We therefore wondered whether the antigen-binding molecular signature influenced by aspartic acid in pocket 1, and lysine in pocket 4 Asp84-Lys699) of DPβ1, rather than the motif determined by pocket 1, 4, 6 and 9 might provide a more specific functional surrogate of outcome in UKALL XI.
Recent multiple sclerosis (MS) MRI research has highlighted the need to move beyond the lesion-centric view and to develop and validate new MR imaging strategies that quantify the invisible burden of disease in the brain and establish much more sensitive and specific surrogate markers of clinical disability.
Moreover, we obtained consistent results with respect to the mothers' declarations of their child's common infections before age 2 and the history of ENT surgery before age 2. The latter constitutes a less sensitive but more specific and more readily remembered surrogate of early infections.
Moreover, climate related "bioclimatic" variables could be calculated (e.g. rates of evapotranspiration, soil moisture availability, extreme climate statistics, plant hardiness measures, etc)., which act as metrics or surrogates for more specific climate-change mediated processes.
Nevertheless, as pointed out by Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., self-declared race was a "biologically inaccurate and socially dangerous" surrogate for the more specific genetic and environmental factors that underlay the different responses that different patients had to any given treatment.
The next step would be to decentralize this technique to at least district level especially in the endemic areas where one PCR laboratory with capability to perform PCR could obviate the need of risky procedures like splenic aspirate and provide a more specific diagnosis than the currently used surrogate markers.
In addition, it may be more informative to study tumours longitudinally, as they acquire resistance during treatment rather than simply sampling tumours at presentation and to use surrogate end points more specific to drug resistance, such as response rather than overall survival.
Further studies are needed to refine methods and develop specific surrogate factors that may be more sensitive to the effects of angiogenesis inhibitors.
However, as [18F]FLT is a surrogate marker of DNA synthesis, it is more specific for malignancy and less susceptible to inflammatory changes compared with [18F]FDG.
