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ATM missense variant P1054R ...ATM missense variant P1054R predisposes to prostate cancer, ATM
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Radiotherapy and Oncology 83 (2007) 283–288 www.thegreenjournal.com Molecular oncology ATM missense variant P1054R predisposes to prostate cancer Andreas Meyer a, * , Bettina Wilhelm b , Thilo D¨rk b , Michael Bremer a , Rolf Baumann a , Johann Hinrich Karstens a , Stefan Machtens c,d a Department of Radiation Oncology, b Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, and, c Department of Urology, Hannover Medical School, Germany, d Department of Urology, Marien-Krankenhaus Bergisch Gladbach, Germany Abstract Background: Prostate cancer is associated with defective DNA strand break repair after DNA damage leading to genetic instability and prostate cancer progression. The ATM (ataxia–telangiectasia mutated) gene product is known to play an important role in cell cycle regulation and maintenance of genomic integrity. We investigated whether the prevalence of the ATM missense substitution P1054R is increased in a hospital-based series of prostate cancer patients and whether carriers are at increased risk for treatment-related side effects. Materials and methods: A consecutive series of 261 patients treated for early-stage prostate cancer with I-125 brachytherapy (permanent seed implantation) between 10/2000 and 04/2006 at our institution and a comparison group of 460 male control individuals were screened for the presence of the P1054R variant. Outcome of therapy regarding morbidity was assessed prospectively and compared between carriers vs. non-carriers with the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), a Quality-of-Life-index (QoL) and the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-15) with its subgroups (IIEF-5 and EF). Results: The proportion of carriers of the P1054R variant was significantly higher among prostate cancer patients than in the general population (25 out of 261 vs. 22 out of 460; OR 2.1; 95\% CI 1.2–3.8, p < 0.01). A subgroup of the carriers additionally harboured the ATM missense variant F858L that was associated with a similar risk (OR = 2.2; 95% CI 1.1–4.6; p = 0.03). After a mean follow-up of 18 months there were no statistically significant differences regarding IPSS (p = 0.48), QoL (p = 0.61), IIEF-15 score (p = 0.78), IIEF-5 score (p = 0.83), and EF score (p = 0.80), respectively. Conclusions: The ATM missense variant P1054R confers an about twofold increased risk for prostate cancer in our series. The subgroup of patients with the second-site variant F858L is not at significantly higher risk. After 18 months, there was no evidence for an increased adverse radiotherapy response in P1054R carriers. c 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Radiotherapy and Oncology 83 (2007) 283–288. Keywords: Prostate cancer; Brachytherapy; ATM germline mutation; Late effects Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy in the male population in the European Union. The etiology of prostate cancer is incompletely understood. Prostate can- cer aggregates in families, indicating that genetic suscepti- bility may be important, but the genes that may be involved are largely unknown. The products of at least some suscep- tibility genes might be involved in double-strand break (DSB) repair as evidence has been presented that prostate cancer is associated with genetic instability after DNA damage [9] . DSB repair is initiated and monitored by ATM, the serine/ threonine kinase mutated in ataxia–telangiectasia (A–T) [22] and ATM activation is accompanied with earlier stages of prostate tumorigenesis [8] . Patients with A–T show hypersensitivity to ionising radi- ation with devastating side effects [11,17] . In A–T hetero- zygotes there is evidence for intermediate cellular radiosensitivity and an increased risk of developing cancer [3,18,19,25,29] . One study has provided evidence that the ATM missense substitution P1054R could be associated with inherited prostate cancer risk [1] . Furthermore, it was re- cently reported that ATM gene variants were predictive of adverse radiotherapy reactions among patients treated for prostate cancer with I-125 brachytherapy [5] . In the present study, we aimed to replicate the associa- tion of ATM variant P1054R with prostate cancer susceptibil- ity and to investigate its potential association with defined clinical variables in a hospital-based series of patients trea- ted with I-125 brachytherapy for early stage prostate cancer. Materials and methods A hospital-based series of 261 unselected patients, who were treated for prostate cancer between 10/2000 and 04/2006 at our institution, was screened for the presence 0167-8140/$ - see front matter c 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.radonc.2007.04.029 284 ATM variant and prostate cancer of the ATM missense variant P1054R ( Table 1 ). Indications for permanent brachytherapy were biopsy-proven adenocar- cinoma of the prostate, clinically localised low risk early prostate cancer (T classification cT1a–cT2a) with a PSA serum level <10 ng/ml and a Gleason sum <7. Brachytherapy was administered via the transperineal approach. Intraoper- ative dynamic planning and seed placement were performed by using biplanar transrectal ultrasound imaging to direct the placement of each radioactive source within the pros- tate. The prescription dose for I-125 was 160 Gy. Post im- plant dosimetry was carried out six weeks after the implantation by using computed tomography. Outcome of therapy regarding morbidity and PSA-response was com- pared between carriers vs. non-carriers. Functional out- come was measured prospectively with the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS, ranging from 5 to 35 points with a low score showing good function), the Quality-of- Life-index (QoL, ranging from 0 to 6 points with a low score showing good function), the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-15, ranging from 5 to 75 points), a subgroup of this test with 5 questions (IIEF-5, ranging from 1 to 25 points) and a subgroup consisting of 6 questions evaluating the erectile function (EF, ranging from 1 to 30 points with a high score showing good function), respectively. Biochem- ical failure was defined using the ASTRO consensus defini- tion [2] . Mean follow-up was 18 months for the total cohort of prostate cancer patients. At the discretion of the treating urologist, short-term (2–4 months pre-implan- tation) neoadjuvant hormone therapy was given in 71 out of the 261 patients. For comparison a series of 460 genomic DNA samples was established at our hospital from random healthy male blood donors. We selectively chose the P1054R substitution (nucleotide c.3161 C/G, rs1800057 in the SNP database at ) as candidate poly- morphism in the ATM gene based on the findings of Angele et al. [1] . Allele frequencies were assessed using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis with AlwI after polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of a genomic DNA fragment spanning the exons 23–24 with pre- viously described primers [21] . PCR was carried out in a total volume of 15 ll containing 50 ng DNA, 120 lM of each dNTP, 1.5 mM MgCl 2 , 0.5 lM primer and 0.1 U Taq DNA poly- merase. The cycling conditions were 94 C 5 min, followed by 37 cycles of 94 C60s,59C60s,72C 60 s, with a final extension at 72 C for 5 min. PCR products were digested with AlwI (New England BioLabs) according to the manufac- turer’s instructions and the fragments were analysed by electrophoresis on a 3% NuSieve agarose gel (FMC Biozym). Next, we investigated a second-site missense variant, F858L (rs1800056), that is known to be located in cis on a subset of P1054R alleles and may be associated with a Table 1 Patient’s characteristics of carriers vs. non-carriers of P1054R variant Carrier Non-carrier p-value Mean age at diagnosis (years) 63.8 65.5 0.14 T classification 0.20 cT1c 0 5 cT2a 20 174 cT2b 3 45 cT2c 2 4 Unknown 0 8 Mean Gleason sum 5.88 5.67 0.17 3 0 4 4 3 14 5 2 47 6 15 164 7 5 6 8 0 1 Mean PSA level at diagnosis (ng/ml) 6.6 7.0 0.43 </= 4 3 25 >4–10 20 185 >10–20 2 26 Neoadjuvant hormone therapy 7 67 0.52 Mean preimplant ultrasound prostate volume (ccm) 37.3 38.9 0.59 Total activity (mCi) 28.4 30.3 0.40 Mean number of needles 22.4 22.5 0.91 Mean number of seeds 63.5 65.5 0.41 Mean dose to 90% of the prostate (Gy) 173.1 170.1 0.73 Mean dose to 90% of the apex of the prostate (Gy) 171.7 161.1 0.35 Mean dose to 90% of the base of the prostate (Gy) 146.7 147.6 0.93 Mean dose to 90% of the penile bulb (Gy) 77.5 83.7 0.66 Mean volume of rectum receiving 100% of prescription dose (ccm) 1.0 1.1 0.72 Mean volume of the apex of the prostate receiving 100% of prescription dose (ccm) 3.2 3.0 0.65 Mean volume of the base of the prostate receiving 100% of prescription dose (ccm) 4.1 3.7 0.5 Mean volume of the penile bulb receiving 100% of prescription dose (ccm) 0.5 0.5 0.81 A. Meyer et al. / Radiotherapy and Oncology 83 (2007) 283–288 285 similar or even higher increase in risk for certain malignan- cies [20,26,27] . The F858L variant was assessed by RFLP analysis following a previously published protocol [7] . In- formed consent was obtained from all patients before blood sampling, and the research project has been approved by the local Ethical Committee. Statistical considerations regarding differences in allele and genotype frequencies between cases and controls were made using Pearson’s v 2 and Log Odds Ratio tests (Statistix 7.0). No adjustments for multiple testing were required as the P1054R variant was the first genetic variant tested in this case-control series. Analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS V14.0) software. Differences in proportions were derived using the Fisher’s exact t-test. A two-sided p value of <0.05 was considered to be significant. The outcomes regarding changes of the different functional scores during time were statistically compared using the mixed model analysis of variance. 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 Carrier Non-Carrier 2 0 before impl. 1,5 months post impl. 6 months post impl. 12 months post impl. 18 months post impl. 24 months post impl. Fig. 1. Illustration of the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) of carrier vs. non-carrier. The IPSS ranges from 5 to 35 points with a low score showing a good function. 50 45 40 35 Results Twenty-five out of 261 prostate cancer patients (9.6%) were identified as heterozygous carriers of the ATM se- quence variant P1054R. In the control series, 22 out of 460 males (4.8%) were found to be carriers, including 1 homozygote. The proportion of P1054R carriers was signifi- cantly higher among the prostate cancer patients than in the controls (OR 2.1; 95% CI 1.2–3.8; p = 0.01). Among these, 17 out of the 25 prostate cancer patients and 14 out of the 22 male controls (incl. 1 homozygote) were iden- tified to be carriers of the second-site variant F858L in exon 19 of the ATM gene (OR = 2.2; 95% CI 1.1–4.6; p = 0.03). The P1054R allele in the absence of the F858L substitution still appeared to confer a non-significant increase in prostate cancer risk (OR 1.8; 95% CI 0.7–4.8). Patients who were heterozygous for the P1054R substitu- tion tended to have an earlier age at diagnosis than non-car- riers but this observation did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.14, 1-sided median test). We then inves- tigated whether P1054R carriers showed a different clinical outcome of brachytherapy compared with non-carriers. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups regarding the dose volume histograms (DVH) obtained from the postimplant CT. Before implanta- tion the mean IPSS for carriers vs. non-carriers was 6.0 vs. 6.7 (p = 0.45), QoL 1.17 vs. 1.35 (p = 0.46), IIEF-15 score 44.58 vs. 43.11 (p = 0.78), IIEF-5 score 14.88 vs. 14.13 (p = 0.73), and EF score 18.29 vs. 17.62 (p = 0.79), respec- tively. Six weeks after implantation the scores for carriers vs. non-carriers showed their maximum respective minimum peak with a mean IPSS of 17.1 vs. 16.9 (p = 0.94), QoL of 3.2 vs. 3.1 (p = 0.57), IIEF-15 score of 30.5 vs. 28.8 (p = 0.73), IIEF-5 score of 9.4 vs. 8.6 (p = 0.72), and EF score of 11.6 vs. 10.8 (p = 0.77), respectively. After mean follow-up of 18 months mean IPSS for carriers vs. non-carriers was 9.9 vs. 11.7 (p = 0.45), QoL 1.7 vs. 2.1 (p = 0.32), IIEF-15 score 37.7 vs. 37.0 (p = 0.92), IIEF-5 score 11.5 vs. 11.5 (p = 0.99), and EF score 14.2 vs. 14.4 (p = 0.95), respectively 30 25 Carrier Non-Carrier 20 15 10 5 0 before impl. 1,5 months post impl. 6 months post impl. 12 months post impl. 18 months post impl. 24 months post impl. Fig. 2. Illustration of the International Index of Erectile Function with 15 questions (IIEF-15) of carrier vs. non-carrier. The IIEF-15 ranges from 5 to 75 points with a high score showing good function. ( Figs. 1 and 2 ). If the scores are statistically compared using the mixed model analysis of variance there were no statisti- cally significant differences regarding IPSS (p = 0.48), QoL (p = 0.61), IIEF-15 score (p = 0.78), IIEF-5 score (p = 0.83), and EF score (p = 0.80), respectively. One carrier developed a proctitis of grade 2 regarding the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v3.0 (CTCAE v3.0) vs. 7 non-car- riers (p = 0.78). One patient not carrying the P1054R variant showed three consecutive rises of the PSA level 24 months after seed implantation and was treated with antihormone therapy. Discussion Ionising radiation produces its biological effects mainly through the generation of short-lived but highly reactive radicals that result in DNA breaks. These trigger cellular processes required for DNA damage recognition and DNA re- pair by means of recombinational repair or nonhomologous end-joining of DSBs, or base excision repair of other types of single or simple clustered lesions, all of which are modu- lated by genetic variation. Despite the advances in radio- therapy delivery and modalities to increase the 286 ATM variant and prostate cancer therapeutic ratio, the inherent biological complexity among individuals due to variations in their genome has been a lim- iting factor in predicting normal tissue radiosensitivity. The ATM protein assumes a central role orchestrating the cellu- lar response to DNA double-strand breaks [14] . While biall- elic ATM gene mutations result in ataxia–telangiectasia (A–T), a rare radiation sensitivity syndrome, it is estimated that approximately 1% of the population is heterozygous for a single ATM mutation and there is evidence for at least some effect of monoallelic ATM gene mutations manifesting as intermediate cellular radiosensitivity and an increased risk of developing cancer in A–T heterozygotes [3,18,19] . In the study presented here, we have addressed the prev- alence and clinical impact of a particular ATM missense var- iant, P1054R. Bioinformatic analysis using two different software tools predicts this variant as damaging (SIFT, < >) or probably dam- aging (PolyPhen, < >). A putative role for the P1054R variant in cellular radiosensi- tivity and prostate cancer etiology was previously suggested by two lines of evidence. First, P1054R carrying cell lines have been found to exhibit an increased cellular radiosensi- tivity in vitro [12] . Because genetic instability after DNA damage is a feature of prostate cancer cells [9] , P1054R could be one of the factors involved. Secondly, a large case-control study of 624 prostate cancer patients and 417 controls has been reported with a significantly higher prev- alence of the P1054R variant in cases [1] , suggesting that P1054R could be a prostate cancer susceptibility allele. We have confirmed a higher prevalence of the ATM se- quence variant P1054R in our hospital-based series of pros- tate cancer patients in comparison to population controls from the same geographic region, supporting the findings of Angele et al. that this variant is associated with an about twofold increased prostate cancer risk. We furthermore tested whether P1054R or a second-site variant F858L underlies this increase in risk. The F858L variant is known to occur on a subset of P1054R alleles [7,26] and has been reported to confer a higher risk for leukemia than P1054R [20] . Our data indicate that the F858L variant, found on the majority of P1054R alleles, is also associated with pros- tate cancer susceptibility, but as its relative contribution was similar in P1054R heterozygous cases and controls, it does not appear to strongly increase the risk that is con- ferred by the P1054R allele. The available data thus indicate that the ATM variant P1054R represents a low-penetrance prostate cancer susceptibility allele and, combining our study with the study by Angele et al. [1] , is associated with an about twofold increase in risk (Mantel–Haenszel Odds Ratio 2.12; 95% CI 1.39–3.24; p < 0.001). Apart from pros- tate cancer, previous association studies did not find strong support for a role of the P1054R variant in breast cancer sus- ceptibility although these data may still be compatible with low to moderate risks [7,19,23] . Our results are in line, how- ever, with recent observations that P1054R may represent a susceptibility allele for leukemia and for colorectal cancer [16,20,27] . Further research will be needed to fully eluci- date the spectrum of malignancies that are influenced by the ATM variant P1054R. The question whether inherited variations in repair genes modulate the effectiveness and clinical toxicity of radiation therapy is important as permanent interstitial brachyther- apy is an increasingly popular approach for the treatment of early and localised prostate cancer. Long-term data show results of biochemical and local tumour control to be as effective as after radical prostatectomy or external beam radiotherapy [10,15] . Dose escalation has been suggested to improve prostate cancer control by the use of three- dimensional conformal radiotherapy, intensity-modulated radiotherapy and brachytherapy. In prostate seed implanta- tion correlation between implanted dose and freedom from PSA failure could be demonstrated by Stock et al., who found that a D90 value of more than 140 Gy was associated with an improved biochemical control rate [24] . Most pa- tients with permanent seed implantation have normaliza- tion of their urinary complaints by one year postimplant, as could be shown by Bottomley et al. [4] . The incontinence rates vary between 0% and 19%, a grade 3 urinary morbidity has been found to occur in 1–3% of the patients, and rectal complications such as proctitis range from 1% to 21%. The occurrence of erectile dysfunction is most significantly influenced by the pre-treatment erectile function [15] . The best strategy to identify patients who are potentially at risk for the development of radiation-induced late effects on the one hand and for patients who may benefit most from brachytherapy on the other hand is currently unknown. In these instances it could be very helpful to predict radiosen- sitive patients in order to avoid enhanced late toxicities. Up to now only few studies have examined the relation- ship of polymorphism in the ATM gene and clinical outcome of prostate cancer in terms of acute and late side effects after exposure to ionising radiation. Weissberg et al. evalu- ated the medical records of obligate A–T heterozygotes treated with radiation therapy for breast (n = 11) or pros- tate cancer (n = 2). They found no instances of soft tissue necrosis or other apparent serious injuries to normal tissues [28] . Hall et al. examined 17 prostate cancer patients with severe late sequela, specifically proctitis or cystitis, after high-dose external-beam conformal radiation therapy. They reported that three of them (17.6%) carried mutations in the ATM gene vs. no patient in the control group [13] . Dam- araju et al. explored the possible relationship between 49 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in certain candidate genes with clinical radiation toxicity in a retrospective co- hort of 83 patients previously treated with three-dimen- sional conformal radiotherapy for prostate cancer. Significant associations with toxicity were found for SNPs in LIG4, ERCC2 and CYP2D6 genes. The authors suggested SNPs in the above-mentioned genes as putative markers to predict individuals at risk for complications arising from radiation therapy in prostate cancer. However, regarding SNPs in the ATM gene, only the D1853N and not the P1054R polymorphism was screened [6] . Cesaretti et al. examined 37 patients treated with I-125 prostate brachy- therapy with a follow-up of more than 12 months. They screened for DNA sequence variations in all 62 coding exons of the ATM gene. Ten out of 16 patients (63%) harbouring one of 21 ATM sequence alterations exhibited at least one form of adverse response versus 3 out of 21 patients (14%) who did not harbour an ATM sequence variation. The authors suggested that ATM sequence variants, particularly those encoding amino acid substitutions, were predictive A. Meyer et al. / Radiotherapy and Oncology 83 (2007) 283–288 287 for the development of adverse radiotherapy responses. However, only one patient carried a P1054R mutation, and this patient did not exhibit adverse effects after a follow- up of 27 months [5] . Given the previously reported association of ATM se- quence alterations with radiation related side-effects, we might have expected a higher incidence of adverse radio- therapy responses among P1054R carriers. However, we could not demonstrate that heterozygosity for this ATM se- quence variant is predictive for the development of an ad- verse radiotherapy response regarding IPSS, erectile function and proctitis. One reason could be that our fol- low-up may be too short to detect any statistically signifi- cant differences. The increased cellular radiosensitivity may render tumour cells more susceptible to the cell killing effect of ionising radiation potentially leading to an en- hanced therapeutic ratio. However, all patients included in this study had low-risk prostate cancer, and were treated with optimum implants based upon evaluation of their post- brachytherapy dosimetric studies. Additionally, the follow- up is short yet to detect a PSA failure, and therefore, it was not possible to examine whether carrier showed in- creased tumour radiosensitivity. Finally, it is likely that ATM is not the only genetic variant that may predispose pa- tients to adverse radiotherapy responses. Thus, the patients in this series who exhibited pronounced radiation-related morbidity but proved negative for the ATM sequence variant P1054R may possess other ATM sequence variants or altera- tions in genes other than ATM associated with adverse nor- mal tissue radiation response. More comprehensive genetic screening of radiotherapy patients for DNA sequence varia- tions in candidate genes associated with adverse radiation response could contribute to the definition of predictive risk models in individual patients with prostate cancer to im- prove the therapeutic ratio. The knowledge of the interac- tion of various SNPs in candidate genes may ultimately result in a prediction of radiotherapy late effects leading to a more individualised therapy. In summary, we have confirmed the proposed associa- tion of the ATM * P1054R missense substitution with an in- creased prostate cancer risk. However, we could not detect the increased side effects between carriers and non-carriers previously described by others. Further stud- ies of candidate gene variants for radiosensitivity will be needed and might have important clinical implications for prostate cancer. * Corresponding author. Andreas Meyer, Department of Radia- tion Oncology, Medical School Hannover, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625 Hannover, Germany. E-mail address: Received 22 March 2007; received in revised form 30 April 2007; accepted 30 April 2007; Available online 14 May 2007 References [1] Angele S, Falconer A, Edwards SM, D¨rk T, et al. ATM polymorphisms as risk factors for prostate cancer develop- ment. Br J Cancer 2004;91:783–7. [2] ASTRO Consensus Panel. Consensus statement:Guidelines for PSA following radiation therapy. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 1997;37:1035–41. [3] Athma P, Rappaport R, Swift M. Molecular genotyping shows that ataxia–telangiectasia heterozygotes are predisposed to breast cancer. Cancer Genet Cytogenet 1996;92:130–4. [4] Bottomley D, Ash D, Al-Qaisieh B, et al. Side effects of permanent I125 prostate seed implants in 667 patients treated in Leeds. Radiother Oncol 2007;82:46–9. [5] Cesaretti JA, Stock RG, Lehrer S, et al. ATM sequence variants are predictive of adverse radiotherapy response among patients treated for prostate cancer. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2005;61:196–202. [6] Damaraju S, Murray D, Dufour J, et al. Association of DNA repair and steroid metabolism gene polymorphisms with clinical late toxicity in patients treated with conformal radiotherapy for prostate cancer. Clin Cancer Res 2006;12:2545–54. [7] D¨rk T, Bendix R, Bremer M, et al. Spectrum of ATM gene mutations in a hospital-based series of unselected breast cancer patients. Cancer Res 2001;61:7608–15. [8] Fan C, Quan R, Feng X, et al. ATM activation is accompanied with earlier stages of prostate tumorigenesis. Biochim Biophys Acta 2006;1763:1090–7. [9] Fan R, Kumaravel TS, Jalali F, Marrano P, Squire JA, Bristow RG. Defective DNA strand break repair after DNA damage in prostate cancer cells: implications for genetic instability and prostate cancer progression. Cancer Res 2004;64:8526–33. [10] Guedea F, Aguilo F, Polo A, et al. Early biochemical outcomes following permanent interstitial brachytherapy as mono- therapy in 1050 patients with clinical T1–T2 prostate cancer. Radiother Oncol 2006;80:57–61. [11] Gotoff SP, Amirmokri E, Liebner EJ. Ataxia telangiectasia. Neoplasia, untoward response to X-irradiation, and tuberous sclerosis. Am J Dis Child 1967;114:617–25. [12] Gutierrez-Enriquez S, Fernet M, D¨rk T, et al. Functional consequences of ATM sequence variants for chromosomal radiosensitivity. Genes Chromosomes Cancer 2004;40:109–19. [13] Hall EJ, Schiff PB, Hanks GE, et al. A preliminary report: frequency of A–T heterozygotes among prostate cancer patients with severe late responses to radiation therapy. Cancer J Sci Am 1998;4:385–9. [14] L¨brich M, Jeggo PA. The two edges of the ATM sword: co- operation between repair and checkpoint functions. Radiother Oncol 2005;76:112–8. [15] Machtens S, Baumann R, Hagemann J, et al. Long-term results of interstitial brachytherapy (LDR-Brachytherapy) in the treat- ment of patients with prostate cancer. World J Urol 2006;24:289–95. [16] Meier M, den Boer ML, Hall AG, et al. Relation between genetic variants of the ataxia telangiectasia-mutated (ATM) gene, drug resistance, clinical outcome and predisposition to childhood T-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Leukemia 2005;19:1887–95. Conflict of Interest Statement All authors disclose any financial and personal relation- ships with other people or organisations that could inappro- priately influence their work. Acknowledgements We thank J¨rn Hageman and J¨rgen Serth for their support in the recruitment of patients. This work was supported by an intra- mural research grant at Hannover Medical School and by funds from the Lower Saxonian Cancer Society. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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