Minced umbilical cord fragments as a source of cells for orthopaedic tissue engineering: an in vitro study.

A promising approach for musculoskeletal repair and regeneration is mesenchymal-stem-cell- (MSC-)based tissue engineering. The aim of the study was to apply a simple protocol based on mincing the umbilical cord (UC), without removing any blood vessels or using any enzymatic digestion, to rapidly obtain an adequate number of multipotent UC-MSCs. We obtained, at passage 1 (P1), a mean value of 4, 2 × 10(6) cells (SD 0,4) from each UC.

Prognostic significance of changes in CA 15-3 serum levels during chemotherapy in metastatic breast cancer patients.

Tumor response to first-line chemotherapy in advanced breast cancer offers prognostic information and may be used as a surrogate marker for evaluating treatment efficacy. With this study we wanted to determine whether changes in circulating serum CA 15-3 levels during chemotherapy provided additional information for prognostic prediction. Serum CA 15-3 was measured at baseline and after 3 and 6 months during anthracycline-based first-line chemotherapy in 526 patients with advanced breast cancer prospectively enrolled in five phase II-III trials.

The influence of hormone replacement therapy on the pathology of breast cancer.

Aim Of The Study: To assess whether the pathological characteristics of breast carcinomas arising in post-menopausal women who ever used hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) differ from those of post-menopausal patients who never used HRT.

Materials And Methods: Six hundred and forty three consecutive breast cancer patients were entered in a case control-study. Cases were represented by 111 breast cancer patients who had used or were using HRT at the time of diagnosis, while the remaining 532 patients who never used HRT were chosen as controls.

Management of risk of breast carcinoma in postmenopausal women.

Breast carcinoma is the most frequent tumor in the female population. Many factors can influence the risk of breast cancer; some of them, such as old age and breast cancer 1/2 (BRCA1/BRCA2) gene mutations, are associated with a fourfold increase in risk. A previous diagnosis of atypical ductal or lobular hyperplasia or having a first-degree relative with a carcinoma are factors associated with a two- to fourfold increase in risk.

Time to progression in metastatic breast cancer patients treated with epirubicin is not improved by the addition of either cisplatin or lonidamine: final results of a phase III study with a factorial design.

Purpose: To investigate the value of the addition of either cisplatin (CDDP) or lonidamine (LND) to epirubicin (EPI) in the first-line treatment of advanced breast cancer.

Patients And Methods: Three hundred seventy-one metastatic breast cancer patients with no prior systemic chemotherapy for advanced disease were randomized to receive either EPI alone (60 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 2 every 21 days), EPI and CDDP (30 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 2 every 21 days), EPI and LND (450 mg orally daily, given continuously), or EPI, CDDP, and LND. Time to progression, response rates, side effects, and survival were compared according to the 2 x 2 factorial design of this study.

Paclitaxel administration on days 1 and 8 every 21 days in anthracycline-pretreated metastatic breast cancer patients. A multicenter phase II trial.

Paclitaxel is now included in second- and even first-line regimens in advanced breast cancer. The optimal dose and schedule of this drug, however, still remain a matter of investigation. A group of 57 consecutive patients with advanced breast cancer previously treated with anthracycline-containing regimens were submitted to treatment with single-agent paclitaxel administered at 130 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8 every 21 days.

GnRH analogs in benign breast disease and breast cancer chemoprevention. A challenge for the year 2000.

GNRH analogs (GNRHAs) are currently used in the treatment of prostatic and breast cancer and in several benign gynecological conditions. Because of their ability to suppress sex hormone secretion and the supposed role of these hormones in the physiopathology of fibrocystic mastopathy, GNRHAs have been proposed for the management of severe breast pain and nodularity. In preliminary studies the treatment with GNRHAs for 3-6 months improves clinical and radiologic manifestations of mastopathy, also when breast pain has been recurrent or refractory to other hormonal drugs.

[LHRH-analogues: clinical results in ovarian and breast cancer].

The paper reviews the studies published between 1982 and 1989 on the subject of the use of LHRH analogs in gynecological oncology. Following the analysis of hormonal changes induced by analogue therapy in premenopausal women with advanced stage breast cancer, the clinical results obtained through the clinical treatment of this neoplasia are reported. Results to date are encouraging and analogue therapy still represents an alternative to surgical sterilisation.

[The use of LHRH analogs in gynecologic oncology].

The use of LHRH analogues in gynecological oncology is related to the capacity of these compounds to determine pharmacological sterilisation which represents an alternative to surgical ovariectomy in the treatment of hormone-sensitive carcinoma. The modes of administration, metabolism and mechanisms of action of these drugs are illustrated. A section of the action of these drugs are illustrated.