Our aim was to determine whether biological molecular markers can predict response to neoadjuvant chemoendocrine therapy in patients with early breast cancer. Ninety patients (median age 56 years; range, 28-69 years) with primary operable breast carcinoma were studied. They were treated with four 3-weekly cycles of chemotherapy with mitozantrone, methotrexate (+/- mitomycin C), and tamoxifen pr...

BACKGROUND The distinction of benign from malignant mesothelial proliferations in cytologic specimens can be problematic. In this study, the authors investigated the utility of immunohistochemical (IHC) markers in making this distinction. METHODS Archival paraffin-embedded cell blocks of pleural and peritoneal fluids from 52 patients with malignant mesothelioma (MM) and 64 patients with react...

AIMS (a) To assess the expression patterns of HER2/neu, steroid receptors (ER and PR), Ki67 and p53 in invasive ductal cancer (IDC) and IDC associated with carcinoma in situ (IDC/DCIS) and (b) to determine if there is a differential expression of these molecular markers between IDC and IDC/DCIS. MATERIALS AND METHODS Paraffin-fixed breast cancer samples, diagnosed with only one histological i...

BACKGROUND/AIMS The incidence of oesophageal adenocarcinoma is increasing rapidly and this may be related to the presence of intestinal metaplasia (IM) at the gastro-oesophageal junction (GOJ). Recent studies have distinguished two subtypes of IM at the GOJ: short segment Barrett's oesophagus (SSBO) and IM at a normal squamo-columnar junction (IMNSCJ). Because abnormal expression of cell cycle ...

To study the apoptosis and its mechanism at the fetal-maternal interface of early gestation, localization of apoptotic cells in the implantation sites of the rhesus monkey on day 17, 19, 28 and 34 of pregnancy were first examine by using the TUNEL technique. The expression of Ki67, a molecular marker of proliferating cells, and two apoptotic proteins, B cell lymphoma/leukaemia-2 (Bcl-2) and P53...

BACKGROUND Bone marrow micrometastases (BMM) is considered to be of interest as a prognostic marker in solid tumors. The use of density-gradient separated bone marrow (BM) aspirates does not allow proper morphological characterization of the cells. An alternative approach, using routinely processed clots of BM aspirates, is presented. MATERIALS AND METHODS BM clots from 56 colorectal carcinom...

BACKGROUND Although alterations in the mechanisms of apoptosis are an integral part of the tumor phenotype, their precise role in endometrial carcinoma is still obscure. The aim was to determine whether Bcl-2 plays a similar biological role in endometrial cancer as in breast cancer, endometrial cancer being also a hormone-dependent tumor. MATERIALS AND METHODS The expression of the apoptosis-...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES In mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), abnormalities additional to t(11;14) including those affecting genes involved in the p53 pathway, are important for disease development and progression. This study aimed to assess the frequency, relationship and impact of p53 abnormalities and those of its inhibitor mdm2 in blastoid and non-blastoid MCL in leukemic phase. DESIGN AND MET...

Biological diversity of breast cancer presents challenges for personalized therapy and necessitates multiparametric approaches to understand and manage the disease. Multiple protein biomarkers tested by immunohistochemistry (IHC), followed by digital image analysis and multivariate statistics of the data, have been shown to be effective in exploring latent profiles of tumor tissue immunophenoty...

AIM To investigate overexpression of c-erbB2, expression of the p53 protein product and proliferation rates in benign breast lesions with specific reference to apocrine adenosis. METHODS Twenty one cases of apocrine adenosis were stained with monoclonal antibodies to p185, the protein product of the c-erbB2 oncogene, the protein product of the p53 tumour suppressor gene and to the cell cycle ...