A randomized phase II study of combination, alternating and sequential regimens of doxorubicin and docetaxel as first-line chemotherapy for women with metastatic breast cancer.

Background: This randomized phase II study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of doxorubicin and docetaxel (DOC) administered either as a combination, an alternating or a sequential regimen in women with metastatic breast cancer. Secondary objectives included overall response, time to progression, survival and safety.

Patients And Methods: Patients with breast cancer (n=123) were randomized to receive doxorubicin and DOC either in combination (60 mg/m2 of each drug), or by alternated or sequential schedule (100 mg/m2 DOC and 75 mg/m2 doxorubicin) every 3 weeks for a maximum of eight cycles as first chemotherapy for stage IV disease.

Molecular and functional bases of self-antigen recognition in long-term persistent melanocyte-specific CD8+ T cells in one vitiligo patient.

Vitiligo patients possess high frequencies of circulating CD8+ T lymphocytes specific for the melanocyte differentiation antigen Melan-A/MART-1. These self-specific T cells exhibit intact functional properties and their T cell receptors are selected for a narrow range of high affinities of antigen recognition, suggesting their important role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo. In order to understand the molecular base for this unexpected, optimal T cell receptor recognition of a self-antigen, a tetramer-guided ex vivo analysis of the T cell receptor repertoire specific for the Melan-A antigen in a patient affected by vitiligo is reported.

Evaluation of infectious complications and immune recovery following high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) and autologous peripheral blood progenitor cell transplantation (PBPC-T) in 148 breast cancer patients.

Background And Objectives: High-dose chemotherapy (HDC) with autologous PBPC-T has been reported to be effective in hematological and in selected solid malignancies. In this setting, infectious complications represent a relevant cause of morbidity.

Patients And Methods: To ascertain the incidence, types and factors influencing the development of early and late infections, we retrospectively analyzed 148 consecutive breast cancer (BC) patients receiving HDC and PBPC-T, both for primary high-risk BC (pBC) and metastatic disease (mBC).

Retrorectal tumours: a case report.

The authors describe a case of retrorectal tumour in a 48-year-old female. Retrorectal tumours are rare, and their diagnosis is notoriously difficult and late. In this case the first-step diagnosis was made on the basis of clinical findings and radiological investigations such as abdominal ultrasonography.

Dendritic cells are functionally defective in multiple myeloma: the role of interleukin-6.

We studied concentration, phenotype, and function of peripheral blood (PB) dendritic cells (DCs) from patients with multiple myeloma (MM). The absolute number of circulating precursors of myeloid and plasmacytoid DCs was significantly lower in MM patients than in healthy subjects. After maturation, PBDCs from MM patients showed significantly lower expression of HLA-DR, CD40, and CD80 antigens and impaired induction of allogeneic T-cell proliferation compared with controls.