Radiogenic lymphangiogenesis in the skin.

The time course of microvascular changes in the environment of irradiated tumors was studied in a standardized human protocol. Eighty skin biopsies from 40 patients with previously treated primary breast cancer were taken from irradiated skin and corresponding contralateral unirradiated control areas 2 to 8 weeks, 11 to 14 months, or 17+ months after radiotherapy (skin equivalent dose 30 to 40 Gy). Twenty-two biopsies of 11 melanoma patients who had undergone lymph node dissection were used for unirradiated control.

Prognostic impact of haemoglobin levels in breast cancer.

Background: Many patients with solid tumours suffer from anaemia, as a consequence of the disease itself or its treatment. Anaemia affects the quality of life and can have a negative impact on overall survival. The aim of the current study was to analyse the impact of haemoglobin levels on the prognosis of patients with primary breast cancer.

A polymorphism at codon 133 of the tumor suppressor RASSF1A is associated with tumorous alteration of the breast.

The tumor suppressor gene RASSF1A is inactivated or mutated in different tumor entities including breast cancer. The frequency of the genomic variants of RASSF1A in patients with breast tumors has not been evaluated. We studied the association between ten nucleotide polymorphisms of RASSF1A and the risk of breast cancer in 178 cases with tumorous alterations of mammary tissue (including 141 carcinomas and 37 fibroadenomas) and 70 controls by SSCP and sequencing.

Estrogen-metabolizing gene polymorphisms in the assessment of breast carcinoma risk and fibroadenoma risk in Caucasian women.

Background: Genes encoding enzymes involved in estrogen metabolism are held to be candidate genes for associations with breast disease. In these candidate genes, no critical combination of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for assessing breast carcinoma risk has been reported to date.

Methods: In a large case-control study, the authors investigated 10 estrogen-metabolizing SNPs in 396 patients with breast carcinoma, 154 patients with fibroadenoma, and 1936 healthy control patients without breast carcinoma in their personal history.

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 serum levels in patients with breast cancer.

The chemokine monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 is thought to be involved in breast carcinogenesis. We evaluated MCP-1 serum levels in patients with breast cancer (n = 135), ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) I-III (n = 30), benign breast lesions (n = 143) and in healthy women (n = 27). We determined the value of MCP-1 serum levels as a differentiation marker between malignant, preinvasive and benign breast diseases and as a predictive marker for the biological phenotype of breast carcinoma.

Serum parameters of iron metabolism in patients with breast cancer.

Background: The aim of our study was to determine the incidence of anemia as evidenced by altered serum levels of iron metabolism in patients with breast cancer (n = 84), ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) (n = 29), fibroadenoma (n = 100) and healthy women (n = 14).

Materials And Methods: Hemoglobin (Hb), serum iron, serum ferritin, serum transferrin and serum transferrin receptor were evaluated prior to surgery. No patient with breast cancer had anemia according to Hb level.

Detection of disseminated tumor cells in peripheral blood of patients with breast cancer: correlation to nodal status and occurrence of metastases.

Objective: Soon after breast cancer becomes invasive, it sheds cancer cells into the blood stream or the cancer cells are spread via lymphatic vessels. The early and unambiguous detection of these disseminated tumor cells (DTC) is of importance for the evaluation of the tumor process and for monitoring therapy response. The detection of disseminated tumor cells by immunocytochemistry (ICC) without previously performing tumor cell enrichment is time consuming and may miss a considerable part of these cells.