1. A method of treating cancer in a patient, comprising determining the phosphorylation status of Akt, and if the phosphorylation status of Akt is determined to be positive, treating with a therapeutically effective amount of a taxane compound, wherein said treatment with a taxane compound is provided as treatment for advanced or metastatic cancer.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein said cancer is breast cancer.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the phosphorylation status is determined by conducting at least one immunohistochemistry assay of a tumor tissue sample before therapy so as to obtain physical data regarding the expression status of phosphorylated Akt-Ser473 (pAkt) protein in the sample.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein said determination comprises incubating an antibody specific for pAkt with a sample from said cancer and detecting the presence of bound pAkt-specific antibody.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the antibody specifically binds to a phosphorylated peptide consisting of the Akt sequence SERRPHFPQF {pSerine473}YSA-NH2.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein said taxane compound comprises docetaxel or paclitaxel.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the cancer is selected from the group consisting of breast, colorectal, lung, ovarian, liver, renal, head and neck, prostate, and stomach.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein said taxane compound is paclitaxel.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the cancer is breast cancer.
10. A method for identifying a metastatic cancer patient that is likely to respond to or benefit from taxane therapy, comprising determining the phosphorylation status of Akt, wherein the patient will benefit from treatment with a therapeutically effective amount of a taxane compound if the phosphorylation status of Akt is positive.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the response is tumor reduction during or after taxane therapy.
12. The method of claim 10, wherein the benefit is longer progression-free survival or overall survival.
13. The method of claim 10, wherein the cancer is breast cancer.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the taxane therapy comprises treatment with taxane chemotherapy in HER2-negative breast cancer
15. The method of claim 13, wherein the taxane therapy comprises treatment with taxane in combination with anti-HER2 therapy in HER2-positive breast cancer.
16. The method of claim 10, wherein the phosphorylation status is determined by incubating an antibody specific for pAkt with a sample from said cancer and detecting the presence of bound pAkt-specific antibody.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the antibody specifically binds to a phosphorylated peptide consisting of the Akt sequence SERRPHFPQF {pSerine473}YSA-NH2.
18. A method for identifying a metastatic cancer patient that is not amenable to taxane therapy, comprising determining the phosphorylation status of Akt before therapy, wherein the patient will be amenable to treatment with taxane compound if the phosphorylation status of Akt is negative due to less responsiveness to taxane chemotherapy or shorter progression-free survival or shorter overall survival.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein the cancer is selected from the group consisting of breast, colorectal, lung, ovarian, liver, renal, head and neck, prostate, and stomach.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An optical element including a surface having a finite curvature, comprising a plurality of convex optical pieces having an anti reflection function, each of which is smaller than a design wavelength being provided on the surface having the finite curvature of the optical element,
wherein the plurality of convex optical pieces are formed independently on surface having the finite curvature along a normal direction of the surface having the finite curvature, and
wherein the plurality of the optical pieces are arranged in a random manner so as to satisfy the following conditional expression,
D200<\u03c3<D10,
where D represents an average distance between the centers of the adjacent optical pieces and \u03c3 represents the standard deviation.
2. An optical element according to claim 1, wherein letting \u03bb be a used wavelength, a following condition is satisfied:
D<\u03bb12.
3. An optical element according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of convex optical pieces becomes radially slenderer as distant from the surface of the optical clement having the finite curvature.
4. An optical element according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of convex optical pieces becomes radially slenderer stepwise as distant from the surface of the optical element having the finite curvature.
5. An optical element according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of convex optical pieces becomes radially slenderer in a tapered form as distant from the surface of the optical element having the finite curvature.
6. An optical element according to claim 1, wherein the surface of the optical element having the finite curvature and having the plurality of convex optical pieces formed thereon is a refracting surface.
7. An optical element according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of optical pieces are formed on the surface of the optical element having the finite curvature through molding.
8. A method of manufacturing an optical element that is the optical element according to any one of claims 1,2, and 3 to 7, comprising:
a mold manufacturing step of forming pores formed when aluminum or aluminum alloy is anodized on a surface of a mold; and
an element forming step of transferring the pores using the mold to form the optical pieces.
9. An optical scanning device, comprising:
the optical element according to any one of claims 1,2, and 3 to 7; and
an f\u03b8 lens having the optical element installed on its surface.
10. An image forming apparatus, comprising:
the optical scanning device according to claim 9;
a photosensitive member disposed on a surface to be scanned;
a developing device for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive member with light beams scanned by the optical scanning device as a toner image;
a transferring device for transferring the toner image obtained through the development to a transfer material; and
a fixing device for fixing the transferred toner image on the transfer material.
11. An image forming apparatus, comprising:
the optical scanning device according to claim 9; and
a printer controller for converting code data inputted from an external device into an image signal to input the image signal to the optical scanning device.