1,721,092 research outputs found
Interleukin-6 and pro inflammatory status in the breast tumor microenvironment
Full text linkBACKGROUND:
Greater than 50,000 new cases of breast cancer cases were diagnosed in Italy during 2013, with nearly 15,000 women succumbing to the disease. These epidemiological statistics highlight the overwhelming clinical dilemma of breast cancer and emphasize the need for novel therapeutic targets and prevention strategies. Countless studies in the fields of mammary gland development and breast cancer have led to an appreciation of a breast tumor microenvironment that actively contributes to the heterogeneous nature of breast cancer.
METHODS:
The current review will focus on the impact of IL-6 and in the breast tumor microenvironment. Excessive IL-6 has been demonstrated in primary breast tumors and breast cancer patient sera and is associated with poor clinical outcomes in breast cancer. These clinical associations are corroborated by emerging preclinical data revealing that IL-6 is a potent growth factor and promotes an epithelial-mesenchyme (EMT) phenotype in breast cancer cells to indicate that IL-6 in the breast tumor microenvironment is clinically relevant.
RESULTS:
High serum levels of interleukin-6 correlate with poor outcome in breast cancer patients. However, few data are yet available on the relationship between IL-6 and stem/progenitor cells, which may fuel the genesis of breast cancer in vivo. Mammospheres (MS) from node invasive breast carcinoma tissues express IL-6 mRNA at higher levels than MS from matched non-neoplastic mammary glands. IL-6 mRNA is detectable only in basal-like breast carcinoma tissues; our results reveal that IL-6 triggers a Notch-3-dependent upregulation of the Notch ligand Jagged-1, whose interaction with Notch-3 promotes the growth of MS and Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7)-derived spheroids. IL-6 induces a Notch-3-dependent upregulation of the carbonic anhydrase IX gene and promotes a hypoxia-resistant/invasive phenotype in MCF-7 cells and MS.
CONCLUSIONS:
In conclusion, our data support the hypothesis that IL-6 induces malignant features in Notch-3-expressing, stem/progenitor cells from human ductal breast carcinoma and normal mammary gland
Recurrent periductal mastitis: Surgical treatment
Full text linkBackground Recurrent periductal mastitis is a benign breast disorder that often features a mammary fistula that runs between periareolar skin and the ductal mammary system. Due to the high recurrence rate of this disease, its management is controversial. This study was designed to assess the efficacy of fistulectomy (Hadfield operation), particularly with regard to its long-term outcome. Methods We reviewed all women with recurrent periductal mastitis who underwent the Hadfield operation in the Breast Center in S.Orsola-Malpighi Hospital (Bologna University) from 2005 to 2015. All but one of the patients were heavy smokers and presented with a recurrent periareolar abscess and a periareolar mammary fistula. Results Eighteen women underwent the Hadfield surgical treatment. Mean age at the time of presentation was 42 years; 17 of 18 women smoked >10 cigarettes/d. All patients had a breast ultrasonography or mammography. Half of the patients had undergone antibiotic therapy with one or more prior abscess drainages or another form of operative treatment. All patients who underwent operative treatment had no postoperative events and were satisfied with the cosmetic results. Squamous metaplasia was always present in the specimens. After a median follow-up of 36 months, 2 patients developed a recurrence after a few months; neither had stopped smoking. Conclusion Based on our review of the literature and taking into account the results of this study, it seems clear that the best treatment involves a combined total excision of the affected duct and the fistulous tract. Due to the important role of smoking in this disease, it is important to encourage patients to stop smoking
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Ductal invasive carcinoma arising within atypical microglandular adenosis in a patient with BRCA-1 mutation: A case report.
No full textMicroglandular adenosis (MGA) of the breast is a benign lesion that may mimic invasive carcinoma and which
has been proposed to be a potential precursor of a well defined subset of triple-negative and basal-like breast
carcinomas, characterized by specific expression of both basal and luminal markers (positive for EGFr and luminal
cytokeratins such as CK 8/18, negative for high molecular weight cytokeratins such as CK 5/6), with a crucial
role played by p53 mutation as “driver mutation” in the multistep model of cancerization. When an invasive
carcinoma arises in a background of MGA, it is possible to identify a clear multistep transition fromconventional
MGA to atypical MGA (AMGA), Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS) arising within AMGA and invasive carcinoma.
This is the first histological case report of an invasive carcinoma arising within MGA and AMGA in a patient
carrying a germline BRCA-1 mutation, recognized as one of the most important genetic alterations correlated
with the development of triple-negative carcinoma
Ogilvie's syndrome treatment
No full textOgilvie's Syndrome (OS) is a rare condition caused by parasympathetic dysfunction of large bowel characterized by acute and massive colon distension without mechanical obstruction. Rarely this disease has to be treated by the surgeon but operations may be indicated in case of medical treatment failure
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