Breast Cancer at the Ontario Cancer Clinics, 1938-1956: A Statistical Review

In Ontario, breast cancer accounts for one death in every 27 among females. In 1938-1956 some 40% of all new cases were registered at the Ontario Cancer Foundation''s regional clinics. The five-year crude survival rate for 11,393 women was 45.4%, and for 91 men, 36.3%. Survival rates were strongly affected by extent of disease; when this was allowed for, pregnancy and treatment method were also found to influence survival rate. Simple mastectomy with radiotherapy gave results that appeared comparable to those after radical mastectomy, alone or with radiotherapy. There was a 20% improvement in the crude five-year survival rate over the period of the survey. The need for great caution in interpreting these findings is stressed.     

Laboratory diagnostics of enterovirus cardiac infections

Diagnostic efficacy of different markers of enterovirus cardiac infection (EVCI) has been evaluated. Testing of clinical samples from patients with myocarditis (n=50), dilatation cardiomyopathy (n=122), ischemic heart disease (n=34) and from healthy donors (n=50) revealed diagnostically significant markers in patients suspected for enterovirus cardiac infection: antienterovirus IgM in the patient's blood serum, the expression of viral proteins by myocardium cells and the presence of genome RNA and replicative intermediate in cardiac cells. The results obtained were used for developing up-to-date scheme of the EVCI diagnosis which included the data from the case history, the preliminary rapid diagnosis and the molecular biological study of the cardiac biopsies.