Olive oil, the most commonly used seasoning fat and the main source of monounsaturated fatty acid in Mediterranean countries, has also been reported to be a favourable indicator of various common cancers (Pelucchi et al, 2011), although data on pancreatic cancer are scanty (La Vecchia and Negri, 1997).
A drop in CEA levels after the resection is considered a favourable indicator of the completeness of the surgical excision (Herrera et al, 1976), although CEA concentration is generally regarded as more sensitive for hepatic and retroperitoneal metastases than for local recurrence or peritoneal and pulmonary metastases (Crawford et al, 2003).
However, the role of MMP-9 is less clear than that of u-PA, as overexpression of MMP-9 in human breast cancer was reported to be a favourable indicator in node-negative patients (Scorilas et al, 2001).
Expression of PR has been reported to be a favourable prognostic indicator in ovarian cancer (Lee et al. 2005), but this finding may be misleading due to the inclusion of multiple histotypes in the analysis.
Response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy is a favourable prognostic indicator and can be used to select patients for radiotherapy allowing bladder preservation in >80% of the selected patients.
We also demonstrated a statistically significant correlation with ERb status which is a favourable prognostic indicator in human breast cancer.
In colorectal and ovarian cancers, a high proportion of CD8+ T cells or CD45RO+ memory T cells infiltrating the cancer tissue can be a favourable prognostic indicator (Zhang et al, 2003; Pages et al, 2005).
Response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy is a favourable prognostic indicator and can be used to select patients for radiotherapy allowing bladder preservation in approximately 70% of patients with survival comparable to recent surgical series.
However, the finding that TPD52 is a favourable prognostic indicator in ovarian carcinoma patients contrasts with findings obtained in breast cancer [ 12].
p16 overexpression was an independent indicator of a favourable disease-free survival, which is in line with other reports (Mellin et al, 2000).
In contrast, high nuclear Survivin expression has been shown to be an independent indicator of a favourable prognosis in osteosarcoma, breast cancer, and gastric carcinomas (Okada et al, 2001; Kennedy et al, 2003; Trieb et al, 2003) and, moreover, it has been associated with a less-progressive cytologic grade in pediatric ependymomas and choroid plexus tumours of the brain (Altura et al, 2003).
