Is it justified to search for cancer in patients with peripheral arterial disease?

Background: Cancer is the leading cause of death in European countries, ahead of cardiovascular diseases. Cancer is also the most common co-morbidity among patients hospitalized for the management of cardiovascular diseases. Through an overview, we searched for the frequency and types of cancer associated with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in order to address the relevance of cancer screening in patients with PAD.

Analysis of in vitro ADCC and clinical response to trastuzumab: possible relevance of FcγRIIIA/FcγRIIA gene polymorphisms and HER-2 expression levels on breast cancer cell lines.

Background: Trastuzumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody (mAb) currently used for the treatment of breast cancer (BC) patients with HER-2 overexpressing tumor subtype. Previous data reported the involvement of FcγRIIIA/IIA gene polymorphisms and/or antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) in the therapeutic efficacy of trastuzumab, although results on these issues are still controversial. This study was aimed to evaluate in vitro the functional relationships among FcγRIIIA/IIA polymorphisms, ADCC intensity and HER-2 expression on tumor target cells and to correlate them with response to trastuzumab.