The natural history of untreated estrogen receptor-positive, Her2-negative invasive breast cancer.

Background: Using prior mammograms from patients with delays in their breast cancer diagnoses, we sought to describe in-vivo growth kinetics of untreated breast cancer to determine if the time they became clinically apparent can be predicted.

Methods: Patient and tumor characteristics were collected from those who presented with "missed," untreated breast cancer to a breast center in a single institution. Only patients whose biopsied masses revealed estrogen receptor-positive, Her2-negative (ER+/Her2-) invasive cancers were included.

A fibroblast/macrophage co-culture model to evaluate the biocompatibility of an electrospun Dextran/PLGA scaffold and its potential to induce inflammatory responses.

Fibroblasts and macrophages are the two major types of cells responding to implanted biomaterials. They play crucial roles in inflammatory responses, host-material interactions and tissue remodeling. However, the synergistic interactions of these two cell types with biomaterials are not fully understood.