Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of death in the intensive care unit (ICU). Many biomarkers for predicted prognosis have been suggested; among these, procalcitonin (PCT) is known to increase in cases of bacterial infection. However, there have been many debates regarding whether PCT is an appropriate prognostic marker for pneumonia. Therefore, we investigated whether PCT can serve as a biomarker for pneumonia, and compared it with CURB-65, which is a known tool for predicting the prognosis of pneumonia.

Levels of PCT and CURB-65 scores were compared between 30-day non-survival (n = 30) and survival (n = 101) patients. Relationships between PCT and CURB-65 were determined by using linear regression analysis, as well as by using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and calculation of the area under the curve (AUC). High and low PCT groups were compared.

High PCT and high CURB-65 score were positively associated with 30-day mortality. For the prediction of 30-day mortality, initial PCT and CURB-65 exhibited AUCs of 0.63 and 0.66; these were not significantly different (P = 0.132). We found that the high PCT group had a higher rate of initial treatment failure (91%, P = 0.004).

Initial PCT can be a prognostic biomarker for mortality in severe pneumonia, similar to the CURB-65 score. Initial high PCT was positively associated with initial treatment failure.

p53 is a tumor suppressor gene and plays an important role in the etiology of breast cancer. The aim of this study is to clarify clinical significance of p53 in Ductal Carcinoma in situ (DCIS), and discuss about survival effect.

The study subjects, 69 women with breast cancer, were a subset of patients operated from Jan 2005 to Dec 2006. We used a cutoff of 10% to distinguish between positive and negative p53 staining. The University of Southern California (USC)/Van Nuys Prognostic Index (VNPI) were compared with 2 categories of p53.

The positivity of p53 was found in 20 patients (29.0%) in DCIS. And negativity of p53 was found in 49 patients (71.0%). And 15 patients (21.7%) had a low USC/VNPI score, 42 patients (60.9%) intermediate and 12 patients (17.4%) a high score. The positivity of p53 was correlated with high USC/VNPI (P = 0.001). The univariate analysis for prognostic factors associated with Disease Free Survival (DFS) revealed that patients with p53 positivity show shorter Disease Free Survival (DFS) than patients with p53 negativity (P = 0.013) and USC/VNPI was also statistically significant (P = 0.030).

According to our study, p53 was associated with high USC/VNPI. These findings suggest that p53 can be used to classify DCIS into at least two subtypes with differing prognoses.