This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Davies, M. M. Articles by Allen-Mersh, T. G. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Davies, M. M. Articles by Allen-Mersh, T. G.

Colorectal Liver Metastasis Thymidylate Synthase Staining Correlates with Response to Hepatic Arterial Floxuridine

Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Imperial College School of Medicine, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London [M. M. D., S. K., T. G. A-M.], and Department of Oncology, The Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast [P. G. J.], United Kingdom

	ABSTRACT

Top ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION PATIENTS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

 
We assessed whether intensity of colorectal liver metastasis staining with the thymidylate synthase (TS) antibody TS106 predicted response to hepatic arterial infusion (HAI) of floxuridine chemotherapy.

Liver metastasis biopsies were taken during laparotomy for hepatic arterial cannulation and stained using the TS106 monoclonal antibody. Staining intensity was designated at histological examination by two independent assessors as either "high" or "low." Patients were treated by HAI, and liver metastasis response was assessed by comparison of computed tomography scan tumor volume before and after 4 months of treatment.

A significant correlation (Fisher’s exact test, P = 0.01) was noted between partial response to HAI and TS106 staining intensity in patients with colorectal liver metastases. Seventy-five percent of patients with evidence of a partial response had low TS staining compared with 29% of nonresponders. There was a significant difference (Fisher’s exact test, P = 0.01) in the proportion of low (9 of 16) compared with high (3 of 20) TS staining tumors in which a partial response occurred. There was no significant difference (logrank test, P = 0.4) in survival from hepatic cannulation and HAI treatment of high (median, 322 days; interquartile range, 236–411) compared with low (median, 335 days; interquartile range, 301–547) TS staining patients.

This study demonstrates an inverse correlation between TS immunohistochemical staining intensity in colorectal liver metastases and response to HAI. The results suggest that a prospective assessment of TS staining intensity in colorectal liver metastases would be useful to determine whether this method can be used to define patients who will benefit from HAI chemotherapy.

	INTRODUCTION

Top ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION PATIENTS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

 
HAI³ of floxuridine achieves a 40% partial or complete tumor response rate associated with significant survival benefit (1) in patients with colorectal liver metastases. HAI requires a laparotomy for hepatic arterial cannulation, and it would be preferable if patients with unresponsive liver metastases could be excluded, to avoid the risks (2) and costs of laparotomy (3) in patients who will not benefit.

TS catalyzes the conversion of dUMP to dTMP and is the rate-limiting enzyme in synthesis of pyrimidine nucleotides, which are required for DNA synthesis. Fluorinated pyrimidines including floxuridine and fluorouracil are intracellularly metabolized to fdUMP, which binds covalently to TS with a folate cofactor to block the dUMP binding site and inhibit dTMP synthesis (4) . In vitro studies suggest that tumor resistance to fluorinated pyrimidines is related to insufficient cytotoxic-induced TS inhibition. This may be due either to a reduction in the enzyme’s affinity for fdUMP caused by structural variation in the TS protein (5) , or to gene amplification in floxuridine- (6) or fluorouracil (7 , 8) -resistant cells leading to TS protein overexpression. Therefore, tumor floxuridine resistance could be influenced by TS (9) , and intratumoral TS levels may predict response to regional floxuridine (10) .

Measurement of intracellular TS by estimation of its ability to release tritium from the conversion of dUMP to dTMP (tritium release assay) or fdUMP binding capacity (ligand binding assay; Ref. 11 ) are limited by the need for large (>50 mg), fresh or fresh-frozen tissue samples. However, immunohistochemical staining using an anti-TS monoclonal antibody (12) can be used to estimate TS in smaller quantities of fresh or paraffin-embedded tissue. In addition, errors from inclusion of normal tissue, which has a lower TS level than tumor (13) , can be reduced by histological identification and exclusion of normal tissue from assessment. Immunohistochemical estimation of TS protein expression has been shown to correlate with TS mRNA levels (14) assessed by the PCR technique (15 , 16) .

In this study, we assessed whether estimation of TS staining intensity in colorectal liver metastases by immunohistochemical staining could be used as a predictor of tumor response to hepatic arterial floxuridine.

	PATIENTS AND METHODS

Top ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION PATIENTS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

 
All patients had histologically confirmed primary colorectal carcinoma with liver metastases. A liver metastasis biopsy was taken during laparotomy for hepatic arterial cannulation, frozen in isopentane and stored at -70°C for subsequent analysis. HAI was commenced on the 5th day after the cannulation laparotomy. Patients were treated with a regimen of hepatic arterial floxuridine (0.2 mg/kg/day) for 14 days, followed by a 14-day saline infusion rest period, and the cycle then repeated, as described previously (1) .

Chemotherapy response, as defined by Union Internationale Contre le Cancer criteria (17) for partial response (>50% reduction in tumor volume), and stable (<25% increase in tumor volume) or progressive (>25% increase in tumor volume) disease, modified for liver metastasis assessment (18) , was determined by comparison of liver metastasis volume on pretreatment CT scans with that at 4 months from onset of treatment. Liver metastasis volume was measured as described previously (19) . In brief, liver metastasis area was measured on each CT slice using a Konitron image analysis system (Imaging Associates, London, United Kingdom), and the volume for each slice was calculated by multiplying the area by the CT slice thickness. The volumes for all slices were then summed to obtain a total liver metastasis volume for each patient.

TS Immunohistochemical Staining.
The TS106 immunohistochemical technique has been described (14) . TS staining was categorized independently by two assessors (M. M. D., P. G. J.) who, without knowledge of clinical outcomes, used standard criteria (20) to define both TS106 staining intensity based on a visual grading scale (0–3) and heterogeneity of staining (focal, <25% of tumor staining positive; diffuse, >25% of tumor staining positive). Intensity levels 0–1 were grouped together as low intensity, and levels 2–3 were grouped as high intensity staining (Fig. 1) . The two assessors concurred in 33 cases but in 3 patients where their assessments disagreed, TS staining intensity was decided by consensus between the assessors.

View larger version (147K): [in this window] [in a new window] [Download PPT slide]   Fig. 1. Immunoperoxidase staining of colorectal liver metastasis biopsies using TS106 monoclonal antibody (magnification, x100), demonstrating low intensity (A) and high intensity (B) tumor cell staining for TS (seen as pigment deposition in epithelial cells).

	RESULTS

Top ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION PATIENTS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

 
Thirty-six patients (M:F, 24:12; median age, 62 years; iqr, 52–65 years) were studied. The median liver metastasis volume fell from 415 ml (iqr, 107–770) at baseline to 189 ml (iqr, 102–829) after 4 months of HAI. There were no complete and 12 partial responders, and 19 patients with stable disease. Eleven of 24 previously untreated patients had a partial response to HAI (Table 1) , in contrast to 1 of 12 patients who had previously not responded to a minimum of three courses of continuous infusion systemic fluorouracil/folinic acid chemotherapy (24) .

There was a significant correlation between partial response (Fisher’s exact test, P = 0.01), but not stable disease (P = 0.24), and TS106 staining (Table 2) . Nine of 12 (75%) patients who had a partial response compared with 7 of 24 (29%) nonresponders showed low TS staining. There was a significant difference (Fisher’s exact test, P = 0.01) in the proportion of low (9 of 16) compared with high (3 of 20) TS staining tumors in which a partial response occurred. There was no significant increase (Fisher’s exact test, P = 0.28) in the prevalence of high TS staining among patients previously exposed (8 of 12) compared with those not exposed (12 of 24) to fluorouracil (Table 1) . There was also no significant difference in survival from hepatic cannulation for HAI treatment (logrank test, P = 0.4) of high (median, 322 days; iqr, 236–411) compared with low (median, 335 days; iqr, 301–547) TS staining patients.

	DISCUSSION

Top ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION PATIENTS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

The lack of response in the 44% of patients with low TS staining intensity (Table 2) , suggests that regional floxuridine resistance could not be attributed entirely to increased TS. Possible additional explanations include alterations in floxuridine activation, with reduced conversion to fdUMP (28) and reduced affinity of TS for fdUMP (5) . In addition, colorectal liver metastases are hypovascular, and variation in tumor blood flow may have reduced tumor floxuridine delivery and response (29) despite low TS levels. The absence of a significant correlation between stable disease and TS106 staining (Table 2) suggests that TS staining may not predict lesser degrees of response.

HAI exerted a cytotoxic effect despite high TS levels in some patients (Table 2) who had partial responses (15% of high TS intensity patients) or stable disease (45% of high TS intensity patients). Thus, high TS staining did not exclude response to hepatic arterial floxuridine. Possible reasons are the increased tumor cytotoxic dose achieved by regional floxuridine compared with systemic fluorouracil infusion (30) and the higher rate of floxuridine compared with fluorouracil conversion to fdUMP (31) .

These regional floxuridine advantages were insufficient to produce a partial response in any high TS staining patient previously exposed to systemic fluorouracil (Table 1) . In addition, 75% of fluorouracil-exposed patients who were predicted by low TS staining intensity to achieve a partial response to HAI failed to do so (Table 1) . Thus, previous fluorouracil exposure seemed to increase tumor cell resistance to regional floxuridine by both TS up-regulation, as well as other (5 , 28) mechanisms.

There was a small (3.9%), but nonsignificant, survival difference by TS staining intensity, and the number of patients in the analysis was too small to allow sufficient power to assess the statistical significance of such a modest difference. Possible reasons for the absence of a larger and statistically significant difference are that survival in HAI patients depended on additional factors to liver metastasis response (for example, development of extrahepatic disease; Ref. 1 ) and that TS staining did not identify all patients obtaining some benefit from HAI treatment (Table 2) .

This study demonstrates a positive correlation between TS immunohistochemical staining of colorectal liver metastases and response to HAI. The results suggest that a prospective assessment of TS staining intensity in colorectal liver metastases would be useful to determine whether this method could be used to define those patients in whom the inconvenience and costs of a hepatic arterial cannulation laparotomy and insertion of an implantable chemotherapy pump can be justified by additional benefit (4) .

	FOOTNOTES

 
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

¹ M. M. D. and S. K. were supported by Colon Cancer Concern (London, United Kingdom).

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of Surgery, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, 369 Fulham Road, London SW10 9NH. Phone: 181-746-8468; Fax: 181-746-8231; E-mail t.allenmersh{at}ic.ac.uk

³ The abbreviations used are: HAI, hepatic arterial infusion; TS, thymidylate synthase; fdUMP, 5-fluoro-dUMP; CT, computed tomography; iqr, interquartile range.

Received 7/ 8/98; revised 11/16/98; accepted 11/16/98.

	REFERENCES

Top ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION PATIENTS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

 

1. Allen-Mersh T. G., Earlam S., Fordy C., Abrams K., Houghton J. Quality of life and survival with continuous hepatic-artery floxuridine infusion for colorectal liver metastases. Lancet, 344: 1255-1260, 1994.[Medline]
2. Burke D., Fordy C., Earlam S., Allen-Mersh T. G. Hepatic arterial cannulation should be avoided in patients with >1 liter liver metastasis volume. Br. J. Cancer, 75: 1213-1216, 1997.[Medline]
3. Pinedo H. M., Peters G. F. J. Fluorouracil: biochemistry and pharmacology. J. Clin. Oncol., 6: 1653-1664, 1988.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
4. Durand-Zaleski I., Earlam S., Fordy C., Davies M. M., Allen-Mersh T. G. Cost-effectiveness of systemic and regional chemotherapies for unresectable colorectal liver metastases. Cancer (Phila.), 83: 882-888, 1998.[Medline]
5. Davis S. T., Berger S. H. Variation in human thymidylate synthase is associated with resistance to 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine. Mol. Pharmacol., 43: 702-708, 1993.[Abstract]
6. Jenh C. H., Geyer P. K., Baskin F., Johnson L. F. Thymidylate synthase gene amplification in fluorodeoxyuridine-resistant mouse cell lines. Mol. Pharmacol., 28: 80-85, 1985.[Abstract]
7. Copur S., Keisuke A., Drake J. C., Allegra C. J., Chu E. Thymidylate synthase gene amplification in human cancer cell lines resistant to 5-fluorouracil. Biochem. Pharmacol., 49: 1419-1426, 1995.[Medline]
8. Chu E., Drake J. C., Koeller D. M., Zinn S., Jamis-Dow C. A., Chao Yeh G., Allegra C. Induction of thymidylate synthase associated with multidrug resistance in human breast and colon cancer cell lines. Mol. Pharmacol., 39: 136-143, 1991.[Abstract]
9. Beck A., Etienne M. C., Cheradame S., Fishel J. L., Formento P., Renee N., Milano G. A role for dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase and thymidylate synthase in tumour sensitivity to fluorouracil. Eur. J. Cancer, 30A: 1517-1522, 1994.
10. Peters G. J., van der Wilt C. L., van Groeningen C. J. Predictive value of thymidylate synthase and dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase. Eur. J. Cancer, 30A: 1408-1411, 1994.
11. Moran R. G., Spears C. P., Heidelberger C. Biochemical determinants of tumor sensitivity to 5-fluorouracil: ultrasensitive methods for the determination of 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridylate, 2'-deoxyuridylate, and thymidylate synthetase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 76: 1456-1460, 1979.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
12. Johnston P. G., Liang C-M., Henry S., Chabner B. A., Allegra C. J. Production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies that localize human thymidylate synthase in the cytoplasm of human cells and tissue. Cancer Res., 51: 6668-6676, 1991.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
13. Larsson P-A., Carlsson G., Gustavsson B., Spears C. P. Thymidylate synthase in advanced gastrointestinal and breast cancers. Acta. Oncol., 35: 469-472, 1996.[Medline]
14. Johnston P. G., Lenz H-J., Leichman C. G., Danenberg K. D., Allegra C. J., Danenberg P. V., Leichman L. Thymidylate synthase gene and protein expression correlate and are associated with response to 5-fluorouracil in human colorectal and gastric tumors. Cancer Res., 55: 1407-1412, 1995.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
15. Horishoki T., Danenberg K. D., Stadbauer T. H. W., Volkenandt M., Shea L. C. C., Aigner K., Gustavsson B., Leichman L., Frosing R., Ray M., Gibson N. W., Spears C. P., Danenberg P. V. Quantitation of thymidylate synthase, dihydroreductase and DT-diaphorose gene expression in human tumors using the polymerase chain reaction. Cancer Res., 52: 108-116, 1992.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
16. Leichman L., Lenz H-J., Leichman C. G., Goshen S., Danenberg K., Baranda J., Spears S. P., Boswell W., Silberman H., Ortega A., Stain S., Beart R., Danenberg P. Quantitation of intratumoral thymidylate synthase expression predicts for resistance to protracted infusion of 5-fluorouracil and weekly leucovorin in disseminated colorectal cancers: preliminary report from an ongoing trial. Eur. J. Cancer, 31A: 1306-1310, 1995.
17. Hayward J. L., Carbone P. P., Heuson J-C., Kumaoka S., Segaloff A., Rubens R. D. Assessment of response to therapy in advanced breast cancer. Eur. J. Cancer, 13: 89-94, 1977.
18. Buroker T. R., O’Connell M. J., Wieand S., Krook J. E., Gerstner J. B., Mailliard J. A., Schaefer P. L., Levitt R., Kardinal C. G., Gesme D. H. Randomized comparison of two schedules of fluorouracil and leucovorin in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer. J. Clin. Oncol., 12: 14-20, 1994.[Abstract]
19. Dworkin M. J., Burke D., Earlam S., Fordy C., Allen-Mersh T. G. Measurement of response to treatment in colorectal liver metastases. Br. J. Cancer, 71: 873-876, 1995.[Medline]
20. Johnston P. G., Fisher E. R., Rockette H. E., Fisher B., Wolmark N., Drake J. C., Chabner B. A., Allegra C. The role of thymidylate synthase expression in prognosis and outcome of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with rectal cancer. J. Clin. Oncol., 12: 2640-2647, 1994.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
21. Altman G. D. Fisher’s exact test. Practical Statistics for Medical Research, : 253-257, Chapman and Hall London 1991.
22. Peto R., Pike M. C., Armitage P. Design and analysis of randomized clinical trials requiring prolonged observations. Br. J. Cancer, 35: 1-39, 1977.[Medline]
23. Kaplan E. L., Meier P. Nonparametric estimations for incomplete observations. J. Am. Stat. Assoc., 53: 448-457, 1958.
24. O’Connell M. A phase III trial of 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer. Cancer (Phila.), 63: 1026-1030, 1989.[Medline]
25. Mulder N. H., Timmer-Bosscha H., Meerssma G. J., Verschueren R. C. J. Thymidylate synthase levels in tumor biopsies from patients with colorectal cancer. Anticancer Res., 14: 2677-2688, 1994.[Medline]
26. Fordy C., Glover C., Davies M. M., Allen-Mersh T. G. Hepatic arterial floxuridine as second-line treatment for systemic fluorouracil-resistant colorectal liver metastases. Br. J. Cancer, 78: 1058-1060, 1998.[Medline]
27. Xiong Y. P., Danenberg K., Metzger R., Salonga D., Groshen S., Danenberg P., Davies M. M., Allen-Mersh T. G., Lenz H-J. Thymidylate synthase (TS) mRNA levels predict for survival and response to hepatic artery infusion (HAI) with FUDR in patients with colorectal liver metastases. Proc. ASCO, 16: 258a 1997.
28. Peters G. J., van der Wilt C. L., van Triest B., Codacci-Pisanelli G., Johnston P. G., van Groeningen C. J., Pinedo H. M. Thymidylate synthase and drug resistance. Eur. J. Cancer, 31A: 1299-1305, 1995.
29. Sigurdson E. R., Ridge J. A., Daly J. M. Fluorodeoxyuridine uptake by human colorectal hepatic metastases after hepatic artery infusion. Surgery, 100: 285-291, 1986.[Medline]
30. Ensminger W. D., Rosowsky A., Raso V., Levin D. C., Glode M., Come S., Steele G., Frei E. A clinical-pharmacological evaluation of hepatic arterial infusions of 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine and 5-fluorouracil. Cancer Res., 38: 3784-3792, 1978.
31. Zhang Z-G., Harstrick A., Rustum Y. M. Mechanisms of resistance to fluoropyrimidines. Semin. Oncol., 19 (Suppl. 3): 4-9, 1992.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. Ohrling, D. Edler, M. Hallstrom, P. Ragnhammar, and H. Blomgren Detection of Thymidylate Synthase Expression in Lymph Node Metastases of Colorectal Cancer Can Improve the Prognostic Information J. Clin. Oncol., August 20, 2005; 23(24): 5628 - 5634. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. Fiorentini, S. Rossi, P. Bernardeschi, M. Cantore, and S. Guadagni Is There a New Drug Beyond Floxuridine for Intra-Arterial Hepatic Chemotherapy in Liver Metastases From Colorectal Cancer? J. Clin. Oncol., March 20, 2005; 23(9): 2105 - 2105. [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. Lecomte, J.-M. Ferraz, F. Zinzindohoue, M.-A. Loriot, D.-A. Tregouet, B. Landi, A. Berger, P.-H. Cugnenc, R. Jian, P. Beaune, et al. Thymidylate Synthase Gene Polymorphism Predicts Toxicity in Colorectal Cancer Patients Receiving 5-Fluorouracil-based Chemotherapy Clin. Cancer Res., September 1, 2004; 10(17): 5880 - 5888. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. Noordhuis, U. Holwerda, C. L. Van der Wilt, C. J. Van Groeningen, K. Smid, S. Meijer, H. M. Pinedo, and G. J. Peters 5-Fluorouracil incorporation into RNA and DNA in relation to thymidylate synthase inhibition of human colorectal cancers Ann. Onc., July 1, 2004; 15(7): 1025 - 1032. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Popat, A. Matakidou, and R. S. Houlston Thymidylate Synthase Expression and Prognosis in Colorectal Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis J. Clin. Oncol., February 1, 2004; 22(3): 529 - 536. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Alimonti, G. Ferretti, S. Di Cosimo, F. Cognetti, and A. Vecchione Can Colorectal Cancer Patients With Thymidylate Synthase-Overexpressing Liver Metastases Have an Overall Survival Advantage With Hepatic Arterial Infusion Alone? J. Clin. Oncol., September 15, 2003; 21(18): 3543 - 3544. [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. R. Bertino and D. Banerjee Is the Measurement of Thymidylate Synthase to Determine Suitability for Treatment with 5-Fluoropyrimidines Ready for Prime Time? Clin. Cancer Res., April 1, 2003; 9(4): 1235 - 1239. [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Gonen, A. Hummer, A. Zervoudakis, D. Sullivan, Y. Fong, D. Banerjee, D. Klimstra, C. Cordon-Cardo, J. Bertino, and N. Kemeny Thymidylate Synthase Expression in Hepatic Tumors Is a Predictor of Survival and Progression in Patients With Resectable Metastatic Colorectal Cancer J. Clin. Oncol., February 1, 2003; 21(3): 406 - 412. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. C. Farrugia, H. E. R. Ford, D. Cunningham, K. D. Danenberg, P. V. Danenberg, J. Brabender, A. D. McVicar, G. W. Aherne, A. Hardcastle, K. McCarthy, et al. Thymidylate Synthase Expression in Advanced Colorectal Cancer Predicts for Response to Raltitrexed Clin. Cancer Res., February 1, 2003; 9(2): 792 - 801. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. Aschele, D. Debernardis, R. Bandelloni, S. Cascinu, V. Catalano, P. Giordani, S. Barni, D. Turci, G. Drudi, S. Lonardi, et al. Thymidylate synthase protein expression in colorectal cancer metastases predicts for clinical outcome to leucovorin-modulated bolus or infusional 5-fluorouracil but not methotrexate-modulated bolus 5-fluorouracil Ann. Onc., December 1, 2002; 13(12): 1882 - 1892. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. Edler, B. Glimelius, M. Hallstrom, A. Jakobsen, P. G. Johnston, I. Magnusson, P. Ragnhammar, and H. Blomgren Thymidylate Synthase Expression in Colorectal Cancer: A Prognostic and Predictive Marker of Benefit From Adjuvant Fluorouracil-Based Chemotherapy J. Clin. Oncol., April 1, 2002; 20(7): 1721 - 1728. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				H H J Backus, C J Van Groeningen, W Vos, D F Dukers, E Bloemena, D Wouters, H M Pinedo, and G J Peters Differential expression of cell cycle and apoptosis related proteins in colorectal mucosa, primary colon tumours, and liver metastases J. Clin. Pathol., March 1, 2002; 55(3): 206 - 211. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. Aschele, D. Debernardis, G. Tunesi, F. Maley, and A. Sobrero Thymidylate Synthase Protein Expression in Primary Colorectal Cancer Compared with the Corresponding Distant Metastases and Relationship with the Clinical Response to 5-Fluorouracil Clin. Cancer Res., December 1, 2000; 6(12): 4797 - 4802. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				D. Edler, M. Hallström, P. G. Johnston, I. Magnusson, P. Ragnhammar, and H. Blomgren Thymidylate Synthase Expression: An Independent Prognostic Factor for Local Recurrence, Distant Metastasis, Disease-free and Overall Survival in Rectal Cancer Clin. Cancer Res., April 1, 2000; 6(4): 1378 - 1384. [Abstract] [Full Text]

This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Davies, M. M. Articles by Allen-Mersh, T. G. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Davies, M. M. Articles by Allen-Mersh, T. G.