones stimulate adipocyte differentiation, enhance insulin-sensitive glucose uptake by muscle and fat cells, suppress angiogenesis, inhibit tumor cell growth, and normalize keratinocyte differentiation. They have also demonstrated the capacity to diminish inflammatory cytokine production, most notably, that of tumor necrosis factor alpha. Patients with such disparate conditions as psoriasis, hirsutism, melanoma, angiosarcoma, lipodystrophy, and necrobiosis lipoidica have benefited from the administration of thiazolidinediones. Clinicians should become familiar with glitazones as they are experiencing a burgeoning use among patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and have demonstrated clinical efficacy in treating certain skin conditions.
 ...
PMID:Thiazolidinediones in dermatology. 1755 May 51

The development of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-beta/delta (PPARbeta/delta) ligands for the treatment of diseases including metabolic syndrome, diabetes and obesity has been hampered due to contradictory findings on their potential safety. For example, while some reports show that ligand activation of PPARbeta/delta promotes the induction of terminal differentiation and inhibition of cell growth, other reports suggest that PPARbeta/delta ligands potentiate tumorigenesis by increasing cell proliferation. Some of the contradictory findings could be due in part to differences in the ligand examined, the presence or absence of serum in cell cultures, differences in cell lines or differences in the method used to quantify cell growth. For these reasons, this study examined the effect of ligand activation of PPARbeta/delta on cell growth of two human cancer cell lines, MCF7 (breast cancer) and UACC903 (melanoma) in the presence or absence of serum using two highly specific PPARbeta/delta ligands, GW0742 or GW501516. Culturing cells in the presence of either GW0742 or GW501516 caused upregulation of the known PPARbeta/delta target gene angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL4). Inhibition of cell growth was observed in both cell lines cultured in the presence of either GW0742 or GW501516, and the presence or absence of serum had little influence on this inhibition. Results from the present studies demonstrate that ligand activation of PPARbeta/delta inhibits the growth of both MCF7 and UACC903 cell lines and provide further evidence that PPARbeta/delta ligands are not mitogenic in human cancer cell lines.
 ...
PMID:Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-beta/delta (PPARbeta/delta) ligands inhibit growth of UACC903 and MCF7 human cancer cell lines. 1805 22

Previous studies of leptin with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors have been limited by clinical samples or lack of representation of the general population. This cross-sectional study, designed to examine whether leptin or insulin may mediate the endogenous relation of obesity with metabolic, inflammatory, and thrombogenic cardiovascular risk factors, included 522 men and 514 women aged >or=40 years who completed a physical examination during the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Participants were free of existing CVD, cancer (except non-melanoma skin cancer), diabetes, or respiratory disease. In multivariable analyses adjusted for race/ethnicity and lifestyle factors, waist circumference (WC) was positively associated with blood pressure, triglyceride, LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol:HDL ratio, apolipoprotein B, C-reactive protein (CRP), and fibrinogen concentrations, and negatively associated with HDL cholesterol and apolipoprotein A1 levels. The associations of WC with the metabolic CVD risk factors were largely attenuated after adjustment for insulin levels, while the associations of WC with the inflammatory and thrombogenic factors (CRP and fibrinogen, respectively) were largely explained by adjustment for leptin concentrations. However, leptin levels were not independently associated with CRP and fibrinogen in men and CRP in women when adjusted for WC. Positive associations of leptin and insulin with fibrinogen in women, independent of WC, were noted. These results suggest that insulin may be an important mediator of the association of obesity with metabolic but not inflammatory or thrombogenic CVD risk factors, while leptin does not appear to influence cardiovascular risk through a shared association with these risk factors. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that leptin and insulin influence cardiovascular risk in women through independent effects on fibrinogen concentrations.
 ...
PMID:The relation of leptin and insulin with obesity-related cardiovascular risk factors in US adults. 1816 70


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next >>