Prone breast intensity modulated radiation therapy: 5-year results.

Purpose: To report the 5-year results of a technique of prone breast radiation therapy delivered by a regimen of accelerated intensity modulated radiation therapy with a concurrent boost to the tumor bed.

Methods And Materials: Between 2003 and 2006, 404 patients with stage I-II breast cancer were prospectively enrolled into 2 consecutive protocols, institutional trials 03-30 and 05-181, that used the same regimen of 40.5 Gy/15 fractions delivered to the index breast over 3 weeks, with a concomitant daily boost to the tumor bed of 0.

Anti-Mullerian hormone: determination of ovarian reserve in early breast cancer patients.

Breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer in women of reproductive age. In young women, chemotherapy may induce amenorrhea: it is still uncertain how to assess menopausal status in these patients despite the importance of its definition for choosing appropriate endocrine treatment. In the development of sensitive biomarkers for fertility and ovarian reserve, anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is considered a promising marker of ovarian reserve.

Primary therapy in breast cancer: what have we learned from landmark trials?

Primary anticancer therapy is currently accepted as a therapeutic option for patients with early-stage breast cancer. Its objectives are to increase the chance of achieving a conservative surgery and, similar to adjuvant chemotherapy, to reduce the risk of distant recurrence. The prognostic significance of obtaining a pathological complete response has been evaluated in several randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses.

Making capecitabine targeted therapy for breast cancer: which is the role of thymidine phosphorylase?

Thymidine phosphorylase (TP) expression has been found to be elevated in various solid tumors where it is likely involved in mechanisms that regulate cell proliferation, apoptosis, and angiogenesis. Based on these properties, it is tempting to hypothesize a potential prognostic role of TP, suggesting that a high TP expression could predict a poor outcome. On the other hand, TP expression has been studied for its role in predicting benefit from treatment with fluoropyrimidine-containing chemotherapy.

Dose to craniofacial region through portal imaging of pediatric brain tumors.

The purpose of this study was to determine dose to the planning target volume (PTV) and organs at risk (OARs) from portal imaging (PI) of the craniofacial region in pediatric brain tumor patients treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Twenty pediatric brain tumor patients were retrospectively studied. Each received portal imaging of treatment fields and orthogonal setup fields in the craniofacial region.

Diminished visibility of cerebral venous vasculature in multiple sclerosis by susceptibility-weighted imaging at 3.0 Tesla.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system characterized by widespread demyelination, axonal loss and gliosis, and neurodegeneration; susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI), through the use of phase information to enhance local susceptibility or T2* contrast, is a relatively new and simple MRI application that can directly image cerebral veins by exploiting venous blood oxygenation. Here, we use high-field SWI at 3.0 Tesla to image 15 patients with clinically definite relapsing-remitting MS and to assess cerebral venous oxygen level changes.

Selective side-chain modification of cysteine and arginine residues blocks pathogenic activity of HIV-1-Tat functional peptides.

Extracellular Tat protein of HIV-1 activates virus replication in HIV-infected cells and induces a variety of host factors in the uninfected cells, some of which play a critical role in the progression of HIV infection. The cysteine-rich and arginine-rich basic domains represent key components of the HIV-Tat protein for pathogenic effects of the full-length Tat protein and, therefore, could be ideal candidates for the development of a therapeutic AIDS vaccine. The present study describes selective modifications of the side-chain functional groups of cysteine and arginine amino acids of these HIV-Tat peptides to minimize the pathogenic effects of these peptides while maintaining natural peptide linkages.