Brain tumor growth results from the relative proportion of cells contained in three populations: a) cycling/proliferative; b) quiescent (GO)/static, and c) terminally differentiated/dying. The cycling compartment can be detected by the mouse monoclonal Ki-67 antibody, an available, rapid, safe, sensitive, and specific method for immunostaining of proliferative cells. We report the Ki-67 labelin...

BACKGROUND Diffuse astrocytomas are the most common type of primary brain cancer in adults. They present a wide variation in differentiation and aggressiveness, being classified into three grades: low-grade diffuse astrocytoma (grade II), anaplastic astrocytoma (grade III) and glioblastoma multiforme (grade IV), the most frequent and the major lethal type. Recent studies have highlighted the mo...

Cerebral astrocytomas and undifferentiated gliomas were graded by (1) Kernohan classification on the basis of visual microscopy, and (2) optical density/area profiles obtained by automated densitometry with a Quantimet 720 image-analysing computer. In a retrospective study of 44 patients the Quantimet measurements seemed to give a more accurate assessment of prognosis than visual grading.

Cerebral astrocytoma has been found in two patients with AIDS related conditions. The fortuity of this unusual association is discussed, insofar as immunosuppression could favour the growth of certain neoplasms.

OBJECTIVES To describe the neuroradiological characteristics of a series of high grade cortical astrocytomas in the initial phase of development and their pattern of growth during a short time period. MATERIAL AND METHODS This was a retrospective observational study of the neuroradiological findings in six patients diagnosed with high grade astrocytoma. All presented with a new onset epilepti...

BACKGROUND Survival of glioma patients with the same tumor histology and grade can vary significantly, and some low-grade gliomas transform to a more malignant phenotype. There is a need of molecular signatures, which are better predictors of the patient diagnosis, outcome of treatment, and prognosis than the diagnosis provided by histopathology. We propose CHI3L1 mRNA expression as a prognosti...

Diffuse astrocytic gliomas are the most common human glial tumors with glioblastoma being the most malignant form. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene amplification is one of the most common genetic changes in glioblastoma and can lead to the activation of various downstream signaling molecules, including STAT3, MAPK, and AKT. In this study, we investigated the activation status of the...

Preserving multicentennial climate variability in long tree-ring records is critically important for reconstructing the full range of temperature variability over the past 1000 years. This allows the putative "Medieval Warm Period" (MWP) to be described and to be compared with 20th-century warming in modeling and attribution studies. We demonstrate that carefully selected tree-ring chronologies...