Multicenter, Prospective, Randomized Controlled Trial of High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin I-Guided Combination Angiotensin Receptor Blockade and Beta-Blocker Therapy to Prevent Anthracycline Cardiotoxicity: The Cardiac CARE Trial.

Background: Anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity has a variable incidence, and the development of left ventricular dysfunction is preceded by elevations in cardiac troponin concentrations. Beta-adrenergic receptor blocker and renin-angiotensin system inhibitor therapies have been associated with modest cardioprotective effects in unselected patients receiving anthracycline chemotherapy.

Methods: In a multicenter, prospective, randomized, open-label, blinded end-point trial, patients with breast cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma receiving anthracycline chemotherapy underwent serial high-sensitivity cardiac troponin testing and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging before and 6 months after anthracycline treatment.

Structure Identification of Adsorbed Anionic-Nonionic Binary Surfactant Layers Based on Interfacial Shear Rheology Studies and Surface Tension Isotherms.

Mixtures of anionic sodium oleate (NaOl) and nonionic ethoxylated or alkoxylated surfactants improve the selective separation of magnesite particles from mineral ores during the process of flotation. Apart from triggering the hydrophobicity of magnesite particles, these surfactant molecules adsorb to the air-liquid interface of flotation bubbles, changing the interfacial properties and thus affecting the flotation efficiency. The structure of adsorbed surfactants layers at the air-liquid interface depends on the adsorption kinetics of each surfactant and the reformation of intermolecular forces upon mixing.

Correction: Single-cell RNA sequencing of human breast tumour-infiltrating immune cells reveals a γδ T-cell subtype associated with good clinical outcome.

Single cell sequencing of γδ-T cells from human blood and tumours revealed novel markers of subtypes with distinct effector functions and a subtype that is associated with favourable clinical outcome.

Bubble growth analysis during subcooled boiling experiments on-board the international space station: Benchmark image analysis.

This work compares four different image processing algorithms for the analysis of image data obtained during the Multiscale Boiling Experiment of ESA, executed on-board the International Space Station. Two separate experimental campaigns have been performed in 2019 and 2020, aiming to investigate boiling phenomena in microgravity, with and without the presence of shear flow and electric field. A heated substrate, at the bottom of the test cell, creates a temperature profile across the liquid bulk above it.

Rationale and Design of the Cardiac CARE Trial: A Randomized Trial of Troponin-Guided Neurohormonal Blockade for the Prevention of Anthracycline Cardiotoxicity.

Background: Anthracyclines are effective cytotoxic drugs used in the treatment of breast cancer and lymphoma but are associated with myocardial injury, left ventricular dysfunction, and heart failure. Anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity is highly variable in severity and without a proven therapeutic intervention. β-Adrenergic receptor blockers and renin-angiotensin-system inhibitor therapies have been associated with modest cardioprotective effects in unselected patients.

Primary acinic cell carcinoma of the breast is associated with a poor outcome: A case report and literature review.

Primary acinic cell carcinoma (AcCC) is a rare histological type of malignant breast cancer. AcCC was first identified as an entity in 1996, and since then 51 cases have been reported in the literature. The first early case reports and reviews suggested a relatively favourable prognosis for patients with AcCC; however, reports of AcCC recurrent disease have been more recently described in a subset of patients with high-grade disease.

Variation in chemotherapy prescribing rates and mortality in early breast cancer over two decades: a national data linkage study.

Background: Regional variation in clinical practice may identify differences in care, reveal inequity in access, and explain inequality in outcomes. The study aim was to measure geographical variation in Scotland for adjuvant chemotherapy use and mortality in early-stage breast cancer.

Patients And Methods: In this retrospective cohort study using population cancer registry-based data linkage, patients with surgically treated early breast cancer between 2001 and 2018 were identified from the Scottish Cancer Registry.

Cardiac Energetics Before, During, and After Anthracycline-Based Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer Patients Using P Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy: A Pilot Study.

To explore the utility of phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy (P MRS) in identifying anthracycline-induced cardiac toxicity in patients with breast cancer. Twenty patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer receiving anthracycline-based chemotherapy had cardiac magnetic resonance assessment of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and P MRS to determine myocardial Phosphocreatine/Adenosine Triphosphate Ratio (PCr/ATP) at three time points: pre-, mid-, and end-chemotherapy. Plasma high sensitivity cardiac troponin-I (cTn-I) tests and electrocardiograms were also performed at these same time points.

Lobular Breast Cancer: A Review.

Invasive lobular carcinoma accounts for 5%-15% of all invasive breast cancers, with a marked increase in incidence rates over the past two decades. Distinctive biological hallmarks of invasive lobular carcinoma include the loss of cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin leading to cells with a discohesive morphology, proliferating into single-file strands and estrogen receptor positivity. These key molecular features can make diagnosis difficult, as invasive lobular carcinoma is challenging to detect both physically and with current standard imaging.

Single-cell RNA sequencing of human breast tumour-infiltrating immune cells reveals a γδ T-cell subtype associated with good clinical outcome.

The association of increased levels of tumour-infiltrating gamma-delta (γδ) T cells with favorable prognosis across many cancer types and their ability to recognize stress antigens in an MHC unrestricted manner has led to an increased interest in exploiting them for cancer immunotherapy. We performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of peripheral blood γδ T cells from healthy adult donors and from fresh tumour biopsies of breast cancer patients. We identified five γδ T cells subtypes in blood and three subtypes of γδ T cells in breast tumour.

PIK3CA mutation enrichment and quantitation from blood and tissue.

PIK3CA is one of the two most frequently mutated genes in breast cancers, occurring in 30-40% of cases. Four frequent 'hotspot' PIK3CA mutations (E542K, E545K, H1047R and H1047L) account for 80-90% of all PIK3CA mutations in human malignancies and represent predictive biomarkers. Here we describe a PIK3CA mutation specific nuclease-based enrichment assay, which combined with a low-cost real-time qPCR detection method, enhances assay detection sensitivity from 5% for E542K and 10% for E545K to 0.

Risk of chemotherapy-related amenorrhoea (CRA) in premenopausal women undergoing chemotherapy for early stage breast cancer.

Purpose: While chemotherapy has improved survival among younger women with breast cancer, it can induce temporary or permanent chemotherapy-related amenorrhoea (CRA), impacting survival benefit, quality of life and, importantly for younger patients, fertility.

Methods: This single institution retrospective study of 107 premenopausal women with early stage breast cancer who received neoadjuvant or adjuvant combined chemotherapy treatment investigates the association of clinicopathological factors (including age-related, gynaecological and tumour-related variables) with CRA and resumption of menses using generalised linear models for univariable and multivariate analyses.

Results: 76% of women developed CRA, of which only 40% resumed menses after treatment.

A critical review on turbulent collision frequency/efficiency models in flotation: Unravelling the path from general coagulation to flotation.

Flotation is a very important separation process in the mining industry. In addition, it finds important application as a water treatment process. The better design of flotation devices and operation strategies requires development of reliable and consistent mathematical models.

Early Triple Negative Breast Cancer: Conventional Treatment and Emerging Therapeutic Landscapes.

Triple negative breast cancers (TNBCs) are characterized by worse prognosis, higher propensity to earlier metastases, and shorter survival after recurrence compared with other breast cancer subtypes. Anthracycline- and taxane-based chemotherapy is still the mainstay of treatment in early stages, although several escalation approaches have been evaluated to improve survival outcomes. The addition of platinum salts to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) remains controversial due to the lack of clear survival advantage, and the use of adjuvant capecitabine represents a valid treatment option in TNBC patients with residual disease after NACT.

Dynamic Changes in High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin I in Response to Anthracycline-Based Chemotherapy.

Aims: Treatment advances have improved cancer-related outcomes and shifted interest towards minimising long-term iatrogenic complications, particularly chemotherapy-related cardiotoxicity. High-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI) assays accurately quantify very low concentrations of plasma troponin and enable early detection of cardiomyocyte injury prior to the development of myocardial dysfunction. The profile of hs-cTnI in response to anthracycline-based treatment has not previously been described.

On-treatment biomarkers can improve prediction of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer.

Background: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is increasingly given preoperatively to shrink breast tumours prior to surgery. This approach also provides the opportunity to study the molecular changes associated with treatment and evaluate whether on-treatment sequential samples can improve response and outcome predictions over diagnostic or excision samples alone.

Methods: This study included a total of 97 samples from a cohort of 50 women (aged 29-76, with 46% ER+ and 20% HER2+ tumours) with primary operable breast cancer who had been treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

A simple and robust real-time qPCR method for the detection of PIK3CA mutations.

PIK3CA mutations are seemingly the most common driver mutations in breast cancer with H1047R and E545K being the most common of these, accounting together for around 60% of all PIK3CA mutations and have promising therapeutic implications. Given the low sensitivity and the high cost of current genotyping methods we sought to develop fast, simple and inexpensive assays for PIK3CA H1047R and E545K mutation screening in clinical material. The methods we describe are based on a real-time PCR including a mutation specific primer combined with a non-productive oligonucleotide which inhibits wild-type amplification and a parallel internal control reaction.

Glucocorticoid receptor, nuclear factor kappaB, activator protein-1 and C-jun N-terminal kinase in systemic lupus erythematosus patients.

Objective: Due to the crucial role of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), nuclear factor kappaB (NFkappaB), activator protein-1 (AP-1) and c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) in regulating inflammatory mediators and immune responses, we investigated their potential role in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Patients And Methods: Whole cell and nuclear extracts from peripheral blood lymphocytes, isolated from 25 SLE patients and 25 controls, were immunoblotted using GR, p65/NFkappaB, c-fos and JNK1 antibodies. The electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) assessed GR, NFkappaB and AP-1-DNA binding in nuclear aliquots.