Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027627 (metastases)
 103,950 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A pregnant woman in the 29th, week of gestation was admitted to the hospital with mediastinal pressure symptoms. A tentative diagnosis of lymphoma was made and the patient was given chemotherapy (vincristine, ciclophosphamide and adriamycin) plus radiotherapy, but no objective response was obtained. During the postoperative period (cesarean section) the patient developed clinical symptoms of muscular paralysis of unknown etiopathogenesis. Biopsy of a cervical lymph node showed histological pattern of tumor of the APUD system (chemodectoma). Multiple metastases appeared in the lungs, bones, brain, heart and ovaries in spite of treatment with various chemotherapeutic agents (vincristine, actinomycin D, CCNU and DTIC). Necropsy revealed the existence of a large tumor of the thymus gland, which histopathologic structure resembles to that of carcinoid. Ultrastructural examination showed abundant granules of neurosecretion confirming an APUD tumor. Cushing-like appearance of the patient was attributed "a posterior" to ACTH released by the tumor. A review ofthe clinical features, endocrine function and anatomical localizations of carcinoid tumors is included.
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PMID:[Carcinoid tumor of the thymus gland with multiple metastases. Report of a case (author's transl)]. 625 95

A study of 15 cases of carcinoid tumor of the thymus, diagnosed and treated at the Mayo Clinic, revealed histopathologic features of the neoplasm that might cause it to be confused with other mediastinal tumors, both primary and secondary. The tumor was associated with ectopic ACTH production in six patients, of whom five had Cushing's syndrome. Metastasis, which occurred in 11 patients (73%), was delayed for as long as 8 years after initial diagnosis. Eleven patients underwent surgical resection of their primary thymic neoplasms, and nine of these received postoperative radiotherapy or chemotherapy or both. One patient was treated with chemotherapy alone, and three had no treatment for their neoplasms, which were discovered at autopsy. Eight patients are still alive. Of these, five have developed metastases, and only one is free of metastatic disease more than 5 years after diagnosis. In the two remaining cases, the discovery of the thymic tumor was recent and follow-up is not yet meaningful. Overall, four of the seven patients who died had proven metastatic disease. The mean survival after the appearance of extrathymic tumor in this group was 3 years. Of the five patients who are still alive with metastasis, all have survived at least 2 years since that spread of their disease.
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PMID:Primary mediastinal carcinoid tumors. 628 47

Within a 75-year period, 20 patients with primary nonteratomatous carcinomas of the thymus were seen at the Mayo Clinic. Fourteen were males and six were females, with a mean age of 48 years. Thirteen of the lesions were classified as poorly differentiated or spindling squamous cell carcinomas. One neoplasm was a sarcomatoid carcinoma, and two showed both squamous cell and neuroendocrine ultrastructural features. The remaining four tumors had both light- and electron-microscopic features of neuroendocrine carcinomas. In all 20 patients, careful clinical and pathologic examinations, including autopsy in fatal cases, excluded malignant lymphomas and metastasis to the thymus from epithelial tumors in other anatomic sites. Thirteen patients underwent surgery, with or without postoperative radiotherapy; of these, one was alive and apparently disease-free 43 months after diagnosis. There were two operative deaths. The remaining patients received primary radiotherapy or chemotherapy, or both. The mean survival of the 16 patients who died (excluding operative deaths) was 18.7 months for the 14 patients with tumors of squamous cell differentiation and 36.0 months for the two patients with pure neuroendocrine carcinomas. Among patients with squamous cell carcinoma, 11 developed metastases to lungs, liver, bones, adrenal glands, or extrathoracic lymph nodes; nine of these died of massive local growth within the mediastinum. Among patients with neuroendocrine carcinomas, two of four patients died of local growth within the mediastinum; one of these also had metastases to the liver and adrenal glands. One patient with oat cell carcinoma was alive with residual thoracic tumor and cervical lymph node metastasis 18 months after diagnosis.
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PMID:Primary thymic carcinomas. 629 94

Transplants of human tumors in nude mice have shown a progressive increase during the past 15 years as an experimental model for cancer research. A variety of factors, including relatively fragile health, have been identified that require appropriate experimental controls if the investigator is obtain consistent results. Not all tumors grow in nude mice. The frequency of tumor 'take' varies according to tumor origin, tumor type, inoculation site, age and conditioning of the mouse host, and a variety of other factors. Manipulation of these variables has led to successful propagation of almost every known variety of human malignancy. Following transplant, changes in characteristics have been documented, but the frequency and degree of such changes remains uncertain. Tumor growth rate probably increases after transplantation, requiring great care in the interpretation of chemotherapy experiments, but biochemical characteristics may be more stable. The nude mouse offers great interest as a model for the in vivo study of metastasis, as a number of experimental variables, mainly immunological, have been shown to affect this process. Spontaneous tumors have been shown to arise in these animals, but the controversy over their frequency relative to the thymus-bearing background strain is unresolved. We conclude that the nude mouse/tumor xenograft model, while requiring meticulous experimental controls, is nevertheless an extremely useful tool for cancer research.
Cancer Metastasis Rev 1984
PMID:Considerations in the use of nude mice for cancer research. 639 26

A new case of carcinoid tumour of the thymus is reported. Such tumours are extremely rare and of somber prognosis when accompanied by local or regional metastases or metastases in other organs.
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PMID:[Carcinoid tumor of the thymus: a new case]. 663 72

Thymosin, a product of the endocrine system, was used to further define the effects of immunomodulation of metastasis. Adult thymectomized C57BL/6 mice, 4 wk post-irradiation (400 R) had a decrease in the number of pulmonary metastasis (compared to controls) following tail vein injection of 5 X 10(4) B16 melanoma cells. Thymosin fraction 5 (fr. 5) administration (200 micrograms/mouse, 3 times weekly beginning 2 days post-thymectomy) returned the number of metastasis to the nonthymectomized values. Thymosin treatment of sham-operated, sham-operated irradiated, or thymectomized nonirradiated mice did not significantly elevate the number of metastases compared to the respective controls. Variant tumors which have an increase in metastasis following thymectomy and irradiation were also used. Thymosin administration reversed the effects of thymectomy in such variants, resulting in a decrease in metastasis. Metastases in thymosin-treated control mice were not significantly altered. A role for the thymus in metastasis via an endocrine product (thymosin) is suggested by these studies. Since thymosin did not increase metastasis in intact mice with tumors, further clinical trials with thymosin in cancer patients are not counterindicated by our results. These experiments confirm that thymosin fr. 5 is an important probe of the immunoendocrine events involved in tumor growth and metastasis.
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PMID:Immunomodulation of murine B16 melanoma metastasis: thymosin, thymectomy and irradiation. 665 23

The effects of the specific active cancer immunotherapy utilizing autologous tumor tissue particles polymerised with ethylchlorformiate, and used in combination with PPD tuberculin, were studied with respect to the growth of mastocytoma (P-815 X 2) in DBA/2 mice. As a control material, animals not immunised or immunised only with the nonspecific reticuloendothelial system stimulator, PPD tuberculin, were used. The frequency of the tumor metastases in the organs surveyed (lymph nodes, spleen, liver, kidney, lung and thymus) was lowest in mice having received the specific immunotherapy regimen. Similarly, the signs of tumor rejection by the host (tumor-associated fibrous scar, lymphocyte and plasma cell infiltration, and disappearance of the tumor tissue totally or subtotally) were found to be most pronounced in this series of mice. The findings were discussed against the background of the successful clinical trials made with this mode of specific cancer immunotherapy during the recent few years in patients whose neoplasia had escaped the reach of conventional cancer therapy. The findings were also discussed in the light of the mechanisms involved in cancer immunity in general, and a conclusion was drawn that this kind of specific active cancer immunotherapy seems to exert beneficial effects on the host's immune system, and thus seems to contribute to tumor rejection by the host.
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PMID:Experimental cancer immunotherapy in DBA/2 mouse-mastocytoma model utilizing autologous tumor tissue polymerised with ethylchlorformiate. 677 79

Of 16 cell lines derived from 12 human melanomas obtained from 11 patients, all were established as permanent cell lines: 7 from primary tumors and 9 from metastatic tumors. Study of the early subcultures and established cell lines showed that melanocytes passed through a phase of dedifferentiation during which they took on a fibroblast-like appearance and were hypodiploid and nontumorigenic in nude (thymus-deficient) mice. Phenotypic modulation in vitro was shown to be dependent on the culture medium. The lines varied considerably in karyologic and phenotypic expression (as assessed by morphologic appearance and 5-S-cysteinyldopa production). Fibroblast-like, epithelioid, nonpigmented, achromic, and pigmented cells were obtained from the same tumor. Heterotransplantation into nude mice revealed wide variations in tumorigenicity: The latency of the tumors, their size, and infrequent metastases bore no relationship to the phenotypic modulation of the melanocytes as expressed in vitro. Melanogenesis is therefore not related to malignancy; they are two independent characteristics.
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PMID:Tumorigenicity of human malignant melanocytes in nude mice in relation to their differentiation in vitro. 692 9

Some biologic, hematologic, and immunologic aspects of the growth and metastasis of the MC-2 fibrosarcoma indicated its suitability as a model for the study of lymphogenous metastasis. The tumor was maintained in syngeneic female BALB/c mice by the serial sc passage of 10(5) viable tumor cells. It metastasized macroscopically in all mice to regional lymph nodes (RLN) and to the lungs. Both forward and retrograde node-to-node metastases were found. Tumor growth and metastasis were associated with splenomegaly, thymus atrophy, cachexia, neutrophilia, lymphopenia, and anemia. Tumor excision at various times after inoculation showed that all mice whose tumors were excised when there was histologic evidence of metastasis in all RLN (day 13; mean of tumor wt, 122 mg) died subsequently from metastases, whereas no animals died whose tumors were excised on or before day 8 (mean of tumor wt, 15 mg). The onset of metastasis was seen in some RLN on day 8. All survivors were immune to challenge with 10(5) viable tumor cells, which demonstrated the immunogenicity of the tumor. Concomitant tumor immunity could be demonstrated prior to the onset of metastasis (days 6 and 7) but not early (days 0--2) or late (days 15, 19, and 20) in primary-site tumor growth. The early immune response to the tumor demonstrable as concomitant tumor immunity appeared to be abrogated by the progressive growth and metastasis of the neoplasm. Tumor cells passaged in adult thymectomized, X-irradiated, syngeneic recipients produced larger RLN metastases and smaller primary tumors than those passaged in control mice.
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PMID:Biologic and immunologic studies on a murine model of regional lymph node metastasis. 692 75

The effect of T-cell depletion on experimental hepatic amoebiasis in hamsters was investigated. Thymectomized and anti-T-cell (ATS) treated animals as well as sham-operated and unoperated controls were inoculated intrahepatically, following laparotomy, at 7 weeks of age with 1 x 10(5) axenic trophozoites of Entamoeba histolytica. In neonatally thymectomized hamsters the mean weight of the liver abscess 10 days post-inoculation was significantly greater than in neonatally sham-operated or unoperated controls, but there was no significant difference between these groups of animals in the size of metastatic foci to other organs. On the other hand, a combination of neonatal thymectomy and ATS treatment enhanced both the size of the primary abscess in the liver and the size of metastases to other sites. Adult thymectomy did not have a significant effect either on the size of the primary abscess or on metastatic dissemination of amoebae from the liver. Treatment of hamsters with ATS shortly before or after intrahepatic challenge increased significantly the size of the abscess, but similar treatment 2-3 weeks prior to challenge had no effect. These observations suggest that thymus-dependent cell-mediated immunity plays an important role in the host response to E. histolytica infection.
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PMID:Effect of immunosuppression on the size and metastasis of amoebic liver abscesses in hamsters. 697 49


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