Background: Immune escape of tumor cells is a new hallmark of cancer in general, and breast cancer, in particular. Previous studies have demonstrated that the immunological profile in peripheral blood may be a prognostic and/or predictive biomarker in breast cancer. Thus, higher number of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in blood from patients with breast cancer has been reported in relation to normal donors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether osteoprotegerin - an emerging inflammatory biomarker in cardiovascular diseases - predicts outcomes in patients with acute heart failure and preserved ejection fraction.
Methods: We measured urea, creatinine, hemoglobin, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide and osteoprotegerin on admission in 177 patients admitted with decompensated heart failure and left ventricular ejection fraction at least 45%. The population was divided according to the median values of osteoprotegerin (158.
Recent advances that have been made in our understanding of cancer biology and immunology show that infiltrated immune cells and cytokines in the tumor microenvironment may play different functions that appear tightly related to clinical outcomes. Strategies aimed at interfering with the cross-talk between microenvironment tumor cells and their cellular partners have been considered for the development of new immunotherapies. These novel therapies target different cell components of the tumor microenvironment and importantly, they may be coupled and boosted with classical treatments, such as radiotherapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecently, immune edition has been recognized as a new hallmark of cancer. In this respect, some clinical trials in breast cancer have reported imppressive outcomes related to laboratory immune findings, especially in the neoadjuvant and metastatic setting. Infiltration by tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and their subtypes, tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) and myeloid-derived suppressive cells (MDSC) seem bona fide prognostic and even predictive biomarkers, that will eventually be incorporated into diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms of breast cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Iodine is an essential trace element implicated in synthesis of thyroid hormones. Iodine requirements vary throughout life. This iodine requirement is increased during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: There is growing awareness that vitamin D sufficiency is required for overall optimal health. Most experts agree that 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels of at least 75 nmol/L, as sufficient vitamin D status. Our aim was to investigate the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration required in mid-October to ensure vitamin D sufficiency in early February, and to assess the rate of vitamin D insufficiency in both seasons.
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