Phosphorylated HER-2 tyrosine kinase and Her-2/neu gene amplification as predictive factors of response to trastuzumab in patients with HER-2 overexpressing metastatic breast cancer (MBC).

Aim: Trastuzumab (T), a humanised monoclonal antibody against HER-2, is active in HER-2-positive MBC patients. However, nearly 60% of the patients do not benefit from T, stressing the need for additional predictive markers. The following markers could be implicated in response to T: (1) the magnitude of Her-2 gene amplification; (2) the co-expression of the other HER family receptors, possibly responsible for HER-2 trans-activation; (3) the activated status of HER-2; (4) the activated status of downstream effectors as mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), p38 and p27.

[Inflammatory leiomyosarcoma: a case report].

We report an additional case of inflammatory leiomyosarcoma, arising in the shoulder of a 31-year-old male. The rare inflammatory variant of leiomyosarcoma tends to affect young adults. Histologically it is characterized by a prominent lymphohistiocytic infiltrate often masking fascicles of spindle cells, as well as the presence of clusters of xanthoma cells and psammoma bodies.