Assessing breast tumor margin by multispectral photoacoustic tomography.

An unmet need exists in high-speed and highly-sensitive intraoperative assessment of breast cancer margin during conservation surgical procedures. Here, we demonstrate a multispectral photoacoustic tomography system for breast tumor margin assessment using fat and hemoglobin as contrasts. This system provides ~3 mm tissue depth and ~125 μm axial resolution.

Automated blood sampling and glucose sensing in critical care settings.

Background: Tight glycemic control (TGC) studies in intensive care units (ICU) have shown substantial improvements in clinical outcomes. However, implementation of TGC in ICU practice is partly constrained by the lack of automated continuous blood glucose monitoring systems that can facilitate clinically accurate feedback of glycemic data. The aim of this work is to develop a portable automated blood sampling system for integration with a glucose sensor for use in critical care settings.

Multifocal papillary-cystic neoplasm of the pancreas.

This case report describes the second known instance of a multifocal capillary pancreatic neoplasm. Both cases occurred in young African American females. A less-than-total pancreatectomy was performed to maintain endocrine function.

Aspirin inhibits highly invasive prostate cancer cells.

Cell adhesion, proteolytic degradation and cell migration are interrelated processes responsible for the invasion and metastasis of cancer. One of the crucial molecules involved in cancer metastasis is urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA). An elevated concentration of uPA is a strong indicator of poor prognosis.

Biologic activity of spores and dried powder from Ganoderma lucidum for the inhibition of highly invasive human breast and prostate cancer cells.

Objective: Ganoderma lucidum has been used in East Asia as a home remedy to prevent or cure cancer. Furthermore, Ganoderma lucidum is one of the herbs in the herbal mixture PC-SPES that has become an alternative herbal therapy for prostate cancer. Because the dried powder of ganoderma is commercially available as a dietary supplement itself, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the biologic activity of samples of Ganoderma lucidum from different sources.

Ganoderma lucidum suppresses motility of highly invasive breast and prostate cancer cells.

A dried powder from basidiomycetous fungi, Ganoderma lucidum, has been used in East Asia in therapies for several different diseases, including cancer. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in the biological actions of Ganoderma are not well understood. We have recently demonstrated that phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) and nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) regulate motility of highly invasive human breast cancer cells by the secretion of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA).

Protein kinase C induces motility of breast cancers by upregulating secretion of urokinase-type plasminogen activator through activation of AP-1 and NF-kappaB.

Cell migration is a crucial process in cancer metastasis that does not require extracellular matrix degradation-a characteristic of cell invasion. The urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) system is responsible for invasion through uPA enzymatic activity and for migration through the binding of uPA to the uPA receptor (uPAR). Constitutively high levels of uPA are characteristic of the highly metastatic breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231, but the mechanisms underlying constitutive uPA expression are not fully characterized.