Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Short- And Long-Term Cause-Specific Survival Of Patients With Inflammatory Breast Cancer, Patricia Tai, Edward Yu, Ross Shiels, Juan Pacella, Kurian Jones, Evgeny Sadikov, Shazia Mahmood

Edward Yu

Background: Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) had been perceived to have a poor prognosis. Oncologists were not enthusiastic in the past to give aggressive treatment. Single institution studies tend to have small patient numbers and limited years of follow-up. Most studies do not report 10-, 15- or 20-year results. Methods: Data was obtained from the population-based database of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program of the National Cancer Institute from 1975-1995 using SEER*Stat5.0 software. This period of 21 years was divided into 7 periods of 3 years each. The years were chosen so that there was adequate follow-up information to …

Sacred Disease Of Our Times: Failure Of The Infectious Disease Model Of Spongiform Encephalopathy, Vivian Mcalister

Vivian C. McAlister

BACKGROUND: Public health and agricultural policy attempts to keep bovine spongiform encephalopathy out of North America using infectious disease containment policies. Inconsistencies of the infectious disease model as it applies to the spongiform encephalopathies may result in failure of these policies.

METHODS: Review of historical, political and scientific literature to determine the appropriate disease model of spongiform encephalopathy.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Spongiform encephalopathy has always occurred sporadically in man and other animals. Hippocrates may have described it in goats and cattle. Transmission of spongiform encephalopathy between individuals is too uncommon for it to be usefully considered an infection. Spongiform encephalopathy is …