Differential Access to Breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging Compared with Mammography and Ultrasound.

Introduction: For high-risk women, breast magnetic resonance (MR) is the preferred supplemental imaging option, but spatial access differences may exacerbate disparities in breast care.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study examining distance between ZIP codes and the nearest breast imaging facility (MR, mammography, ultrasound) using 2023 data from the Food and Drug Administration and the American College of Radiology. Linear regression was used to assess distance differences controlling for Area Deprivation Index (ADI), urbanicity, and population size.

Pulsed-Focused Ultrasound Slows B16 Melanoma and 4T1 Breast Tumor Growth through Differential Tumor Microenvironmental Changes.

Focused ultrasound (FUS) has shown promise as a non-invasive treatment modality for solid malignancies. FUS targeting to tumors has been shown to initiate pro-inflammatory immune responses within the tumor microenvironment. Pulsed FUS (pFUS) can alter the expression of cytokines, chemokines, trophic factors, cell adhesion molecules, and immune cell phenotypes within tissues.

Cytosolic Ca transients during pulsed focused ultrasound generate reactive oxygen species and cause DNA damage in tumor cells.

Mechanical forces from non-ablative pulsed focused ultrasound (pFUS) generate pro-inflammatory tumor microenvironments (TME), marked by increased cytokines, chemokines, and trophic factors, as well as immune cell infiltration and reduced tumor growth. pFUS also causes DNA damage within tumors, which is a potent activator of immunity and could contribute to changes in the TME. This study investigated mechanisms behind the mechanotransductive effects of pFUS causing DNA damage in several tumor cell types.

MR-guided pulsed focused ultrasound improves mesenchymal stromal cell homing to the myocardium.

Image-guided pulsed focused ultrasound (pFUS) is a non-invasive technique that can increase tropism of intravenously (IV)-infused mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) to sonicated tissues. MSC have shown promise for cardiac regenerative medicine strategies but can be hampered by inefficient homing to the myocardium. This study sonicated the left ventricles (LV) in rats with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided pFUS and examined both proteomic responses and subsequent MSC tropism to treated myocardium.

Acoustic Radiation or Cavitation Forces From Therapeutic Ultrasound Generate Prostaglandins and Increase Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Homing to Murine Muscle.

Non-ablative ultrasound (US)-based techniques to improve targeted tropism of systemically infused cell therapies, particularly mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC), have gained attention in recent years. Mechanotransduction following targeted US sonications have been shown to modulate tissue microenvironments by upregulating cytokines, chemokines, and trophic factors in addition to vascular cell adhesion molecules (CAM) that are necessary to promote tropism of MSC. While numerous US treatment parameters have demonstrated increased MSC homing, it remains unclear how the different mechanical US forces [i.

Urinary Exosomes from Bladder Cancer Patients Show a Residual Cancer Phenotype despite Complete Pathological Downstaging.

Invasive urinary bladder cancer shows high recurrence rates after cystectomy even with apparent complete downstaging at cystectomy. Exosomes are nano-sized vesicles important in cell-cell communication, which have been hypothesized to contribute to cancer dissemination and recurrence. The aim of this study was to investigate if pro-carcinogenic exosomes could be detected in urine from histologically downstaged bladder cancer patients.

Blood transfusions during neoadjuvant chemotherapy for muscle-invasive urinary bladder cancer may have a negative impact on overall survival.

To evaluate the extent and plausible effects of blood transfusions given during cisplatin-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) on overall survival in patients with muscle-invasive urothelial bladder cancer (MIBC) undergoing NAC and radical cystectomy (RC). Several studies have demonstrated a decreased survival for MIBC patients receiving allogenic peri- and postoperative blood transfusions in conjunction with RC. No studies have previously investigated the effects of blood transfusions during NAC.

Tumour-associated B cells in urothelial urinary bladder cancer.

Tumour infiltrating B cells and CD38 plasma cells have been correlated with survival in different malignancies but their role in urinary bladder cancer is unclear. IL-10 is a multifunctional cytokine with both anti-inflammatory and immunostimulatory properties, that can be released by regulatory B cells (Bregs). We have stained paraffin-embedded tumour sections from 31 patients with invasive urothelial urinary bladder cancer with respect to CD20 B cells, CD38 cells, IL-10-expressing cells, IgG, C1q and C3a and analysed the impact of these markers on survival.

Fewer tumour draining sentinel nodes in patients with progressing muscle invasive bladder cancer, after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radical cystectomy.

Purpose: To examine the relationship between the number of tumour draining sentinel nodes (SNs) and pathoanatomical outcomes, in muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), in patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and radical cystectomy (RC).

Materials And Methods: In an ongoing prospective multicenter study, we included 230 patients with suspected urothelial MIBC from ten Swedish urological centers. All underwent TURb and clinical staging.

Urinary Bladder Cancer Tregs Suppress MMP2 and Potentially Regulate Invasiveness.

Regulatory T cells (Treg) have long been considered one-sided suppressors of antitumor immune responses and hence associated with poor patient outcome in cancer. However, evidence is mounting of a paradoxical positive prognostic effect of Tregs on certain malignancies, including urinary bladder cancer (UBC). This discrepancy has partly been attributed to the shear misidentification of Tregs, but also to the inflammatory profile of the tumor.

Sentinel node detection in muscle-invasive urothelial bladder cancer is feasible after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in all pT stages, a prospective multicenter report.

Purpose: To determine whether sentinel node detection (SNd) in muscle-invasive urothelial bladder cancer (MIBC) can be performed in patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and determine whether SNd is feasible in all pT stages, including pT0.

Background: Previous published series of SNd in MIBC have not included patients undergoing NAC, and systematic reports of pT0 patients w/wo NAC were absent. Translational immunological tumor research on MIBC focusing on SNd, in the era of NAC, requires technical feasibility.

Detection of micrometastases by flow cytometry in sentinel lymph nodes from patients with renal tumours.

Background: Stage is an important prognostic factor in renal tumours and dissemination to regional lymph nodes is associated with poor outcomes. Lymph nodes are routinely assessed by immunohistochemistry and microscopic evaluation, a time-consuming process where micrometastases might go undiagnosed. We evaluate an alternative method for detecting metastatic cells in sentinel nodes (SNs) by flow cytometry.

Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2, but not S100A4 or S100A6, correlates with prolonged survival in advanced urothelial carcinoma.

Objective: A major challenge in muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma (UC) is to identify biomarkers that can predict disease prognosis and treatment response after cystectomy. Therefore, we analyzed the potential prognostic value of the proteins vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2), S100A4, and S100A6 in UC.

Methods: Retrospective outcome data and tumor specimens from 83 cystectomy patients with histologically confirmed invasive UC were included.

Pathologic downstaging is a surrogate marker for efficacy and increased survival following neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radical cystectomy for muscle-invasive urothelial bladder cancer.

Background: Characterising responders to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is important to minimise overtreatment and the unnecessary delay of definitive treatment of urothelial urinary bladder cancer.

Objective: To assess the effect of NAC on tumour downstaging and overall survival.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A total of 449 patients from the randomised prospective Nordic Cystectomy Trials 1 and 2 were analysed retrospectively.

FOXP3 and survival in urinary bladder cancer.

Objective: To investigate the possible impact of FOXP3 expression in T-cells, as well as in tumour cells, on long-term survival in patients with urinary bladder cancer (UBC) invading muscle.

Patients And Methods: In a retrospective study, tumour specimens from 37 patients cystectomized for T1-T4 UBC during 1999-2002 at the Karolinska University Hospital were examined by immunohistochemistry for tumour expression and/or infiltration of immune cells expressing FOXP3 as well as CD3. The results obtained were correlated with clinicopathological parameters, where the primary and secondary outcomes investigated were overall survival and progression-free survival, respectively.

Endothelin-1 expression in prostate cancer and high grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia.

Objective: To investigate the prognostic value of endothelin-1 (ET-1), a vasoconstrictor involved in differentiation and growth of cancer, in prostate cancer.

Study Design: A tissue microarray was constructed of 287 prostate cancers from radical prostatectomy (RP) specimens with median follow-up of 48.9 months.