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Previous research has examined different understandings of the concept of knowledge management and from this, a multiplicity of approaches to implement strategies have been derived. This paper presents research that utilizes the role of governance as a lens to examine the effective delivery of a knowledge management strategy. Knowledge management governance is considered and a conceptual model developed to appropriately position knowledge management governance within the organization. It draws on the preliminary results into knowledge management governance practices in a major scientific research facility and suggests that the implementation of strategy through such a framework operates to ensure the delivery of anticipated benefits in an authorized and regulated manner.Presented at: CISTM 2004: Improving Business Performance through Knowledge Management; 2004 Jul 8-9; Alexandria, Egypt. 12 leaves.

Knowledge management is a strategy to support enhanced decision making through effective control of organizational knowledge. This paper presents a preliminary investigation into the governance of strategies to manage knowledge and the relationship between such strategies and organizational structures. It finds that the federated information transfer model is the 'best fit' with a stakeholder model of governance which ensures accountability and responsibility for tasks meeting the needs of all organizational stakeholders. Further, the governance structure established may predicate the ability of the organization to effectively establish a strategy to manage their knowledge.Presented at: IFIP International Conference on Decision Support Systems; 2004 Jul 1-3; Prato, Italy. p. 889-899.Rights: Suzanne Zyngier, Judy McKay, Frada Burstein © 2004. The authors grant a non-exclusive licence to publish this document in full in the DSS2004 Conference Proceedings. This document may be published on the World Wide Web, CD-ROM, in printed form, and on mirror sites on the World Wide Web. The authors assign to educational institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the authors.

Aberrations in the components of cell-cycle checkpoints are a common feature of many tumours and several have been shown to have prognostic significance in colorectal cancer. In this study, seven components of cell-cycle control [cyclin D1, retinoblastoma (pRb), p21, p27, p16, p53, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)] were examined in a large series of well-characterized colorectal adenocarcinomas using immunohistochemistry to ascertain co-regulation and influence on survival. The majority (92%) of the tumours had abnormal staining ofor =2 cell-cycle control factors. Expression of cyclin D1 protein was correlated with both p21 (p0.001) and p27 (p=0.033), suggesting co-regulation of these proteins in colorectal tumours. Only cyclin D1 (p=0.048) and p53 (p=0.025) were directly associated with PCNA levels, suggesting a more important role in the proliferative capacity of tumour cells. Significant associations between cell cycle-related proteins and clinicopathological data were observed: cyclin D1 and p53 proteins were correlated with patient age (p=0.042 and p0.001, respectively) and p53 (p=0.01) and p21 (p=0.024) proteins were associated with tumour site. Expression of cyclin D1 protein was the only protein examined that was related to improved outcome in these patients (p=0.0266), but it was not an independent predictor of survival. These results suggest that loss of control of cell-cycle checkpoints is a common occurrence in colorectal tumours and may be an important therapeutic target.

Analysis of tumour markers is helping to predict individual patient response to chemotherapy. However, the difficulties in obtaining metastatic disease samples has led to a reliance on assessment of primary tumour, with little data on its predictive ability. This study assessed thymidylate synthase (TS), a target for the commonly used drug 5FU, in 42 paired primary colorectal tumour and lymph node metastasis. High TS staining was seen in 63% of primary colon tumour cells and 81% of the secondary lymph node. Primary tumour did not have significant predictive power for secondary tumour samples (kappa=0.125; p=0.38). There was no significant relationship between TS staining and expression of G1/S cell cycle proteins p21, p27, p53, cyclin D1, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and retinoblastoma protein (Rb) (p0.05 in all cases). Discordance in TS protein levels between primary and secondary tumours demonstrates the danger of predicting outcome after chemotherapy in metastatic colorectal cancer from the primary tumour.