Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; therapeutic use ; Breast Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; pathology ; Cyclophosphamide ; therapeutic use ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Epirubicin ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Fluorouracil ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Methotrexate ; therapeutic use ; Neoadjuvant Therapy ; methods ; Neoplasm Invasiveness ; Neoplasm Staging ; Paclitaxel ; therapeutic use ; Receptor, ErbB-2 ; metabolism ; Receptors, Estrogen ; metabolism ; Receptors, Progesterone ; metabolism ; Tumor Burden

Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal ; therapeutic use ; Bone Neoplasms ; diagnostic imaging ; secondary ; Breast Neoplasms ; pathology ; therapy ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; Neoplasm Staging ; Salvage Therapy ; methods ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Adult ; Androstadienes ; therapeutic use ; Aromatase Inhibitors ; therapeutic use ; Breast Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Nitriles ; therapeutic use ; Triazoles ; therapeutic use

Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal ; therapeutic use ; Bone Neoplasms ; secondary ; Breast Neoplasms ; chemistry ; drug therapy ; pathology ; Disease Progression ; Female ; Humans ; Menopause ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; Receptors, Estrogen ; analysis ; Receptors, Progesterone ; analysis ; Tamoxifen ; therapeutic use

Antibodies, Monoclonal ; administration & dosage ; Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized ; Antineoplastic Agents ; administration & dosage ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ; drug therapy ; Cetuximab ; Drug Delivery Systems ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; Protein Kinase Inhibitors ; administration & dosage ; Quinazolines ; administration & dosage ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor ; antagonists & inhibitors

Adenoviridae ; genetics ; Animals ; Bone Marrow Purging ; methods ; Genes, p53 ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; methods ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; cytology ; virology ; Humans ; Receptors, Virus ; genetics ; Transplantation, Autologous ; methods

Gastric tuberculosis is a rare disease. It usually occurs secondarily to another lesions and mainly in the lungs. Only a few cases of primary gastric tuberculosis have been reported in the literature. Most commonly, gastric tuberculosis lesion locates in the lesser curvature side of the antrum. Therefore the clinical picture is similar to the peptic ulcer. A 24-year-old women visited to the Inha university hospital complaining of vomiting and epigastric discomfort. Gastrofiberscopy showed multiple polypoid mass around the pylorus with stenotic pyloric channel. Subtotal gastrectomy was performed and histologic examination revealed chronic granulomatous inflammation with caseation necrosis. That is compatible with tuberculosis. The patient was taken antituberculosis medication without complication. So we report the case of pyloric obstruction due to gastric tuberculosis with review of the literature.
Female ; Gastrectomy ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Lung ; Necrosis ; Peptic Ulcer ; Pyloric Stenosis ; Pylorus ; Rare Diseases ; Tuberculosis* ; Vomiting ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo study the significance of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and microvascular density (MVD) expression in breast cancer.

METHODSThe expression of MVD and VEGF was studied in 81 patients with primary breast cancer by SP immunohistochemical technique.

RESULTSThere were 49 patients with high VEGF expression (60.5%) and 35 patients with high MVD expression (43.2%). There was significant correlation between VEGF or MVD expression and TNM stage, but not age, tumor size, ER expression or lymph node status. VEGF was significantly related with MVD expression. Univariate analysis showed that patients with low expression of VEGF and MVD had longer disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Grouping univariate analysis showed that VEGF had significant correlation with the DFS of all grouped patients and the OS of patients with LN(+) or stage III lesions. MVD had significant correlation with the DFS and OS of LN(+) patients and the DFS of stage III lesion patients. Multivariate analysis showed that MVD was a risk predictor because of its positive statistic value, the higher expression, the shorter survival time of the patients.

CONCLUSIONBoth VEGF and MVD are useful prognostic factors in breast cancer. MVD appears to be a strong and independent biologic marker for breast cancer prognosis.

Adult ; Aged ; Breast Neoplasms ; blood supply ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Microcirculation ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Prognosis ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A ; analysis

OBJECTIVETo investigate the psychological impact of mastectomy on women with breast cancer.

METHODSQuestionnaires were answered by 90 patients after mastectomy for breast cancer. The data were collected and analyzed regarding the age, occupation, education, income and living place of the patients. Their psychological changes were compared and evaluated statistically using chi-square analysis.

RESULTSMastectomy caused psychological impact on half of the patients, which included fear of cancer, feeling of body incompleteness, inconvenience in working and social communication, less sexual act and low spirit. 79 percent of the patients considered breast reconstruction unnecessary. 54 percent did not know that the breast could be reconstructed. The patient feelings differed with the age, occupation, income and living place.

CONCLUSIONMastectomy hurts patient psychological health.

Age Factors ; Body Image ; Breast Neoplasms ; psychology ; surgery ; Chi-Square Distribution ; Fear ; Female ; Humans ; Mammaplasty ; psychology ; Mastectomy ; psychology ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVETo investigate the correlation between mutation in EGFR tyrosine kinase domain and tumor response as well as prognosis in advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with iressa.

METHODSFrom May 2002 to Feb. 2005, iressa was orally administered at a dose of 250 mg once daily for 106 advanced stage NSCLC patients until occurrence of disease progression or intolerable toxicity. Cancer tissue was obtained from these patients, and DNA was extracted for analysis of mutation in exon 18 to 24 of EGFR. Exon 18 to 24 of EGFR were amplified by nest PCR, sequenced and analyzed from both sense and antisence directions.

RESULTSPrimary NSCLC tissue specimens consisted of 25 frozen tissue blocks and 81 paraffin-embedded tumor tissue blocks from 106 consecutive NSCLC patients. Mutation was found to be more frequent in the adenocarcinoma than in the squamous cell carcinoma (35.9% vs 14.3%, P =0.033). Mutation was identified in 32 patients (30.2%). Response rate to iressa was 71.9% in the patients with EGFR mutation versus 13.5% in those without mutation (P <0.01). Compared with the patients without EGFR mutation, those with mutation had longer overall survival (median, 13.45 vs. 5.25 months; P<0.01) and median time to progression (median, 8.35 vs. 3.0 months; P <0.01).

CONCLUSIONEGFR mutation may be positively correlated with the response and survival in advanced stage Chinese NSCLC patient treated with iressa.

Adenocarcinoma ; drug therapy ; genetics ; pathology ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Antineoplastic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ; drug therapy ; genetics ; pathology ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; drug therapy ; genetics ; pathology ; Exons ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Lung Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; genetics ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Point Mutation ; Prognosis ; Quinazolines ; therapeutic use ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor ; genetics ; Sequence Deletion