A pharmacogenetic interaction analysis of bevacizumab with paclitaxel in advanced breast cancer patients.

To investigate pharmacogenetic interactions among VEGF-A, VEGFR-2, IL-8, HIF-1α, EPAS-1, and TSP-1 SNPs and their role on progression-free survival (PFS) in metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients treated with bevacizumab plus first-line paclitaxel or with paclitaxel alone. Analyses were performed on germline DNA, and SNPs were investigated by real-time PCR technique. The multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) methodology was applied to investigate the interaction between SNPs.

Does computer-aided detection (CAD) contribute to the performance of digital mammography in a self-referred population?

Background: Recent evidence suggests that computer-aided detection (CAD) may have a negative impact on the interpretation of mammography-this necessitates timely evaluation of CAD in practice. We report a retrospective study of the incremental effect of CAD on the accuracy of full-field digital mammography (DM) as applied prospectively in breast assessment.

Methods: Subjects were all consecutive women attending a self-referral breast centre in Florence between September 2005 and January 2007 (N = 3,425).