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Biomedical subjects

C Poole

Publications and source records attributed to C Poole.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Iridium implant treatment without external radiotherapy for operable breast cancer: a pilot study.

A pilot study has been conducted to examine a new approach to the treatment of operable breast carcinoma. 27 patients with tumours measuring up to 4 cm in diameter have been treated by tumourectomy, axillary clearance and high dose iridium-192 implant (55 Gy) without any external beam radiotherapy. This enabled the entire local primary treatment of the breast carcinoma to be given in five days. The technique was compatible with adjuvant chemotherapy for those with involved axillary nodes. Local complications have been few and locoregional control has to date been satisfactory. With a relatively short median follow-up of 27 months, cosmesis was objectively rated as good or excellent in over 80% of cases and subjectively rated good/excellent in 96%. High dose brachytherapy now requires testing in a prospective clinical trial to determine whether it is as effective as standard breast conservation techniques for management of early breast cancer.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The importance of added albumin during continuous intravenous infusion of interleukin-2 with alpha-interferon.

We treated 14 patients (4 malignant melanoma/10 renal carcinoma) with a combination of continuous infusion interleukin-2 (IL-2) and subcutaneous alpha-interferon. Variable concentrations of albumin were added to the infusion of IL-2. The toxicity of this regimen seems to be related to the percentage of albumin added to the IL-2 infusion. Partial responses were observed in 3 cases. Interestingly, 1 patient's response appeared dependent on the addition of human serum albumin. The mechanism of these effects is unknown, but the use of albumin with IL-2 should be carefully investigated in future studies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Proviral position effects: possible probes for genes that suppress transcription.

Rous sarcoma virus, an oncogenic avian retrovirus, readily causes morphological transformation of chick cells, but in infected rat cells transformation is rare because proviral transcription is inefficient. This constraint is not due to a lack of positive transcriptional factors, or an excess of negative ones, but reflects the site of proviral integration in rat cell DNA. In most sites the provirus is almost invariably silent, in others it is correspondingly active, whilst in a third category expression fluctuates in concert with transitions in chromatin structure. Transcriptional fluctuations are mediated both by flanking cell DNA in cis and by trans-acting cell genes, suggesting that proviral position effects are sensors for genes that down-regulate transcription, perhaps by determining chromatin configuration. We have tried to identify such genes by gene transfer, karyology and insertional mutagenesis. The variable success of these three approaches indicates that the transcriptional down-regulator(s) need act only transiently. This is consistent with a function that operates in ontogeny or differentiation to down-regulate genes whose silence is then perpetuated by other means. The loss of such functions may predispose to neoplasia.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

A strengthening programme for weak associations.

The strength of a causal association depends on the relative prevalence of other component causes for the same disease. Weak associations may sometimes be strengthened by restricting attention to people at low risk. This technique may lead to fewer subjects to study, but nevertheless may provide more information by which to evaluate a causal relation. A second method for strengthening associations is to reduce non-differential misclassification, which tends to dilute associations. Increasing the specificity of measurement for exposure, disease, and the timing between causal action and disease onset should produce stronger associations that are easier to interpret and more descriptive of the underlying causal mechanism.

Epidemiologic Methods↗
PubMed1988

Invariants and noninvariants in the concept of interdependent effects.

In two of his publications [Causal and preventive interdependence: Elementary principles. Scand J Work Environ Health 8 (1982) 159-168 and Theoretical Epidemiology, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY 1985], Miettinen put forth basic definitions of causal and preventive interdependence of effects involving binary exposure indicators and outcomes. This paper shows that the identification of interdependence using Miettinen's definitions varies with the choice of the reference categories for the exposures. In particular, Miettinen's concepts of synergism and antagonism are not invariant under exposure recoding. It is also shown that, when both exposures affect risk in some individuals, the effects will appear interdependent under some choice of referent. In the deterministic case, invariant properties of joint effects may be identified through the formation of equivalence classes of response types. In the stochastic case, invariant properties may be identified through the averaging of individual hazards, rather than risks. In both cases, additivity of risk or rate differences emerges as an elementary criterion for the independence of effects.

Epidemiologic Methods↗
PubMed1988

The marketing audit: a new perspective on library services and products.

A marketing audit enables a library to look at audiences, services, and products with a structured approach. The audit can be used to assess operations and to provide a framework for ongoing decision making, evaluation, and long-range planning. An approach to the audit process is presented and its application is demonstrated in a case study featuring the American Hospital Association Resource Center.

American Hospital Association↗