The New England journal of medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Tumor microsatellite-instability status as a predictor of benefit from fluorouracil-based adjuvant chemotherapy for colon cancer.
Colon cancers with high-frequency microsatellite instability have clinical and pathological features that distinguish them from microsatellite-stable tumors. We investigated the usefulness of microsatellite-instability status as a predictor of the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy with fluorouracil in stage II and stage III colon cancer. ⋯ Fluorouracil-based adjuvant chemotherapy benefited patients with stage II or stage III colon cancer with microsatellite-stable tumors or tumors exhibiting low-frequency microsatellite instability but not those with tumors exhibiting high-frequency microsatellite instability.
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Most renal transplants fail because of chronic allograft nephropathy or because the recipient dies, but no reliable factor predicting long-term outcome has been identified. We tested whether a renal arterial resistance index of less than 80 was predictive of long-term allograft survival. ⋯ A renal arterial resistance index of 80 or higher measured at least three months after transplantation is associated with poor subsequent allograft performance and death.
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Most patients with multiple sclerosis initially present with a clinically isolated syndrome. Despite the fact that clinically definite multiple sclerosis will develop in up to 80 percent of these patients, the course of the disease is unpredictable at its onset and requires long-term observation or repeated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We investigated whether the presence of serum antibodies against myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) and myelin basic protein (MBP) in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome predicts the interval to conversion to clinically definite multiple sclerosis. ⋯ Analysis of antibodies against MOG and MBP in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome is a rapid, inexpensive, and precise method for the prediction of early conversion to clinically definite multiple sclerosis. This finding may be important for the counseling and care of patients with a first demyelinating event suggestive of multiple sclerosis.